On Wednesday, Batman co-creator Bob Kane was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder was on hand to honor the late comic-book artist with a speech that touched on Kane’s influence on the Batman he envisioned for his upcoming superhero flick. He shared a moving story about how seeing Ben Affleck wear the Batsuit for the first time called to mind Kane’s legacy:
“We had built a set of an alley, graffiti, barrels with fire, steamy stuff, and it was this very kind of noir-ish setting to film our Batman for the first time. Ben put the suit on and we put him in front of the camera and I was just having him turn and look around, looking Batman-ish. And it was amazing because I felt in that moment that I had achieved this goal that I had set out for myself. When I looked at Ben, he was this perfect personification of the Batman that I had in my mind. But the truth is, he wasn’t really the Batman I had imagined. Because Bob really had put him there in my mind, through years of TV shows, comic books, movies.
I realized that we all — every single one of us — has a Batman, an imaginary Batman, in our minds, lurking in the shadows. In a lot of ways, that’s Bob’s legacy. Seventy-five years of Batman, he’s given this gift to all of us that endures. Because Batman — unlike Superman, or Wonder Woman, or Flash — is a guy without powers. He’s a man. He’s all of us. I think that’s it. We all carry around a hero inside of ourselves every day. It’s that guy. It’s Batman. I thank Bob for that. We all owe him a debt of gratitude. In that hero that we carry around, we realize that the hero is us, because he’s just the man. In truth, we’re all the Batman.â€
Following the ceremony, Snyder spoke with Comic Book Resources about how his Batman differs from previous iterations. “I really wanted to do sort of a fabric-based Batman; not what’s become the more normal, armored Batman. That’s how we evolved it,†he explained of the new suit. “I definitely wanted an older Batman. I wanted a war-weary Batman. That’s why, in a lot of ways, Ben was really perfect for me — we kind of aged him a little bit.â€
In addition to Kane’s archetype, he also shared how Frank Miller’s work inspired his take on the caped crusader: “I was talking to Frank about it: Dark Knight Returns was such a big influence on me that I wanted to to honor him through imagery in the movie. You could still make Dark Knight Returns into a movie, if you want. That’s what I’m saying, as far as how much we used and how much we didn’t use. The visual elements, there are some that I homage, but I don’t think the movie [is an adaptation].â€
You can watch Snyder’s speech from the WOF below, beginning at 20:40.