TIME: Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Batman

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Holy Bat Trivia!: Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Batman

In anticipation of 'The Dark Knight Rises', TIME uncovers some strange facts about the Caped Crusader




1. A Shoe Salesman Made Batman Who He Is Today

Superman begat Batman. More specifically, it was the huge success of the comic books featuring the mighty visitor from a distant planet that got editors at National Publications looking for a superhero of their own.

In 1939, artist Bob Kane came up with the Bat-Man, a crime fighter that drew upon influences as varied as Douglass Fairbanks (the swashbuckler) and Leonardo Da Vinci (the inventor). Kane’s original conception had the character wearing a small pair of wings and a “domino mask” like that worn by the Lone Ranger.



It was Kane’s writing partner—an ex-shoe salesman named Bill Finger—who suggested the look we now associate with Batman: the cowled mask and scalloped cape. More significantly, it was also Finger who came up with the notion that Batman should be a hero who got by on his wits and intelligence.

“I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him,” Kane later said. “Bill turned him into a scientific detective.”



Batman, of course, went on to become a huge success and a fixture on our pop-culture landscape. Kane, who signed away ownership (as was common in those days), eventually got his recognition—all Batman stories now carry the words “Created by Bob Kane.”

Sadly, Finger’s rather significant contributions are mostly unnoticed—his contract did not give him any on-page credits. Even Kane minimized his collaborator’s efforts—though he expressed sincere regret years after Finger’s death in 1974.









2. From Serials to Andy Warhol

The Batman movie from 1966 wasn’t the first cinematic presentation of the Caped Crusader—in fact, it wasn’t even the second or third.

In 1943, Columbia Pictures released a 15-part serial featuring the nocturnal superhero (played by Lewis Wilson) as a government agent. Produced in the middle of World War II, the plot involved an evil Japanese scientist and a machine that turns people into zombies.



The series apparently did well enough to spawn a sequel of sorts: 1949’s Batman and Robin.

Fifteen years later came Batman Dracula, a little-seen avant-garde oddity written and directed (without the approval of the comic publisher) by a rising young artist named Andy Warhol.









3. The Camp Hero

In the early ’60s, several TV producers began to spin ideas about a Batman series, most envisioning a Saturday-morning kids show. The property ultimately ended up at ABC—execs at the last-place network decided it should be a prime-time show with a hip and youthful sensibility.

The job of putting together the series went to William Dozier, a no-nonsense producer who had never even heard of Batman, having been forbidden from reading comic books as a child. Dozier decided that the only approach to this material would have to be done with a knowing wink to the audience—the result of which was an ironic tone (with Dozier himself providing the Walter Winchell-esque narration) and a visual style that all but defined the word “camp”, a description that would drive Dozier into bouts of rage.

When Dozier’s first choice to play Batman was “in Europe and unavailable,” the actor’s agent passed along a few stills of another client of his. Dozier was “impressed by this man’s looks” and remembered him playing a suave agent in a commercial for Nestle Quik. Beating out the one other actor who tested for the role, Adam West got the job.









4. Inside Batman’s Belt

Batman uses a wide variety of hardware and devices when battling the criminal elements of Gotham City, most of which are stored in his utility belt. The appearance and design of the belt has changed over the years—cylindrical containers have given way to military-style pouches—but the basic function has remained the same.

We all know about the Bat-lasso and the Batarangs, but here are just a few other gadgets that have appeared in his tool belt:


- specially designed spheres (Bat Marbles) that sound like footsteps when rolled

- a pistol-like device that shoots a sticky foam (Bat Goo) that can incapacitate opponents

- small pellets (Cryo-Capsules) that release a substance that will freeze a person or thing to the ground

- a ring made of Kyptonite, stored in a lead container, to be used against Superman in the direst of circumstances









5. The Batusi

The influence of the ’60s TV series was immediate and profound—even inspiring a bona-fide dance craze.

In a scene from the show’s first episode, Batman enters a club and, after drinking a spiked orange juice, ends up cutting a rug with a fetching young thing (played by Jill St. John). To his stiff-limbed shuffling—clearly inspired by a then-popular dance called the Watusi—Batman adds his signature flourish: a V, formed by the middle and index fingers, pulled horizontally across the face.



The origins of the Batusi remain a subject of debate: famed dance instructor Arthur Murray claimed credit for inventing the moves; while Adam West, in a 2005 interview, said “I worked it out on my own, made it a singular moment of madness inspired by the ongoing debate in the media about whether drug use was mind-expanding or debilitating.”

