(CNN) When Tim Burton's "Batman" debuted in theaters 30 years ago in 1989, it didn't just kick off a major, still-flourishing movie franchise and the current era of superhero-led blockbusters. The film also had a profound impact on Batman himself, and the way comic book creators would depict the character over the next three decades.

"It catapulted Batman to the top of everyone's favorite superhero franchises, and he's been there ever since," remembers Jim Lee, who was a 25-year-old emerging comic book artist when the film bowed and would to go on to become one of the definitive Batman artists and the co-publisher of the Dark Knight's print home base, DC Comics.

"The movie was instrumental in really bringing to the wider masses the concept of Batman," says Lee. "He'd always been a favorite among comic book readers, and people remembered very fondly the TV show. But what Tim Burton did was really take it to a different level, made it more serious and baroque and romantic and creepy -- so many elements he added to it."

Cover illustration for 'World's Finest Comics,' with Superman, Batman and Robin selling US War Bonds to sink the 'Japanazis' in World War II, 1940s.

Launched in 1939 in the superheroic spirit of Superman, DC's smash success from the previous year, but with a healthy dose of noir, Batman had over time veered away from the pulpier, broodier roots laid out by creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger -- even the briefly uber-popular "Batman" TV series of the late '60s starring Adam West, with its winking, campy take on the character, was only a few post-modern degrees away from the comics of the day.

The show made a ubiquitous pop icon of Batman, but by the early '70s, in response the series' fast slide from glory, creators like influential disruptor duo of writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams had returned Bruce Wayne to a more moody, urban aesthetic that satisfied maturing readers, if not always sparking huge sales spikes. But '80s-era creators like Frank Miller, David Mazzuchelli, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison infused even more psychological complexity into the character, setting the stage for Burton's "Batman," which would forever shift mainstream perception of the character and leave its mark on the comics as well.

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