Batman: The Animated Series (1992)

“Justice will be served, Joker.” — Batman

Picture the definitive on-screen Batman. Maybe you see Michael Keaton or Christian Bale in their respective cowls. Or perhaps you’re more inclined towards Adam West and his blue leotard. Bob Kane and Bill Finger help you, maybe you’re even picturing George Clooney and his infamous bat-nipples. But for many Batfans only one image comes to mind when they’re asked to picture the definitive Caped Crusader: It’s Batman surveying his domain from a dark rooftop, a flash of lightning illuminates Gotham’s protector before he disappears once more into darkness. In other words, they picture the opening the Emmy-winning Batman: The Animated Series.

“Everything you need to know about Batman is in [that opening],” DC Entertainment President and CCO Geoff Johns said in 2004, encapsulating what has distinguished the opening for 25 years. Not to shortchange the opener’s distinct aesthetic, the otherworldly music of Danny Elfman, the evocative colours, or crisply staged action, but the reason the sequence is so embedded in many of our minds is because of how perfectly it defines Batman without a single line of dialogue. But the opening doesn’t just define this version of Batman. In the 25 years since its premiere, it is now as much…

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from Art of the Title http://ift.tt/2rZXrEC