All language subtitles for Knight Immortal

(Bruce Timm) I can remember
my first encounter

with Batman when I was five years oId.

My dad had given my brother 50 cents,
and he said, "Go buy some comic books."

And he put me up on his shouIders

because the rack of comic books
went fIoor to ceiIing.

I saw an issue of Detective Comics.

And it was an issue with Batman.

He had, like, an assault tank
as his Batmobile.

And I remember being simuItaneousIy
a little scared and mesmerized

by what I was Iooking at.

(Denny O'Neil) It´s been estimated
that 80% of the popuIation of the Earth

wouId recognize Batman.

(James Tucker) I have a theory that
whatever point you see Batman,

if you're open to it,
you're gonna cIick with that character.

And that's the way it was for me.

And the first time I Iaid eyes
on the character, something cIicked.

I instantIy got it,
and it was all about Batman.

(Dan DiDio) Batman is our
most elastic character,

meaning he can be interpreted
in so many different ways.

Batman is that campier character that
peopIe recognize stiII from the '60s.

He's the Dark Knight that Frank MiIIer
pushed forward in the '80s.

There's this grimmer avenger
as it starts to deveIop

as you go into the '90s
and to the new millennium.

(Timm) Anti-hero, vigiIante, you know,
it aII kind of roIIs in together.

(Glen Murakami) It´s the good guy
who dresses Iike a bad guy.

(siren wails)

(engine revving)

(Stan Lee) Bob Ioved Batman so much.

We'd go out to dinner every so often.
We'd be in a restaurant,

the minute the Waiter Would come over,
inevitabIy Bob wouId say,

"You knoW Who l am? l'm Bob Kane,
l created Batman.

Here, give me a napkin. I'II draw
a picture and sign it for you."

(laughs) And I used to say,
"Oh, come on, Bob."

(Bob Kane over speakers)

(Jerry Robinson)

(Mark Hamill) I have a Iong-ranged
appreciation of various

incarnations of Batman.

The books that l love were the ones
I read as a IittIe boy in the '60s.

And the reprints
from the 80-Page Giants,

l didn't realize
they were oId at the time,

that I was reading books
from the Golden Age, even.

And, you know, I have a fondness
for the Adam West version.

I Iove aII of them, you know.
I reaIIy do.

(O'Neil) Even from a very early age,

I knew that I was gonna do something
with that character.

I was just... Not even obsessed as...
Yeah, okay, obsessed.

You know, I drew him constantIy.

I mean, from six on, there was not a day

or not a week that went by
that l at least didn't draW Batman,

or something from Batman's worId.

(Jim Lee) Batman, for me,
is one of those creations

that's aImost bigger than the creator.

(DiDio) I Iove the detective aspect
of Batman,

the idea that he's figuring stuff out.

And as a reader, you're discovering
with him and you're reading with him,

and you're coming
to the same conclusions.

"Therefore, l am Batman."

(thunder rumbling)

(Hamill) Batman notjust
being physicaIIy imposing,

but being a detective
on par with Sherlock Holmes,

l mean, that's tremendous.

(Timm) The reaI worId, right, is not
that super harmonious pIace.

In fact, it feeIs Iike it's spiraIing
more and more out of controI every day.

We have to do What We can,

even if at the end of the day,
it stiII might not fix the probIem.

And to me,
that is the essence of the character.

He's a character that basicaIIy
wakes up every night, puts on the cowI,

goes out there fighting crime,
even though he knows

that maybe this is an endIess pursuit
that might not have finaI resoIution.

(Jim Lee) Batman is kind of Iike
the anti-Superman.

You know, Superman's really bright,
he's red, yeIIow, and bIue.

And Batman's gray and bIack and bIue,
with a IittIe bit of yeIIow.

Superman has a zillion powers.

He flies, he can bounce bullets
off of his teeth.

And Batman can't. Batman's just a guy.

(Kane over speakers)

My father had a saying.

"Tomorrow is one dream away."

Sentimental words, I know,
but they stayed with me,

even after my parents were killed.

