Comicentric Issues 32: Who is the Batman that you hear?
When Reading comics can be a thrill, you can get lost in the pages and when the characters come to life. It become more than ink on paper. Your mind gets involved and becomes part of that moment. Getting lost in the characters struggle. Privy to their world, the narrative takes root, and the fun begins.
But wait before we go there…
What do you see? Do you see the characters world come to life? Does that include the sounds of the metropolitan city. The smells of a dystopian alley, in a world maid of your own mind. Then if these worlds have sounds for the narrative to play out. When we hear the explosions in our head, the sounds of the cars and people of that world. The voices of the heroes in our heads help shape the fun we have with comics.
So, what voice do you hear when you think batman? Are you old enough to hear Adam West voice? Or you so young that it is Affleck (eeeWWW ) that you hear? and you a mid and just do Michael Keaton? These are the voices we give the pages we read. We can make up our own of course but we always start somewhere.
For me, in my head, it was always Mr. Kevin Conroy that I heard .
Mr Conroy entertained me, and several children across America, every afternoon for weeks! Little that he knows that he was getting paid to baby sit and not getting paid. Crouched around the television screen it didn’t matter if it was a rerun, there he was fighting crime with that unique bat man voice on the late and great Kevin Conroy could provide.
Mr. Kevin Conroy had a great career in performing from TV soap operas to staring rolls in videogames. But what he really brought to life was several iterations of batman. In looking him up I even found he did Shakespeare on Broadway.
This is my little thank you on the internet for our fallen hero. We know he was fighting all the way to the end. And it is with my sincerest heart that Kevin Conroy’s legacy live on even after we are all long and gone.
Kevin Conroy was… is… and will continue to be my Batman.