The Best And Worst Dressed Batman Characters In Film & TV

Batman sometimes gets a lot of flack for being the only normal guy at the Super Friends table. He's not an alien, or a god; he can't shoot beams out of his eyes or enhance his body in any remarkable way. You'd think one of the only true blue human superheroes would have a considerably toned down cast of characters in his orbit, but somehow that couldn't be any further from the truth.

Batman has without a doubt some of the craziest, most "out there" looking people around him, friend and foe alike that rock all kinds of tights, loud colors, and hats that even the most daring SoHo hipster wouldn't attempt. We've scoured the television and movie universes, from Adam West to Batman Beyond, and collected the worst of the worst costume offenders, along with the few bright spots. Check out The Best And Worst Dressed Batman Characters In Film & TV.

Written by Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

Voiced by: Michael Des Barres

Who do you think you are, Professor Snape or Ming The Merciless?

Voiced by: Peter Scolari, David Jolliffe, Bill Mumy

As fantastic as Batman: the Animated Series is, it often faltered when it tried its hand at original villains. Case and point, the aptly named Terrible Trio, a bunch of bored rich jerkoffs who try to get their Thomas Crowne on... dressed as a shark, vulture, and some sort of big cat. They look more like furries.

Portrayed by: Vincent Price

This is what they gave the awesome Vincent Price to work with, a lame-ass original villain? And one this swagless at that?! Cream suit, yellow shirt...Egghead, we see what you guys did there! Fail.

Voiced by: Stacy Keach

If you haven't seen Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the big-screen adventure existing in the same universe as the popular 90's animated series, then add it to your Dark Knight Rises inspired marathon. Animated or not, it's honestly just as dope as the Chris Nolan flicks.

It features an original villain, The Phantasm, who keeps his appearance pretty simple unlike most Bat rogues, and actually succeeds where most of them fail at appearing intimidating. A little bit of A$AP Rocky goth-ninja steez, mixed with a ghoulish mask and that gnarly scythe-hand? Yea, this is easily the scariest Batman villain to grace the screen.

Portrayed by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Freeze was not done the same justice on the big screen however, thanks once again to the genius eye of Joel Schumacher. There are really no words to explain the bizarre sight of Schwarzenegger in that suit, except that we spent most of the movie wondering if it was just a floating head attached to a hideous robot body.

Voiced by: Michael Ansara

In the favored Batman cartoon universe, which includes the future spin-off Batman Beyond, Mr. Freeze made the best out of an impossible situation. Unable to let his body come into contact with the outside temperatures, he was forced to wear what was basically a vase on his head while he handled his business. Thankfully, the rest was nice and sleek.

Voiced by: Jeff Bennett

Easily the most bizarre Batman ally of all time, The Creeper, a crazed superhero created from the same chemical that turned The Joker into The Clown Prince of Crime, runs around in just striped briefs and Gossamer from the Looney Tunes draped on his back. Perhaps the worst part is he actually paid for his costume.

Voiced by: Henry Polic II

Let's get this straight: the Scarecrow's aim is to strike fear into all who cross his path, so he dresses up in... straw hair, a farmer hat, and a cheap burlap mask? Thankfully he has fear gas, otherwise he'd have to rely on fits of laughter to distract people while he robs banks and stuff.

Portrayed by: Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan did a great job doing the Scarecrow character justice on the big screen... but not visually speaking. The same toned-down approach they would later apply to The Joker is tried here with less successful results. The burlap sack he dons here is somehow goofier than the one depicted in the cartoon.

Portrayed by: Frank Gorshin

There are still more question marks here than at the end of a teenage girl's tweet, but we have to admit, patterning his symbol on a blazer is trademarking at its freshest.

Voiced by: John Glover

Embarrassing, yet unsurprising, that the Animated Series' take on The Riddler boasts a darker, more believable portrayal than a big-budget, PG-13 action adventure. The first Riddler design is a thousand times more restrained than any other incarnation of the character, and New Batman Adventures found a way to pander to the network's kid-friendly demands while still keeping him classy.

Portrayed by: Jim Carrey

Is Jim Carrey's Riddler the absolute biggest swag offender across all Batman universes? His take on the character is the epitome of "too much going on," with his garishly flamboyant, bedazzled suits and dyed orange hair resulting in the least threatening Batman film villain to date.

Voiced by: Robert Englund

Marilyn Manson, is that you?

Portrayed by: Tommy Lee Jones

Harvey Dent is another Batman bad guy that makes it painfully all too clear where his mind is at. Two-Face always lets his dual identity psychosis show in his get-up, opting for hideous two-toned suits. Of course, Schumacher takes the eyesore to the next level, making those two tones black and bright purple, with a cheetah-print tie.

