ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, Bob Kane enjoyed renewed fame as Batman aired on ABC and the character he claimed to have created on his own became a household name. Kane would frequent a children’s show called Wonderama , drawing impressive sketches of Batman for the young audience. To many fans, Batman represents the perfect man. When designing the Caped Crusader, Kane first produced a blatant copy of Superman, the world’s newest and most popular superhero. This sketch was too obvious an imitation and so, with Finger’s intervention, Batman became darker, a figure of the night rather than the bright and outspoken character in whom Americans first found inspiration. In doing so, however, Batman retained some of that character’s spirit. In the late 1930s, Kane traced a drawing of Flash Gordon swinging on a rope, eventually giving the character a dark mask and cape.
