He may be the best DC has to offer (sorry, Superman), but few iconic comic characters have had it harder than Batman. His tragedy began from his inception: a superhero born by the death of his parents.
The real tragedy of Batman, however, lies not in the death of his parents, not in the death of himself, but in his many returns. The number of times he's been decimated and reborn, figuratively and literally, put Catwoman's nine lives to shame. (And that includes the years you took from her, Ms. Berry.)
Pop culture has been watching Batman die since Adam West first donned the cape and cowl in 1966, though to be fair, even the camp-soaked West and Ward sitcom (drama?) didn't put the Caped Crusader through … well, The Rainbow Batman, pictured left. 1950s DC Comics did that. It's hard to believe the Comics Code Authority, while ridiculous in its prejudice, would ever think Batman and Robin "advocated homosexuality." (Cough.)
While the comics would recover from Batman on parade long before 1989, it took until then for Tim Burton's Batman to save the character on a more mainstream front. Batman returned again in '92, cementing his role in film… Forever, or until Val Kilmer and Joel Schumacher took a turn at the franchise. If Batman Forever was the knife in Batman's side, 1997's Batman and Robin, aided by George Clooney, bat nipples and Arnold Schwarzenegger, was the twist of it. Batman, while extremely successful in the comic world and even more riveting as a weekday animated series, was dead again.
And for some reason Mr. Freeze went on to become Governor of California. (Incidentally, Proposition 8 happened.)
Of course, Batman would Begin again in 2005, and continue with
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.