There’s been a fair amount of discussion online regarding the newly redesigned batsuit from the Batman Begins sequel: The Dark Knight, so I thought I would put images of the two suits up side by side for comparison.
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There seem to be three schools of thought on this:
1. Folks who are displeased that the batsuit in the movies continues to stay away from the comics’ classic “grey tights” look.
2. People who don’t mind the armored look, but think the execution is too “busy.”
3. People who think the new suit looks great and reflects a real-world concept of a character like Batman.
Personally I fall into category #3, but I can understand the arguments of those in camps #1 and #2 and each one has valid points.
For the “classic” argument you have of course the fact that Batman should look like the Batman that inspired the movies. If it worked in the comics it should be good enough for the movies, and it’s sacrilege to make radical changes to such an iconic costume. There is also the argument that having a non-armored Batman adds to the fear/mystique quality of his reputation among criminals. On the other side one could argue that in the real world setting that Christopher Nolan has created for the film, that wearing nothing more than a thin garment just isn’t realistic or believable for a non-super-powered guy to go around fighting criminals with automatic weapons and psychopaths. The suit from Batman Begins, although rubbery looking, was probably the closest in overall look to the comics version than in any other Batman movie. If you want to talk “criminal intimidation factor”, I think the new suit has it in spades.
The second argument could be debated until the cows come home: Give the assignment with some vague parameters like “armored”, “ninja” or “modern samurai” to 10 costume/VFX designers and you’ll end up with 10 completely different looks for the costume. It just comes down to a subjective choice by the director of what he likes and how it fits into the universe he’s created. I think that while the costume in the first Nolan film was a departure from the previous movies, the design was still heavily influenced by what came before.
The third group says “hey, the costume looks great and realistic.” The chain-mail underneath the armor looks more breathable and flexible, and the more segmented the armored plates are across the costume, the more mobility Batman has when fighting, which to me is extremely important for a character whose main method of combat is hand to hand. This is why I’m also happy to see a cowl that finally allows him to turn his head from side to side. This new costume looks like the first real ground-up redesign of a Batman movie costume and with the exception that it would probably take 3 hours to put on, it’s probably the most realistic design for a guy who might do what Batman does in the real world.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the above points!
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103 Comments
I personally like the costume. It’s lines are good. The rest of the costume is just detail, its not important. But it makes the costume seem more ‘interesting’. You have to remember that someone was paid to design this costume so it’s no suprise that the costume is very ‘busy’. If you just glance at it you know it’s batman but at the same time it’s got lots of detail for people that like to pay more attention. You also have to remember that this is his secondary suit in the film. And as past films have proved these are usually more extravagant. It looks specifically designed to go hand in hand with the batpod don’t you think? The helmet type cowl, the shorter cape? The armour plate segments look very similar to the protective armour rally bike drivers wear. Also the boots look specifically designed to bike riding. Has anyone wondered what his initial costume in the film will be? Will it be the suit from the first film? And if it is have they made any improvements to it? He is still wearing the same utility belt in the second picture so it might be that he wears his old costume in the film… which isn’t a bad thing because I think they do tend to change the costume alot without making any vast improvements to it.
The new bat suit looks better in the ne footage pics then this. This shows a barley look at it in real acion it looks better
No offence to people who don’t like the suit.. Your stupid. They do the best they can an I think they did a great job for what we can do. This movie is supposed to be a lil mo realistic and put it short the comic was too fantasy. Don’t get me wrong I love the comics but if you want batman to wear spandex then you make it. tell you what if you can make a spandez suit stop a bullet even i’ll give ya 100$. Retards.
So you think the movie suits could stop bullets? They’re plastic,man!! And just as “fantasy” as the comix suit. So,you say you’re a reader of the batcomics,eh? Well,riddle me this:if you’re a lover of the Batman comics,then how come you didn’t know that the comix suit is NOT spandex,and that it IS bullet proof,fire proof,and shock proof? Hmm? It ain’t tights,either,chum. It’s a flexible bullet proof vest like substance,they just draw it skintight,but then,everything in comix is drawn skintight.
Oh,and how is telling people who don’t like the suit that they’re stupid not going to offend them?
“They do the best they can do..” umm..what? They’re NOT doing the “best” they can do,they’re doing the “best” they WANT to do. If they really wanted to do their best to please fans and honor the comic books,then Batman would be sportin’ his classic black and gray look,now wouldn’t he? You people seem to think that if the suit’s color scheme matches the comics that it’s no longer bullet proof and etc.
The movie suits STILL suck,and I’ll bet you,given the proper resources,that I COULD make a better batsuit.
And the batsuit from the comix is just as realistic,if not more,as any other superhero’s costume. They don’t change Superman and Spider-Man’s costumes when they translate comix to film,so why Batman’s?
