Superstar comic book artist and DC publisher Jim Lee took to social media today to share a sketch of Batman. That happens all the time, of course, but this time is a tiny bit different: the costume he drew is the look that Robert Pattinson is rocking in Matt Reeves‘ The Batman. Matt Reeves’ version of the Dark Knight Detective feels like it pays a bit of homage to the 2013/2014 DC Comics publishing event Batman: Zero Year from writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. That story, which explored Bruce Wayne’s earliest days in the Batman costume, used a kind of “proto-Batman” design that the character wore during the storyline.
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Lee, who has a best-selling Batman run under his belt, has not drawn the comic regularly since the start of The New 52 in 2011, when the publishing line relaunched and a series of high profile creative teams took over the book, staying for long periods of time on the title. He has, however, drawn a handful of pieces that depict DC heroes in the costumes worn in the interconnected films like Aquaman and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, including for steelbook Blu-ray cases.
You can see the image below. It includes the cowl as seen in set photos and official footage, a logo that looks different from what we’ve seen before in the comics, TV, and film, and Dredd 3D-style shoulderpads.
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Pattinson will be playing a version of Batman who is in his second year as a masked vigilante in The Batman, according to various sources. The movie is expected to dial into the noir detective angle that first defined Batman’s comics, rather than the colorful and fantastical superhero stories that he has since been inserted into.
Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman also stars Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth; Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle; Colin Farrell as The Penguin; Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon; Paul Dano as The Riddler; and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone.
The Batman is set to premiere in theaters on June 25, 2021. With no planned Justice League follow ups in the near future, it seems likely that DC’s shared film universe will be going without a Batman for a while, leaving Pattinson to redefine the role before we get either him or someone else stepping back onscreen with Superman and Wonder Woman down the line.
