Site MapOur Favorite Batmobiles: The Official Bat-ficial Bat-listicle
Engines to power. Turbines to speed.
Most superheroes don’t need cars, they can fly or web-sling to wherever they need to be. But then there’s Batman. You see, Bruce Wayne didn’t touch a radioactive isotope or get hit by gamma rays while touching a radioactive isotope. He’s good old-fashioned flesh and bone just like the rest of us, so when he needs to be somewhere to punch a bad clown, or wrangle a Penguin, he gets there (usually) by car.
With that said, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite bat-cars driven by the caped crusader, but before we do, did you know that Batman didn’t always have a “Batmobile”?? That’s right. In the early days of caped crusading this guy got around in whatever he had on-hand. In the comics it was a kind of generic classic fat body car, usually red. But in the Batman And Robin (1949) movie Batman travelled in glorious comfort in a Ford Mercury!
He is discreet Vengeance personified: Batman-on-film.com
The Batmobile that we know and love, tricked out with the latest gadgets and jet turbines for engines, didn’t come into being until the 1966 Batman TV series starring the legendary Adam West. It’s weird to think that the badass crime fighting car we always imagine was first used by the dancing psychedelic groove machine that was Adam West. But it’s true!
The crime groove machine with a very creepy Robin doll in it: Shutterstock
The Lincoln Futura was, and for many, still is the car one thinks of when thinking of the Batman. Its buttons and red flashing light turret actually worked. It’s one of the very first prop cars that had all their gadgets work, including the buttons and red flashing light turret. It was also technically a Ford. Batman loves a Ford! As do we, but we also question if a convertible is the best thing for a crime fighting machine. (It feels especially exposed to bullets and hurled penguin-droppings.)
The Tumbler on-set ready to tumble: Shutterstock
The most useful of all the Batmobiles, however, has to be the “Tumbler.” Hailing from the late aughts’ Christopher Nolan trilogy, we think this literal tank is the most versatile of the cars used by the dark knight.
It was originally a military prototype built by Wayne Enterprise. Unlike the other Batmobiles – excluding the one that was literally just a Ford coupe – this one doesn’t have a bat motif. It looks more like a triangle lost a fight with a Transformer.
But it has all the normal Batman gadgets like guns, and being able to turn into a motorcycle with guns when it’s broken. It’s also called the Tumbler because it literally tumbles. It’s the ultimate all-terrain vehicle.
The Keaton Batmobile just looking cool as all get out: Fullcirclecinema.com
Then of course we have to talk about what we call the Keaton Batmobile. That is to say the one from the 1989 Tim Burton film. This car isn’t as built for every-day functionality like The Tumbler, nor is it built for general grooviness like the Futura. This car really gave the first official Batmobile of the new age. It was a kind of a rebirth of the Batman mythos. It made Bruce Wayne something more than a rich guy who punches mobsters on his nights off. It made the crime fighter a man obsessed with the idea of being seen as the embodiment of vengeance and the night.
This car featured a working jet engine, which could propel the car to 200mph although it never did. It also had grappling hook for tight turns at high speeds, and of course no Batmobile would be complete without a set of machine guns. But the thing it had the most of was attitude.
Our favorite Batmobile however, has to be the Batfleck Batmobile. The car is driven by maybe the darkest version of the character brought to the screen as yet. Ben Affleck, despite not being in the most beloved Batman movies of all time, still holds the title as the most accurate to the Frank Miller comics Batman.
Fear the Batfleck: Shutterstock
To that end the car that he drove was simply put, a dark ogre of a vehicle. This Batman wasn’t as worried about what justice looked like as much as he was ALL about what justice felt like. And his justice felt like a sudden and disemboweling pain.
As usual this version featured a set of machine guns and other accoutrement. But mostly it was guns, and oh yeah some rockets, too.
Finally, we get to the new Batmobile to be featured in 2022’s The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. (Battinson). The vehicle looks like a lot more grounder type.
The newest Batmobile: hgmsites.net
It looks like this Bruce Wayne converted a Dodge Challenger to become the bro-y-ist Batmobile. In a way, this might be the most fitting for the party-boy that is Bruce Wayne and we’re looking forward to see what it can do.
So, what did we learn? Well, for one, for a guy who claims to not want to kill anyone Batman sure does pack a lot of heat. But, for another, Bruce Wayne is a car enthusiast through and through.
