There Will Be 2 Live-Action Batmans, But Cartoons Did That First

In the next few years, there’s going to be two different live-action Batmans on the big screen for the first time. We’ll have Robert Pattinson return as the Dark Knight of Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe, and a new Batman: Brave and the Bold film, with a different version of Bruce Wayne for the DCU. Some fans think this will be too confusing for the average moviegoer. Some have even asked James Gunn how the general audience will react. But the truth is, outside comics media has done this with Batman before—twice. First in the ‘70s, and again in the 2000s. Except it was in animation, not live-action.

In the late ‘70s, Batman was appearing in two different incarnations on Saturday morning television. He’d already been appearing since 1973 on the ABC series Super Friends, with Batman voiced by Olan Soule, and Robin played by radio personality and Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, Casey Kasem. Hanna-Barbera produced that series. But on rival network CBS, the Caped Crusader started appearing in a series called The New Adventures of Batman. On this show, Batman ’66 actors Adam West and Burt Ward reprised their iconic TV roles.

Here’s where it all gets tricky. Filmation Studios produced the CBS cartoon. They would later find great success with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The character designs for this show were based on their 1968 animated show, The Batman/Superman Hour. But on that show, the voices of the characters came from Soule and Kasem. Which is why Hanna-Barbera hired them in 1973 for Super Friends in the first place. With the actors now tied up playing another version of these heroes, CBS and Filmation hired West and Ward instead.

The New Adventures of Batman series produced 16 episodes, but ran on and off for years, up until 1981. It featured Batgirl in a prominent role, voiced by Melindy Britt, who would go on to play She-Ra. Bat-Mite, the imp from another dimension, was the show’s comic relief. The major Bat villains Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Clayface, and Mister Freeze all appeared multiple times, but no Riddler. Well, except in the opening credits, where he inexplicably wore a pink costume. And why no Riddler? That’s because ABC already licensed the character, along with Scarecrow, for use on Super Friends.

While The New Batman Adventures was in production for CBS, network ABC was planning to relaunch Super Friends as Challenge of the Super Friends. This iteration of the show would pit the Justice League vs. the Legion of Doom, made up the DC’s biggest villains. However, Batman’s biggest villains were off the table, thanks to being licensed to Filmation and CBS. So Riddler and Scarecrow were Batman’s representation on the Legion of Doom, and Wonder Woman villain Cheetah was used to replace Catwoman. Joker and Penguin wouldn’t appear on Super Friends until the very final season in 1985.

Flash forward twenty years, and something similar happened again. This time, Batman was wholly under the control of one entity, Warner Bros. In 2004, the Kids WB Saturday morning block reintroduced Batman to a new generation, with the cartoon series The Batman. It featured Rino Romano as Bruce Wayne, and had a more anime-inspired design. Despite the massive shadow of Batman: The Animated Series over its head, The Batman found a new generation of kids who fell in love with it. And they especially loved its 21st-century versions of the Gotham City rogues.

But at the same time as The Batman was airing on Saturday mornings, the ‘90s B:TAS Batman was still fighting alongside his fellow heroes on Justice League Unlimited. The legendary Kevin Conroy still voiced him, and was a continuation of the Dark Knight fans knew since 1992. Just as in the ‘70s, the two competing Batmans aired at the same time, although JLU was on Cartoon Network. Warner Bros. Animation produced both shows, unlike before. But none of the villains appearing on The Batman could appear on JLU, as a self-regulating rule WB Animation imposed on itself.

Just as two decades prior, this caused all kinds of problems for a certain Legion of Doom. When the Legion became the “Big Bads” of JLU season three, they once again could not use a single Batman villain, because The Batman had dibs on them, which is why Mark Hamill’s Joker never showed up in the roster, despite existing in that continuity (and appearing in the previous Justice League series). It also meant Nightwing and Batgirl could not appear, as The Batman also hoarded those characters for their show. Justice League Unlimited and The Batman had different audiences, so we’re not sure why this rule was implemented; however, they adhered to it until JLU ended in 2006. But for a couple of years in the 2000s, we once again had two versions of Batman in broadcast animation.

So what’s the lesson here? Basically, no kid watching cartoons in the ‘70s or in the 2000s had their heads explode from confusion over there being two different versions of Batman on TV. Just as adults can figure out that on the big screen, Matt Reeves’ Batman is a different version than the DCU one that James Gunn will introduce in The Brave and the Bold. Batman, like Spider-Man and Superman, is a big enough character in pop culture that competing versions of him can exist. And we trust that everyone will get it just fine.