“They did that really lame one right?”: Batman: The Animated Series Creator Was Pissed at 1 Marvel Villain After Being Disallowed to Turn Batman Into a Vampire
It’s been over 30 years since the legendary Batman: The Animated Series premiered. Created by Bruce Timm, the show revolutionized the way fans saw the iconic character and his life. Away from the dull portrayal of brooding Batman, Timm wanted a fresh perspective on the hero and to try out a different creative trajectory. Timm was able to get his way and exercise creative freedom most of the time, but there were instances where he had to let go of an idea he held dear.
Bruce Timm’s Unique Idea For a Batman Episode
The fresh approach by showrunner Bruce Timm paved the way for future portrayals of Batman. Timm never envisioned his version to gain such massive fandom and create history for the character. The series creator has no qualms about the way Batman: The Animated Series progressed and ultimately made its place in fans’ hearts. However, there is one idea he always had his mind on. In a conversation with ScienceFiction.com, he expressed,
“The only thing that I can think of really, and it’s not a big thing, definitely not something I lose sleep over, but I had an idea to do an episode where Batman got turned into a vampire temporarily. There’s a character in the comics called Nocturna! And it didn’t get much past the idea phase, we floated it past Fox Kids and they said “Nope! No Vampires!” and I said ‘well what if he wasn’t really a Vampire?” and they said “No Vampires!””
Timm’s inspiration for the Caped Crusader came from various directions, whether it was to make him into a vampire or try out different gruesome villains. Old Fleischer’s Superman cartoons also inspired him to a larger extent. One other aspect Timm was toying with at the time was setting the entire series back in 1939. As he worked on the idea further, he saw it was not viable and eventually let it go.
Why Did Fox Disagree on Making Batman a Vampire?
Fans have argued over time that the show featured menacing villains including Clayface, a werewolf, and even Scarecrow. So, what was so terrifying about a Batman vampire that Fox did not let Timm work on it? Drinking blood is intrinsic to being a vampire and Fox believed it was too much to feature that in a kid’s show. It would cross a line. However, Timm expressed his annoyance over Spider-Man getting to feature Morbius, who is a vampire.
“Yeeeeah, but they did that really lame one right? He had like suction cups on his hands? So that was fine. Like if I wasn’t going to do it properly, I wasn’t going to do it. That’s probably the only thing that I can really think of because everything else we kind of got to do what we wanted to do!”
Even with the changes Marvel made, the character seemed too extreme for a kid’s show. Timm certainly did not like this partiality, but at the end of the day, he was satisfied with what he made of the show. The showrunner prioritized authenticity over introducing characters just for the sake of it. Batman: The Animated Series has since been hailed as the best animated superhero show to date, all thanks to Timm’s creativity and knack for fresh perspectives.
