9 Superheroes Who Have Been Played By Three Or More Actors (And Who Did It Best)

Played By: Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, Adam West, Robert Lowery, Lewis Wilson

Bruce Wayne has had a long, bizarre history of being portrayed in live-action, with the first two notable examples being the 1940s Batman film serials. In these, Batman was portrayed by Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery in '43 and '49, respectively. While both actors definitely did their best given the limitations of the time, Wilson was easily the stand-out.

Batman's next big on-screen outing came in the '60s TV series, in which he was portrayed by the late, great Adam West. Yes, this version of Batman has not aged well whatsoever, but you can't deny that West's performance was memorable and iconic, as evidenced by the fact that his mannerisms as Batman are still referenced by long-time fans to this day.

The character got his first major cinematic outing in 1989's Batman, in which he was wonderfully brought to life by Michael Keaton. Under Tim Burton's direction, Keaton turned in a delightfully dark, yet incredibly charming performance. He would return in the film's sequel, further proving his ability to bring the iconic character to life in such a memorable, riveting way.

When Joel Schumacher took over the series, Batman was recast as Val Kilmer, who was far better in the role than he's given credit for. Even if his Batman was definitely lacking compared to Keaton's, his Bruce Wayne was pretty great.

From there, we got the worst Batman of the bunch, George Clooney, who played a ridiculous, campy, Adam West-style Batman three decades too late. Instead of being a fun novelty like West's, Clooney's Batman is just flat-out painful to watch.

In Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, the Batman mantle was taken up by Christian Bale. Bale was very good in the role, but sort of seemed like the anti-Kilmer in the sense that his Batman was great, but his Bruce Wayne was a bit lacking.

Finally, as the DCEU began to take form, Bats was recast as Ben Affleck (his second appearance on this list.) Like Kilmer, Affleck has gotten a lot more flak in this role than he deserves. In fact, Affleck has nailed a lot of what makes Batman Batman (even if his interpretation can be a bit inconsistent, not unlike Cavill's Superman.)

Who Did It Best: As far as live-action goes, Michael Keaton is Batman. Many of the other actors have nailed certain aspects of the character, but Keaton was the total package. His Bruce Wayne was charming and humorous, his Batman was dark and dangerous, and his ability to play to both sides of the character without missing a single beat is why he stands above his peers.