Michael Keaton will wear a new Batsuit in The Flash, featuring a new utility belt that makes good on the original plans for 1989’s Batman. The superhero blockbusters of the 2010s and 2020s arguably wouldn’t exist if not for the success and influence of Keaton’s first outing as Batman, and while it succeeded as both a movie and blueprint for movie marketing, the film’s production was rife with controversy. With Michael Keaton already being a hard sell for Batman comic book readers before the film was released, one detail about his suit’s utility belt caused enough controversy to be changed during production. Now, Keaton’s The Flash suit will give Batman the belt he was originally meant to have in 1989.
Batman’s 1989 suit was a significant departure from the comics, eschewing the grey bodysuit with a black or navy-blue cape and cowl in favor of an all-black suit of heavy-duty bulletproof armor for Batman. According to Batman’s production designer Anton Furst, the suit was initially going to include a black utility belt as well, leading to publicized backlash from fans who were possible already upset by the lack of gray on the suit, leading Furst to make a compromise. The new belt, which appeared in the final cuts of Batman and Batman Returns, was a bright brass color, which he described as “yellow enough,” pleased viewers in both films.
Earth-89 and Keaton’s Batman will return in 2023’s The Flash, which takes place sometime after Batman Returns and possibly the Batman ’89 comic series, with Keaton donning a new iteration of the Batsuit. The suit looks like a technological upgrade from his Returns outfit, using its chest logo and more armored appearance, but it also finally gives Keaton a black utility belt as Anton Furst intended. Both versions of Batman’s utility belt have their merits, with the classic brass belt matching the comics’ aesthetic while the sleek new black utility belt is more subtle and shows that Keaton’s Batman continues to develop his technology.
Batman’s nearly all-black suit in 1989 was partially explained by Sam Hamm in the film’s early scripts. The suit’s material was a new substance with far more protection against ballistics than Kevlar and a stealth-friendly black hue. Batman’s iconic yellow oval symbol functioned as a “target” for criminals because of its location on Batman’s chest was where the armor was strongest. The brass utility belt might have impeded this functionality to a degree by being so bright, but it visually broke up the constant black of the suit, making for a more pleasing visual design.
Batman’s new utility belt in The Flash will not only make the chest logo his suit’s sole target, but it also shows a technological improvement over his previous gear. The bronze utility belt’s gadgets were mostly out of view, using a motorized carousel-like system to rotate his batarangs and grapple gun to the front when needed. Batman’s new black utility belt has more capsules and pouches all around it, possibly eschewing the rotating system in favor of more compartments for his gadgetry.
Batman is easily the most malleable superhero in both comics and films, making him ideal for reimaginings. With this in mind, Keaton’s Batman no longer needs to appease audiences and try to more closely resemble his comic counterpart as he did in 1989 as the DCEU already has a superlatively comic-accurate Batman via Ben Affleck’s iteration, who also happens to wear the most comic-accurate Batsuit on film. Michael Keaton’s Batman is a unique and iconic interpretation of the character whose appearance in The Flash will finally make good on Anton Furst’s intended utility belt design from 1989’s Batman without worrying about backlash.
