For the past few years, DC Comics have celebrated Batman Day in style. Basically, this event was first established to observe the character’s 75th anniversary back in 2014, before it became a recurring thing on an annual basis. And now that the Dark Knight’s 80th anniversary is upon us, it’s only appropriate that the publisher up the ante.
As such, the Bat-Signal will light up the sky in major cities throughout the world this Saturday, September 21st. The festivities kickoff at 8pm local time in Melbourne, Australia at Fed Square facing Flinders Street, nine hours ahead of London and 14 hours ahead of New York.
Though more details can be found at Batman80.com, here’s a list of other participating cities:
● Tokyo at MAGNET by SHIBUYA109 at Shibuya Scramble Crossing
● Berlin at Potzdamer Platz 11
● Paris at Galeries Lafayette
● Barcelona at Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya
● London at the Senate House
● São Paulo at Itaúsa – LMB
● New York TBA
● Montreal at Complex Dupuis
● Mexico City at Torre Reforma
● Los Angeles at City Hall
Meanwhile, here’s what Pam Lifford, President of Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences, had to say about all this:
“The Bat-Signal is easily one of the most recognizable images among all superhero iconography and this is going to be a remarkable sight as we transcend borders, languages and cultures to bring us all together with this single experience. We are proud to send up the Bat-Signal on Batman Day because it is an important beacon of inspiration that makes us all believe that it’s possible to take hardship and turn it into something good. Batman Day is a global celebration for all the fans.”
As usual, free Batman comics will be made available in participating comic shops and bookstores as well. This year, you’ll be able to pick up a special reprint of The Batman Who Laughs and an excerpt from the upcoming Batman: Nightwalker graphic novel. I never miss out on these myself, so I’ll definitely add those two to my collection.
Right now, I actually envy those of you living in Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, because custom Batman curated “Presented by Amazon” shops will also open in your cities through September 30th. According to the press release, they’ll be “offering the largest collection of limited-edition Batman 80 merchandise,” so you can understand why this Detroit native is so jealous.
Again, more details are available at the official website, so be sure to make this year’s Batman Day a memorable one.