Voiced by: Richard Moll

Two-Face was one of the most richly drawn, well-portrayed villains on the excellent Animated Series and his personal connection to Bruce Wayne made him one of Batman's most affecting foes. We get your multiple personality issues dude, it's just that, we can't ever condone a two-tone black and white suit, symbolism be damned.

Portrayed by: Aaron Eckhart

Hey, dude, just thought you should know: half of your suit is burnt.

Voiced by: Jeffrey Combs, Jeff Bennett

The second run of the Animated Series featured a ton of character redesigns, and here they finally get the Scarecrow right with a much more gothic, unsettling, evil-preacher look.

Voiced by: David Warner

Ra's looks like a Hogwarts professor with that hooded cloak, but what else can you really expect from a dude whose every villainous plot concerns ending the world? In that regard, he's almost under-doing it.

Portrayed by: Liam Neeson

In Batman Begins, Ra's' wants to destroy Gotham, but compared to his cartoon counterpart's apocalyptic plots, his intentions are comparatively small-scale. As he teaches Bruce, "theatricality and deception are powerful agents." Thus he employs fake Ra's that looks the city-destroying part, but the man himself actually toggles between business casual and less theatrical ninja garb.

Portrayed by: Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt

You never know what you're going to get when it comes to the 60s Batman series, and while Catwoman seems like a costume that'd be impossible to fuck up, the fact they didn't is still impressive. Julie Newmar and her successor Eartha Kitt put on for the cat burglar in a sultry way that would be emulated in every following iteration of the character.

Portrayed by: Michelle Pfeiffer

Anne Hathaway has her work cut out for her because as it stands, Michelle Pfeiffer is the definitive big-screen portrayal of Selina Kyle. There's no clear pattern on the all-over stitching of her cat costume which is exactly what makes it a win. It's sexy, yet indicative of her personality disorder.

Voiced by: Adrienne Barbeau

The Animated Series Catwoman portrayal mostly sticks to the script as inspired by Michelle Pfeiffer, maintaining the leather and curves, and even the whip. The white mask she rocks in New Batman Adventures is a bit of a head-scratcher, but we're willing to let it slide.

Portrayed by: Anne Hathaway

The anxiety over Christopher Nolan's take on Selina Kyle was fraught with fan rumblings that Hathaway wouldn't be able to pull it off and that they'd bungle the costume on some Halle Berry shit. Initial leaked images of Anne on set led to snap judgments that Warner Bros quickly put to rest by releasing official photos earlier than planned.

We're happy to report that in addition to filling out the skintight suit quite nicely, Anne knocked it out of the park. Who really cares about the cat-ear goggles?

Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson

The limp cartoon that followed the superior Batman: The Animated Series either shamelessly cribbed a lot of details from earlier Bat series/films, or did its desperate best to stand on its own by going way left. Their Rastafarian looking, impish take on The Joker is a prime example of the latter.

Voiced by: Various

The Jokerz are pretty much the future equivalent of radical hipsters/ravers in that they wear whatever will make them look the weirdest. Their whole steez is supposed to be dedicated to the original Joker, yet almost all of the grungy gang members fail to live up to his successful swag.

Voiced by: Mark Hamill

The Joker is one of few original Batman adversaries to make it to the future, and he arrives to take on the new Bat in style, dropping the purple suit in favor of a darker hued one-piece, with a sinister buzz cut to match.

Portrayed by: Jack Nicholson

The Joker's favored colors, green and purple, technically should not work on anyone. Yet time and again he gets his color blocking on and looks awesome. Without a doubt, the flyest incarnation was Jack Nicholson's scene-stealing turn in Tim Burton's Batman. The fact that he wrought mayhem while rocking out to Prince just made it even better.

Portrayed by: Heath Ledger

As great as Jack Nicholson's Prince-bumping, museum-loving Joker was, Chris Nolan's gritty universe called for a more pared down approach to The Clown Prince of Crime. It makes sense then, that a Joker who only shops for guns and explosives would have a decidedly thriftier look to him, giving zero fucks about that name brand life.

Portrayed by: Burt Ward

Robin's costume has been the butt of many jokes over the years, and for good reason. His '60s getup in both live-action and cartoon is simply egregious. What is he wearing (if anything) under that shirt-blouse? Speedo? Briefs?? Bare legs and ballet shoes are the absolute last thing one should wear when trying to instill fear in the hearts of evil-doers.

