Batman 1989's Original Comic Book Adaptation Brought Deleted Scenes To Light

Where would superhero movies be without Tim Burton's "Batman?" Well, for one thing, we wouldn't have the memory of witnessing Michael Keaton's Batman being shoehorned into the superheroic bomb that was 2022's "The Flash." More seriously, Burton's 1989 mega-hit not only directly influenced the trajectory of superhero movie evolution, it changed the way studios marketed their blockbusters and re-established Batman in the public consciousness as the dark avenger first introduced in 1939's "Detective Comics" #27.

The fact the movie exists in the first place is nothing short of miraculous. "Batman" was a major risk in 1989. Aside from the fact the Christopher Reeve-led "Superman" films had gone out with a whimper in 1987 with "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace," the Dark Knight just wasn't a reliable blockbuster IP at that stage. Still very much seen by the public as the clownish figure from Adam West's 1960s TV series, Batman was by no means a guaranteed box office success for Warner Bros., which was only made worse by the fact the relatively inexperienced Burton was directing. Having only made "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and "Beetlejuice" by the time he was put in charge of Warners' $35 million comic book movie (a significant budget for the time), Burton and his idiosyncratic style added to the overall risk factor — even while Warners were confident they had the right man. Then, there was Keaton himself, whose casting caused such a backlash that Burton had to fight for his star. 

With all that in mind, it's kind of wild to think that "Batman" ended up making $412 million worldwide and became nothing short of a cultural phenomenon in the summer of '89. Fans simply couldn't get enough of Burton's darkly alluring Gotham, and 36 years later, that remains the case. "Batman" is still hugely popular among nostalgic fans, which is why it was exciting for us super-fans to discover that the comic book adaptation of the movie actually includes several scenes that never made it into the original film.

If, like me, you were just a kid when "Batman" and its 1992 sequel "Batman Returns" came out, even if you grew up with Michael Keaton as your Batman, it might have taken a while to discover that there was a comic book adaptation that came out at the time, and that it contained deleted and alternate scenes from the movie. Written by the late Dennis O'Neil, legendary Group Editor for the Batman family of comic books, and illustrated by Jerry Ordway and Steve Oliff, the "Batman" comic book adaptation was a pretty faithful retelling of the events in the movie, and did a decent job of sticking to the style established by Burton and his production designer Anton Furst, who took a similar approach to designing "Batman" as he did "Full Metal Jacket."

Interestingly enough, the comic version also omitted certain elements of the film, condensing certain scenes and basing other panels on alternate takes from the movie's production. A scene where Batman escapes the police at Axis Chemicals, for example, is based on an alternate take than the one in the final film, in which stunt double Sean McCabe pretended to surrender to Pat Hingle's Commissioner Gordon and his officers, only to flick two gas pellets and ascend to the roof. Another change of this sort comes with Jack Napier's transformation, which forms the basis of one of the most memorable scenes in Batman, wherein Jack Nicholson's Joker reveals himself to crime boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). In the adaptation, however, we see Napier's new look immediately after the surgeon does his best to fix the toxic chemical-induced disfigurement.

Elsewhere, though, O'Neill's version of "Batman" included scenes that were originally included in writer Sam Hamm's script, but which never found their way into the final film. In the movie, for example, Nicholson's Joker rains money on the Gotham hordes, who clamor for handfuls of the bills. In the script, however, they quickly realized that the one dollar bills feature Joker's face rather than George Washington's. Hamm included a brief scene in which a crowd member catches a bill only for the dye to rub off and reveal the Clown Prince of Crime beneath, which was then included in the comic adaptation, alongside many other scenes that never made the final cut in "Batman."

While "Batman" made Tim Burton a box office hero and remains unimpeachably great today, it isn't without its quirks and questionable moments. Take the moment where Joker removes a comically-long revolver out of his pants and takes down Batman's impressive Batwing airplane (one of many references to the Michael Keaton movies included in "The Flash") with one shot. It's not exactly the most believable moment in the movie (though, Tim Burton's Bat-verse wasn't necessarily going for realism). Fans have long since discussed Joker's surprisingly easy takedown of the Batwing, and there's even a whole "s****ymoviedetails" Reddit thread on the subject. But in the "Batman" comic book adaptation, we actually get more of an explanation as to how the villain managed to bring down Batman's aircraft.

In the original "Batman" script, Sam Hamm wrote a line that indicated Joker's gun released "a tongue of flame" when it went off, but otherwise there's no other details included. In the comic book, however, not only does Jerry Ordway depict the revolver as having a wider barrel, Dennis O'Neil has Batman tell Alfred over their comm link that Joker must have used an explosive round.

Other additional scenes include Alexander Knox, played by Robert Wohl in the movie, being discovered in Batman's cape and cowl after the final showdown between the Dark Knight and Joker. In the script, Vicki Vale, Commissioner Gordon, and a crowd find the Gotham Globe reporter under a cape thinking it's Batman, only to find Knox who Bruce Wayne has used as a decoy in order to escape attention. This resulted in a subsequent scene wherein Gordon assures a crowd that "Alexander Knox is NOT Batman." In the adaptation, we see these moments, which never made it into the film, included, and while none of the additional scenes in the adaptation are hugely consequential, when it comes to a movie as iconic as Burton's "Batman," any additional details, tidbits, and trivia us fans can get are a big deal. As such, the "Batman" comic book is a really neat piece of ephemera to own.