What is the greatest Batman moment ever?

Batman is celebrating a big milestone this week--his 75th birthday.

The anniversary, officially March 30th, is a huge opportunity for DC Comics to commemorate the legacy of their iconic hero.

I could pose the topic question to the folks over at Comic Vine, since they'd be sort of the experts for this sort of thing, but Batman's appeal and impact has been so broad across so many forms of media. I wanted a perspective that was just as wide in scope.

I want to know, from you, Giant Bomb, what is Batman's greatest moment. It can be from comic panel or film reel, from television show or video game. What's the Batman moment that rings truest with you?

My choices are both from Batman films.

The first--in Batman '89--has Batman, piloting the always-cool Batwing in silhouette against the light of the full Gotham moon before nosediving toward a probably-suicidal confrontation with The Joker.

The second is the concluding scene of Batman Begins, where Batman, fresh off of seeing the charred remains of Wayne Manor left behind after Ra's Al Ghul's climactic Gotham-wide assault, speaks with Jim Gordon on the GCPD rooftop. This scene exemplifies the selfless, sacrificial nature of the Bat, not only by juxtaposing the incredible personal damage Bruce sustained just hours before, but perhaps more powerfully through the dialogue between Jim and Batman himself:

JIM: I never said 'Thank you.'

BATMAN: And you'll never have to.

---

What about you guys?

@pie: Think I'd originally seen this as a YTMND creation. Have never looked back.

When he flips the semi in the Dark Knight, still get goose bumps watching that scene, completely and utterly badass.

From the films, this scene. This scene.

Probably this.

The Return Of The Joker is the greatest Batman film ever because of this scene. Love it.

The second fight with the mutant leader in The Dark Knight Returns. I am not a huge Frank Miller fan, but this specific moment was pitch perfect for the story and just as a Batman moment. It was really cool seeing this on the Animated Series too.

Always thought the idea of Bruce Wayne passing the baton to Dick Grayson in the comics or Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond was the greatest moment. Batman was who Bruce Wayne was and him passing it along was basically him passing on his legacy. Though in retrospect DC would never allow this and eventually either reverted it or called it an alternative timeline.

Something from the Animated Series, I dunno what though.

@jjbsterling said:

Probably this.

Bitch, did Batman just quote Popsicle Pete?

@jjbsterling said:

Probably this.

What is this from?

Atmospherically, this is like quintessential Batman.

From the movies:

Crooked cop: 'I don't know! I swear to God'!
Batman: 'Swear to ME'!

@historyinrust said:

@jjbsterling said:

Probably this.

What is this from?

Atmospherically, this is like quintessential Batman.

Is it Year 1? It looks like the art for Year 1, but I could be wrong.

Yeah it's Year One...

My favorite one would be his whole rebirth saga written by Grant Morrison.

@jadegl said:

@historyinrust said:

@jjbsterling said:

Probably this.

What is this from?

Atmospherically, this is like quintessential Batman.

Is it Year 1? It looks like the art for Year 1, but I could be wrong.

Yup, it's from Batman: Year One.

The moment is brought up again in Kevin Smith's Batman: The Widening Gyre #6 in possibly one of Batman's worst moments.

The death of the Joker in The Dark Knight Returns

For context, an older Batman has come out of retirement, which causes the thought-cured Joker's psychosis to re-emerge. After the Joker slaughters a horrifying amount of people, Batman resolves that he has to finally kill him. It has to end. When has the Joker cornered, he breaks his neck, paralyzing, but not killing the Joker. He still cannot make himself become a murderer. This is how the Joker responds.

Not counting the Scarecrow sequence in Arkham Asylum the Semi action sequence in the Dark Knight; though the hospital discussion is up there and the entirety of Batman and Robin is a cinematic masterpiece.

Every page of "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth". Art, all of it.
As for one single scene... the final joke in "The Killing Joke". It's just so perfect.

@librarydues said:

The death of the Joker in The Dark Knight Returns

For context, an older Batman has come out of retirement, which causes the thought-cured Joker's psychosis to re-emerge. After the Joker slaughters a horrifying amount of people, Batman resolves that he has to finally kill him. It has to end. When has the Joker cornered, he breaks his neck, paralyzing, but not killing the Joker. He still cannot make himself become a murderer. This is how the Joker responds.

The Joker breaks his own neck here to incriminate Batman. Not the other way around. Just for clarity's sake. I think that's what you meant when you wrote this: "When has the Joker cornered, he breaks his neck, paralyzing, but not killing the Joker." The pronoun usage in your sentence makes it sounds like Bruce paralyzes him.