KEL-
You approached this all wrong. Let me show you…
Dear Nachiste Seavey-
Please do not throw words like “Stupid” and “retards” around, when you are probably guilty of such a lack of intellegence.
“Your stupid” should be “You’re stupid”
“lil mo” I won’t even go there.
“Spandez” Please.
“100$” Oh, you mean $100.
Trying to read on your level gives me a headache. I was always told “if you don’t have something nice to say, say it to yourself”.
Thanks.
Alca,
Thank you for taking care of the comment for me. That was going to be my approach exactly.
And just because you begin a sentence with “no offence”[sic] does NOT give you permission to insult people directly afterwards.
Vic
LOL! Alca,dude,you pretty much summed up everything I wanted to say! Thanx,I wish I’d have wrote that.
I’m STILL laughing from reading that,Alcadyzaar! Good form,old man!
I’d have written that is what I should have wrote.
I can spell,you know:)
Doh! Not spell,write! WRITE! Screwed up again,sorry guys.
Wasn’t this page about Batman? You guys sound like the Joker’s goons in the TV show…they talked a load of hooey as well!
Talk about the movie, man!
Thank God Batman can finally, FINALLY move his head around, it’s been bothering me (and everyone else) since the Keaton era. The new design is defiantly a step up from the previous costume, though I think his gloves are still not attached to his “wrist armor” (like in the comics) but you don’t really notice it, not like in the previous costume….it was terrible. And the reduced mask size sure makes the ears look a lot better but at some angles the mask still looks too big. But what can you do, they’re going for a “real world” Batman.
Hopefully this costume upgrade will help Christian Bale play a better Batman, it was a bit overdone in some scenes (interogation scene). Remember Bruce Wayne is the real disguise, “Batman” is Wayne’s true self.
Yeah, the inability to turn your head is not a plus in hand to hand combat, is it?
Of course you still have the peripheral vision issue and the fact that it’s about impossible to hear through the cowl.
Vic
Looks AMAZING!
I actually like the very original bat-suit from the 40s. The original didn’t have the bright yellow oval on the chest. That was a concoction of the 1960s writers/editors trying to make him look less threatening and more appealing for children. I haven’t read a newer Batman comic, but I hope they’ve gone back to the original black and gray suit. Also, for those who think gray with black doesn’t fade into the dark, think again. the two colors break up the silhouette and make it more difficult to be spotted. This is the same reasoning behind military camouflage. Anyways, between the two pictures I’d have to go with the “Begins” suit but maybe adding the cowl from the second.
WOO HOO!!! Finally!! SOMEONE who agrees with me! You’re absolutely right,Nate,I totally agree with EVERYTHING you said,especially the part about the camouflage. Hopefully we’ll be able to see the comix style suit in JLA. Most the time people who don’t know much about the Batman comix attack the gray and black batsuit. You should get a standing ovation,man! BTW,the current batsuit is black and gray,much like the batsuit from the 1940’s you were talkin’ about. Kudos to ya,my brother! fight the power!
Came across this post looking for a comparison of the two suits. Let me start off by saying I am no near as much a batman fan as most here. Though he has climbed up the ranks and one of my favs. But in all honesty weather the suit is black and gray does not matter. It is a matter of what works in the real world. The armored look words and face it we don’t have technology that can make cevlar(sp) spandex type clothing. So to have a spandex type suit and say it is cevlar(sp) bullet proof, fire proof. etc etc would really streach the imagination. Yes I know that the suit in the movies is not bullet proof but the design make it believabe that it is bullet proof. That it can protect his body from hard falls and hits. Like football players and the equipment they wear. Most of the impact you believe is absorbed by the armor and not his gut. Also the symbol lets face it anyone would remember that a guy in a costume just beat the crap out of you. Not that he had a yellow symbol. That is the last thing on any criminals mind. I personally love the new costume, and the fact that he can no move his head side to side is the greatest thing about it. He also looks more confortable and not so inflated like the previous old ones. As some pointed above they made the costume to look less intimidating for the kids. His new costume would scare the crap out of anyone. For example the spider man movies. Now as I watched them I often wondered that Peter Parker is not indestrcutable. So how did he survive getting thrown through a wall, heck how does he in general every bone in his body should shatter. Unless I missed some vital info as to why he can survive this. Heck with the new costume you can believe that some of the impact is taken away versus tights that make you think. Yeah he fealt that and he shouldn’t get back up.
Ed,
Whether the suit is black and gray may not matter to you and other movie fans,but it matters to me and many other Batman fans and comix purists very much.
The suit from the comix wasn’t “spandex” and is just as realistic if not more than the movie suits.
The movie suits are bulletproof,fire proof,and shock proof to a degree,like the comix style suit.
