Batman is arguably the most famous and beloved superhero in the world (though I’m sure Superman’s hard-core fans will disagree). Why exactly do people love and obsess over Batman so much? One reason has to do with his unhappy childhood and the fact that his parents were murdered when he was very young. A harsh and traumatic backstory (which makes Batman oddly relatable). Batman is also admired for his incredible courage and his dedication to fighting crime for a better and safer world. Further, Batman is not a powerful god like Thor, an alien with incredible, almost godly superpowers like Superman, experimentally modified like Captain America or the Hulk, or a mutant who self-heals and is almost impossible to kill like Wolverine. He is one of us. He gets hurt; he bleeds; he takes a blow and suffers, but then he gets back up and keeps fighting, saving people, being a hero. Sure he has TONS of money, but besides that, he’s just a human being who not even the god-like superheroes want to tango with, and can you blame them? So if you are a Batman fan, get ready because we are about to share with you 25 Things You Might Not Know About Batman.
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Batman was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. He first appeared as “the Bat-Man,” in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: YouTube 24
Ironically, Bill Finger wasn’t credited for anything Batman related until recently, yet he’s responsible for the original ideas of Batman’s persona, costume, Gotham, and most of the story’s characters.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: bleedingcool.com 23
Originally Batman was based in New York and only later the writers decided to move him to Gotham.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 22
Gotham might be a quiet village in the rural heart of Nottinghamshire, England, but it has an intriguing past and a rich historical heritage that sees it linked to the name given to the city used in DC Comics.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 21
It’s not just Gotham that exists in real life—Batman does too, as a city in Turkey. While one would expect that the city would happily embrace the connection to one of the world’s most famous superheroes, the mayor of Batman, Huseyin Kalkan, tried to sue Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan for using the name without permission after the release of The Dark Knight, which grossed over $1 billion worldwide.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: flickr.com, Photo by Senol Demir 20
The backgrounds of Batman: The Animated Series were drawn on black paper instead of white to show a darker tone.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: YouTube 19
Originally, Robin was supposed to appear in just one issue and then vanish forever. That was because Bat-editor Jack Liebowitz was against the idea of having a kid fighting gangsters, and because Batman was doing a good job already by himself.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: YouTube 18
Way before it terrorized parts of the world, Ebola was a problem Batman had to deal with. He fought it and Robin almost died from it.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: YouTube 17
However, Robin would die shortly after. For 1988’s “Batman: A Death in the Family” story line, DC Comics held a telephone poll to determine whether or not Jason Todd (the second character to take up the Robin identity) would die at the hands of the Joker. He was killed off by a margin of 72 votes (5,343 for, 5,271 against). So yep, it was the fans that really killed Robin.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 16
For a damp, dark cavern, the Batcave has proven to be one of the most versatile, advanced, and interesting places any hero could possibly hang their cowls. There you can find all kinds of things such as Batman’s gadgets, cars, planes, boats, trophies, weapons, costumes, and associates.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: commons.wikimedia.org 15
The settlement that became Melbourne, Australia, was founded by a man named John Batman. Melbourne was originally called Batmania, and its founding document was called Batman’s Treaty.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 14
The University of Victoria in British Columbia offers a Science of Batman course that explores the human body and its adaptability through the life of Batman.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: commons.wikimedia.org 13
While shooting Batman Begins on the streets of Chicago, a person accidentally crashed into the Batmobile. The driver was apparently drunk and said he hit the car in a state of panic, believing the Dark Knight’s vehicle to be an invading alien spacecraft.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 12
Arkham Asylum was based on the sanitarium in the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts, in H.P. Lovercraft’s stories, which was in turn based on Danvers State Hospital, a mental asylum in Massachusetts.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 11
According to Batman #845, Batman’s online screen name is JonDoe297.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 10
In a limited series crossover published by both DC and Marvel comics, Batman and Wolverine were merged into one character named Dark Claw.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 9
The Lamborghini driven by Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is a Lamborghini Murciélago. Murciélago means “bat” in Spanish.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: commons.wikimedia.org 8
Original sketches made by Bob Kane had Batman donning a red costume with a bat wing–like cape, inspired by da Vinci’s designs of the ornithopter.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: commons.wikimedia.org 7
Batman’s suit and identity were inspired by the 1930 movie Bat Whisperers, while his rich alter ego was inspired by the 1920 film The Mask of Zorro. The radio-show character named The Shadow inspired Batman’s cloak, his dual identity, and his sleuthing talent.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 6
The Joker was highly inspired by a photo of actor Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine (a man with a disfigured face, giving him a perpetual grin) in the 1928 film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 5
In Batman #222, writer Frank Robbins wanted to have some fun with the whole “one of the Beatles being dead” controversy. The June 1970 issue was titled “Dead . . . Till Proven Alive” and featured Robin holding an album similar to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the comic, however, the band was called The Oliver Twist even though they looked exactly like the Beatles.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: pixabay 4
In the British armed forces the word “batman” is used to describe an officer’s personal servant. In other words, Alfred Pennyworth is the original Batman or Batman’s batman, if you prefer.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: YouTube 3
Darren Hudson Hick, a former Comics Journal editor, did research to discover what it would cost for someone to be Batman in real life. He found out that $300 million would get you your own Bat Suit, Batarangs, Batcave, Bat Signal, and Batmobile among other things the Dark Knight needs in his fight against crime. He concluded that the most expensive item would be the Bat Computer.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: commons.wikimedia.org 2
Batman didn’t always have a “no killing” rule. For that matter, Batman didn’t just murder several dudes over the years, but in some cases he did so quite gruesomely; one major example being when he hanged a mental patient from the Batplane in Batman No. 1, way back in the 1940s.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: YouTube 1
According to Alfred in Batman #701, Batman’s favorite food is Mulligatawny soup, an English chicken-lamb soup based on a Tamil recipe.
Source: Batman/DC Comics, Image: Wikipedia 
