Be warned that this is a long read, but it caters to fans and non fans of the Dark Knight. So please bear with me, and I hope you can discuss your thoughts with mine.
The Batman was created by Bob Kane in 1939, as Detective Comic's answer to Action Comic's Superman. A darker, grittier hero compared to the Last Boy Scout of Krypton. He doesn't have any superhuman powers,instead relying on his detective skills to solve crime and dresses up as a human bat to strike fear into the heart of the criminal underworld. The appeal is that he's believable, and with the right amount of training and circumstance, he could be you or me.
Batman has evolved from the Bob Kane and Bill Finger days, taking on, in the process, a slew of highly original villains like the Joker, Catwoman and The Penguin, just to name a few. The appeal of Batman is in his rich rogue's gallery. In the hands of different storytellers, tales can range from camp (the 60s space aged stories of fighting aliens), to the more psychological, edgy tales of today.
I've grown up with the campy days of the Adam West television series, the introduction and withdrawal of the yellow circle around the bat symbol in the costume, the art of Neal Adams, Jim Aparo and Norm Breyfogle to Jim Lee's beautiful rendition in the recent Hush storyline. Cartoons I watched which featured Batman ranged from kiddy-ish Superfriends, to the Batman Animated Series by Warner Bros.
Batman turns 66 this year. It's a long time, but its pop cultural icon status is still going strong. My intention of this article is to share with you my thoughts of the movies (the last four, and the upcoming one), from a fan boy point of view.
If you're interested and to avoid a mega-long posting, this continues on my blog:
http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2005/06/dark-knight-and-i-thoughts-on-batman.html