Jose Fernandez, the designer behind Val Kilmer's Batsuit in Batman Forever, finally explains the costume's infamous nipples. Batman Forever premiered in 1995 as the third installment in the Warner Bros. Batman film series, following Batman and Batman Returns. The third installment saw Joel Schumacher replace Tim Burton as the series' director and Val Kilmer don the cowl as the Caped Crusader instead of Michael Keaton.
Along with the personnel changes, Batman Forever took a different direction than the two preceding films in the series. Tonally, the film had a lighter approach, and it dropped the gothic atmosphere from Burton's vision of Gotham for a more colorful world inspired by the 1960s Batman television series. Still, even with major tonal and visual changes, the most memorable additions to the Batman series in Batman Forever were the sculpted nipples added to Kilmer's Batsuit. Some ridiculed Batman's perky nipples for being silly while some criticized them as obscene. The addition of nipples to the Batsuit was such a huge controversy at the time that even Batman creator Bob Kane objected to them, yet they reappeared even more pronounced in Batman & Robin on George Clooney's Batsuit.
For many years, Schumacher took responsibility for the Batsuit's nipples in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, but he did credit Jose Fernandez for originally adding them to the design. Now, in an interview with MEL, Fernandez finally explained the inclusion of nipples on Kilmer's Batsuit. First, Fernandez clarified that the suit's design was not inspired by fetish but by armor. Fernandez described how he was informed both by the armor worn by Roman Centurions and by the highly anatomical drawings found in comics, so he tried to combine the two in his design with no idea a controversy would follow. Read Fernandez's full description below:
"With Val Kilmer’s suit in Batman Forever, the nipples were one of those things that I added. It wasn’t fetish to me, it was more informed by Roman armor — like Centurions. And, in the comic books, the characters always looked like they were naked with spray paint on them — it was all about anatomy, and I like to push anatomy. I don’t know exactly where my head was at back in the day, but that’s what I remember. And so, I added the nipples. I had no idea there was going to end up being all this buzz about it."
Fernandez's explanation clears up one of the biggest mysteries of the Batman franchise. Since Catwoman's (Michelle Pfeiffer) latex catsuit in Batman Returns was clearly bondage-inspired, it's understandable that viewers mistook the Batsuit's nipples as another fetish-inspired design. Still, because the exaggerated abdominal muscles were also emphasized by the suit, perhaps Fernandez's comic-book inspiration should have been the more obvious assumption.
Fernandez has had a significant career designing costumes in Hollywood, including many designs for current Marvel and DC movies. He has had a hand in creating six Batsuits, including Kilmer's, with his most recent being Ben Affleck's suit from Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While his choice to include nipples on Kilmer's Batsuit in Batman Forever will perhaps never be completely accepted, now may be the time for fans to respect the thought Fernandez put into his craft.
Source: MEL