Favorite Version of Batman

[md62]

Is it the grim/gritty version?
Is it the serious version with glimpses of humor & love for Alfred/Dick/etc? (70's Englehart)
Is it the campy version from the 50's?
Is it another version?

[md62]

I prefer Batman to be serious but show his human side to his closest friends.

[Kid A]

Definitely not a loaded poll.

[md62]

Definitely not a loaded poll.

Sorry I wish I could edit my poll....

[Jim Kelly]

The designations are kind of skewed to reflect a specific bias, but with different labels I would choose the goofy campy Batman--with the caveat that that isn't exactly accurate to describe that Batman. Next would be the human Batman--but again that's not really the best description. And last would be grim Bat-jerk--but I'm sure fans of that Batman don't label him that way.

[t hedge coke]

All of them, in different ways, at different times. Some other kinds of Batman, too.

(Yeah, the poll's skewed. Even if you take out the leading words, though, I don't know how to construct a poll on this without skewing somehow.)

[Randumbz]

Dick Grayson.

[ABH]

I changed "Bat-jerk" to "Batman".

All of them, in different ways, at different times. Some other kinds of Batman, too.

Yeah, I like a lot of different versions of Batman.

[ngroove]

"Goofy Campy Batman"?????

Harumph, I'm not going to vote.

[nepenthes]

The best portrayals combine aspects of all three.

[WonderScott]

B:TAS showed him at his best IMHO.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

When it comes to Bruce Wayne, the Batman animated series version
The Duane Capizzi show has my favorite version of the character

Dick Grayson.

That's one answer
He is my favorite Batman

[neonrideraryeh]

Camp Batman is my favourite. Though in modern media, I prefer to see Human Batman over Grim Batman (Grim can get too annoying).

[Jim Kelly]

I think of Camp Batman (or rather the Classic Dynamic Duo) as the most human--moreso than Human Batman (or rather the Relevant Darknight Detective). The Classic Dynamic Duo had a good relationship between Batman and Robin, where Bruce was supportive and kind to his ward. Both smiled as much as they frowned. They hung around with Superman and cared about the big guy. In the Justice League, Batman was a team player (only occasionally hogging the limelight--in the adventures between '66 and '67).

Both the Classic and the Relevant Batman could get beaten up. Often the Dynamic Duo would be defeated and demoralized in their first encounter with a new threat and they would have to go back to the Batcave, regroup and come up with a new strategy, before finally overcoming their foe. The Relevant Darknight Detective had to study clues and sometimes followed red herrings, before the mystery revealed itself. Criminals and masterminds could be two steps ahead of Batman. The World's Greatest Detective didn't know everything--he had to look things up in his files or on his computer and sometimes an ally would supply the answers he needed. In THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, Batman allowed his partners to do half of the work.

[t hedge coke]

Something I really appreciated in Return of Bruce Wayne was the conscious effort, as with Night on Earth, to touch on all the things that make Bruce a great character. That includes the heroism and forthrightness and intensity, yes, but also that he is wounded, that he is mournful. There's a bit in RoBW where he's at the edge of the end of time, the fate of existence hovering in the balance, and he pauses to lament the passing of a woman who'd died hundreds of years before he was born, a woman who by her own admission was criminal and in some ways hateful and spiteful. That's important to me. I like a Batman for whom loss is real and unjust, a Batman who can lament the death of a criminal, who can hug people.

The best Batman portrayals, for me, are that. A wounded, very good man, who puts on a mask and cape to try to make things better for everyone. While we tend to use the phrase "fighting crime," what it is, to my mind, is fighting injustice. That's why the best Batman overlooks some crimes (even his own), he'll let someone have a not-ready-for-market medicine, he'll let someone slip away from the scene of a crime if he feels they were warranted in their actions, turn a blind eye to the illegality when some hookers are hanging out on Finger Street. It's why he especially goes after that cop who shot at the cat, in Year One. There's a difference between illegal and wrong, and Batman tries to stop, or repair, things that are going wrongly.

Even in that first appearance, Detective Comics 27, he's curious, he's compassionate. It isn't about avenging himself, or avenging his family line. No villain's targeting him. He's stepping out in the costume to fix things for others.