It's the most wonderful time of the year, dear readers. By which we mean that today is Batman Day, the one 24-hour period in this whole year of celebrations where we honour the Caped Crusader, who celebrates his 75th anniversary in 2014. That's pretty old for a guy to be running around in his underpants, wrestling clowns and the like. That's old enough to know better. Whatever, the Dark Knight is still a total champ in our book, even if he does regularly endanger the lives of civilians, orphans and rubber sharks. To do all that and still flourish - seven decades after he was originally introduced! - means he must be doing something right. So we thought, why not do right by Batman, too? What with this being his special day, and with us wanting to give thanks for Bruce Wayne and his 75 years of loyal service in pop culture and failure to wipe out crime in Gotham City, we've gone ahead and put together a list of suggestions of ways to spend your Batman Day. Whether it's digging out some classic runs of the comic books, settling down to a marathon of films and TV shows, or dedicating your life to a strict regime of physical fitness and vigilante activities, we've got you covered. Of course you could probably just spend the day reading this article. We're rather proud of it. Especially all the gifs.
75. Watch The Best Batman Film
Christopher Nolan's got all his fancy book learnin', Michael Keaton brought a sort of strange charisma to the lead role, and Chris O'Donnell...played Robin, but none of them had the distinction of being in the best Batman film: the big screen adaptation of the sixties TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the dynamic duo, BIFF and POWing their way through the hero's colourful rogues gallery, ducks, nuns and a very convincing shark.
74. Learn The Batusi
That self same TV show was actually the origin of many iconic elements of the Batman mythos, including Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. Most importantly, however, it introduced the Batusi, a dance which Adam West mourned the demise of during his Simpsons appearance and which we reckon is long deserving of a revival. What better day to learn it?
73. Play The Arkham Games
Developers Rocksteady have rightly earned platitudes and sales the size of Bruce Wayne's own personal fortune with their Arkham series of Batman games. No other attempt at bringing the Dark Knight into our control has so successfully nailed the tone, the characters or - most crucially - actually letting us feel like we're Batman. Minus the psychosis and personal trauma, at least. Really any are good, although if you want an argument about Arkham Origins...
72. Don't Play Any Other Batman Game
Another reason people fawn all over the Rocksteady Batman games - besides the fact that they're super good, seriously, are you not already away and playing Arkham Asylum? - is because we've suffered through 75 years of mostly terrible Batman video games. Well, more like thirty, but still. It's felt like 75, because they were so awful. Particularly egregious examples include the clumsy NES platformer based off the 1989 film, the clunky Dark Tomorrow, and the Mega Drive title Revenge Of Shinobi which (illegally) used the Caped Crusader as an end-level boss. Along with Godzilla, Rambo, and The Terminator. Actually that sounds pretty good?
71. Oh Except LEGO Batman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QdlTpYWS8 Oh, and obviously the only other decent bunch of Batman games are the LEGO titles. Because all the LEGO video games are amazing, even if they're sort of guilty pleasures. They're a heck of a lot of fun to play, and the opportunity to swoop around a deceptively colourful Gotham City - especially when you get the rest of the DC Universe involved - makes for a pretty perfect Batman title. And the next one is set in space!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
