Robert Pattinson Looks Like The Most Emo Batman Ever, And We're Okay With That

We've gotten a few glimpses of Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves' upcoming "The Batman," but the full trailer is the first to show us what a lonely, dorky Batman we're going to get. Pattinson's Batman is more deliciously emo than Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3," with a shock of dark hair brushed to one side and the black greasepaint around his eyes looking like some seriously smeared eyeliner. 

Here's the thing: we're totally okay with it. Despite his long-standing place as a geeky power fantasy, he's actually always been kind of a lonely dork.

Batman is absolutely a geeky power fantasy, but that doesn't stop him from being a geek. The closest the character's ever come to suave was in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy, and even then he moped around his mansion by himself for the entire first half of "The Dark Knight Rises." Bruce Wayne has always been a highly emotional guy who shoves his feelings down, hides behind a mask, and lurks around the Batcave feeling sad about the death of his parents. That's part of what's so great about Batman: he's not just another happy-go-lucky superhero with a grin and a logo. He has pathos. He has demons. He has days where he just wants to sit in his room and listen to My Chemical Romance and that's, well, relatable.

While he may not have always had the exact emo look as Pattinson's Batman, most of the other movie Batmans (Batmen?) have been big dorks in their own right. Adam West's Bruce Wayne was always rushing away from swooning women to take care of things as Batman, leaving something to be desired in his social life. Michael Keaton's incarnation in Tim Burton's "Batman" films would sit in the dark and wait for the bat signal to show up in the sky. Yikes. Even "Batman Forever" has Val Kilmer acting like a total dork around his love interest, Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman). Even Ben Affleck's turbo-macho version in the Snyder films is a loner who loves his mom. 

Batman being a bit of a nerd isn't just relatable, it's also become a bit of a running gag in other parts of the DCEU. When Harley Quinn finally sees the bat cave in her animated HBO series, she comments that it must be where Batman comes to "f*ck the bats." He's a known loner, and seeing Pattinson embrace his sweet sadboi side has me even more excited to check out the new film.

"The Batman" arrives in theaters on March 4, 2022.