Due to his mortality and lack of powers, Batman is always looking to upgrade his armory and arsenal for his war on crime. Much like how there are many versions of Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor, there are many different versions of Batman’s costume as well.
When it comes to Batman on film, ever since Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, one of the first questions fans ask is “what will the suit look like?” Will it be cloth like Adam West? Bulky armor like Batman? Lightweight, realistic armor like The Dark Knight? Bat-nipples!?
Despite how fans might feel about the film itself, the Batsuit in Batman v Superman is the best and most comic accurate to be shown on film to date. It looks just like a Jim Lee illustration come to life. I would say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but from what we’ve seen in trailers and images, Batman will have two new sets of armor in Justice League. Again, always updating and evolving.
Well, thanks to the power of social media and painkillers from a recent surgery, Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts shared his thoughts on what he would do with a Batsuit:
Why are we afraid of a good Blue-Grey Barman costume on film?
— Jordan Vogt-Roberts (@VogtRoberts) May 23, 2017
This was meant to be Batman. However, I'm on painkillers from surgery so we'll keep this for the archives.
— Jordan Vogt-Roberts (@VogtRoberts) May 23, 2017
It’s a fair question, since Bar..ahem…Batman’s cape and cowl has appeared blue probably more times than it has appeared black in the almost 80 years the character has been around. Now it’s time for a quick history lesson about printing for why black is the correct choice.
In colored printing, blue is used as a shader for black, since if you put black onto something black the image won’t have any depth and appear to be, you guessed it, black. So blue is used as a way to create depth and basically “shadow” black. So instead of seeing just a black blob, the viewer would actually be able to see that there’s a person in that cape wearing a costume that looks like a bat.
Some artists took the blue as literal and added more blue to the look, and even the Adam West TV series designed the suit with a blue cape and cowl. Other artists, such as Bruce Timm, mixed the two. Giving it a more black appearance with only small shades of blue, but would light up full blue under bright light. This was mostly done for shading and depth reasons, while also paying homage to the blue history of the costume.
However, Batman’s costume was always meant to be black, since a creature of the night trying to stay hidden in shadows probably won’t be doing his job well if he’s wearing bright blue. Also, how many blue bats have you seen?
What are your thoughts on the blue cape and cowl? Do you prefer it or is black your preference? I think you know mine.