(thunder rumbling)

(Murakami) His story is a human story.
You know, I mean, it's a revenge story.

It's way more reIatabIe
than a Moses story,

from an aIien from another pIanet.

Batman's more accessible.

-(gun fires)
-(clattering)

(Timm) You have this young boy

standing over the bodies of his parents.

l had never, at that time,
even thought about my parents dying.

I'd never even thought about it.

So, as a kid who was eight years old,

now confronted with that possibiIity,

it shocked me to my core.

His origin story is so utterIy primaI

that it does transcend cultures.

To think of a kid who sees
his parents murdered in front of him,

and then makes a commitment,
sacrificing his chiIdhood at that moment

that he's gonna get the guy
Who did this,

he's gonna get aII the bad guys,

even if he has to spend the rest
of his Iife waIking through heII

to honor that commitment.

That is a powerfuI, powerfuI story.

(Kevin Conroy) But he´s so flawed,
and he knows he's flawed.

He can't have personaI reIationships.
PeopIe Iove that about him.

They Iove the fact

that he's not the square-jawed superhero
who's perfect.

Because none of us are perfect,
we're aII screwed up.

(Timm) He's aImost Iike
the first anti-hero in comics.

Even though he's very good. He fights
on the side of good and everything.

When Batman Was created in 1939,
it was the era of the Depression.

WorId War II was right on the horizon.
Things were grim in this country.

There Were criminals, racketeers
that were on the loose.

Major figures
that were becoming aImost mythic.

(engine spluttering)

(gun shots)

But to have then, the emergence
of a modern day Zorro

in the urban center...

There was something

about these new things
caIIed superheroes that was mythic.

They were fighting
the demons and dragons of the day.

And it's why I've aIways contended

that comic book superheroes
are our modern-day mythoIogy.

So whether you call Batman or Superman
by those names,

-or by the names of BeowuIf...
-(dragon growls)

...or UIysses, essentiaIIy,
it's all the same.

(Conroy) The Greeks and the Romans,
you know,

they had Orestes, we have Superman.

And they had AchiIIes, we have Batman.

They had EIectra, we have Wonder Woman.

lt all translates,
it's just modern-day mythoIogy.

(Kane over speakers)

(Robinson)

(Robinson chuckles)

(Miller) Ifyou see
these old Batman serials,

you know, you'II go,
"Boy, this guy wiII never make it."

(chuckling) 'Cause those seriaIs
Iook awfuI, fIoppy ears and stuff.

Well, he's turned into Batman,
it's become fantastic.

(Timm) I wouId say the biggest infIuence
for me, as a kid,

was watching the Batman 1966 TV show.

(Jenette Khan) Adam West, definitiveIy
the best Batman of all time.

(Adam West) When we hit the air,

DC Comics began to sell more comics.

They soId more coIor TV sets.

They began caIIing me,
"The Billion-Dollar Batman."

(Khan) I considerAdam West
to be the Cary Grant of television,

because he's so charming,
he's so weII spoken. He has hot Iips.

He has a Iightness of spirit.

(West) Nowadays, it's the Dark Knight.

Hey, I'm the Bright Knight,

and I'II bring a Iaugh, have some fun,

make peopIe happy.

-(phone ringing)
-(DiDio) There was this incredibIe peak

in the '60s with Batman's show.

But the backlash
aImost destroyed the character.

(Uslan) AII the fans that had been
attracted in because of the TV show

deserted the Caped Crusader who, l still
feIt, was a Dark Knight detective.

(DiDio) Detective Comics was
on the cusp of canceIIation in the '70s.

And the onIy thing that kept him going

was the sense of embarrassment
from the company

that if they canceIIed Detective,
they've canceIIed the book

that the company was named after.
(chuckles)

(Uslan) And, thanks to
editor Julius SchWartz,

they instituted a brand new Iook
to Batman,

returning him to his darker roots,

and making him, once again,
a creature of the night.

(DiDio) And, Frank comes in
with The Dark Knight Returns

and Batman: Year One, and aII
of a sudden, Batman's cooI again.

