Batman Mixtape
Batman was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book Detective Comics on March 30, 1939.
Since his first appearance, Batman has been adapted into various media such as film, radio, television, and video games, as well as numerous merchandising items.
The Batman franchise has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Batman TV Show is a 1960’s American live action television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name.
It stars Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin – two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City from a variety of archvillains.
It is known for its camp style, upbeat theme music, and its intentionally humorous, simplistic morality (aimed at its largely teenage audience).
This included championing the importance of using seat belts, doing homework, eating vegetables, and drinking milk.
It was described by executive producer William Dozier as the only situation comedy on the air without a laugh track.
The 120 episodes aired on the ABC network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968, twice weekly during the first two seasons, and weekly for the third.
A companion feature film was released in 1966 between the first and second seasons of the TV show.
Near the end of the third season, ratings had dropped significantly, and ABC cancelled the show.
NBC agreed to take over the series, but before it could do so, it discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars of Batman sets had been destroyed. Rather than rebuild the sets, NBC dropped the project.
In 2016, television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked Batman as the 82nd greatest American television show of all time, stating that :
“West’s performance, the brilliance of which has required decades to be properly recognized, played as if series creator William Dozier and chief developer Lorenzo Semple Jr., had taken the establishment’s fantasy of itself and dolled it up in tights and a cape.
The anarchic gangs of supervillains and henchmen that kept trying to capture or destroy Gotham City stood in for the forces of chaos that kept threatening to engulf so-called civilized America throughout the sixties, only made colorfully grotesque and knowingly silly”.
In 1986 after Tim Burton was hired as director for Batman, Steve Englehart and Julie Hickson wrote film treatments before Sam Hamm wrote the first screenplay.
Batman was not greenlit until after the success of Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988).
The tone and themes of the film were partly influenced by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland‘s The Killing Joke and Frank Miller‘s The Dark Knight Returns.
The film primarily adapts and diverts from the “Red Hood” origin story for the Joker, having Batman inadvertently cause gangster Jack Napier to fall into Axis Chemical acid, triggering his transformation into the psychopathic Joker.
Numerous A-list actors were considered for the role of Batman before Michael Keaton was cast.
Keaton’s casting was controversial since, by 1988, he had become typecast as a comedic actor and many observers doubted he could portray a serious role.
Jack Nicholson accepted the role of the Joker under strict conditions that dictated top billing, a portion of the film’s earnings (including associated merchandise), and his own shooting schedule.
Batman was both critically and financially successful, earning over $400 million in box office totals.
It was the fifth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release.
The score was written by Danny Elfman and the soundtrack by Prince Rogers Nelson.
Prince’s album was recorded in six weeks, from mid February to late March 1989, and Prince used three tracks recorded earlier: “Electric Chair”, “Scandalous!”, and “Vicki Waiting” (originally known as “Anna Waiting”, named for his then girlfriend Anna Fantastic).
Originally, the songs “1999” and “Baby I’m a Star” from earlier albums were slated to be used in the film, but Prince instead recorded an entire album’s worth of material with Batman samples and lyrics.
The project was initially supposed to be a collaboration between himself and Michael Jackson.
Prince would have sung funk songs for the villains, while Michael Jackson would have sung ballads for the heroes.
This never came to fruition as Jackson was busy with his Bad World Tour and already signed with Epic Records (the label he had been with since 1975), while the film was a Warner Bros. production.
The album stayed at number one on the Billboard 200 for six consecutive weeks, being Prince’s first number one album since Around the World in a Day, while its lead single, “Batdance”, became his first number one song since “Kiss”.
It is certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Ownership of the Batman franchise is notoriously complex.
Prince had to agree to sign the publishing rights to the songs used in the film over to Warner Bros. ;
Prince’s hit singles from this album were not permitted to appear on any of his hits compilations until the 2016 release of 4Ever, which included “Batdance”.
Only the B-Sides “200 Balloons”, “Feel U Up”, and “I Love U in Me” appeared on his 1993 The Hits/The B-Sides collection.
On concert T-shirts which listed all of Prince’s album titles to date, the song “Scandalous!” appeared in place of the album Batman.
Despite this, Prince performed a number of the album’s tracks in concert over the years.
