{"id":634474,"date":"2026-10-18T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634474\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T16:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:46:11","slug":"matt-fraction-on-the-bat-whispers-influence-on-the-first-joker-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634474\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Fraction On The Bat Whispers Influence On The First Joker Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted in: Comics<\/a>, Movies<\/a> | Tagged: #<\/a>, John Siuntres<\/a>, matt fraction<\/a>, The Bat Whispers<\/a>, The Joker<\/a>, Word Balloon<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Fraction on the 1930 movie The Bat Whispers and its influence on the very first Joker story in 1940’s Batman #1<\/p>\n

Article Summary
\n Matt Fraction says The Bat Whispers directly influenced The Joker\u2019s first appearance in 1940\u2019s Batman #1.
\n He points to the film\u2019s first ten minutes, set in Gotham City, as a clear blueprint for early Batman storytelling.
\n Fraction argues The Bat Whispers shaped Batman more than Metropolis, calling it the real roadmap for the comic.
\n The restored 1930 film recently entered the public domain in the US, making The Bat Whispers easy to watch today. <\/p>\n

\u25b6” style=”border: 0px;” allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; fullscreen;” loading=”lazy” src=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MCRXE-9xOxg?feature=oembed” title=”Youtube Video”><\/p>\n

The Bat Whispers was a 1930 American mystery film directed by Roland West\u00a0and based on the 1920 mystery play The Bat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. It was considered a lost film for many years, but was restored in 1988. It entered the public domain in the US this year and was uploaded to YouTube.<\/a> And it is among Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson’s many stated influences on Batman, especially the introduction of The Joker, even if here, the bat is the bad guy\u2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The Bat Whispers screencap<\/p>\n

And talking to John Siuntres on his Word Balloon recently, current Batman writer Matt Fraction said, “The Joker’s first appearance is from The Bat Whispers. It’s straight up. They just took this. That’s the story. The first ten minutes of The Bat Whispers, the 65-millimetre version, are set in Gotham City. It is.”<\/p>\n

“There’s a very cinematic chase added to the opening of the film and then the story as we know it takes over, which at that point is a drawing-room mystery with people running in and out of rooms and a maid that shrieks. It’s really weird.” I quite like that too, though; it’s very funny.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The Bat Whispers screencap<\/p>\n

Matt concludes, “But every now and again, when it takes advantage of that 65 millimetre camera, it’s incredible\u2026 If you watch the first ten minutes of it, it’s like, oh, this is the roadmap\u2014more than Metropolis, more than anything else. Nope. It’s this. This is the roadmap for what this book became. And they saw it, because it’s the first Joker story.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The Bat Whispers screencap<\/p>\n

And now you can too\u2026<\/p>\n

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