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The Batmobile Through the Years
In 1939, Bob Kane and Bill Finger created one of the most iconic characters in modern history: Batman. From the campy Adam West version to the intense Christian Bale bat, Batman has spent almost 100 years changing and evolving with the times. And what does every rich playboy who fights crime dressed like a bat need? A car that will carry him to fight evil clowns and penguins and calendar themed villains. Batman’s trusty Batmobile has been along for the ride for almost the entire time, going through as many transformations as the crimefighter himself. Today, we’re looking at the evolution of this crimefighting car.
Batmobile Begins
There are many famous recurring elements that have come to signify the Batmobile: the bat symbol, the bubble top, the fins, the giant Batman face welded to the fender…the giant Batman face appeared more than we anticipated. But at the beginning, there was just a wealthy playboy and his cool car. Both the caped crusader and the Batmobile premiered In Detective Comics #27. Befitting the status of a wealthy gadabout, Batman’s original car was just a sleek red coupe. It was not officially the Batmobile yet. Just a nice normal red car with a Batman in the front seat. It would not gain the Batmobile moniker until 1941, the same year it began to morph into the version we recognize today. At the beginning of the year, it was a red convertible with only a little bat emblem on the hood to indicate its importance. But by March, it had taken bat shape. Black and blue with fins and a giant Batman face as a battering ram on the front of the car, this Batmobile set the template for everything that came after.
Holy Futura, Batman!
As Batman became more and more ensconced in popular culture, it’s only natural that the comics began to take their cues from the adaptations. While the Batman serials used a Cadillac and a Mercury convertible for Batman’s ride, the next live action adaptation went all in. The 1966 Batmobile was a thing of beauty. It began its life as a Ford Lincoln concept car called the Futura. Designer Bill Schmidt was inspired by an encounter he had with a shark while scuba diving. The sleek Italian Futura with its fins and a double bubble type plastic canopy top toured the US, even appearing on The Today Show. In the ‘60s, the Futura was sold to car customizer George Barris. When the Batman tv show came to Barris needing a Batmobile built quickly, Barris had just the car. Barris, along with Herb Grasse and Bill Cushenbery, redesigned the Futura. The bubble top had been introduced to the comics Batmobile in the ‘50s, becoming a bubble canopy when it became inspired by the roadsters that were popular at the time. They accentuated the existing fins, turning the inspiration from shark fins to bat wings. The existing Futura bubble top was already perfect for the project. Some more alterations to the bodywork and a glossy black paint job with red accents gave it the bold & futuristic look needed for the campy Batman show. And while the concept car’s engines kept giving out, its style influence lives on. The show was a hit and that was reflected in the Futura Batmobile inspired Batmobiles popping up in the very comics that influenced it in the first place.
As the world moved into the 1970s, the Futura Batmobiles in the comics gradually gave way to sharper and more realistic vehicles (With a few exceptions including the SuperFriends cartoon Batmobile which is lovingly designed after the Futura.) But for the most part, Bruce Wayne spent the ‘70s and ‘80s in sports cars and roadsters that sometimes had bat wings welded to it. You can see the influence of everything from the era’s Corvettes, Mustangs and Lamborghinis in the various Batmobiles. In 1986, however, an alternate story miniseries written by Frank Miller introduced something new. For the nasty future that Batman inhabits in The Dark Knight Returns, the Batmobile is a giant and impenetrable tank with an offensive capability that can take out crowds of people. This image would stick in the minds of nerds everywhere including some who would one day shape the series in the future. But this version of the Batmobile would have to wait, for something else was on the horizon.
The Burtonmobile
In 1989, it had been almost 20 years since the caped crusader had hit the big screen. Warner Brothers had the rights and decided the time for Adam West camp was done. A darker tone needed to be struck and Tim Burton was hired as director. Burton in turn hired production designer Anton Furst, conceptual illustrator Julian Cadlow and John Evans special effects team. Together, they would create a completely new Batmobile that still managed to capture the essence of the designs that came before. Inspired by ‘30s salt flat racers and ‘50s Sting Ray macho machines, this sleek and dark Batmobile was built on the chassis of a Chevrolet Impala. Its long, low body gave way to a nose that had a jet turbine instead of a giant bat face. Sculpted yet simple, this car would have been a hit even if the movie hadn’t. But the movie was a monster success. In the eyes of many fans, this Batmobile became the standard by which all other Batmobiles would be judged.
