Published: November 15, 2017, 7:30 AM
Updated: April 29, 2018, 4:14 PM
Everybody has a favourite
On the eve of the long-awaited Justice League film, we thought it a worthy endeavour to look at the evolution of the car of one of the League’s founding members. It seems everybody has a favourite Batmobile, but how do they stack up in the backstory of the Bat? (Credit: Wikipedia/CyberXRef)
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Creating a car for the Bat-Man
Before we look at how it has evolved, let's look at how the Batmobile was made. One of culture’s most mysterious figures (in story, if not to audiences) would naturally drive a car that is equally mysterious. Depending on what you read, view or listen-to, the Batmobile was created by Bruce Wayne himself, with the help of his ward Dick Grayson, by Wayne Enterprises employee Lucius Fox, or even by stunt driver Jack Edison, whose life Batman once saved. It doesn't really matter because the car in all its iterations is just so awesome.
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Debut of the Bat-Man and his car
The name Batmobile was not officially applied to the car until a couple years later, and the Bat-Man’s first car in his May 1939 debut, was an unassuming red coupe that could have been Bruce Wayne’s daily driver, though it was reportedly specially built and equipped for the rigours of fighting crime. It featured a menacing grille and had a long hood to convey its power.
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The Caped Crusader gets a sidekick
Ironically, the Batplane was named before the Batmobile, and by the time Robin came along in April 1940, the two were still using a red car, though it was now a convertible (presumably to allow quick entry and exit from the cockpit), and featured a supercharged engine and bat hood ornament. It was also reportedly housed in a “cave” that resembled an old barn.
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Dark like the night (knight?!)
By the time Batman was gearing up for his own title, the convertible became a darker colour, black or bluish black, albeit it was no more menacing. It appeared that power was provided by a V-10, judging from the exposed exhausts, but it didn’t seem equipped with the latest technology we’ve come to expect from Bats, such as a GPS to ensure he didn’t get lost.
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The first application of a bat wing
By the time Batman got its own title, the Batmobile got its moniker, and the look of the car was more distinctive and menacing. The 1941 version had the bat’s-head up front and centre stabilizer in the shape of bat’s wing, design cues that would go on for years. It was also the first sedan (2-door), and apparently a V-6, though later versions displayed four exposed exhaust pipes, so perhaps a V-8? It also didn't last long, crashing on a mountain road on its maiden voyage.
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Just a pair of ordinary citizens
Although the Batmobile had already been introduced and its paint-scheme defined, when the Batman made it to the silver screen, in a live-action 15-part serial from Columbia, Batman and Robin drove around in Bruce Wayne’s convertible, a 1939 Cadillac Series 61, with the top up to disguise it from the daytime when Bruce and Dick Grayson drove around with the top down. The serial’s success resulted in 1949’s Batman and Robin 15-episode serial, in which the convertible was now a 1949 Mercury. The serials were replayed in their entirety in the mid-’60s, which reportedly led to the TV series.
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Ahead of its time
By the time the ’50s rolled around, the Batmobile was evolving into the technologically advanced vehicle we’d expect from Wayne Enterprises. Earlier titles show Batman and Robin building the car, which now included a police siren and light on the roof. Around this time, the car also started to take on the look of production models, with the first bubble-dome Batmobile bearing a striking front-end resemblance to a Mercedes-Benz.
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The first promotional Batmobile
By the time the ’60s rolled around, the large stabilizer fin had been reduced in size and in keeping with car designs at the time, the tail fins had begun to appear, which created a more “realistic” representation of a bat’s wings (plural). The bubble dome would go on to influence what is perhaps the most recognizable Batmobile, but before that made its debut, a black and red Oldsmobile Rocket 88 convertible (complete with Batman symbols) was turned into a licensed touring promotional car for a dairy company that had a line of Batman dessert products (as DC Comics began licensing Batman).
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The stuff of which legends are made
The Columbia movie serials were such a hit that TV producers decided to get in on the Batman action, and that called for a Batmobile. George Barris had a Lincoln Futura concept lying around that he thought would look great in the Bat motif, and the final product (with a legendary exterior presentation and all the over-the-top Bat gadgets) became a cultural icon that is admired to this day.
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In the style of George Barris
So powerful was Barris’ Batmobile design that it influenced the Batmobile design in comics and animated renditions for years to come. Although the Batmobile in the animated series Super Friends (basically a Justice League series, but with characters and characterizations meant to appeal to younger audiences) had its own design language with larger fins, a bright blue paint scheme and a sharper nose, there is no denying the cues of the Barris creation.
