10 Weirdest Moments In The Early Days Of DC Movies

2. The Batman Fights Racial Stereotypes In World War II

Steel managed to make it to the big screen thanks to sheer force of will (Shaquille O'Neal has a lot of will), but for the most part the lesser-known DC characters get forgotten when the topic of movie adaptations come up. Ever since the beginning, film studios have been interested in the publisher's big two heroes: Superman and Batman. Of course, when superhero comics were first getting popular films didn't work the way they do now. So instead of a big-budget two-hour spectacular, the Dark Knight's first appearance in live action took the form of a 15-chapter serial, released in 1943 by Columbia Pictures, which runs to about 260 minutes in total. It also took some major diversions from the Batman of the comics, since he was an orphaned billionaire vigilante fighting for justice. By contrast, the Batman of the films was a guy in a tatty costume who drove a cheap Cadallic, fighting really racist depictions of Japanese and German soldiers as propaganda during the Second World War.