Only Bruce Wayne. He’s never seen “clearly” as Batman.
Spoilers "Superman & Lois" Season 1 spoiler discussion!
- Thread starter The Realist
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Err... There wasn't like a nightmare where he appeared in full Batman suit?
Only in shadow. You never properly see him.
Well, he's BATMAN, it's like, his thing.
I just mean you never get a good look at him. I know that’s the point of him in universe, but not the watcher.
He does the Batdance.
Surely, that's enough?
Surely, that's enough?
Not directly in live action, no. But it was only a few years ago that it seemed unlikely there'd ever be a Superman show, or that any aspect of the Batman mythos would be incorporated into the Arrowverse at all. The Arrowverse has a habit of pulling off things that we assumed could never, ever happen. So just because Batman hasn't appeared yet doesn't prove he never will.
Exactly.
Especially since we know that, as previously iterated, there's no all-encompassing mandate precluding such appearances from happening.
Also we are going to have three different actors playing Batman in movies. Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson. How long that will continue does not really matter. All are clearly and intentionally presented as three distinctly different versions of the same character in a similar time frame.
In the past it was not just that Batman was limited to movies. But they also did not want competing versions in live action at the same time. Adam West was very angry when the 1989 movie came out. He wanted to play Batman again. Similar how Shatner and Nimoy transitioned from tv to movies with Star Trek. Also any tv revival of a previous Batman would have never been allowed than either. No one at Warner Bros was thinking in those terms back than. There could only be one version at a time.
But things have completely changed now. Would not surprise me once the Multiverse is introduced to a wider audience through The Flash movie that we see more Batmen pop up on television. My guess would be the first places are Titans and Batwoman. Where actors have already been cast. But we would no longer see them as just Bruce Wayne or quick glimpses of the costume.
In the past it was not just that Batman was limited to movies. But they also did not want competing versions in live action at the same time. Adam West was very angry when the 1989 movie came out. He wanted to play Batman again. Similar how Shatner and Nimoy transitioned from tv to movies with Star Trek. Also any tv revival of a previous Batman would have never been allowed than either. No one at Warner Bros was thinking in those terms back than. There could only be one version at a time.
But things have completely changed now. Would not surprise me once the Multiverse is introduced to a wider audience through The Flash movie that we see more Batmen pop up on television. My guess would be the first places are Titans and Batwoman. Where actors have already been cast. But we would no longer see them as just Bruce Wayne or quick glimpses of the costume.
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Did Bruce Wayne go out as Batman in Gotham or does the Adam West series count as the last time we saw a live action Batman on the tv screen? As for animated there's probably close to 10 (not counting the DCAU movies).
Which was all Welling’s choice. I have posted about that in the past. Tom Welling was given full approval by Warner Bros to fully appear as Superman in Smallville’s finale. Not just a single scene but as much as the writers wanted. But he said no. It was not known when it aired 10 years ago but has come to light from reliable sources since than.
Which is why any expectations of him playing Superman in Crisis on the CW or anywhere else are unrealistic. Mark Guggenheim specifically pitched him a depowered Clark living back on the farm because he knew it was the only type of appearance he would except to do.
Which is why any expectations of him playing Superman in Crisis on the CW or anywhere else are unrealistic. Mark Guggenheim specifically pitched him a depowered Clark living back on the farm because he knew it was the only type of appearance he would except to do.
Bruce suiting up as Batman on GOTHAM was only ever going to happen at the end of that series; we were explicitly told this by the producers during the first season.
Of course it was his choice but it's kind like Lucas trying keep people from seeing the original versions of Star Wars even on DVD. They both seem to be very bizarre stances to hold the line on especially after such a long period of time. I sort understand the Welling stuff early on. At the time a comic book show on the CW would have a stigma on it. But eventually the stigma goes away so it seems like a pointless stance after a certain period of time.
I wasn't addressing or disputing that. I was simply pointing out that in Gotham's case, we did get a full, actual on-camera look at Batman rather than a vague teasing glimpse, even if it was quite brief.
Sorry that was not really directed at you at all. I do not like Tom Welling and how he handled that situation. Nor how his most loyal fans hold on to unrealistic hopes even all these years later of him playing Superman.
I know you were not even much of a Smallville fan either. Anytime that finale is mentioned, anywhere I post online, I have a (bad?) habit of using that as an excuse to inform anyone who might see a thread and not be aware of what happened - not to blame Warner Bros.
I know you were not even much of a Smallville fan either. Anytime that finale is mentioned, anywhere I post online, I have a (bad?) habit of using that as an excuse to inform anyone who might see a thread and not be aware of what happened - not to blame Warner Bros.
Well, yes, I know it was Welling's own resistance, not WB policy. But that's not the topic here. After all, we do have a Superman show currently airing, so that's a settled question. Whether we can get more than a glimpse at a live-action Batman on TV is the unresolved question. (As is the question of whether John Diggle will have put on that ring by the end of this season, and whether we'll see what results from it.)
Despite internet apocrypha, the lack of the suit in the Smallville finale wasn't nearly as much on Welling as some claim.
While it is true Peterson and Soulders weren't able to do as much as they wanted to, this had a lot more to do with budget than it did Welling's resistance. Much of the 'reveal' was something that Gough and Milar had come up with years prior and they decided to keep as much as they could, but it was conceived during a time when the show and a substantially higher budget. The reason they had to use Routh's suit is because they couldn't afford their own. And it really didn't fit Welling at all. They altered it the best they could, but he's talked at length about how uncomfortable it was. And that's before even addressing the flying FX.
Here's the thing, though: even if they had been able to do all they wanted, there would still not have been as much suit stuff as people seem to think, because that would have simply been thematically antithetical to the core of the show. The whole thing was a nature v nurture allegory, with the premise being that Superman is a product of both and the suit is just a costume.
*G&M came up with "no flights, no tights" long before ever casting Welling.
While it is true Peterson and Soulders weren't able to do as much as they wanted to, this had a lot more to do with budget than it did Welling's resistance. Much of the 'reveal' was something that Gough and Milar had come up with years prior and they decided to keep as much as they could, but it was conceived during a time when the show and a substantially higher budget. The reason they had to use Routh's suit is because they couldn't afford their own. And it really didn't fit Welling at all. They altered it the best they could, but he's talked at length about how uncomfortable it was. And that's before even addressing the flying FX.
Here's the thing, though: even if they had been able to do all they wanted, there would still not have been as much suit stuff as people seem to think, because that would have simply been thematically antithetical to the core of the show. The whole thing was a nature v nurture allegory, with the premise being that Superman is a product of both and the suit is just a costume.
*G&M came up with "no flights, no tights" long before ever casting Welling.
For the first 5-7 seasons, sure. But in the last three seasons it reoriented itself and became a Superman show in all but name, so it was really contrived to avoid the costume all the way to the end. At that point, it would've worked better just to make it an actual Superman show.
But he was in a costume in the final three seasons. It was just a different costume (which was part of why it was so contrived). So that doesn't really work as an argument.
In fact, I don't think it works on any level. There are plenty of shows where the heroes wear costumes, but few of them portray their heroism as being defined by their costumes. I mean, it was Lois & Clark that gave us the line "Superman is what I can do; Clark is who I am." And it still used the costume. If it doesn't define him, if clothes don't make the man, then there's no reason not to wear it either.
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