Who's Batman is best?

Last week (and replayed this morning) on The Kevin & Bean Show, the morning show on KROQ 106.7 FM here in Los Angeles, they ran another installment of “The Decider,” a regular feature in which Kevin Smith of Silent Bob fame, calls in to provide the final voice in a random on-air dispute between Kevin & Bean Show family members.

In this particular episode, Ralph and Mike were debating which actor played the best Batman. Ralph, who has a serious man-crush on Adam West, was of course supporting West. Mike, on the other hand, who has an equally serious man-crush on Christian Bale, was squarely in Bale’s corner. Now, I won’t repeat or analyze each side’s arguments, as it is far easier to just listen to the segment on the Kevin & Bean “sounds” page at KROQ’s website (click on Kevin & Bean, then “Sounds”). Instead, I’ll just move on to the Decider himself.

Kevin Smith threw a curve ball by declaring Michael Keaton the best Batman. Michael Keaton? WTF?? For supporting evidence, Smith stated, among other things, that Keaton is the only actor to portray Batman as being uncomfortable in the Bruce Wayne persona, just biding his time until he can put on the batsuit. While I agree that Batman never wants to wear the Bruce Wayne beard for very long, I would not say he’s uncomfortable playing that part.

In fact, I think it is more of an annoyance to him than anything. I mean, this is the goddam Batman we’re talking about here. He’s not uncomfortable with anything. Like most day jobs, it’s just a means to the end. I find my job annoying at times. I’d much rather be out hiking or bustin’ caps or sitting on my ass while picking up chicks on the internet. But that doesn’t mean I’m uncomfortable with my job, and I’ve never gotten that impression from any of the comics I’ve read.

However, I will give props to Kevin Smith for making a point to mention Kevin Conroy as consistently giving the best Batman performance, even though animation was not being included in the discussion.

For the record, if animation is included, here are my picks:

Kevin Conroy
Christian Bale
Val Kilmer
Adam West
Michael Keaton
Rino Romano (The Batman)
George Clooney