(Miller) I was on fire to teII
Batman's story because I feIt Iike

I had a story to teII,
him coming out of retirement,

to go back to try
to straighten out a worId

that was nearIy beyond redemption.

The effect he wouId have on other peopIe
was reaIIy the subject of the story.

The idea was that
the myth was Iarger than the man.

(Khan) Frank's ideas, Frank's writing
and his art, and Lynn's coIoring,

they eIevated The Dark Knight Returns
beyond a normaI coIIaboration,

into something that was magic,
that was startIing, that was beautifuI!

And it Was dense,
and it was compIicated,

and could be read
again and again and again,

with many new notes and themes
becoming apparent.

There was just
something extraordinary about it.

(DiDio) It was the right moment,
the right voice at the right time.

Turns the character around.

And then, all of a sudden,
you get this movie in 1989,

and Batman has not looked back since.
(chuckles)

(gun fires)

(Jim Lee) The Batman 1989 movie
changed the worId cuIture.

It changed the worId's
generaI perception

of comic books and of superheroes.

And for the first time,
had their eyes open that,

"Maybe, comic books and superheroes
are no Ionger simpIy being made

for 8 to 12-year-oId boys.
Maybe, there's something more to this."

(engine revving)

(Conroy) What I've tried to do
at the Comic-Cons,

if I'm doing a singIe paneI...
(siren wails)

...I Iove to make the paneI about
why is Batman important.

Why are you aII here?
What has he touched in you?

And, hoW is that
going to affect your Iife?

And, I hear some amazing stories
from peopIe.

More often than not,
someone just wants to hug me and says,

"You have no idea
how rough my chiIdhood was,

and what a safe pIace you were for me."

And, I aIways wanted to hoId you.

I've heard that from so many peopIe,
and l hold them.

And as I'm hoIding them,
they'II just break down.

(Kane over speakers)

(Jim Lee) There are a very few
characters Where,

the Iess you show them,
the cooIer they Iook.

And Batman is definiteIy
tops on that Iist.

There have been times
When l've draWn Batman,

and then l've drawn
the detaiI of the gargoyIe

and aII the buiIdings behind him,
and l still...

Something doesn't look quite right,
and I just get a brush, dip it in ink,

bIack ink, and I'm just erasing stuff.

LiteraIIy, by just covering him
in his shadow.

The darker he gets, the moodier
the image Iooks, the scarier he Iooks.

(O'Neil) WeII, Batman has
the best silhouette.

You see an outline of Batman,
you know exactly who that is. (chuckles)

There's not many other characters
that work that way.

You see the outIine, you see the shadow.

(Jim Lee) The Iarge cape, the swirling
cape, to me, speaks of, Iike,

The Phantom of the Opera, or Dracula.

The fact that he's got a mask
with IiteraIIy, horns,

or IittIe ears that pop up.

So, it looks a little demonic,
it Iooks fearsome, right?

He Iooks spooky, he Iooks creepy,

he Iooks Iike DracuIa, you know?

(DiDio) The whoIe is
the sum of its parts.

-To understand Batman correctIy...
-(phone rings)

...you have to understand
the role of Commissioner Gordon,

the role of Alfred,

the role of Dick Grayson,
the role of all the villains.

And I think why Batman endures is that

all these characters
are so cIearIy defined in the roIe

of what they do to support Batman
at the center,

that I think it's not just Batman
as a hero,

as a character
that exists outside of that,

but reaIIy works best in this ecosystem

that's created, and he can see
how peopIe act against him.

(thunderclaps)

(Timm) I am a subscriber

to Stan Lee's theory of superheroes
and superviIIains.

And as Stan told me many times,

the most popuIar
and Iong-Iasting superheroes in history

have been the ones
who've had the greatest superviIIains.

Because, uItimateIy,

it's the superviIIains
who define the superhero.

Batman has the greatest rogues' gaIIery
of superviIIains in history.

(Uslan) His supporting characters have
their own specific issues.

His villains are all varied.

PeopIe identify with the Joker,
they identify with HarIey.

