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Michael Keaton’s casting as Batman was heavily scrutinized. Heck, it was arguably the<\/em> original controversial superhero film casting, with angry fans endlessly complaining to the point that director Tim Burton had to fight for Keaton<\/a>. The actor’s image as a comedian simply stood in the way of the public seeing him as a worthy Caped Crusader, let alone a Dark Knight worthy of the darker tone fans expected in the post-Frank Miller era of Batman stories.<\/p>\n Of course, Keaton proved everyone wrong and helped usher a new era for DC’s iconic superhero, one that we still haven’t entirely moved past. In fact, the actor was so successful at leaving his stamp on the role that many folks still regard him as the best live-action Batman ever<\/a><\/p>\n Hence, the idea of Keaton returning to the superhero genre to\u00a0play a different comic book character was almost unthinkable, not least of all a villain created by a rival comic book publisher. So, when Keaton joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Adrian Toomes\/Vulture in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” it felt like a real occasion. After all, this was the man who’d helped pave the way for the superhero movie renaissance of the early 21st century.<\/p>\n Sure enough, getting to watch Tom Holland’s Peter Parker square off against Keaton’s Vulture proved to be a major highlight of “Homecoming.” At the same time, Keaton never missed the chance to remind Holland of his Dark Knight days. “He’s a badass,” Holland told\u00a0Short List Magazine in 2017 (via Comic Book Movie<\/a>). “We have a fight in the movie, and I punch him. He turns around and says [in a deep voice], ‘I’m Batman.’ He kept doing Batman quotes on set.”<\/p>\n