A Brief History of Batman

In his 1989 autobiography, credited Batman creator Bob Kane detailed Bill Finger’s contributions to the character:

“One day I called Bill and said, ‘I have a new character called the Bat-Man and I’ve made some crude, elementary sketches I’d like you to look at.’ He came over and I showed him the drawings. At the time, I only had a small domino mask, like the one Robin later wore, on Batman’s face. Bill said, ‘Why not make him look more like a bat and put a hood on him, and take the eyeballs out and just put slits for eyes to make him look more mysterious?’ At this point, the Bat-Man wore a red union suit; the wings, trunks, and mask were black. I thought that red and black would be a good combination. Bill said that the costume was too bright: ‘Color it dark grey to make it look more ominous.’ The cape looked like two stiff bat wings attached to his arms. As Bill and I talked, we realized that these wings would get cumbersome when Bat-Man was in action and changed them into a cape, scalloped to look like bat wings when he was fighting or swinging down on a rope. Also, he didn’t have any gloves on, and we added them so that he wouldn’t leave fingerprints.”

What precipitated this explanation was a decades-long dispute over who truly created the iconic character, similar in tone to William M. Gaines’ and Al Feldstein’s battles over recognition for the creative side of EC Comics (“Tales from the Crypt” and “Vault of Horror,” among others), and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s long-standing feud over who really was responsible for Marvel and its characters.

Comic book artist Jerry Robinson, who worked with them both, resented Kane for not giving Finger his due credit. He compared the duo to Siegel and Shuster in terms of rightfully co-creating the characters, while Kane assumed all the glory, and the money.

Bill Finger died on January 18, 1974; Kane passed away November 3, 1998. Over the years, Kane added further explanation on the matter of Batman’s creation, expressing sadness and a tinge of regret upon Finger’s death in a 1989 interview:

“In those days it was like, one artist and he had his name over it. The policy of DC in the comic books was, if you can’t write it, obtain other writers, but their names would never appear on the comic book in the finished version. So Bill never asked me for it and I never volunteered — I guess my ego at that time. And I felt badly, really, when he died.”

Finger would eventually receive his due. Beginning with issue #3 of “Batman and Robin Eternal,” and issue #3 of “Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis,” both released in October of 2015, his new credit read: Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, wording that was approved by his family. In film, Finger’s credit first appeared in 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and in television, during the second season of “Gotham.”

That out of the way, the character’s history-making run, thanks to the efforts of both Kane and Finger, began with his first appearance in “Detective Comics” #27 in its May 1939 issue — before beginning in his own series that spring — and has continued unabated to this day.