THE HISTORY OF THE BATMAN

Bob Kane
Batman (a.k.a. Bruce Wayne) first appeared in Detective comics #27 in 1939 as a creation of Bob Kane.
He started out as a friendly Caped Crusader who traveled around Gotham City solving crimes. He was often
depicted with clever and useful gadgets and/or vehicles such as the Batmobile (his car) and the Batplane,
his first bat vehicle. In 1940 he was given a side-kick, Robin (a.k.a. Dick Grayson) to try to fill the “Watson-esque”
roll of a detective.

Neal Adams
In 1960 writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Neal Adams made changes to Batman’s look in order to deliberately
distance the “new-look” Batman from the Adam West version. O’Neil and Adams wanted him to look grim and
dark rather than comical.

Frank Miller
In 1986, Batman went through a final change as he was depicted as somewhat of a sociopath in Frank Miller’s
“The Dark Knight Returns”. Miller brought logic into why a man would dress in a batsuit and fight crime. He
explored the possibility of Bruce Wayne trying to avenge his parents who were killed by a mugger when Bruce
was a child. This final depiction rejuvenated hype around Batman and boomed comic sales. It also led to
inspiration of countless new comics about Batman as well as several movies, including two blockbusters by
Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.