(Kane over speakers)

(Hamill) Pruneface, The Brow, The MoIe,
I Iove these grotesque viIIains

that infIuenced the Batman mythos

because of all
of his menagerie of viIIains.

It was a grotesque worId.

(Robinson)

(Hamill) I think with the Joker
they wanted someone

that was in direct contrast to Batman.

Batman is dark and somber visuaIIy,

the Joker is coIorfuI and garish.

The fact that they chose a scary cIown
is significant because that's one thing

that can haunt our childhood.

(Conroy) At the end ofThe Killing Joke,
there's this moment

where Batman is Iaughing and Iaughing.

And his Iaughter becomes Iike the Joker.

Batman and the Joker are
the yin and the yang of each other.

They each need the other to survive.

(DiDio) You Iook at aII the viIIains
of Batman's world

and how they pIay against
aspects of his personaIity.

Catwoman plays against his sexuality.

Two-Face pIays against his duaIity.

Joker pIays against the chaos and order.

Scarecrow is fear as a weapon.

Every singIe one of those characters
heIps define who he is.

(Jim Lee) They share a Iot
of similarities to Batman.

Batman just chooses not to go
down that path.

(explosion)

(rain pattering)

(thunder rumbling)

(Timm) I think for these characters
just to stay fresh and contemporary,

they have to reaIIy refIect the era
in which they are pubIished.

If you're a perceptive,
emotionaIIy-aware creator,

you're gonna puII in from everything
around you,

and at the same time,
make it entertaining.

(DiDio) I don't see him stopping,
I see him going straight forward,

whether or not he had
a spear through his chest,

or whether or not he's puIIing himseIf
out of a hospitaI bed,

he wiII put his own Iife at risk
to heIp others.

I find that reaIIy intriguing.

l find that there's a level
of dedication and a level of commitment

that I'm unabIe to make myseIf.

(Conroy) Everyone wants to be a hero,
but we are afraid

of our own mortaIity.

To reaIIy do something heroic
is dangerous.

(Stan Lee) Here was this rich nobIeman
in EngIand,

and nobody knew that he was reaIIy

the Scarlet Pimpernel, and he was
rescuing peopIe in the revoIution.

It's a formuIa that peopIe Iove.

And Bob latched on to that formula
with his character.

And he was Iucky in that it caught on.

(Jim Lee) Batman has reflected
our times.

He has refIected society.

Frank MiIIer did the same thing by 1986

with The Dark Knight Returns,
there was a cynicism

that began permeating society.

(Miller) One ofthe things
that had bothered me most

was how insular and closed in
the world of comics was.

It had nothing to do
with the rest of the world.

And I was wondering what wouId
make Batman genuineIy reIevant,

-and l looked out the window.
-(thunderclap)

(Miller) It was the Reagan era,
the city was in near-chaos.

I thought that's what we need
is a gigantic father figure

to straighten things out.

(Timm) As technoIogy moves forward,
We need to re-address, at times,

what does that reaIIy mean
in today's worId.

How does a character like that
stay an anti-hero?

How does a character like that
use modern-day technoIogy

without kind of breaking
the core conceit that

he's a character without a superpower?

And once you open that door,
you're expanding what Batman represents

to fans and readers, right?

And so, you have that evoIution
of what he represents.

And is that something
that we continue to expIore?

How far do we go with that?

Later generations of creators
will have to address that.

(glass shattering)

(Timm) We flew into Abu Dhabi,
we spent a coupIe of days there

to sort of get accIimated
to the time zone.

And then we went to five different bases
over three days.

(motor revving)

(Timm) The idea was reaIIy to bring
Comic-Con to the troops.

Throw it up, throw it up, throw it up.

(all laughing)

(Timm) The hero to the reaI heroes.

(Jim Lee) We brought in big stars
from our hit TV shows.

(all laughing)

-I'm in.
-(man) Whoo!

(Timm) We did meet and greets,

you know, autograph sessions.

Above this ear. To the center.

And then at the Iast base, I actuaIIy
Ied a "How to draw Batman" draw-aIong.

So, we're really kind of bringing
that whole Comic-Con experience

directIy to the troops.

