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Encyclopedia Batannica

Riddle me this: Who is your favorite Batman? For me it’s a toss up between the super cheesy Bat-dork of TV and the uber gritty reeeeally-needs-a-therapist types. For Batman Week my husband and in-house Batman expert, Matthew Dyer, helped me out with. . . dun, dun, dun. . . A Taxonomy of Batmen.

Use the following as your handy dandy Dark Knight guide and help us flesh out or create new categories. It’s a wild wiki world after all.

The Kitchsy Detective—Adam West, 60s TV, Scooby-Doo guest star; The Brave and the Bold animated series; Failed George Clooney

The Hard-Boiled Bat—Early 1940s comic Batman

Deus Ex Batmachina—Star of DC Universe Animated movies; plutocrat and owner of the Justice League of America space station.

Revenge of the Bat—Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns; Batman Beyond animated series

Bat in TrainingBatman: Year One; The Batman animated show; Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight

Balanced Batman, the Dark KnightBatman: The Animated Series; Tim Burton’s Batman; the best parts of the comics authored by countless writer/artist combos

So Bat-readers, what did we miss? Is there an archetypical Batman story that you know and love that doesn’t fall into one of the above categories? Don’t agree with the archetypes we’ve laid out? Where do all the ladies of Gotham and beyond fit into the Bat Saga? Let’s argue about it in the comments, in true comic book nerd fashion.