10 Superhero Movie Staples That Weren't In The Comics

7. The "Bat-Voice" - Batman (1989)

One of the biggest qualms about any superhero with a secret identity is how nobody close to them ever realises that they sound identical to their regular selves.

Tim Burton's 1989 Batman did a great job combating this by having Batman (Michael Keaton) utter his superhero lines at a lower register, ensuring he didn't sound too much like Bruce Wayne.

Moreover, the idea was floated by Keaton himself, a self-confessed "logic freak", who felt that without a voice change, Batman's identity would be easily uncovered.

Coloured contact lenses were considered to differentiate the two, yet Keaton ultimately went all-in with the voice. It's a choice that's subsequently affected pretty much every single live-action, animated and video game portrayal of the Caped Crusader since.

It's also a flair that was largely absent from the comics up to this point, unsurprisingly given the purely visual nature of the medium.

Some pre-'89 comics did mention Batman having a distinctive voice, with 1980's The Untold Legend of Batman noting a soft voice "as cold as the Antarctic wind", but nothing quite in line with what Keaton cooked up.

At any rate, Keaton popularised the notion of Batman masking his voice in this fashion, and since then it's become decidedly more pervasive across Dark Knight media.