I feel I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't do a spot on one of our most beloved comic book heroes.
Batman. The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World's Greatest Detective.
In the Batman Beyond cartoon and works related to it, an aged and more or less permanently retired Bruce Wayne passed on his mantle to the young Terry McGinnis, and acted as his support in the field from the Batcave, ever present beneath his ancestral home at Wayne Manor.
And of course, quite possibly the most famous example of Batman's mantle being otherwise occupied is when Wayne's back was broken by his enemy Bane, and was temporarily taken out of commission. During that time, the mantle is taken up by the assassin Jean-Paul Valley, a vigilante who normally went by the moniker, Azrael. As Batman, Valley donned a mechanized Batsuit much like the one he uses as Azrael.
Conroy went on to reprise his role for several other projects outside of the DCAU for movies, cartoon shorts and video games. He played Wayne's Batman in all of the Batman: Arkham video games apart from one - Batman: Arkham Origins. He has also done so in the animated series, Justice League Action and some of the Justice League direct-to-video animated movies like Justice League: Doom, and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. Conroy's portrayal tends to come off as the most aggressive, but also one of the most heartfelt. His low voice was effective in conveying Batman's emotions. While he made Batman sound all business most of the time, the depth of his voice could also convey feelings of sadness, smugness, and even flirtatiousness at times.
Roger Craig Smith took over as Batman temporarily for the video game, Batman: Arkham Origins. While I don't necessarily think that Smith was trying to copy Conroy by any means, I do think he came very close to the same tone and depth as Conroy has when portraying the character. I felt that his portrayal was nearly perfect, much like his co-star Troy Baker's portrayal of the Joker in Mark Hamill's absence. I can't help but wonder if his performance was at all helped by all his time spent as Ezio in the Assassin's Creed series.
Bet you never thought that Batman and Ron Stoppable from the Kim Possible animated series could ever even be put in the same sentence. I admit, it was a surprise to me, too. Ron's voice actor, Will Friedle played high school student Terry McGinnis, a new incarnation of Batman in lieu of the aged Bruce Wayne on Batman Beyond. Obviously, with a new secret identity comes a different personality. Where Bruce Wayne would seldom say more than he had to, McGinnis actually liked to talk and even crack wise, both with his friends and his foes. Also, while McGinnis has a more youthful voice than Bruce, he was able to make it sound intimidating whenever he put on the cowl.
We all know the story.
As a child, Bruce Wayne was orphaned when his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, were murdered for their wallets and jewelry. The loss of his parents so deeply affected Bruce that he embarked on a lifelong crusade against injustice, protecting the innocent from the tragedy that befell him. The buildup varies by continuity, but ultimately, Bruce took up training in multiple different martial arts, fashioned himself multiple impressive pieces of technology for fighting crime, and custom-designed his own costume and became the famous costumed hero known as Batman, the dark-cowled guardian of Gotham City, striking fear into the hearts of the city's criminals.
As a superhero, Batman has a very impressive skillset. As previously stated, he is well-versed in multiple martial arts, is in peak physical condition, has a genius-level intellect, is renowned as the world's greatest detective, has created and uses numerous special gadgets for crimefighting, and is a master tactician and strategist.
Batman's most recognizable creations include the famous Batarang - bat-shaped throwing weapons, the Batmobile - the ultimate tricked-out ride, the Batplane, and the Batcomputer. Personally, one of my favorites is a gadget I saw in Batman Begins, the first of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. The gadget in question is a sonic transmitter that can be used to summon a massive swarm of bats to strike at foes with their own primal fear. All these impressive pieces of equipment make Batman the veritable James Bond of the DC Comics Universe.
However, even without all of that impressive equipment, Batman's abilities are nothing to scoff at. He once successfully escaped being held captive by a group including Lex Luthor, Ultra Humanite, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, Copperhead, and the Joker all at once. He also created contingency plans for if the various members of the Justice League went rogue, and was instrumental in stopping them coming to fruition when they were discovered by the Legion of Doom. Another one of his most impressive feats was when he successfully evaded the alien supervillain Darkseid's "omega beams."
What a lot of people may not realize is that while Bruce Wayne was the first and most recognizable, he was not the ONLY Batman. There have been multiple times throughout his history in which his place under the cowl had to be supplanted; in other words, Wayne has had to let someone take over either temporarily, or permanently depending on the work. And there have even been some continuities in which he never became Batman in the first place.
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| Terry McGinnis, protagonist of Batman Beyond |
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| Thomas Wayne as Batman in Flashpoint |
In a story known as The Flashpoint Paradox, fellow superhero and Justice League member Barry Allen, AKA The Flash, ran back in time using his super speed in order to undo a personal tragedy. But in so doing, the Flash created an alternate timeline in which rather than his parents, Bruce was the one who was killed. The tragedy drove Bruce's father Thomas to take on a much more violent crusade against injustice as an alternate version of Batman, and Thomas's wife Martha to succumb to insanity and eventually become the Joker.
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| John-Paul Valley's mechanized Batsuit |
In terms of foes, Batman has one of the most extensive enemy lists or "Rogues Galleries" in all of comic book history. To give you some idea, Batman's enemies include famous villains like the Joker, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, the Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and Bane. But Batman's exploits also include tangles with people either not so well known by non-comic fans, or not so often thought of as Batman villains - people like Maximillian Zeus, Deathstroke, Solomon Grundy, Prometheus, Victor Zsasz, Firefly and the Red Hood.
As Bruce Wayne, Batman's role has been performed by numerous actors in movies, television, animation and even video games. He has been played most famously by Kevin Conroy, who played him in the DC Animated Universe - DCAU - which included Batman-exclusive shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, shows with different protagonists like Static Shock and Superman: The Animated Series, and of course the final shows of the continuity which featured multiple DC superheroes, Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited.
For most, Conroy is to Batman what Mark Hamill is to the Joker - i.e., the best. And even if they are wrong, I don't think it's unfair to think of Conroy as something of a measure by which all vocal portrayals of Batman are compared. However, Batman has been portrayed effectively - as Bruce Wayne and as Wayne's replacements - by Diedrich Bader, Roger Craig Smith, Bruce Greenwood, Will Arnett, Rino Romano, Will Friedle, Jason O'Mara.
Bruce Greenwood portrayed Batman in the Young Justice animated series. To my ear, Greenwood came fairly close to the register of Conroy in his performance. However, at the same time, I also found Greenwood's performance to be somewhat subdued by comparison. He hardly ever raised his voice, and had many moments where he was the most reasonable person in the room.
In addition to these great performances, you can find Diedrich Bader portraying Batman in the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and again most recently in the DC Universe streaming service's newest show, Harley Quinn. Jason O'Mara gives a great performance as Batman in such direct-to-video animated movies as Justice League: War, Son of Batman and Justice League Dark. And while it is pretty silly, Will Arnett gives an entertaining performance as Batman in The Lego Movie, and The Lego Batman Movie.
I feel that Batman is a character that will almost always have a high bar for who can portray him in voice, and these performers certainly hold up in the face of such demands.
To see these performances firsthand, you can purchase or view some of these productions on your favorite online stores and streaming services. If you're curious, I'll include a few links to them for you.
A complete DVD set of Batman: The Animated Series is available at Best Buy.
Batman: The Killing Joke is available for streaming on Netflix.
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