Batman

Batman is a human from DC Comics.

Batman wears a winged suit which he can use to cover himself, and he talks in a low, whispering voice. Apparently, he is best known for saying "I'm Batman."

Fiction

Titan Magazine letters page

Ironhide was a Batman fan because of the amount of weapons in his car. Transformers Comic issue 2.2

Dark of the Moon novel

Zimmerman, while preparing to wing suit into Chicago, wrapped his suit's stretched cloth around himself, pretending to be Batman. Dark of the Moon

Commercial appearances

• William Fowler called upon Batman to act as backup for the Autobots in a mission of some sort. Mission: Impossibly Awesome Marathon

• When a group of carolers including Bulkhead and Megatron sang Jingle Bells, the Joker contributed a verse implying a certain scent to Batman. The Hub Carolers (second spot)

Notes

• Lee Sullivan based his Optimus Prime (original, not Powermaster) on Batman himself.
• Batman appears to be a member of something called the "Justice League" alongside Superman. A Justice League/Transformers comic book crossover was pitched by Phil Jimenez. The pitch apparently included a Transformer who turns into the Batmobile, and Batman teaming up with Prowl. Alas, the pitch never came to fruition.^[1]
• Multiple Transformers characters have been based on Batman, in design or personality:
  • The design of Optimus Primal's bat form is an homage to Batman, whose action figure license was also held at the time by Kenner. His designer chose the black color scheme to redeco him into Onyx Primal, enhancing the mold's inherent resemblance to Batman.^[2]
  • Beast Machines Silverbolt was based on the darker, angstier incarnations of Batman, with writer Steven Melching comparing his prior Beast Wars appearances to the campier Adam West version; the episode in which he returned was named "In Darkest Knight", after Batman's moniker of "the Dark Knight".
  • In the zeitgeist of the then-upcoming release of Batman Begins in 2005, Megatron sports a Batmobile-inspired vehicle mode for the Cybertron portion of the Unicron Trilogy, per the behest of Hasbro. The same later followed-up for Sideways for having a "Bat"-inspired vehicle mode.^[3]
  • Animated Searchlight's personality is based on Batman, specifically Frank Miller's particularly grim-n-gritty take on the character.
  • The color scheme and double life of Shattered Glass Ratbat are based on Batman. His secret identity color scheme, likewise, is based on Bruce Wayne's brown and mustard outfit from Batman: The Animated Series.
• Sam Witwicky remarks that shining a spotlight with the silhouette of a truck on a cloud would be an impractical method for contacting Optimus Prime in the Dark of the Moon novel, a reference to Batman's famous Bat-Signal.
• In his presence through cartoons and video games, Batman has been voiced by a handful of Transformers voice actors, which included the likes of Michael Ironside, Ron Perlman, Diedrich Bader, Kevin Michael Richardson, Patrick Seitz, Michael Dobson, Troy Baker, Roger Craig Smith, Daran Norris, Kirk Thornton, Lex Lang, Frank Welker, Corey Burton, Steve Blum, JW Stafford, Christopher Escalante and through an honorable mention live-action wise at one point, Dick Gautier.

References

External links

• Batman at Wikipedia
• Batman at Batman Wiki
• Batman at DC Comic Database
• Batman at Comic Vine