The Boy Who Loved Batman

theodp writes "As a young boy, Batman producer Michael Uslan — a self-described 'ultimate comic book geek' — was traumatized to see the Caped Crusader being 'murdered' in front of his very eyes by the camp 60's TV series. 'I was horrified,' Uslan told a Harper College audience last week. 'I was horrified because the whole world was laughing at Batman, and that just killed me.' At that point, the 13-year-old vowed to teach the world about the Batman he knew, about the crusader who lurked in the shadows, about a darker, grittier superhero. As told in his memoir The Boy Who Loved Batman, he made good on that vow: Uslan has served as the executive producer of all Batman major motion pictures, from 1989's Batman to the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises (trailer)."

Re:All of them, huh?

[Hentes]

Batman was never about the main character himself, but his foes.

Re: Robin is underrated...

[flargleblarg]

Have you seen the fan-made trailer for a movie called "Grayson"? It's remarkably good. They never made it into a full movie, but when you watch the trailer, you can't help wishing they did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQyfQ7RMOXs [youtube.com]

Re:Wait...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Batman seen in Batman: The Animated Series is considered by many to be THE Batman, as he's a mix of all the best versions of Batman from the comics. It's as though he's the archetypal Batman, rather than just another variation himself. The voice cast they assembled is one of the best I've ever heard for a Batman show, with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill knocking it out of the park with Bruce Wayne/Batman and The Joker, respectively. It also helped that, for the initial run, they got some really top notch animation for the show.

That's not to mention the individual greatness of some of the episodes. Heart of Ice ranks up there as one of my all-time favorite episodes of anything, and was properly rewarded with an Emmy at the time. Feat of Clay and Robin's Reckoning are great two-parters, and I think Robin's Reckoning also won an Emmy.

Re:All of them, huh?

[gohmifune]

People escape from Arkham, which is technically a hospital. There are very few escapes from Blackgate, which is the prison. Also, most Batman villains represent an attribute of Batman, which leads to a conflict. Riddler, for instance, is the Batman's intelligence, Two-Face is the Batman's sense of justice. Most of his villains is an equal-opposite which is what makes them significant. Also, the Penguin is awesome. Batman has few villains he can interact with as Batman AND Bruce Wayne. Penguin doesn't use trick umbrellas that often by the way.