While Zach Snyder’s “Batman v Superman” may not exactly be attracting the most positive of reviews, most critics agree that Ben Affleck’s Batman is one of the few good things about it. And at least he has a relatively cool Batmobile.
To celebrate this fact, we take a look at Five of Batman’s Best Rides in this week’s Sunday Five.
The First one – Detective Comics #27 (1939)
First appearing in the same issue of “Detective Comics” that Batman made his debut in (#27 May 1939), the car was a red coupe with a bat emblem on its bonnet and a supercharged engine, although shortly afterwards it became a convertible.
Thought to possibly be a modified Cord 812 or Graham 97 “Sharknose” the car was not referred to as “the Batmobile” until the February 1941 issue (#48). It boasted none of the gadgets that the Batmobile would become famous for in its later appearances, but, damn, was it cool…
The TV one – “Batman” (1966-68)
When George Barris was approached to build a Batmobile for a new TV show in just three weeks, he knew exactly what to do – he took the 1954 Lincoln Futura show car he had purchased from Ford for $1 years earlier, slapped a new nose, a new canopy and a few extras on it and gave it its now-iconic black and red paintjob. Job done.
Despite its somewhat half-arsed creation, the TV Batmobile has stood the test of time to become one of the best (actually, THE best in our opinion), it also was the first Batmobile to introduce the use of James Bond-style gadgets.
The Massive Tank one – “The Dark Knight Returns” (1986)
While the current trend for Batmobiles is more brutally-armoured and “sports” tank-like (Batman v Superman, Christopher Nolan’s “Tumbler” and the Arkham Knight video game), none of these can compare to Frank Miller’s huge Batmobile tank from his epic game-changing comic book mini-series from 1986.
Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” presents a grim, dark alternate-future where superheroes are outlawed, events force a very grumpy Batman to come out of retirement, fight Superman (sound familiar? Snyder used the comic as inspiration for his latest movie) and rampage around in the massive Bat tank. The Tumbler might be cool, but this thing is cooler…
The Tim Burton one – “Batman” (1989) and “Batman Returns” (1992)
Heavily armoured and over-the-top, the sleek, angry-looking Batmobile from the Micheal Keaton-starring Batman movies was basically a huge jet engine with wheels (and those brilliant tailfins) attached, but it also had a bunch of cool gadgets and a rather explosive self-defense mode.
In reality, this one was made from splicing together two Chevrolet Impala chassis. It was powered by a Chev V8 and rode on custom wheels shod with Mickey Thompson race tyres.
While Keaton’s 175cm height was considerably shy of Batman’s 189cm, even he managed to look intimidating when he was sitting in this Batmobile.
The Animated one – “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992-95)
Taking inspiration from the Tim Burton films, the Animated Series Batmobile was altogether sleeker and WAY more sinister.
While it clearly retained a jet engine poking out the back, the absence of a front intake and the addition of four exhausts each side of the bonnet suggested a V8 for normal propulsion with the jet engine for bursts of acceleration when needed.
This Batmobile featured smoke and oil dispensers, wheel slasher hubs, missiles, tear gas dispensers, ejection seats and reversible jet exhausts.
This article first appeared on Stuff Motoring.
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