10 Comic Characters Who Totally Changed After Appearing On Screen
9. Batman
It's almost impossible to imagine now, but in the 1960s there was a point when it looked like it was all over for Batman. Sales of the series had been dwindling, and DC were dangerously close to cancelling the caped crusader's comic. This was well before Batman had seventeen films, fifteen TV shows, and forty-one video games under his belt, with the Batman franchise consisting of nothing but the comics and an old theatrical serial from the 1940s. If the comics had been discontinued, it could have been the end of Batman in pop culture altogether!
It was this 1940s serial that ended up being the ticket to Batman's salvation. After it was re-discovered as a campy cult hit in the sixties, a new TV show based on Batman and his sidekick was commissioned. This show only had one goal: take the accidental campiness of the original serial, and turn it up to eleven. And, like the animated text that would appear on screen whenever Batman punched anyone, it was a SMASH!
DC knew that if they wanted to keep making comics, they would have to re-design Batman to appeal to fans of the show. It was out with spooky, Gothic detective stories, and in with psychedelic silliness.
This, in turn, led to another re-design of the character. As soon as the show fell out of popularity, the comics doubled down on re-establishing Batman as a dark, conflicted hero, desperate to reclaim the character's dignity. Even Bruce Wayne has to change with the times!