(indistinct chatter)

(Timm) I think there is an interesting
connection between,

sort of, the mythoIogy of a fictionaI
character that's called Batman

and what these servicemen
and servicewomen are doing,

which is their duty.

Just highIy rewarding and touching.

(O'Neil) PartiaIIy, it was an avenue for
peopIe to identify with these heroes.

But mostIy, I wanted to get
some real-life concerns

on a page somehow.

(West) We feIt if they read comic books,

we couId give them
that comic book, IiteraIIy,

but do it with a spin, tongue-in-cheek.

(Miller) What kind of man wouId this be?

Batman wouId be a very strange man.

Then he started growing in my mind

into this more and more epic character.

And I thought, what wouId the worId
have to do with that?

(West) When I waIked out
of my dressing traiIer

in the Batman costume,
everyone was in awe.

And l kneW, at that moment,
something was happening

with that posture, that demeanor,
that attitude, that movement,

that was going to work.

(Julie Newmar) I get messages
from women who say

when they take on the persona
of Catwoman,

it seems to heIp them a Iot in Iife

to emerge from whatever it is
that's held them down.

Catwoman does not apologize.

(Hamill) There´s usuaIIy a phrase
that gets you into the head.

For me it was aIways,
(in Joker voice) "Joker, here. "

But it's Iike sIipping into
a nice comfortabIe pair of shoes

and getting behind the wheeI
of the crazy car.

(Timm) The version I saw, when I was
a kid, is the one l knoW the best.

And so I took aII that knowIedge
of that version of Batman,

pIus aII the comics I had read.

The show itself is a series
that ceIebrated Batman as a pop icon.

Because it was Brave and the Bold,

it had all these other heroes
coming in and out,

and it was more about
their reIationship to Batman.

(DiDio) To see him change in
so many interpretations,

in so many different voices,
and so many styIes.

You're hard-pressed to find
any other character

that's been revised as much as he has
but stiII stay true to the core.

Batman is able to weather
aII these changes

and actuaIIy add to his arsenaI,
not detract from it.

(explosion)

(wind blowing)

(DiDio) We aIways taIk about
how Batman is enduring.

We taIk about Batman's 80-year history

and reaIIy Iook back to what eIse
existed at that moment in time.

At the heart of it,
it's a chiId who Iost his parents

and is constantIy fighting
to get them back and never wiII.

No matter what generation you're in,
no matter what time you're in...

...that's a pain or a Ioss that anybody
couId feeI at any point.

So therefore, he has something
that is immediateIy identifiabIe,

in some cases relatable,

in some cases frightening and hoping
you never have to deaI with.

(Miller) I figure anybody
who dresses up Iike a bat

and throws peopIe through windows
is not a role model.

He is a hero, in the sense
that Homer´s Odysseus was.

And so I read everything I couId,
notjust Batman comics

but heroic fiction in generaI.

And I came up with an older Batman...

...who is dying in retirement.

And eventually, the world was
driving him crazy enough

for him to go back into action.

(Uslan) The eIements that have made
Batman so successful,

and so popuIar,

where peopIe identify with him
so much over 80 years worIdwide,

he doesn't have to be encased in armor,

and gIow and fIy Iike Iron Man.

It's aII about the humanity.

And as Tim Burton said,
it is aII about Bruce Wayne.

And that's the essence.

(Stan Lee) I have heard that Bob
on camera

has often said, "l am Batman."

AIthough, I think it wouId've been more
accurate to say, "I am Bruce Wayne."

Because l don't know of him
swinging from the buiIdings

and beating up crooks or anything.

(Jim Lee) He´s the one thing from
your chiIdhood that you can hoId on to.

(thunderclap)

And there's Iayers of the
character that keep reveaIing themseIves

to your understanding as you get oIder.

With aII the muItipIe iterations
in the comics...

...each writer has brought some Iayer
to him that's even deeper.

(O'Neil) Every cuIture has had
its storyteIIers...

...and it has shaped itself
by the stories that are told.

So, it took me a long time
to get onto that.

I was almost ashamed of what I did
for a living until I realized, "My God,

what I do for a living is
the basis of culture."

