Debate Over Michael Keaton’s Batman, Circa 1989 [Image]

Today’s squabbling over superhero movies is nothing new. Back before they had the Internet, the squabbling took place in the letter pages of sci-fi magazines. Proof is presented here today, from Comics Scene Magazine #6 in 1989, shortly before the release of Batman. Some choice excerpts:

“Putting Michael Keaton in this role will be a deadly mistake, I fear; he doesn’t have the physical height or build for the part, his face is simply too round and boyish-looking to be accepted as the face of the cowled Batman, a being meant to inspire fear in criminals, not laughter. I feel that Nicholson…is too short and paunchy to play the part believably for all the Batman fans to accept.” – Dennis Lininger

“Now I wish to make it clear that I have respect for the original Batman fans of the comic book days. However, I think I speak for many when I say that the most remembered Batman is from the classic 1960’s TV show with Adam West and Burt Ward. This is the Batman we all know and love so much. We do not need a serious, melodramatic, or violent Batman film to help ruin the legend.” – Michael Schilling

“I have a problem about the choice of Jack Nicholson as The Joker. Undoubtedly, Nicholson is an excellent actor and interpreter extraordinaire of diabolical roles, but isn’t he perhaps a bit old for the Sam Hamm image of the Joker, which is a fairly young man with a chalk-white complexion and commanding presence? Like Sam Hamm, I would also have preferred Ray Liotta or even a William Dafoe before Nicholson…” – Juhani Nurmi

You can read the full pages below…

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Any interesting points that you saw in the letters pages? What superhero movies on their way are you concerned about?

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