When it comes to discussing the best Batman ever, opinion largely tends to be split between Michael Keaton and Christian Bale, although one thing most fans can agree on is that it definitely isn’t George Clooney. Ben Affleck, meanwhile, was very underrated and let down by the quality of the movies he starred in, something he’ll be hoping to put right in The Flash, but rarely does Adam West enter the conversation.
West’s take on the Caped Crusader is viewed as more of a punchline than anything these days, but you can’t deny the sheer kitsch entertainment value that comes from revisiting the cult favorite 1960s TV series. The actor also played Batman more regularly than anybody else, having appeared in 120 episodes of the show as well as the big screen spinoff, and he continued lending his distinct vocal talents to the character right up until 2017’s animated Batman vs. Two-Face, which was released after his death at the age of 88 and over half a century after he debuted as the Dark Knight.
One person who firmly believes Adam West to be the greatest Batman in history is visionary comic book creator Alan Moore, although he also admitted in a rare interview that he hasn’t seen a single superhero movie since Tim Burton’s Batman hit theaters in 1989.
“I’ve been told the Joker film wouldn’t exist without Batman: The Killing Joke, but three months after I’d written that I was disowning it, it was far too violent, it was Batman for Christ’s sake, it’s a guy dressed as a bat. Increasingly I think the best version of Batman was Adam West, which didn’t take it at all seriously.”
The 66 year-old creator of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta and Watchmen has famously disavowed any big screen adaptations of his work, and has absolutely no interest in a genre that he’s had such a huge influence on over the last few decades. He might not be very up to date with his comic book movies, then, so it makes complete sense that Adam West would be Moore’s definitive interpretation of Batman.