TOP 10 ALTERNATE BAT SUITS PART 2
Part of what makes a superhero iconic is their suit. The suit become a synonomous part of
a hero’s identity, from it’s colours to its emblem, and a memorable suit goes a long
way in making a hero memorable. From a marketing standpoint, a memorable suit goes a long way
in establishing a character’s longevity. But of course, when you have a hero whose
been around since the golden age, and wildly successful to boot, your bound to get some
variations. And today, we’re returning to one of those hero’s many suit variations
- the top 10 alternate bat suits. Part 2.
10 The Batman of Zur-en-arrh Starting off this list we’ve got a bat suit
that belongs to a bat alternate - the Batman of Zur-en-arrh. So this Batman is actually
an alien from the planet called Zur-en-arrh that Bruce first encountered in 1958 in Batman
#113. And his suit is basically an inverted version of the regular Batsuit. Surprisingly,
this character, or at least it’s influence, survived the silver age, appearing in Batman
#678, but as a hypnotic trigger that was planted in Bruce’s mind when he was quite young,
and when triggered, he creates a suit that is a throwback to the original Batman of Zur-en-arrh,
and looks like a modernized version of the 1958 suit.
9 Digital Justice From this 1990 graphic novel, we’ve got
a futuristic Batman who isn’t even Bruce Wayne - Bruce is long gone, and James Gordon,
the grandson of THE commissioner james gordon, becomes Batman to take on a sentient computer
virus crafted by the Joker years and years ago before he died. This batsuit has a Tron-esque
feel to it, with a more ‘modernized’ emblem on Gordon’s chest, with mild green accents
to help tie in thematically with the story.
8 Bat Baby Who said overalls can’t be heroic? From
Batman #147 in 1961, we’ve got some silver age glory for you all with Bat Baby. So, we’ve
talked a lot about this hilarious issue in our other videos, which has become one of
the more memorable narratives from that time period, for all the wrong reasons of course.
Long story short, DC’s success with the Superman superbaby story line got them inspired
to do the same with Bats, resulting in him being shot by a rogue scientist’s speakerphone-ray-gun-object
thing that turns him into a toddler. Bruce is all like, well, I can still fight crime!
And dons some child sized threads since his suit is too large for him. Yeeeeep.
From innocence to completely terrifying, next up we’ve got
7 Suit of Sorrows, Man-Bat edition So this suit is a modification of the original
Suit of Sorrows suit back from 2008, except with a monstrous twist. So Batman Incorporated
#12 when Talia al Ghul unleashes as army of half bat half human ninja monsters. Gotta
love comics. Anyway, in order to properly take Talia on, Bruce decides, hey, I’m gonna
inject myself with Man-Bat serum to even out the playing field here. And put on the suit
of sorrows, which was modified with a jet pack, stealth tech that allowed him to be
invisible, and the addition of some metal arms that extended his reach significantly,
making it all the more terrifying to look at.
6 Bat Bot from The Animated Series This exoskeleton suit was used to take on
Bane in the animated series, and it gave Bats additional strength and heft, had a jetpack
that provided a minimal yet useful amount of flight. While this suit in the episode
manages to fail the caped crusader - Bane smashes it like it’s paper - he does manage
to use that great ingenuity of his to zap him with a live cable. That being said, it’s
still a pretty impressive suit, and if he were fighting someone who wasn’t Bane in
it, it’d probably perform much better and do some serious damage.
5 Kingdom Come Bat Suit From Earth 22, we’ve got a Batman from the
near future, who was permanently crippled by Bane and Two Face, and because of it, has
completely abandoned his personal alias and has gone full blown Batman. This bat suit
rehabilitates Bruce’s body, giving it the ability to still participate in combat with
now superhuman strength, is armed with lasers and gives him the ability to fly. He even
has his own personal batmen robot army, who look pretty slick as well.
4 Elliot Ness’ Vigilante Costume from Scar of the Bat
Based on the real Eliot Ness, a prohibition agent who was famous for hunting down Al Capone,
this Batman of the same name is a fictional representation of him, who took up the vigilante
persona so he wouldn’t have to go after the bad guys and stay within what was legal.
While the cowl is all too familiar in style, Eliot wears a bad ass blue trench coat, and
wields a a machine gun, whooping some major gangster butt.
3 DC One Million Batman This story takes place in 853rd century, so
you can imagine that the tech on this suit is exponentially better than the regular suit
we’re used to. It’s sort of a dream suit. Stronger exoskeleton, fireproof, collapsible,
a whole bunch of new stealth based tools like camouflage technology, hologram projection,
built in wings AND the bat computer built into the suit. Plus this version of his cowl
has a very black panther feel, with it being a full head mask as opposed to just one that
concealed everything but his mouth.
2 The Gotham by Gaslight Bat suit Set in 1889, Gotham by Gaslight features a
barrel chested burly Batman, who attempted to stop Jack the Ripper. Along with a handful
of other familiar faces, Batman gets the late 19th century treatment, with a long dark cloak
fitting of the times, leather pants and boots, with what appears to be a leather cowl. The
suit is a fan favourite, and appears in either a cameo or as a skin in several DC video games,
including Batman Arkham Origins and Lego Batman 3.
1 Batman Versus Predator Suit From the 1991 Batman versus predator series
by Dave Gibbons and Andy Kubert, Bruce puts together this suit in order to take on a foe
literally out of this world. Yes, the predator. This suit is designed to help Bruce take on
the foreign enemy, and included features like sonar - to put him on par with the Predator’s
invisibility capabilities - and armour that could withstand the Predator’s blades.
There we have it guys! Which bat suit is your favourite? And which one did you like the
least? Let us know in those comments below.