‘BATMAN, NOOO!’: TikTok discovers the ‘Batman’ movie that DC doesn’t want you to remember, because it’s a tiny bit extremely racist

The debate over which Batman actor and series reigns supreme is a staple of nerd-dom. With Adam West, Christian Bale, George Clooney and so many others to choose from, it’s a debate that can rage for hours.

But one Batman waits, forgotten in the shadows. Long before West donned the iconic cape in the 60s, before Zack Snyder was even a gleam in his mother’s eye, the original Batman was operating as a “secret U.S. government agent.” The character-defining film serials have since been wiped from the face of DC, but their impact has never been forgotten.

If you’re new to the films of yesteryear, some of the language in the clip you’re about to watch might be disturbing. Heck, it’s disturbing even to those familiar with superheroes like Batman and Superman, and cartoons like the Looney Toons being used for anti-Japanese and Anti-Nazi propaganda.

Released in 1943, the first of the Batman serials – weekly shorts later compiled into a feature-length movie – hit screens during the height of World War II. The language wielded against the film’s Japanese antagonists is cringeworthy for sure, defining an era of suspicion and aggression against Japanese Americans.

TikToker @Monituck does a fantastic job alleviating the secondhand horror of hearing all the “choice” words Batman, Robin, and the detectives they work with have for their “Japanese” antagonists, who were all played by white actors, of course. Her guttural screams of “no, Batman,” and “Batman, no!” perfectly encapsulate how hard it is to hear the Dark Knight throw racial slurs around as casually as he tosses baddies off of rooftops.

We get it, it was era-appropriate, but all the easily accepted racism (the villain is just trying to rescue Japanese trapped in internment camps, by the way) makes you wonder just how a real-life Captain America would have handled the 2010s.

The Japanese aren’t the only victims of Batman and Robin’s casual racism. Native Americans are also caught at the center of their drive-by bigotry. Again, @Monituck does the lord’s work, releasing the guttural sounds of pain we all feel. It nearly makes the scene bearable to watch.

Despite its more than aggressive racial overtones, the movie did help shape Batman into the version we now know and love. It established “The Bat’s Cave,” a detective’s crime lab hidden under the mansion, which wouldn’t appear in comics until ’83.  Before the film, Alfred was a portly and clean-shaven man. When the thin, mustachioed actor William Austin brought the character flawlessly to life, the comics altered his appearance (explained away as a “health retreat”) to match.  

Comic books and films have come a long way since the serials were released in the 1940s. The subject matter and tactless treatment of non-white characters can make these movies hard to handle, but there is so much worth seeing.

A return to the classics will expose you to many outdated moments that DC has proudly swept under the rug. But in between the uncomfy language, you’ll be gifted with continuity errors, costume oopsies, and terrible dialogue that make even the darkest knight a little brighter.