Comic Book Influences on Tim Burton's Batman (1989)

[BatmanFurst]

It has been mentioned before, but I've just read Steve Englehart's first work on Batman in Detective Comics #439 as part of a read through I'm doing and I had some thoughts. It is clear that "Night of the Stalker" is the inspiration for the opening scene of 89, but more interesting is Batman's sudden shift in characterization from being a guy to quips and yells his thoughts aloud to a silent figure who darkly looms as a spirit of vengeance. Whether or not this will be a permanent change, we'll see. I might just be that he was moved by the murders that occur that orphan a child in the beginning of the story. This clearly is where Burton and Co. got the idea to shut Batman up and keep the chatter to a minimum. Great issue. Hope this change is permanent.

I know Uslan did give Burton that issue of the comics when he was researching the source material.

[Slash Man]

Bob Kane mentioned how he often drew Batman with a toothy grin from the 40s onwards to soften Batman's appearance, among other things to make him look less demonic.


I know the image is from Returns, but there's still examples in Batman. Though it's worth mentioning that a smiling Batman was a conscious design decision by Bob Kane, and there's the possibility that it influenced Keaton as the only "smiling" Batman.

[Kamdan]

Bob Kane mentioned how he often drew Batman with a toothy grin from the 40s onwards to soften Batman's appearance, among other things to make him look less demonic.


I know the image is from Returns, but there's still examples in Batman. Though it's worth mentioning that a smiling Batman was a conscious design decision by Bob Kane, and there's the possibility that it influenced Keaton as the only "smiling" Batman.

I figured that this more sinister smile from Burton's Batman was from Frank Miller's depiction. The genuinely smiling Bob Kane Batman I felt wasn't achieved until Batman Forever when Batman saved Robin from plunging into the bottom of the Riddler's pit.

[thecolorsblend]

Here's me getting nitpicky.

Bruce first sees the Joker in action when he murders Vinnie Ricorso on the steps of City Hall. The Joker's outfit here is different from his trademark purple costume. Instead it resembles the suit he wears on Jim Aparo's cover art for Batman #429 (January 1989), which was part of the Death in the Family story arc.

Shooting for B89 wrapped in February 1989. The cover image of Diplomat Joker is cover dated January 1989. It was most likely on retail shelves in December 1988 and comic book store shelves in November 1988. Presumably, it was draw maybe in June or July 1988.

Bottom line, I think it's unlikely that Top Hat Joker in B89 is somehow influenced by Diplomat Joker on the cover of Batman #429. It seems like a truly bizarre coincidence to me.

[Silver Nemesis]

Yeah, unless they'd been given an extremely advanced preview of Mignola's cover art then that couldn't have been a conscious reference. We listed some other things from comics published after the movie, such as the Francis Bacon reference in JLA: The Nail or the Joker quoting the Wicked Witch of the West in a 2005 issue, as a way of highlighting parallels between the cinematic and literary versions of the character. As if to say this is the sort of thing the comic book Joker would have said or done, thereby illustrating the film's consistency with the source material. We tried to make it clear in the text when we were doing this, as opposed to highlighting something that we thought was consciously referenced from the comics. But it is a striking coincidence that the comic book Joker wore such a similar outfit so soon after filming had wrapped on the movie.

[BatmanFurst]

This is actually the opposite where the film influenced the comic which should probably be its own thread on here. Anyway I was reading Legends of the Dark Knight 52 which came out in 1993. I was surprised to see that they incorporated the 89 Batarang.

[Silver Nemesis]

This is actually the opposite where the film influenced the comic which should probably be its own thread on here.

Here's the thread for movie references in the comics: https://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=706.0

I don't think this particular reference to the 89 Batarang had been noted in that discussion, so good job spotting it.

[BatmanFurst]

This is actually the opposite where the film influenced the comic which should probably be its own thread on here.

Here's the thread for movie references in the comics: https://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=706.0

I don't think this particular reference to the 89 Batarang had been noted in that discussion, so good job spotting it.

Thanks, I'll post it over there as well.