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Return of the darker Batmobile
Many now acknowledge that the Batman TV series was basically played for laughs, as a lampoon of the sometimes-outrageous storylines in the comic-book universe. So, when a more serious Batman movie was commissioned, Tim Burton decided to explore the darker overtones of the Batman myth, which required the creation of a more menacing, fear-inducing, mysterious and powerful Batmobile that is regarded by some as a close second for the best Batmobile of all time.
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Returning to the Batmobile roots
With the successful movie iteration came renewed interest in Batman, and animation was able to bring the character back to its roots after years of being tugged in different directions. The Animated Series followed the film’s “darker” themes while establishing its own persona with a Golden-Age-comic feel, including the return of a long-hood, apparently V-8 powered, single cockpit, armour-intensive Batmobile.
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Chicks love the car
When Tim Burton stepped away from the Batman movie franchise (replaced by Joel Schumacher, whose first remark about the new franchise was "Why is everything so dark?"), and Michael Keaton handed the cowl to Val Kilmer, the Batmobile was beginning to take on a life of its own, figuratively but somehow also literally. Kilmer’s Batmobile was bright and bold, foresaking solid body panels in favour of a slatted body that showed off neon brightwork (in keeping with the customization trends of the ’90s) to indicate the technological advancements Bruce Wayne’s millions could afford, and it returned the high dorsal fin, which split into a V when needed for certain performance.
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Return to the pun-filled campiness
By the time George Clooney took up the cowl (and yes, the nipple suits), the franchise was heading back to full-campy mode, and the Batmobile had given up on most of the neon, the rear fender fins and the high centre vertical stabilizer, in favour of an open-cockpit roadster with two high mounted wings in the formation of a V. Gadgets again reigned supreme, with this image demonstrating the vertical nose and front fender blades to cut through ropes meant to slow the car down.
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The Batmobile takes to the skies
Since the Batman first made his appearance, many have speculated on what would happen to Gotham City if the caped crusader were to get seriously hurt or just couldn’t do it anymore. In 2039, Bruce Wayne is now the brains behind a new Batman, whose suit allows him to fly and can cloak him for discreet surveillance. Naturally, the Batmobile has also adapted to the brave new world, and is now capable of hovering over the city, and also able to camouflage itself.
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Does it come in black?
With a desire to get back to the myth of Batman and away from lampooning the franchise, came the first installment in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy that also included The Dark Knight and the Dark Knight rises. It again provided a darker tone but with less of the gothic influence of Tim Burton. The Batmobile name went away for the first time in 60-plus years, as Batman adopts an urban assault vehicle called the Tumbler, which features a 2-wheeled pod that could be the Batcycle in another Batman universe.
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More than just a groovy looking car
The premise of the 2008-animated series was about Batman teaming up with other super heroes from the DC universe to solve each episode’s crime. The animation was a throwback to Silver Age comics and the Batmobile had cues dating back to the Golden Age car, with its massive bat head on the nose, and the more recent incarnation from the Joel Schumacher films. It also has the technology to change into a boat, motorcycle, airplane and an armoured suit.
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Building a better Batmobile brick by brick
The Lego Movie featured a new variation of the Batmobile called the Speedwagon, which basically borrowed from several different iterations — the long hood from the early versions, the command of the road stature of the Tumbler, the vertical V-wing stabilizers from the Schumacher films — but when Batman got his own Lego Movie, the Batmobile was a mash-up of past cars, though there were also appearances by other Batmobiles, including the TV-series car and Kilmer’s neon-highlighted car.
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Borrowing from established designs
By the time Batman made it to the latest entertainment medium, video games, the designers spent most of their time and budget on game play, relying on accepted designs for various Batman resources such as the Batmobile. As such, the game’s Batmobile bears more than a passing resemblance to the car from Burton’s movie, with cues from the Animated Series, mostly noticeable in the grille.
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Aligning the universes
By its third video game installment, the Batmobile was starting to take on its own persona, still recognizable as a “car,” but bearing some of the military cues from The Dark Knight movie trilogy. Like the Tumbler, it’s nearly indestructible. It can be controlled remotely and game play allows players to get new skins to change it into other Batmobiles, such as the TV-series car. It also had the tone of the first Zack Snyder Batman film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
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Able to stand up to Superman (sort of)
With the change in direction from The Dark Knight trilogy came a new iteration of Batmobile, though again it’s not referred to as such except in scripts. Ben Affleck’s Batmobile (both of whom had a cameo in the Suicide Squad movie that preceded it) has the presence of the Tumbler but with a less-bulky, more car-like design. It also features machine guns on the nose, despite that Batman has always had an aversion to firearms. However, it was destroyed by Superman, which means we get a new Batmobile (reportedly called Nightcrawler and designed by Bruce Wayne's father Thomas) in the Justice League film that premieres later today.
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