Batmobile
The Batmobile is the fictional land vehicle driven by the superhero Batman, used both to patrol Gotham City for crime and to engage in car chases or vehicular combat with the city's criminal underworld. The Batmobile is part of a suite of highly advanced equipment at Batman's disposal in the Batcave, which the vehicle accesses through a hidden entrance.
The concept of a dedicated automobile for the superhero originates in Detective Comics issue #27, with the name being coined in issue #48. Its appearance has varied but, since early appearances, the Batmobile has had a prominent bat motif, typically including wing-shaped tailfins. Customized in the early stages of Batman's career, each incarnation has reflected evolving car technologies. It has been portrayed as having many uses, such as vehicular pursuit, prisoner transportation, anti-tank warfare, riot control, and as a mobile crime lab. In some depictions, the Batmobile has individually articulated wheel mounts and is able to be remotely operated. It has appeared in various media outside comics including television, films, and video games, and has since become part of popular culture.
In the Batwheels animated TV series, the Batmobile is voiced by Jacob Bertrand.
Comic book publication history
DC Universe
20th century
Golden Age of Comic Books
Batman is shown driving a red car in his debut story in Detective Comics #27. The red car was never mentioned by name as the Batmobile. Although the Batplane was introduced in Detective Comics #31, the name "Batmobile" was not applied to Batman's automobile until Detective Comics #48. The car's design evolved in early Batman stories. It became a "specially built high-powered auto" by Detective Comics #30, and in Batman #5, it had a bat hood ornament and a darker exterior color. The predominant designs settled on a large, dark-colored body and bat-like accessories such as large tailfins scalloped to resemble a bat's wings.Other bat-vehicles soon followed, including the Batcycle, Batboat, and Robin's Redbird.
Batman #5 introduced a long, powerful, streamlined Batmobile with a tall scalloped fin and an intimidating bat head on the front. Three pages after its introduction, it was forced off a cliff by the Joker and crashed in the ravine below. An identical Batmobile appeared in the next story printed in the same issue.
Silver Age of Comic Books
The 1966–1968 television series Batman was so popular that its campy humor and its version of Batmobile were imported into Batman's comics. The iconic television Batmobile was a superficially modified concept car, the decade-old Lincoln Futura, owned by auto customizer George Barris, whose shop did the work. When the series was canceled in 1968, the comic books became darker and more serious. The comics' version of Batman abandoned that version of the Batmobile. Its replacement was a simpler model with a stylized bat's head silhouette decal on the hood being the only decoration of note. The 1960s TV style Batmobile still appears from time to time in the comic books, most recently in Detective Comics #850 and in Batman Confidential.Bronze Age of Comic Books
In the Bronze Age of Comic Books, the source of the cars was explained in The Untold Legend of the Batman as the work of stunt driver Jack Edison. Edison had volunteered to personally construct Batmobiles for Batman after being rescued from a burning wreck.In mid-1985, a special variation of the Super Powers toyline Batmobile appeared in both Batman and Detective Comics. This design had a full set of front and rear canopies, "Coke-bottle" sides, integrated fins, and generally rounder features, just like the toy. The only difference between this car and its toy counterpart is the nose, which was sometimes drawn as longer and more pointed.
Modern Age of Comic Books
Beginning in the 1990s, the number of comics featuring Batman mushroomed with spin-off titles, limited series, and graphic novels. At the same time, there was considerable experimentation with styles of illustration. With different illustration styles in so many different books, there was naturally a corresponding diversity of designs for the Batmobile. This has continued with designs for the Batmobile ranging from conservative and practical to highly stylized to outlandish.During the "Cataclysm" storyline, it is revealed that Batman has hidden a number of spare vehicles across the city just in case. A Humvee serves as a primary mean of transportation to cross the earthquake-ravaged city during the Aftershock storyline, as the primary Batmobile is wrecked by the quake. These vehicles are not as sophisticated or as fast as the Batmobiles, but some of them are armed with non-lethal riot control and combat artilleries and armored to withstand ammunition mounted on military automobile prototypes.