Batman: The Animated Series came out soon after, taking its inspiration from everything that came before. While a boxier Batmobile, you can see the ‘89 Batman’s influence. The design remained for Batman Returns but a new director for the sequels meant changes. Director Joel Schumacher, production designer Barbara Ling and conceptual designer Tim Flattery went for a more organic look to the Batmobile in Batman Forever. The detailing gave the body of the car a ribcage, while a giant fin protruded from the roof. They also found a way to add lights to the vehicle so that the Batmobile would have a gorgeous blue glow. For the sequel, Batman & Robin, Schumacher and co. rid themselves of the big roof fin and replaced it with two gigantic bat wings. The blue glow was joined by red, orange, and yellow lights and a bubble top over its one seat. The film did not do well, banishing Batman from the silver screen for almost a decade.
The Rise of the Tumbler
Going into the turn of the century, the design began to drift away from the Burton Batmobile. The animated Batman now drove a compact sports car looking Batmobile that evoked the crimefighter’s famous cowl. The comics explored interesting new designs from different artists, with the main Batmobile becoming a small coupe with a retractable bat face on the fender so it could camouflage itself as a normal sports car. When the Batmobile (and Batman, I suppose) returned to cinemas, the next big bat trend would take its cues from a slightly older source. Remember the tank from The Dark Knight Returns comic? This reboot of the Batman series was more grounded and needed something more functional. Meet the Tumbler. Co-designed by director Christopher Nolan and production designer Nathan Crowley, the Tumbler was meant to be a mix of a tank and a Lamborghini. In universe, it’s a Wayne Enterprises military prototype that Batman co-opts in his mission to save Gotham. As a prototype, it has a more thrown together sort of look than the sleek and sculpted Batmobiles that came before it. Its rough and intimidating aura more than matches the Batman that drives it.
The 2000s were also a renaissance period for the dream of driving the Batmobile in video games. There was of course the Batman Begins tie in game where you drove the Tumbler. A Batman racer game based off of the New Batman Adventures cartoon where you raced through the streets of Gotham in the series’ compact Batmobile. In 2008, The Lego Batman game allowed players to control blocky versions of not only the Batmobile, but the Batwing and Batboat as well. The pinnacle of video game Batmobiles, however, has to be the Arkham series. Strangely, it took them a bit to allow players to drive it. After teasing them with a Burtonesque Batmobile in Arkham Asylum, game studio Rocksteady finally allowed their players to drive around Gotham in 2015’s Arkham Knight. Fittingly, that driveable Batmobile is the Urban Assault Vehicle: a tank-like Batmobile inspired by the Tumbler.
The Batmobile Today
With Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy a massive and iconic success, any follow up had to walk a thin tightrope of innovation and respect for what came before. When Batman entered Zack Snyder’s DC Extended Universe, production designer Patrick Tatopoulos and vehicle designer Dennis McCarthy wanted to return to the more goth, classic look. While they kept the militaristic build of the Tumbler, they also returned to the 1989 Furst design with its long hood and flat canopy. This was not the only Batmobile, the DCEU Batman had in his arsenal. In the Snyder cut of Justice League, we are also introduced to the Knightcrawler. While many Batmobiles took inspiration here and there from the Dark Knight Returns tank, Knightcrawler is a fairly faithful reproduction of the comic’s tank. On the other side of the spectrum came LEGO Batman. In 2017’s LEGO Batman movie, the LEGO Batmobile is a blocky mashup of all the comics, movie and tv Batmobiles that came before it. The one-seater vehicle is also a symbol of LEGO Batman’s inability to truly be a part of the Bat Family and when he learns his lesson, the Batmobile gains two more seats for Batgirl and Robin. DC rebooted the Batman movies in 2022, greenlighting a film following a young Batman under the direction of Matt Reeves. Would he go gothic and grand, military chic, or campy ‘60s Batman? Reeves took his inspiration from an interesting source: Stephen King and John Carpenter. Wanting to emphasize the intimidation and terror both Batman and the Batmobile struck in his foes, the director cited the killer car Christine as an inspiration. This DIY muscle car that Bruce Wayne built in his Bat Cave, it is meant to have a bit of an off-kilter and unfinished look. After all this time, through bubble tops, bat faces, giant bat fins, and tanks, we’ve come all the way back around to Batman driving a fairly normal cool car. Who knows what will be next for the Caped Crusader’s favorite ride?
