The Changing Fashions of Batman
This Easter weekend, another incarnation of the Batman myth hit our screens. It's not even been four years since Christian Bale's Dark Knight bowed out of his own trilogy and the new film will see him take on fellow DC Comics crime fighter Superman, the latest in a long-line of contemporary superhero clashes. This new version of the Dark Knight, played by Ben Affleck, follows in the same vein as the Christian Bale incarnation; a billionaire whose desire to do good and beat back the forces of darkness is being slowly worn away.
As we've seen from the trailers so far, this Batman carries a deep cynicism caused by years of losing his loved ones to the battle for Gotham City. Christopher Nolan, the director of the Dark Knight trilogy, is on board for this film in a production role, which may go some way to explaining the tonal similarities with the earlier trilogy.
Of course, a new Batman means a new look. As soon as the news broke that Ben Affleck had been cast as Batman, the initial skepticism was matched only by the interest as to what his costume would look like.
The latest Batman iteration is, as you can see, not to dissimilar from his earlier counterparts. But that's what makes Batman such a great Gothic fashion icon: the fundamentals of his look never change, giving the Dark Knight a timeless quality. And yet various graphic novel artists and costume designers have found their own ways to put their own mark on Batman, his character undergoing subtle shifts through the decades. From the original 'Bat Man', through to Frank Miller's more three-dimensional Dark Knight in the 1980s, the appeal of Batman has always been the fusion of the romantic and mysterious hero, in the vein of Robin Hood or Zorro, with the morally ambiguous Gothic anti-hero.
Like the best characters in the Gothic tradition, Batman's fashion sense marks him out as a force beyond the law, outside the norms of society. The Batman myth asks questions of its audience: where is the line between hero and villain? This is bound-up with his costume - he's the classic vigilante, with all the moral ambiguities that title carries with it.
So, in honour of the latest Caped Crusader film to hit our screens, here's our timeline of Batman, and the various fashion changes his character has undergone since 1939.
Batman's next chapter will see him take his place alongside Superman and Wonder Woman in a new expanded universe of DC Comics heroes. Like its immediate predecessors, this Batman story focuses on the psychological effects of being a vigilante; Batman's crusade has lost him friends and allies (in Batman versus Superman, beloved sidekick Robin is already long-dead). Batman's look has always been gothic, but contemporary versions of Batman use fashion to fuse the supernatural with a psychological realism. This shows no sign of changing any time soon.