21st century
2000s
In the "Batman: Hush" storyline, a double-page spread by Jim Lee shows various Batmobiles in storage in the Batcave, reveals that Batman now has more than one of his iconic ground vehicles. In addition, some incarnations of the character, such as Batman: The Animated Series, establish that Batman has a large ground vehicle fleet of various makes and models as well as utility vehicles to use when the Batmobile would be too conspicuous. In issue 9 of the third volume of Teen Titans, Robin and his friends use a Batmobile that he shipped out to San Francisco, hiding the expense "in the Batarang budget".The 2008 book Batmobile Owner's Manual, gives theoretical specifications of the car as if it were a real car. The book states that the Batmobile's five-cylinder engine is more powerful than turbine jet engines, and capable of achieving up to.
In the 2009 series Batman and Robin, a new Batmobile is unveiled. This model is capable of flight, although is not as maneuverable as the Batwing. It can fire 19 types of projectiles, one of which is a flame retardant non-toxic foam, and features a concussive sonic blast device. This Batmobile was designed and constructed by Bruce Wayne. However, its construction was the source of great frustration to him, as mentioned by Alfred, and thus not finished. In Batman and Robin #1 it is revealed that Bruce's son, Damian Wayne, solved the problem of its inability to fly and completed it.
2010s
The Batmobile was redesigned in 2011 when DC Comics relaunched its entire line of comic books, with the Batmobile being given new aesthetics.In 2016, DC Comics relaunched its comic books once again in DC Rebirth and opted to rebrand the continuity to "DC Universe" in December 2017. While many different models of the Batmobile are seen within the Batcave, the model that is primarily used in DC Universe is a revised version with a more rectangular design and an armored appearance. However, this is not always the case, such as in Batman #4, and #5. In the future neo-Gotham, a sleek, flying car version of the Batmobile is primarily used instead.
Elseworlds and Alternate Universes
In Batman: Holy Terror, the Batmobile is depicted on a two-page spread at the end of the story, with Bruce musing that it was provided to him by the remaining members of the underground movement against the religious dictatorship that rules the world in this timeline.In Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, the Batmobile is presented as a basic open-topped car with a single bat-wing at its rear, similar in design to the original Batmobile in the comics. Batman was forced to abandon the Batmobile after the destruction of Wayne Manor to stop Dracula's vampire 'family' deprived him of a suitable place to keep the car, although Bruce reflects that he no longer needs the car after his transformation into a vampire grants him bat-like wings. However, it is revealed in Crimson Mist- the third novel in the trilogy- that the Batmobile survives in the remains of the Batcave, with Alfred briefly hiding behind it to escape Killer Croc during a chase through the cave.
In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the Batmobile has been modified into a tank-like armored riot control vehicle, complete with machine guns shooting rubber bullets, a large cannon mounted on the front, and large tank treads in place of tires. According to Batman's narration, the only thing that can penetrate its armor "isn't from this planet" with the "damnedest alloy surface". Batman also mentions that it was Dick Grayson who came up with the name. The tank-like vehicle appears to take up two lanes of traffic on a normal road, evidenced when returning from Batman's initial fight with the leader of the Mutants, and thus is too big for normal land travel around Gotham. In the scenes prior to Batman's last stand with the Joker, Batman uses a motorcycle to traverse the city, using the tank again after the attempted nuclear strike and fires in Gotham, although it is torn apart during Batman's battle with Superman. This Batmobile reappeared in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #4, which shows its construction by robots in the Batcave.
In Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, the car can convert into a harrier jet and a submarine. Dick Grayson comments that the name Batmobile is "totally queer". However, in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which exists in the same continuity, Grayson was stated as the one who coined the name.
In Absolute Batman, the Batmobile is reimagined as gigantic, modified dump truck. As Bruce Wayne is a working class engineer in this universe, everything about it is homemade and built by himself. It is two stories tall, has external stairs that led to a gangway to access the cockpit from the outside, and is equipped with non-lethal turret rounds that fire tiny bat-projectiles. The vehicle is capable of collapsing its roof for better speed along with homemade jet engines and can seal off all windows and vents to function underwater. It was introduced in issue #2, where Batman uses it escape from the authorities and the Party Animals along with Alfred Pennyworth. Its origin is revealed in the Absolute Batman 2025 Annual where Batman stole the original dump truck from a construction site in Slaughter Swamp, which he used to break into the hideout of a white supremacist gang.