Spider-Man has enhanced durability,so it doesn’t matter whether he wears tights or not. he doesn’t need any armor or anything. That’d be stupid and wouldn’t be respectful of the character,like the Batman movie suits.
It’s quite strange, at some level I fall into all 3 camps you have mentioned.
Camp 1: Yes would be nice to keep the costume classic, but how far back do you have to go for it to be classic. I remember when Bruce Wayne returned after knightfall in the early 90’s, he had an all black costume, and always had a much darker costume in the ‘Shadow of the Bat’ comics (which incidentally the new movies appear to be more inspired by). So if this era counts as classic then the current costume does sort of fit.
Camp 2: Think the execution of the Costume is too busy, and
Camp 3: Think the costume reflects a real-world concept.
At some level these agree with both of these, I love the plating idea, but some of it is too defined, thus tending to look busy. However it also give the edginess (if that’s a real word) and fear factor that the character needs, maybe the plates could be more interlocking or not quite so separated in places. This would make it less busy and still allow for the mobility.
Totally agree that it’s good they’ve finally allowed neck movement with the cowl.
Finally, and slightly off subject, the pictures I’ve seen for the Joker look awesome, and have really capture the psychopathic schizophrenia with the makeup this time.
Andy,
What the heck are you doing commenting on the internet? Your opinions are WAY to balanced and reasonable!
You make excellent points all around, and yeah, The Joker looks creepy as hell. So much so that I’m afraid I won’t be bringing my 11 year old daughter to see “The Dark Knight” although she loved “Batman Begins.”
Vic
Meant to say, I like the fact the Bat’s costume is evolving from movie to movie. Like you said Vic, he need the armour plating, unlike Superman (or as Batman puts it, Big Boy Scout in Tights), and with the x-men etc, he has no super powers and it to all intents and purposes nothing more than a tollerated vigilante (or not so tollerated at times) therefore his costume needs to adapt and grow and technology evolves and adapts.
Equally so, going from one non superhuman to another, IronMan, love the costume for the movie though a little confused by the trailer with Tony Stark being portraid as a heartless arms dealer to begin with. Don’t remember that being part of his origin, unless this is his post Onslaught origin; have to admit I gave up with Marvel when they re-merged the two universes they had quite nicely split with the Onslaught story. But hey, that’s in the past. Don’t quite understand why they have to dick around with the origins for the Marvel movies though.
The batsuit doesn’t need the clunky,plastic looking movie armor in order to be “realistic”. He’s not Iron Man,save the armor and suit accesories for him. The batsuit is fine the way it’s always been in the comics.
[KEL said "The batsuit is fine the way it's always been in the comics"]
What you mean single unflexible peices of armour plating like it has been for the last 20 or so years?
Unflexible? Ummm…..what? Have you even seen the batsuit from the comix? It’s VERY flexible,almost like regular cloth it’s so flexible. And it’s protective too,like a bullet proof vest.
Admittedly have read them much in the last 5 years; however read them for around 20 years prior to that. But remember the bat not being crushed in Cataclysm because the “suits armour plating protected me”.
And with the darker version redesign of the suit after knightfall and Dick Grayson taking on the mantle for a view months, the fabric type coating was kept on top of the plating to allow movement at the joints, in the same way as the chain mail is used for the new movie, however indications in the comics were that the costume was made of fewer and larger plates than have been designed for the movie.
Also in the comics you have a lot more artistic licence as to what the suit can do and how it moves because it is drawn as opposed to being live action. The plating has been incorporated into the batsuit at some level since at least the first Tim Burton movie, which is also part of why Bane didn’t use a frontal assault on the Bat as he new it would be too much hard work for him and instead wore him down first so the exhaustion would reduce the effect of the body armour to a minimum.
In the original origin story there was not much time devoted to Stark pre-Iron Man, but the gist was that he was an arms manufacturer with a lifestyle similar to that of Hugh Hefner.
So not exactly the kind of guy a girl would like to bring home to meet her parents.
Vic
While I would prefer the more comics style suit I can deal with what they give us. Just once though I would like to seem them come up with a mask that really works. These are the worst so far. The ears are way too far back and the cowl opening for his face too small. Really ruins the whole thing for me.
Kel
No I am not a purist, And you miss the point, would I like the costom to be more a fabric and not the way it is in the movies NO. The movies are taking a fantasy and making it more realistic. He could not wear a suit like the one they made for spider man and superman and make it seem realistic. Batman is only human, he can’t take near the amount of punishment that they take. Besides I know his costume in the comics isn’t spandex. It is cevlar which I believe is a thin armor plating. IT hard to make it seem like that in real life. VS drawing it in a comic book.
also I add this here.