Really really love the animated movie of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns part 1 (part 2 wasn't as good imo). Also every time the Joker showed up in the animated TV series. Mark Hamill did such a good job.

@jjbsterling said:

@jadegl said:

@historyinrust said:

@jjbsterling said:

Probably this.

What is this from?

Atmospherically, this is like quintessential Batman.

Is it Year 1? It looks like the art for Year 1, but I could be wrong.

Yup, it's from Batman: Year One.

The moment is brought up again in Kevin Smith's Batman: The Widening Gyre #6 in possibly one of Batman's worst moments.

Yikes.

I'm all for deconstruction. But, wow.

I really love Joker's crippling and humiliating Batgirl in Killing Joke. That was just such a crazy and unforgettable moment.

I also love any scene involving either Joker and Batman "bonding" (for lack of a better term), or whenever a character calls Batman out on his bullshit and points out that he's doing just as much harm as any of his enemies. Both are low-hanging fruit at this point, but when done well, it's fantastic. I've always thought that the most interesting angle of Batman was that his methods are indirectly responsible for most of the crime in Gotham.

Also: "Never rub another man's rhubarb."

Beetlejuice trying to out-crazy The Joker. Love it.

@jjbsterling said:

@jadegl said:

@historyinrust said:

@jjbsterling said:

Probably this.

What is this from?

Atmospherically, this is like quintessential Batman.

Is it Year 1? It looks like the art for Year 1, but I could be wrong.

Yup, it's from Batman: Year One.

The moment is brought up again in Kevin Smith's Batman: The Widening Gyre #6 in possibly one of Batman's worst moments.

Was the comic of Year One good? I watched the movie version a while back and I just found it completely boring and just not very good. Then I watched the Dark Knight Returns Part 1 & 2 right after and loved those so I don't know if I was so disappointed in Year One that it made those better or what.

@monkeyman04: My main problem with both parts: Peter Weller does not have the right voice for that version of Batman. You know who does?

Michael Fuckin' Ironside!

@thebluthcompany: Man! If Ironside was the voice in those movies they would have been 100x better. Now i'm disappointed that he's not. U_U

From JLU season 2 finale.

The entirety of The Long Halloween.

By far the best Batman comic.

Anyone who liked The Dark Knight and haven't read The Long Halloween own to themselves to give it a read.

@nightriff: Year One is fantastic and is pretty universially considered one of the greatest Batman books. Haven't seen the movie.

I'd say the fight between Superman and Batman in The Dark Knight Returns is up there. The last scene in The Killing Joke too. Batman just has a cast of characters that's so superior to any other comics universe, no one can touch The Joker as a villain.

@amyggen: So the book (comic?) was good. Did you see the movie version?

I've always wanted to read some of these tales like the Killing Joke, I know my brother has read them and really enjoyed them but I've never actually read a comic/book/graphic novel except the Watchmen.

Fantastic.

I'm kinda partial to this moment...

Mainly because it is a badass moment, and it is from this that Batman The Return of Bruce Wayne stems, and that six issue arc was fucking awesome.

@nightriff: Yeah, the graphic novel is really good. Haven't seen the movie.

I'd recommend even a casual comics fan to read some of the classic graphic novels like The Dark Knight Returns etc. I'm not much of a Comics fan these days, but go back to some of those graphic novels from time to time and it's still a good time.

My all time favourite graphic novel will always be The Sandman though. Just a masterpiece and by far the best work Neil Gaiman has ever done.

The under appreciated Brave and the Bold series and Mad Magazine deserve a mention.

Also, Zack Snyder and Greg Capullo are doing great work in the current Batman run.

pretty sure the best Batman moment is actually not a Batman moment at all and is Bane fucking shit UP in the Dark Knight Rises

@nightriff: That's the one I thought of.

What I really like about characters like batman is that you can have things like batman from the Adam West tv show, the nolan movies, TDKR or Kingdom Come and they are all great in their own way. for non comic stuff i really like the fight with owlman who is basically antibatman at the end of crisis on two earths.

and of course...

@nightriff: I read the comic and liked it, but like you I thought the movie was really boring. I think they were a little too faithful in the adaptation maybe. It's like exactly the same, and even though I prefer movies as a medium to comic books, it really lost something in the translation. The pace was all messed up.

Kingdom Come Batman. Even when he's old and barely held up via an exoskeleton, he's still the world's greatest detective.

@thebluthcompany said:

While I don't necessarily agree that this is the epitome of what Batman is about, holy fuck was this ever the most amazing thing ever in a comic book when it came out!