40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's

Batman through the first four decades of his existence. It's amazing how much his look evolved over the years but still retaining that instantly recognizable Batman "look".

Technically his suit was still in the process of evolution at the beginning of the 1940's and had already made a huge jump towards the look he sported in the 1950's I thought the Batsuit from the "Through the Ages" boxed set was a good early example of what Batman looked like in January 1940 "Detective Comics #35: The Case of the Ruby Idol" in which Batman still retains much of his first appearance look and also didn't sport the three glove barbs that are a mainstay of his costume to this day. The biggest difference would still be the Bat-symbol on his chest which by 1940 had the little ears added to it.

Next up is a Reactivated Batman that is supposed to represent Batman in the 1970's from Earth 2 buuuut it's still a VERY Dick Sprang styled 1950's Batman and only the logo on his chest doesn't really match up with the time period, something a little kit bashing will fix once I get another 50's Batman figure.

Third Batman is most obviously the "New Look" Batman of the early 1960's sporting the first appearance of the yellow oval around his Bat-symbol and drawn by Carmine Infantino. This was done because DC couldn't trademark a plain black bat at the time and the added yellow oval around it changed that. It's been a mainstay of the suit since then all the way through the 90's and even reappearing to this day right on the new suit Bruce wore when he returned from the dead (apparently) and now even sports a glow behind the bat.

Lastly we have a VERY 1970's and even 80's styled Batman that uses the body of the JLA series 1 Batman. This figure was originally painted a very dark blue and gray with the leather pouch utility belt. This particular version was a repaint DC Direct did in a JLA boxed set with Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern all sporting 70's and 80's repaint colors. Thankfully they re-sculpted his utility belt to match the decades he is supposed to be from and now thanks to this I have the 70's Batman I always wanted DC Direct to make. It's amazing what a simple repaint can do to a sculpt because he really does look a lot like a Neal Adams/ Dick Giordano styled Batman. Awesome!