The dance has subsequently appeared in various other TV shows and movies, including "The Simpsons" (with a cameo by West), "Everybody Loves Raymond", and most famously, in the Jack Rabbit Slim’s scene from "Pulp Fiction".









6. A Darker Batman

In the mid ’80s, execs at Warner Bros. approached filmmaker Tim Burton about directing a big-budget Batman movie. Coming to him right after the surprise success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, it seemed clear they were looking for a story light in tone and atmosphere. Burton rejected the script as being too campy and urged the studio to go darker and more serious.

Never much of a comic-book fan, Burton read a few contemporary titles and came away very much influenced by groundbreaking graphic novels like Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke and Watchmen.



Burton’s vision prevailed and—with the contributions of a stellar crew, most notably, production designer Anton Furst and composer Danny Elfman—basically redefined the visual vocabulary for superhero movies to come.

(Still open for debate was his casting Michael Keaton in the title role, a decision that was widely criticized by fans and reportedly caused Warner stock to tumble for a few days.)

Christopher Nolan has described Burton’s Batman as a “brilliant film, visionary and extraordinarily idiosyncratic.”









7. Alfred’s Story

Second only to Robin as Batman’s most popular supporting character—even greater than the Boy Wonder, in the opinion of some—is Bruce Wayne’s faithful valet, Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth.

First introduced in print (Batman #16), Alfred was initially portly and bumbling; the Alfred we’ve come to know—slim, mustached, gentlemanly—appeared in the 1943 movie serial.



Alfred has several origin stories, including one in which he is a retired intelligence agent who comes to Wayne manor to fulfill a dying wish of his father. Newer versions imagine Alfred as always being a part of the Wayne household, ultimately taking on the role of surrogate father after the untimely death of young Bruce’s parents.

(“Alfred,” says Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan, “is a man given the responsibility to raise the most incredible child of a generation.”)



Throughout his many adventures Alfred has demonstrated great proficiency in many skills, including: swordsmanship, archery, emergency medicine, computer programming, hand-to-hand combat and horticulture.









8. Batman's Oddest Villains

The less said about the depictions of villains Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze (played, respectively, by Uma Thurman and Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Batman & Robin, the better. But they’re just some of the faces that make up the rogues gallery that has declared war on Batman. Here are a few of their oddest brethren:


Calendar Man – (AKA Julian Gregory Day) Known for weird crimes, always have some relationship to the exact date on which they are committed.

Killer Moth – In his most popular incarnation, he is a petty criminal named Drury Walker who is transformed into a large brown moth that spins his victims into cocoons

Tweedledum and Tweedledee – (AKA Dumfree and Deever Tweed) Not twins, but identical cousins, their abilities come from their corpulent frames, allowing them to bounce and crush their foes.

Kite Man – (AKA Charles “Chuck” Brown) Commits his crimes using, you guessed it: kites. Take another look at his “real” name.









9. Batman Begins. Again.

In 2003—six years after the release of the almost impossibly awful Batman & Robin (featuring George Clooney and his infamously benippled Bat-suit)—Warner Bros. hired Christopher Nolan to direct a reboot of the series. And to bring the brooding superhero back to the big screen Nolan looked to the past.

As admiring as he was of Tim Burton’s vision, Nolan wanted to bring back some of the epic myth-making of Richard Donner’s Superman while retaining a sense of realism. Among the films he and screenwriter David Goyer consulted during the writing process were Lawrence of Arabia, The Man Who Would Be King and Blade Runner.



As much as Burton’s casting of Michael Keaton was met with disbelief and hostility, Nolan’s giving the role to Christian Bale was greeted with praise.

Nolan considered a number of Hollywood’s leading men—Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Jackson and Billy Crudup among them—but chose Bale because he felt he could best portray the two sides of the internally conflicted protagonist.









10. Batman: By the Numbers

Some random facts and figures:

27: the number of times Alfred has been kidnapped

29: the number of video games starring Batman

84: the number of sound-effect cards (like ‘BAM!’) used in the TV series

356: the number of “Holy”s uttered by Burt Ward’s Robin

350: the number of dollars paid to Burt Ward (Robin) per week in Batman’s first season

1,075,000: the number of dollars paid for a copy of Detective Comics #27, in 2010

6,000,000: the number of dollars paid to Jack Nicholson for playing the Joker (salary)

50,000,000: the number of dollars paid to Jack Nicholson for playing the Joker (back-end)

1,449,683,452: the number of dollars earned by the Batman movie franchise, to date

31.3 billion: estimated annual earnings of Wayne Enterprises, according to Forbes

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