During a recent promotional tour for ‘Batman: The Killing Joke,’ Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy sat down with IGN to discuss the character and his thoughts on recent incarnations of Bruce Wayne. And when the man who played Batman in ‘Batman: The Animated Series,’ the ‘Arkham’ video games, and ‘The Killing Joke,’ wants to share his opinion on Batman, it is something that should be listened to, as few know the character as well as him. When speaking on the Batman role itself, and the various actors who have played Bruce Wayne over the years, Conroy had the following the say:
“I think it’s really interesting to see different actors in the role, to see what they bring to the character. Everyone brings something different. I liked Michael Keaton and I like what Ben Affleck is doing with it now. But they couldn’t be more different. It’s just the same with the Joker. When I started working with Mark Hammill I thought no one would ever nail the Joker better than Mark Hamill, and then I saw Heath Ledger, and he knocked it out of the park in just a different way.
There are so many valid ways of playing a role. It’s really fun to watch different actors do it. So I thought it was a really interesting choice that WB made to have different actors do the live-action character.”
However, he (like many fans) did take issue with Batman crossing the “no killing” line in ‘Batman V Superman:’
“In the most recent live action movie, that seems to have been a line that was crossed and it’s not one I’m particularly comfortable with.”
I 100% agree with Conroy on this one, and thought that was one of the biggest issues in ‘Batman V Superman’ for me, as the “no killing” rule has become ingrained into our understanding of Batman, and makes him so much more of a noble hero than one who just kills anyone who gets in his way. Are Conroy and I alone here? Share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below!
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
