![]() ![]() He was five-foot-ten with a medium build and what comic-book writer Beau Smith described in that Journal story as a “receding hairline and a less-than-heroic chin.” A couple years earlier, Frank Miller had made Batman look like Clint Eastwood in his dazzling, dystopian graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. Part of the skepticism stemmed from Keaton’s physical suitability for the suit, or lack thereof - the ways that he did not fit the typical profile of an action hero, even in his youth. The Wall Street Journal even devoted its front page to the controversy. So vehement was this analog write-in crusade that major publications covered the backlash as breaking news, filling columns with incensed quotes from the everyday Bat aficionado. ![]() is said to have received some 50,000 letters complaining about Keaton’s casting. To make their disapproval heard, they had to put pen to paper. This was before the internet gave every enthusiast an easy way to log their disdain at the click of a button. When the news broke in 1988 that Keaton had nabbed the lead role in Burton’s expensive, buzzed-about adaptation, fans weren’t just perplexed. Judging from the general response to the casting, it might have easily provoked an annoyed retort: “No, you’re not!” Back then, “I’m Batman” wasn’t guaranteed to earn cheers. If you could go back in time, Barry Allen style, to the fall of 1988 - during the lead-up to Batman’s historic release - you’d see some starkly different reactions to the idea of Keaton, of all actors, under the mask of comicdom’s most beloved vigilante. That excitement must be vindicating, on some level, for the star. The roars of applause that greeted these scenes during coming attractions and advance screenings made it clear: Audiences have been dying to see Keaton back in black. ![]() from making him central to the marketing with the iconic Bat symbol looming large on the poster and the trailers dominated by glimpses of the actor in his old battle garb, ritualistically uttering dialogue from a bygone era of comic-book movies. Keaton’s caped crusader, brought out of retirement via the reliable sci-fi magic of time travel, plays a supporting role in The Flash. Thirty-one years after the star of Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns hung up the cape and cowl, he has donned them anew for another DC superhero spectacular. “I’m Batman,” Michael Keaton declares in that old dramatic whisper, and the crowd goes wild all over again. There was a time when Batman fans rejected Keaton’s wiry energy, thinning hair, and modest stature, making his return in The Flash a kind of vindication. ![]()
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