In order of appearance :
BATMAN
First Appearance : Detective COMICS #27 (May 1939)
Statuts : Hero
Real Name : Bruce Wayne
Occupation : Industrialist ; philantropist ; crime fighter
Base : Gotham City
Height : 6ft 2in
Weight : 210lbs
Eyes : Blue
Hair : Black
Special Powers // Abilities :
Master detective with a brilliant deductive mind ; quite possibly the greatest martial art artist alive ; Bat-costume is bulletproof and fire-resistant, featuring a weighted cape and a cawl outfitted with night-vision technology and communication array ; utility belt contains an arsenal of crime-fighting gear, including various types of offensive Batarangs, de-cel jumplines and grapnels, micro-camera, smoke pellets, acetylene torch, gas mask, rebreather, and flexi-cuffs among miniaturized non-lethal weapons, employs a variety of detective gadgets, including micro-computers and crime scene analysis kits ; maintains a fleet of high-tech and high-powered vehicles, chief among them the Batmobile, Batcycle, Batboat, Batplane, and Batcopter ; super-sophisticated Batcave headquarters houses training facilities forensics laboratories, computer databases, and maintenance bays for all Bat-vehicles.
ROBIN, The Boy Wonder
First Appearance : Detective COMICS #38 (April 1940)
Statuts : Hero
Real Name : Richard “Dick” Grayson
Occupation : Crime fighter, police officer
Base : Gotham City
Height : 5ft 10in
Weight : 175lbs
Eyes : Blue
Hair : Black
Special Powers // Abilities :
Trained by Batman in martial arts, as well laughing skills. He is adept in the use of electronic devices, especially computers. Dick’s utility belt carries the standard complement of Batarangs, gas capsules, de-cel jumplines and other tools. His R-insignia doubles as a sharp shuriken. Robin’s costume is lined with Kevlar and Nomex fabrics, making it bulletproof and fire-resistant. His make is fitted with Starlite night-vision lenses. Robin is very good in resolving The Riddler’s “enigmatic” clues.
THE JOKER
First Appearance : Batman #1 (Spring 1940)
Statuts : Vilain
Real Name : Unknown
Occupation : Anarchist ; mass murderer ; poor comedian ; professional criminal
Base : Gotham City
Height : 6ft 5in
Weight : 192lbs
Eyes : Green
Hair : Green
Special Powers // Abilities :
Though not especially strong or skilled in fighting, the Joker is nonetheless a deadly combatant. Previously, he has demonstrated adeptness at chemistry, concocting his own poisonous Joker Venom, a weapon of mass distraction that leaves its victims with death-rictuses resembling his own maniacal leer. The Joker often wields deadly joke props or gags such as acid-squirting boutonnière or BANG!-proclaming flag pistol that doubles as spear gun. However, he also plays the straight man in his black comedic campaigns of terror and will use conventional weapons – anything from a single-shot Derringer tucked in the brim of his hat to an operational nuclear warhead concealed within the trunk of his garish Jokermobile.
THE RIDDLER
First Appearance : Detective COMICS #140 (October 1948)
Statuts : Vilain
Real Name : Edward Nigma (née Nashton)
Occupation : Professional criminal
Base : Gotham City
Height : 6ft 1in
Weight : 183lbs
Eyes : Blue
Hair : Black
Special Powers // Abilities :
Brilliant in his own twisted way, but a poor hand-to-hand fighter. His addiction to leaving “enigmatic“ clues to his crimes for Batman always proves his undoing.
ZELDA THE GREAT, The Bank Bandit, Ms. Smith
First Appearance : Batman (TV series) #9 (February 1966)
Statuts : Unresolved
Real Name : Zelda (Surname unknown)
Occupation : Magician, professional criminal
Base : Gotham City
Height : 5′ 3¾in
Weight : unknown
Eyes : Brown
Hair : Blonde
Special Powers // Abilities :
Extremely talented magician ; known for being clever and being able to keep up with Batman during her only appearances. Zelda ends up falling in love with Batman and saves him and Robin from Ekdal’s trap. Ekdal had two criminals hiding in wooden caskets with machine guns preparing to kill Batman and Robin. Zelda warns them, saving the Dynamic Duo. Later in prison, she was visited by Bruce Wayne who she would be have a job as top lady magician, performing for the children’s hospitals after she finished serving her time.
