Ranking the seven best Batman actors

Sorry, live-action Bats — you may have a fancy costume, but Kevin Conroy is Batman. Okay, so he’s got the benefit of standing behind a microphone instead of jumping around on a set, but then again, his whole performance must be reflected in his voice. Conroy holds the honor of acting as Batman longer than anyone else, getting his start in the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series. He should also be familiar to anyone who’s tackled the outstanding Rocksteady-developed Arkham games, including this year’s masterful Batman: Arkham Knight. In all his performances, his voice reveals the depth of emotion in the character better than anyone before or since; he actually came up with the idea to voice Wayne and Batman differently.

Just how iconic is this Bat-voice? While participating in relief efforts for the September 11 terrorist attacks, Conroy called out “I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batman!” from his position in the kitchen, eliciting wild cheers and applause from the emergency service personnel.

Yeah. He’s Batman, all right.

When Michael Keaton takes number three on a Batman list, it’s a good sign: it means the two above him are guaranteed to be phenomenal. His take on the Bat is a career-defining, beloved one, appearing in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Only Keaton can make the role all his own with just two words — “I’m Batman” — and you have to admire the guy for swiveling his entire torso around every time he needed to look at something (that particular Batsuit wasn’t too flexible in the neck area). His take on Bruce Wayne was also refreshing, putting aside the usual playboy antics in favor of a quieter and more sensitive man.

Let’s get this out of the way: yes, Christian Bale’s Batman voice is kind of silly. All right, now that we’ve established that, let’s talk about his performance — which is uniformly excellent. Where previous interpretations of the character more or less assumed his virtue as a superhero, Nolan’s trilogy explored the moral ambiguity of the Batman legend. This required Bale to dig deeper into his character than many of the actors before him, and he does that with aplomb. Here we get a Dark Knight that is less sure of himself, that makes clear mistakes, that faces numerous consequences for his actions and emotes all that from behind a mask. This Batman reflects the sort of emotions that a guy dressed up as a bat to fight crime might realistically feel. Hey, it could happen.

All right, all right, this one’s not conventional, but hey — it’s low on the list, and it easily beats out the goofy antics of Kilmer and Clooney. Arnett’s version of Batman is one of the funniest things from 2014’s unexpected hit comedy The Lego Movie, and that’s saying something. Sending up the usually dark and brooding character with self-awareness was a bit of a risk, but it pays off magnificently here. A highlight: the song “Untitled Self-Portrait,” which contains such touching lyrics as “DARKNESS! NO PARENTS!”

“Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!” Many people mistake West as the first actor ever to portray Batman, and while that’s not true (that honor goes to Lewis G. Wilson in a 1943 serial), it’s due in no small part to West’s memorability as the title character in the 1960s TV series. Sure, that role called for a bit more campiness than later castings, but kids of the day didn’t care — they tuned in every morning to see how West’s crime-fighting crusader would get out of his latest sticky situation. He was funny and charming in the role, balancing the light tone of the series with just the right amount of heroism to be cool.

When Warner Bros. announced Ben Affleck as the next actor to take on the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman back in 2013, there was quite a mixed response. Some recalled the disastrous Daredevil as Affleck’s latest foray into superhero territory. Others remained optimistic in the wake of his recent actor/director outings, especially Argo and its Best Picture nod.

Of course, only time will tell whether Affleck’s version of the Caped Crusader does the beloved character justice. With rumors confirmed, he’ll be around for a while whether we like it or not. At any rate, we’ve got a grueling wait: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice won’t give us our first full look at the “Batfleck” until March of next year. In the meantime, it’s worth examining what separates the good Bats from the bad — and thankfully, there’s already plenty of evidence on both sides.

Kilmer’s time on the Batman Forever set was mostly spent being an asshole to everyone, with director Joel Schumacher and the crew complaining of his “childish and impossible” behavior. It’s too bad none of that energy carried over to his performance, which seems to be on auto-pilot. He’s probably the most lifeless and forgettable Batman to date, although that has to be at least partially due to the film’s over-emphasis on its villains.

George Clooney’s performance will forever be marred by the fact that it was in Schumacher’s painfully bad 1997 flop Batman & Robin. To be honest, there’s probably not much Clooney could have done to lend any gravitas to the role with Akiva Goldsman’s cringe-inducing script. After all, this is a movie where he’s forced to say “It’s the car, right? Chicks love the car.” Oh yeah, and how about those Bat-nipples?