After The Batman, a ranking of every live-action Bruce Wayne: Who’s the best among Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson?

But Batman on screen has not always been grimdark. Dating back to the early days of superhero comics, Batman has evolved radically and different iterations have channelled the zeitgeist of their respective eras. It seems like there’s a Batman for every generation, although this year, we will get to see three live-action versions of the Dark Knight — apart from Battinson, Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck will reprise their roles in The Flash.

Who is the best live-action Batman so far? Here is a ranking.

5. Val Kilmer and George Clooney

I clubbed these two together because while Clooney’s Batman & Robin is easily the worst Batman movie ever, their respective performances were equally terrible. Warner Bros, the studio behind all DC properties, was convinced that Tim Burton’s Batman films were too dour and the character needed to be more fun (and appealing to children in want of toys). The result was successive disasters.

4. Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck was cast as a grizzled, Frank Miller-inspired Batman in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He served as the leader of the developing Justice League in the film. Even though the movie divided critics, Affleck’s take on the character was praised almost universally. However, some viewers took exception to his trigger-happy ways. Batman in the comics, and everywhere else, usually abstains from killing people. Batfleck had no such misgivings. Affleck reprised the role in Justice League and its subsequent director’s cut, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and will be seen in The Flash for the final time.

3. Adam West

The first feature film (as opposed to the serial films of the 1940s) based on the superhero brought back Adam West, the star of ABC’s 1960s’ TV show. The current onscreen image of Batman is of a broody, dark vigilante, but West essayed the superhero like a joker and dressed like one — no, not the supervillain, an actual circus joker. Aimed at much younger audiences, the film, like the show, was and remains funny and colourful. West’s Batman was not afraid to laugh, crack jokes and make puns. He fought criminals (who were similarly campy) with his ward/sidekick Robin.

To a modern Batman fan, this series would seem like a parody, and in a way, it was. The suit was ill-fitting, and Adam West would not be anybody’s idea of a ripped Caped Crusader. But who cares about such matters when you had lines like these deadpanned by the great West? (watch video embedded above)

3. Michael Keaton

The next major evolution for the character came in Tim Burton’s movies. Batman and its follow-up, Batman Returns, were made in the wake of Frank Miller’s landmark graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns (illustrated by Miller, and Klaus Janson, and coloured by Lynn Varley), and it showed. This was a much darker Batman and a far cry from the Adam West days. Michael Keaton’s casting surprised many, but thanks to him and Burton, the portrayal has aged exceedingly well. All you fans of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy have Burton to thank.

While Batman was always a dark, complex character with more depth than your typical comic-book superhero, it was this seminal story that helped the character transform into what we currently think of him – dark, brooding, tactically brilliant, and when needed, utterly ruthless. While Keaton’s Batman did not have an old, jaded Batman like in Miller’s story, it was deeply influenced by it.

2. Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson plays the grimmest and darkest live-action version of the superhero yet. It appears that the trend of making the character increasingly darker, which began with Keaton’s Batman, has reached its logical culmination in Pattinson’s take. The actor, who has some experience in portraying driven, complex characters, has given it his all. This may be the best paper-to-screen Bats we have seen. But it loses out on being number one because his Bruce Wayne is virtually indistinguishable from his Batman. This is admittedly not Pattinson’s fault, as screenwriters Matt Reeves (also director) and Peter Craig wrote the character that way, but still, one of the unique aspects of the superhero is his duality, and the portrayal thus felt lacking.

1. Christian Bale

A certain young filmmaker named Christopher Nolan, then known for his low-budget indie film Memento, pitched his grounded take on Batman in 2003, and Batman Begins was scheduled for release in 2005. Starring Christian Bale in the titular role, the film functioned as an origin story, something that was not done in films before. The fans saw how the man we call Batman came to be. With an unusually strong supporting cast for a superhero movie, Batman Begins was commercial comic-book filmmaking wedded with indie auteur sensibilities.

The follow-up, The Dark Knight, was an even bigger success and is regularly deemed the best and most influential superhero movie ever made, although it was more of a Joker movie than a Batman one. The Dark Knight Rises had the Batman facing his deadliest enemy, Bane, played by Tom Hardy.

Bale’s Batman is the best live-action Batman so far. It has left such an indelible impact on popular imagination that when most people think of the character, it is the image of Bale’s Batman that emerges in their minds.