Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, Moderators, move, protect, rollback, Administrators
27,336
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 8:
Line 8: + + + + + + +
→Comics lore: added a little more
Batman is unusual for superheroes in that he has no superhuman powers, though he is certainly an unusually gifted human being: an athlete who would "win or place" in any Olympic event, master of a dizzying array of martial arts forms, genius detective and capable scientist, and a billionaire to top it off. Despite this, he uses his brains, training, and resources to not only keep up but excel in comparison with many heroes with great superpowers, a testament to man's will in the face of adversity.
Batman is unusual for superheroes in that he has no superhuman powers, though he is certainly an unusually gifted human being: an athlete who would "win or place" in any Olympic event, master of a dizzying array of martial arts forms, genius detective and capable scientist, and a billionaire to top it off. Despite this, he uses his brains, training, and resources to not only keep up but excel in comparison with many heroes with great superpowers, a testament to man's will in the face of adversity.
==Publication history==
Vin Sullivan was the publisher of National Periodical (the forerunner of DC Comics), and during the end of the 1930's was basking in the success of [[Superman]], the first true comic book superhero; Sullivan was looking for another such character to publish. The ''Detective Comics'' series would soon provide him with one, a costumed hero no less, having great intellect but without Superman's strength. Bob Kane, influenced by [[Sherlock Holmes]], [[Zorro]], a recent comic character called "The Shadow", the sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci, and a film titled ''The Bat'', came up with a character in a gray suit, black boots, and a black cape and cowl; the creation was called ''the Bat-Man''. The drawings were taken to artist/writer Bill Finger, and by May 1939 an excited Sullivan published the character in ''Detective Comics'' number 27, which became an immediate and successful hit.
By November of that year, Batman's origin story - the murder of his parents - was set; this storyline of a boy growing up to avenge his parents struck a chord with readers, and sales of the comics grew. The following year he appeared in his own series under the "Batman" name - published alongside ''Detective Comics'' - which also introduced "Robin, the Boy Wonder", a successful attempt to gain younger readers as well as creating the popularity of the "sidekick" in the comics industry; Green Arrow and Speedy, the Human Torch and Toro, and [[Captain America]] and Bucky would be prime examples of this trend.
The combination of Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Finger was largely uncredited after Batman's creation) in the early-1940's also introduced to the comics world several of the most recognizable villians in fiction. Created were "Two-Face", a scarred villian reportedly based upon [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]; the "Cat", a sensuous woman who became better known as "Catwoman"; and the "[[Joker]]" - which Kane based upon the image he saw of actor Conrad Veidt in the silent film ''The Man Who Laughs'' - a nightmarish version of a clown who is the antithesis of everything Batman is, and who became one of the best known villians in fiction.
==Film and television==
==Film and television==