Batman: Every Screen Batmobile Ranked From Best To Worst

7. The Batmobile - The Batman Animated TV Show

What with the first proper Animated Series (sorry, we're not counting the Scooby Doo episodes where the Dynamic Duo joined the Mystery Machine crew, nor the cartoon spin-off with West and Ward) being such a huge commercial and critical hit, all the Batman cartoons that followed tend to pale in comparison, never being able to reach the spectacularly high bar Bruce Timm and company managed to set. Which is a shame, because since this high water mark was created there's actually been some pretty great Dark Knight cartoons. The Batman was a little more controversial than most, with the character redesigns by Jeff Matsuda - including a dreadlocked, straight-jacketed Joker and Marilyn Manson-inspired Riddler - coming under particular scrutiny from extremely particular comic book fanboys. It's always going to be the boys. They've not got much else to spend their time obsessively picking over. We actually kinda dig Matsuda's visual style, though, even if we did find some of his makeovers a little lacking. Rather than try and imitate the Dark Deco thing he attempted to escape the lingering shadows of the Animated Series and do something different, an approach obvious in The Batman's Batmobile. Clearly it was designed to be a toy - the merchandise tie-ins is what funds the ongoing production of these cartoons - but in the best possible way, this Batmobile has a chunkiness and weight we haven't seen before or since, foregoing the usual sports car route and instead modelling itself on an American muscle car. It's like a Dodge Viper with a gothic paint job, slightly lowered, with the requisite bat ears on the back and flecks of silver and ice blue highlighting the rims, exposed engine and glowing headlights. Still ridiculous and unrealistic, but a little more subdued and stylish.