Michael Keaton Wins Fight Against Ben Affleck’s Batman In Study

Written By Kieran Bugg

Michael Keaton Wins Fight Against Ben Affleck's Batman In Study

Michael Keaton topped Ben Affleck as America’s favorite Batman in a recent study. With both actors appearing as their versions of Batman in The Flash film, it’s interesting to gauge which of them has the bigger box-office pull. On the contrary, the results aren’t scientific. In fact, one bets there is an obvious generational divide in the data.

After all, younger audiences won’t have the same nostalgic connection to Michael Keaton like older fans do. Indeed, they didn’t grow up with Michael Keaton’s version, for the most part.

If there’s one superhero who’s been portrayed by as many different actors as James Bond over the years, it’s Batman. The Caped Crusader has so far been played by seven Hollywood legends throughout his various cinematic outings.

Adam West donned the cape and cowl for the classic TV show and its associated feature film. Both were released in 1966.

Michael Keaton Wins Fight Against Ben Affleck’s Batman In Study

Michael Keaton Wins Fight Against Ben Affleck's Batman In Study

Image: Warner Bros. Discovery

In addition, this was first full-length theatrical adaptation of the iconic DC superhero and remains a sentimental favorite to this day. Two decades later, Batman would return to his darker comic-book roots for his next movies from director Tim Burton.

Michael Keaton was chosen to portray Burton’s take on the character and his casting was met with much criticism initially. After all, many recognized Michael Keaton for his comedies such as Mr. Mom and Beetlejuice. Nonetheless, the actor successfully managed to blow everyone away with his brooding performance.

Following Michael Keaton after he and Burton stepped down from the franchise were Hollywood heartthrobs Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

Although Kilmer shone in the terrific Batman Forever, Clooney turned to camp with director Joel Schumacher in 1997’s Batman & Robin. It ultimately ended up putting Batman’s cinematic future on ice.

However, director Christopher Nolan would later breath new life into the franchise with his universally acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy. Christian Bale was cast as Batman for a new generation of fans.

Thanks to Nolan and Bale, the Dark Knight became an unstoppable cinematic icon once more.

While putting together the DCEU, Zack Snyder decided that Affleck would bring his version of the superhero to life. Again, this casting was met with controversy but would end up exceeding fan expectations exponentially.

Unfortunately, Affleck wouldn’t stick around for long with the infamous power struggle happening over at Warner Bros. at the time. Later on, director Matt Reeves would reboot Batman once again with Robert Pattinson taking over the role.

Michael Keaton Wins Fight Against Ben Affleck’s Batman In Study

Michael Keaton Wins Fight Against Ben Affleck's Batman In Study

Image: Warner Bros. Discovery

Pattinson made it his own by showing off the character’s impressive detective skills more than any actor before him. Still, he couldn’t quite shrug off his Twilight stigma. As you can see there have been a few actors who’ve starred as Batman and everyone has their favorite.

But which one is the favorite for most fans? According to a recent Twitter study from home entertainment furniture company Valencia Theater Seating, that would be Michael Keaton.

This isn’t much of a surprise given that Keaton was a highlight of the first official trailer for The Flash. In addition, he was likely responsible for introducing a majority of fans to the Dark Knight and his expansive lore.

Keaton is to Batman in the same way Tobey Maguire is to Spider-Man and Christopher Reeve is to Superman. Using data from over 150,000 tweets from users, the survey found that Keaton was the favorite Batman of 23 states.

Bale came in at a close second with 18 states, Affleck in third, and Pattinson in fourth.

Despite what this survey suggests, it’s doesn’t mean Keaton is the best Batman overall. In the end, each actor who’s portrayed Batman has all left their own unique mark on the character.