How Michael Keaton’s Batman Went From Flop to Phenomenon

It’s 1988, and the new Batman has just been announced. There’s no internet, because it’s 1988, so I’m hearing this news on the corner of 12th Street and Broadway at Manhattan’s comic-book mecca of the time, Forbidden Planet. But the thing is, people are pissed. Michael Keaton? Mr. Mom?! How could this guy be Batman?! But it wasn’t just the fans. The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story in November of that year questioning the casting of Keaton as Batman. That in turn spurred on even more media speculation about the choices being made on this multi-million dollar movie. And then there were the petitions and the letter-writing campaigns where fans are said to have pleaded with Warner Bros. to get rid of Keaton and change the course of the DC film – some reports say there were 50,0 ...