VICKI VALE
First Appearance : Batman #49 (October/November 1948)
Statuts : Hero
Real Name : Victoria “Vicki” Vale
Occupation : Photojournalist
Base : Gotham City
Height : 5ft 6½in
Weight : Unknown
Eyes : Blue
Hair : Blonde / Red (according to Bob Kane, Vale was supposed to be blonde in the comics but her hair came out red due to a coloring error in her first appearance)
Special Powers // Abilities :
Very talented journalist with a brilliant deductive mind. She reported on Batman’s activities for a newspaper, she was romantically attracted to Batman (and sometimes Bruce Wayne as well), and she repeatedly suspected they were the same person.
EIVOL EKDAL
First Appearance : Detective COMICS #346 (December 1965)
Statuts : Vilain
Real Name : Eivol Ekdal
Occupation : Scientist, professional criminal
Base : Gotham City
Height : 5ft 11in
Weight : 202lbs
Eyes : Brown
Hair : White
Special Powers // Abilities :
Master craftsman, builder of escape gadgets and tantalizing traps for the criminal underground of America ; strange Albanian genius who made the various escape devices for Zelda each year for the price of $100,000. Unlike Zelda, Eivol was truly crooked and his high prices were the reason she had taken up crime.
MISTER FREEZE
First Appearance : Detective COMICS #121 (February 1959)
Statuts : Vilain
Real Name : Dr. Victor Fries (real name) aka Dr. Art Schivel, referred to by Batman as “Dr. Schimmel”
Occupation : Professional criminal
Base : Gotham City
Height : 6ft
Weight : 190lbs
Eyes : Icy Blue
Hair : White
Special Powers // Abilities :
Victor has a vast intellect, but has subsumed it in favor of brute force, using his Freeze Gun and super-cooling armor to get what he wants. Freeze must wear his Cooling Suit at all times, unless he is inside one of his sub-zero lairs. It has large tanks of cold air on the back that circulate through the suit, keeping his body below zero. In his first appearance he wore it with a helmet.
PENGUIN
First Appearance : Detective COMICS #58 (December 1941)
Statuts : Vilain
Real Name : Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot
Occupation : Stock trader, fixer, umbrella vendor, professional criminal
Base : Gotham City
Height : 5ft 2in
Weight : 175lbs
Eyes : Blue
Hair : Black
Special Powers // Abilities :
Devious and ruthless, despite his small stature, he is surprisingly agile ; usually prefers to flee rather than fight ; formerly favored an array of bizarre umbrella weapons ; also used his affinity with birds to assist in his crime.
CATWOMAN
First Appearance : Batman #1 (Spring 1940)
Statuts : Unresolved
Real Name : Selina Kyle
Occupation : Expert burglar, jewel thief, vigilante
Base : Gotham City’s East End
Height : 5ft 7in
Weight : 133lbs
Eyes : Blue-green
Hair : Black
Special Powers // Abilities :
A formidable fighter with expertise in boxing and various martial arts disciplines ; skintight cat costume features retractable razor-sharp claws in gloves and spring-action steel climbing pitons in boots ; wields a variety of bullwhips and cat-o’-nine tails as offensive weapons and gymnastic accoutrements.
BATGIRL
First Appearance : Detective Comics #359 (January 1967)
Statuts : Hero
Real Name : Barbara “Barb/Babs” Gordon
Occupation : Librarian
Base : Gotham City
Height : 5ft 4in
Weight : 127lbs
Eyes : Green
Hair : Black
Special Powers // Abilities :
She’s the daughter of Commissioner Gordon ; great martial artist ; a deadly master of nearly all form of unarmed combat ; can “read” the body language of an opponent and predict their moves ; uses a high-tech and high-powered purple motorcycle with white lace trim.
Prince, Snoop Dog, Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nick Cave, Massive Attack, U2, PJ Harvey, The Ventures and even Mozart : they’re all in the Batcave !
This mixtape is dedicated to Anne Baxter, Yvonne Craig, William Dozier, Frank Gorshin, Jack Kruschen, Burgess Meredith, Alan Napier, Prince Rogers Nelson, Otto Preminger, Cesar Romero, George Sanders & Adam West.
Requiescat in pace.
