“Kevin Conroy or Adam West” who’s the better batman?

Ben Washburn, Videographer
January 27, 2012
Filed under A&E

There are two main types of batman in this world, the dark and serious batman and the goofy and more human batman.  An example of these types is the comparison between the 1970’s Adam West Batman and the 1990’s batman cartoon.  The both have their goods and bads, but which one is the better Batman.  Let’s take a look at both of these classic batman’s to see which one is the better show.

First let us take a look at the tone of each of these shows.  The 1970’s show has a sort of a campy feeling like watching a parody of film.  The show does  a lot of the classic clichés like have words pop out when the character lands a hit, having the characters acting all cheerful and non life threatening, and always having the heroes win.  The 1990’s show actually took a darker approach like the batman movie with Micheal Keaton,  there is not a lot of clichés going on to make seem goofy and not always did the story end in a happy ending which makes this one of the best cartoons of all time.  Based on tones of these two shows the tone of the 1990’s batman is a lot darker and more interesting then the Adam West phenomenon, the Adam west batman is more of a kiddy show and stays like that while the newer show has been both for kids and adults which in my opinion makes it more fun to watch.

Next let us look at the villains in both shows since people know that some of the strength of batman is in its villains.  First the main clown prince of crime who was better Mark Hamill or Cesar Romero.  Well there is really no contest Mark Hamill in the 1990’s batman cartoon wins hands down for two main reasons, first off his signature laugh was much more sinister and the best out of all the batman’s jokers .  The other reason is that Mark Hamill haves a lot more fun and into the character when he’s acting.  Some of the other villains in the Adam West show seem a lot crazier than the villains in the 1990’s cartoon while each of the villains of the cartoon have purpose in what they do, which we can relate to, which makes them seem more human like Mr. Freeze’s story has revolutionized the other batman’s from the movies to the show.  I like it when the characters I watch are relatable in some way which makes me more interested in the cartoon more.

Now we compare batmen and see who is actually better.  Adam West play’s his batman like he was a regular old cop which is not really batman.  Batman is supposed to hide in the shadows, morgue about his parents about how he could have saved them, and don’t trust many, Adam West Batman goes out in public, has vehicle that are way too obvious,  and doesn’t really show that he misses his parents, I don’t even think we heard him say anything about his parents death at all.  So I prefer the 1990’s batman series by far for its great villans, dark tone, and a relatable batman.