It was a basic convention of comic books at the time of Batman’s creation that black needed a highlight color (usually blue) in order to show detail and give the illusion of three-dimensionality. Over time, the initial blue highlight spread out over the previously black cape and cowl to become the dominant color. Thus artists renditions depict the costume as black and gray or blue and gray. The bat symbol on the chest has alternated from a simple black bat to a bat design on a yellow ellipse. The yellow ellipse was introduced in 1964 as part of the “New Look” Batman stories, and was meant to be a connection to the Bat-Signal. In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns it is revealed that the yellow ellipse design was deliberately meant as a target, attracting a potential gunman’s aim to the heavily armored chestpiece, and away from Batman’s unarmored face. Other elements, such as the utility belt and the length of the cowl’s ears, have been changed by various artistic teams.
The Batsuit has been repeatedly updated in order to reflect advances in technology. Originally the costume contained no protective armor, since the creative talent felt that it made Batman seem too powerful to see him shrug off bullet hits. However, the real world advent of various forms of personal protective materials like Kevlar and the realization that being shot while wearing such protection still should be avoided, has led to the costume being re-imagined with varying forms of bulletproof protection. Despite the armor, Batman almost always evades gunfire and is very rarely actually shot
Kane himself, in his 1989 autobiography, detailed Finger’s contributions to Batman creation:
“ One day I called Bill and said, ‘I have a new character called the Bat-Man and I’ve made some crude, elementary sketches I’d like you to look at’. He came over and I showed him the drawings. At the time, I only had a small domino mask, like the one Robin later wore, on Batman’s face. Bill said, ‘Why not make him look more like a bat and put a hood on him, and take the eyeballs out and just put slits for eyes to make him look more mysterious?’ At this point, the Bat-Man wore a red union suit; the wings, trunks, and mask were black. I thought that red and black would be a good combination. Bill said that the costume was too bright: ‘Color it dark gray to make it look more ominous’. The cape looked like two stiff bat wings attached to his arms. As Bill and I talked, we realized that these wings would get cumbersome when Bat-Man was in action, and changed them into a cape, scalloped to look like bat wings when he was fighting or swinging down on a rope. Also, he didn’t have any gloves on, and we added them so that he wouldn’t leave fingerprints.[9]
The above is a quote strait from the horses mouth. The batsuit was originally colled red and black, changed to black and blue to make him more ominous not comoflouge (sp) Als that the bat suit is armor as I have been saying it is kevlar not fabric. It is hard to depiect a kevlar laced fabric suit in real life and make it seem like it can take a bullet. Let alone be semi tear resistant. Also the orinial batman did not have the yellow behind the batsymbol on his chest. Check it out if I am wrong. Oh this is not mine was doing some reasearch on Batman.
Hey Ed,great job on the research. Although I already were aware of all those things, I always apreciate it when people check out the source before leaving a comment. And I especially apreciate your observation about how the black areas on the batsuit were subtley changed to blue/navy overtime,something I have always noticed but no one else seemed to. And in some of his first appearances,Batman wore a bullet proof vest. Never did I say the creators chose black and gray because it was camoflouge,I only said that those colors (or shades) on the costume caused the suit to be camoflauge.
Ultimately,I just want the suit in the movies to be as respectful of the comix as they can (like Superman’s and Spider-Man’s movie suits)without being cheesy. I personally don’t mind the armor,I just want it to be more flexible looking and I want the shirt and pants areas to be gray and I want the cape,cowl,gloves,leotard and boots to be black. Whether or not the suit’s bat symbol (emblom) has the yellowish ellipse around it is not a big deal to me,I just want the armor/suit to be black and gray on the areas it’s supposed to be. The gray areas shouldn’t be a real light gray,but a darker midnight style gray,so that from far away or in the dark you won’t be able to tell whether he’s got gray on the suit or not. It should just be there,the producers can come up with whatever excuse for it they want. It would please me and a lot of other Batman fans and comic book die hards.
I always have a slight problem with the movie batsuit being compared to the Iron Man movie suit. As the IM movie suit is based and looks very similar to IM’s suit in the current IM comic books,and the Batman movie suits look nothing like the current Batman comic book suit.
The only thing that I really like about TDK movie’s new batsuit is the cowl. It looks much better than the BB suit’s cowl. The BB cowl had such a freaking huge and stupid looking neck whenever Bats would tilt his head down,besides looking too plastic. The cowl should never look plastic/rubberish,hopefully the new cowl will look better on screen. I personally liked the cowl worn by Michael Keaton in the 1989 Batman film best so far,with the one he wore in Batman Returns second as my second fave. I still think they need to look less rubbery/plastic and more cloth like/authentic and comfortable.
I actually just watched some behind the scenes footage of the Dark Knight with Al Broker (is his name right?) on a talk show via superherohype.com. They posted a video of Al’s set visit there. The suit looks better than the one worn in Batman Begins,IMO,even tho I still have problems with it.
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