Batman is celebrating his 75th birthday this month with a series of comic-book, video-game and other events putting Gotham’s famed Caped Crusader firmly back in the spotlight.
July 23 is officially Batman Day, and to mark the occasion in Hollywood, Warner Bros has organized a VIP studio tour including Batmobiles, masks, capes and other souvenirs of the Dark Knight.
“The world has no heroes… Batman gives you some hope and some faith,” actor Danny DeVito, who played the caped one’s nemesis the Penguin in the 1992 movie “Batman Returns,” told the media.
Batman was born in May 1939, the creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, who were tasked by DC Comics with creating a new superhero in the wake of the success of Superman.
Unlike Superman, the new hero was given a dark side, and rapidly became a global pop culture icon, decades before the latest generation of superheroes like Captain America, Spiderman or Iron Man took to the big screen.
Film versions have kept the Batman brand alive, including the “Dark Knight” trilogy by Christopher Nolan in 2005, 2008 and
In 2016, Batman will be back on the big screen, for the first time along with Superman, in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Ben Affleck will play the caped crusader, although some have been skeptical about his casting.
It will be interesting to see how he plays the Dark Knight, three-quarters of a century after Batman’s birth.