Portrayed by: Chris O'Donnell

It's a safe bet to say that Chris O'Donnell's fail at making Robin look any less goofy on the big screen was a big factor in Nolan and Bale's decision to veto any Robin sightings in their trilogy. His costume fell prey to the same fetishistic, ultra plated design overkill that plagued every character in Batman & Robin, a prime example of what happens when studio thirst leads to toy companies being included in the film's design process.

Voiced by: Matthew Valencia

The Boy Wonder is always going to get made fun of, but credit Tim Drake, Dick Grayson's successor, for changing up the color scheme and going red-black instead of red-green. That one minor change actually has a major effect in making the sidekick look that much more presentable as a crimefighter.

Props to Dick Grayson for figuring out that the only way to break the Robin endless no-swag cycle was to ditch the name and the suit altogether. After a bro fight with Batman he later returned to Gotham City as Nightwing, with decidedly less goofy threads and a badass attitude to match.

Voiced by: Henry Silva

Bane is supposed to be Batman's most physically intimidating enemy, and size-wise that rings true. But all that hulking intimidation is lost when you pan up to that ridiculous luchador mask. Batman got defeated by a glorified wrestler, really? The S&M spikes on his collar in the New Batman Adventures aren't much better.

Voiced by: Joaquim de Almeida, Ron Perlman, Clancy Brown

Further proof we should be thanking Based God that Christopher Nolan didn't try to go the venom route for Dark Knight Rises. It was getting more and more out of hand, evidenced here by a Bane that doesn't even look human.

Portrayed by: Robert Swenson

Completely ridiculous. What was the thought process behind this script? So you take a villain from the source material that is arguably Batman's greatest enemy, and you reduce him to a stupid, monosyllabic brute, give him a Scooby-Doo villain's mask, and add in a complicated system of tubes instead of just the one. And why is his skin yellow?

Portrayed by: Tom Hardy

From the looks of it, Chris Nolan and Tom Hardy brilliantly rethought the Bane character for Dark Knight Rises, and in upping his IQ and motive, they also upped the swag. Bane appears to have more costume changes than an awards show host, and from what we've seen, we approve of the terrorist chic steez. We've definitely seen that lambskin winter coat on a fashion blog somewhere. Who knew Bane actually gave a fuck?

Voiced by: Will Friedle

In the year 2039, with Bruce Wayne too old to keep grinding, his teenage protegé (and much more... we find out) Terry McGinnis takes up the cowl. Taking on a whole new class of future criminal requires a suit that's with the times. The cape is out in favor of a sleek, technologically enhanced getup that manages to avert both futuristic costume design tropes: it's neither bland nor over the top. Plus, it has built-in rocket boosters... and he's voiced by Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World.

Portrayed by: Adam West

The Batsuit from one of the hero's first live-action appearances may not be that impressive, but it deserves recognition for being relatively normal amid a series full of campy costume failures. Sure, that utility belt doesn't even look equipped to hold a credit card, but we're sure no other suits in later films and TV shows were comfortable enough to let that Bat cook on the dance floor like this.

Portrayed by: George Clooney

Bruce Wayne may have billions, but money doesn't necessairily buy you style. Case and point, the rotten apple in the pack of Batmen, and probably the only time George Clooney looked swagless on the silver screen, a feat only Joel Schumacher could accomplish.

The unnecessary nipples get the most attention but really the whole suit is an eyesore, mostly due to hideous the all-over silver plating. What, is dude about to go snowboarding or something? (Yes, yes we know Mr. Freeze was the villain, but still.)

Portrayed by: Christian Bale

When you need the world to forget the atrocities committed in the previous Batman film series, plus create a suit that a man could actually, believably beat up the the scourge of the underworld in without chafing, you call Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox. In The Dark Knight, art imitated life as Chris Nolan and his team worked to craft something Bale could actually turn his head in while still looking fly. The result: the most efficient, successful Batsuit in the live-action history of the character.

Portrayed by: Michael Keaton

Before the Joel Schumacher super-fetishized, "Nipplegate" scandal that would overtake the late '90s Batman films, Tim Burton and Michael Keaton got it mostly right with their rubbery update of the costume in 1989. The absence of tights and spandex set the tone that this Bat was no campy Adam West.

Voiced by: Kevin Conroy

Kevin Conroy's performance as the Caped Crusader is up there with that of his live-action counterparts, and the costume matches the caliber. Although the Animated Series drew a lot of visual inspiration from the Tim Burton films, developer Bruce Timm and company refrained from the leather obsession in the movies and stuck to a modernized version of the Adam West PJs.