History of the Batmobile 05 May 2005
10 comments Latest by ERE
The History of the Batmobile is amusing and trivial esoterica, but it’s also an illuminating sampling of how people design when presented with blue sky scenarios and armed only with a colloquial understanding of the constraints of their design challenge. Given free reign, six decades’ worth of comic book artists and a small cadre of production designers (for film and television adaptations of the Batman franchise) went to town in surprisingly disparate fashions — witness the Italian sportscar solution and the Studebaker approach. If there’s a common thread, it’s that these artists chose to reflect the tenor of their times (perhaps instinctively) rather than responding directly to the practical problems of fighting crime in your underwear. And now you know a little bit more about the Batmobile.
10 comments so far (Jump to latest)
kingbenny 05 May 05
Wow, a very cool site… although it is sorta difficult to tell much about each design by looking at the graphics they provide.
jk 05 May 05
I liked the monster truck one—a real crime-fighting machine.
Adam Thody 05 May 05
The first one from 1989 will always be the real Batmobile in my mind.
Adam Thody 06 May 05
I didn’t say “first”…I said “real”. It’s the one of the few that is original, and in my mind, personifies what the Batmobile should be - dark, mysterious, fast, and clean.
The rest more or less looked like production automobiles with some gaudy snap on accessories.
And yes, you should feel old. :D
Adam Thody 06 May 05
Oh sorry, I see what you were getting at now…I said first because there were two in 1989, meaning first of the pair in the list.