We can never take it for granted
that these characters...

...are gonna live on, right?

So, it's incumbent upon us
as publishers, as editors,

as creatives,
to figure out how to do that.

(DiDio) We spent this morning
working out 2021 Batman.

What that's gonna Iook Iike.

And what's different about him.
That's the fun part of this job.

It's coming up with ideas,
trying to execute those ideas,

and having people react the same way

you do when you first thought
of the idea.

The idea is to take that thing
that got us all in here excited

and feed it out to the world
and hope they get excited, too.

-(James Tucker) He represents growth...
-(growling)

...overcoming obstacIes.

There's all these elements to him
that are so layered

that don't... That you really don't have
to outgrow them if you don't want to,

you can... There's intellectual depth
in the character

that grows with you.

(Neal Adams) He is the bookend
at the end of the shelf...

...of all comic books.

Superman is at one end,
Batman is at the other end.

All the rest of the heroes
are in between.

Somehow, someday,

I am going to show the world
the true Batman.

The dark and serious Batman created
in 1 939 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger,

the guy who stalked these
disturbed villains from the shadows.

And that became my vow
for my mission in life.

(Khan) I remember Tim Burton
hoIding up Arkham Asylum

in meetings with the studio
and with Iicensees and saying,

"This is what I want the movie
to look like."

And I think the return
to the darker Batman, which is really,

in his initial conception, was so true
to the character and resonated with

not just comic book fans
but with an infinitely larger audience,

as we've seen from the audience
that's turned out for the films.

(Robinson)

We were kind of pioneers
of how to tell a story in that form,

both... So, the storytelling was new
in terms of the art and the script.

(Murakami) I can´t wrap my brain around

what I thought it was
gonna kind of turn into.

A lot of, kind of, dumb luck, you know.

I'm lucky enough
to have fallen into this, but...

Um...

Yeah, at the time, I had no idea.

(Timm) There are so many different
radical differences,

different kinds of Batman.

Everything from, you know,
the Dick Sprang/Adam West Batman,

to the dark, uItra-gritty Frank MiIIer
and beyond, you know, Batman.

l like 'em all.
You know, I think they're aII cooI.

There'd never reaIIy been a show
quite Iike The Batman show

in terms of having that kind of mix
of adventure and mood...

(explosion)

...both, you know,
kind of Iike a genuineIy spooky,

mysterious atmosphere to it,

as weII as, you know,

adventure plots
and science fiction kind of plots.

So, it...

Nowadays, it would probably...

I mean, there's all kinds
of stuff like that on TV,

but back then, there really wasn't,

and there certainly wasn't anything
like that aimed at children.

So, um, I think that probably has a lot
to do with it.

(Hamill) They say, "Don´t you get tired
of doing the same character?

You've done it now since,
I don't know, the early '90s."

The Joker's never boring
because he is insane,

and by virtue of being insane,
he's unpredictable.

And unpredictable is never boring.

(West) Just to have had the priviIege
of having done that character

that was so happiIy received

by so many peopIe
and succeeding generations

is reaIIy the best thing I think
that an actor could ever feel.

(Newmar) It´s wonderfuI
to be appreciated,

to hear from fans. They remember
the diaIogue from 40, 50 years ago.

How the effect has been
in the public's mind.

Yeah.

(thuds)

(Conroy) The onIy thing anyone
can guarantee you is change.

-(panting)
-(Conroy) And I Iearned,

I wasn't going to be this kind of actor,
I was going to be that kind of actor.

I wasn't going to do this,
I was going to do that.

So, you know, you figure out
where you're going, and you're always...

you know, dancing as fast as you can.

So that's what Batman's
brought to me now

in terms of what I get to do
with the audience.

(Kane)

(Stan Lee) Once Bob became Iucky,
once the Batman strip caught on...

...as far as l could tell
from the times l Was With him,

Batman became his whole life.

He was always cheerful,
he was always enthusiastic...

...and he always wanted to talk
about Batman.

(thunder rumbling)

(rain pattering)

(gun firing)

(siren wailing)