Batman (franchise)

The DC Comics character Batman has been adapted into various media including film, radio, television, and video games, as well as numerous merchandising items. The Batman franchise has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

A number of Batman theatrical films have been made. There have also been several attempted projects during the hiatus between Batman & Robin and Batman Begins.

In 1966, a Batman feature film based on the contemporaneous Batman television series was released. It starred Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler, and Lee Meriwether as Catwoman.

Beginning in March 1945, Batman and Robin made regular appearances on the radio drama The Adventures of Superman on the Mutual Broadcasting System, including solo stories when series star Bud Collyer had time off. Batman was voiced by Matt Crowley, Stacy Harris and Gary Merrill, with Ronald Liss as Robin.

Efforts were later made to launch a Batman radio series in 1943 and again in 1950, but neither came to fruition. The 1943 pilot "The Case of the Drowning Seal" was scripted with Scott Douglas as Batman; if the script was recorded, no copy survives. The September 1950 pilot for The Batman Mystery Club was recorded with Richard Devon as Batman and Ronald Liss as Robin.

In 1989, an original radio drama, Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome, was produced by Dirk Maggs for BBC Radio 4. Bob Sessions was the voice of Batman.

A second Maggs production aired on BBC Radio 1 in 1994, this time adapting the comic book storyline Batman: Knightfall. It was adapted, produced and directed by Maggs—with music composed by Mark Russell—who had also made Superman: Doomsday & Beyond on BBC Radio 5. This show, however, was not commissioned of its own, but rather to be three-minute episodes on the Mark Goodier Show. This meant it was written with a sense of immediacy, having to make an instant effect, and each three-minute segment contains a major plot development or sound effect stunt and ends on a cliffhanger. DC acknowledged the effort in an issue, Shadow of the Bat, by having villains jump past a sign reading "Dirk Maggs Radio". Michael Gough reprised the role of Alfred Pennyworth from the Burton/Schumacher film series.

From 1943 to 1946, Batman and Robin appeared in a syndicated daily newspaper comic strip produced by the McClure Syndicate. Other versions appeared in 1953, 1966, and 1989. The original run is collected in the book Batman: The Dailies. One more comic strip series ran briefly after the success of the 1989 film.