Batman has been appearing in comics for a whopping 75 years now. Obviously, that means a whole variety of talented artists have been fortunate enough to make history and show the world their take on the Dark Knight. There's dozens upon dozens of gifted individuals that have impressed us with their unique styles and alterations they made to the ridiculously popular hero, but this week, we wanted to know which artist is your favorite!
Are you a fan of a more classic look or has one of the modern artists really won you over? The poll was open for two days and it became a neck and neck race between Greg Capullo and Jim Lee. In the end, Lee managed to take a small lead and has been selected as the Comic Vine community's favorite Batman artist!
Jim Lee has illustrated the Dark Knight in several of The New 52's titles (as seen above) and ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, but when many of us think of the artist and his work with the Caped Crusader, our thoughts become flooded with iconic images from the story arc Hush. While teaming-up with writer Jeph Loeb for the tale, Lee transformed the storyline into one hell of a ride for our eyes. His Batman is intimidating and loaded with technology (who can forget the POV opening sequence?) and there's an impressive amount of memorable moments to be found in the arc. The storytelling is good fun and it's great seeing so many familiar faces included in the journey, but it's Lee's art which made the read epic and truly exciting. As we said above, it was a close race between Lee and Capullo, so read on to see how the poll turned out and see what the community had to say about Bruce Wayne's several artists.
- Jim Lee 27%
- Greg Capullo 25%
- Neal Adams 8%
- Tony S. Daniel 5%
- Other (Specify below) 5%
- Dustin Nguyen 4%
- Jason Fabok 4%
- Tim Sale 4%
- Andy Kubert 3%
- David Mazzucchelli 3%
- Jim Aparo 3%
- Frank Miller 2%
- Patrick Gleason 2%
- Bob Kane 1%
- Brian Bolland 1%
- David Finch 1%
- Frank Quitely 1%
- Carmine Infantino 0%
- Chris Burnham 0%
- Dick Sprang 0%
SynCig
"Gotta be Capullo for me. He is one of my all time favorite artists. The amazing detail and atmosphere that he is able to bring to Batman is breath taking every time I look at it. I would say that Jock and Mazzucchelli are also two of my favorite Batman artists."
Ninjablade09
"I have to give this to Jim Lee. When I think of Batman I think Jim's Hush work. Even when speculating for the movie stuff, when I play out a scene I use Lee's Batman as a fill in. It's the definitive Batman for me to the point where I kind of have a distinct voice for him when I read stuff with Jim's Bruce. His work has always appealed to me in a way. The only problem I have with his work is his pre-52 build for the character. To me he was a little too beefed up. I'm glad he slimmed it down for the New 52. Dude still has some of the best splash pages around. His best work isn't even in the interiors, it's always the sketches and commissions he does. So my vote goes to Jim."
DrellAssassin
"Jim Lee is the man, however I have to give the slight edge to Capullo just because his Batman work has had such variety. Each arc that he's done looks totally different from the other (Court of Owls, Death of the Family, Zero Year)."
longbowhunter
"While I prefer David Mazzucchelli and Brian Bolland, I voted Jim Aparo. If you grew up in the early 80's, this was your Batman."
PunyParker
"Capullo brings the dark and gritty + the cartoonish style that still feels like a comicbook together,and mushes it into the perfect specimen.
Perfection."
Mrfuzzynutz
"Yeah, you can tell by my avatar who my choice would be.....Jim Lee and Greg Capullo are my favorite modern artist, but all time favorite was Neal Adams for me. His dark and detailed work came at the perfect time after the bubble gum pop art and camp of the 60's of the Caped Crusader and brought back the Dark Knight Detective."
nappystr8
"I thought I would have a really hard time picking an artist, but when I saw Gleason on the list it just hit me that he was the only choice. I like him fine as an artist,but he never really stood out to me until I saw his work on Batman and Robin. There is an unsettling darkness to his work that encapsulates Gotham and it's villains like no other artist I have ever seen. Hopefully he stays on a bat book for years to come."
fattytravy
"There have been too many Batman artists, in my opinion, to single out just one. If I had to, however, I'd probably go with Jim Lee, Greg Capullo or Lee Bermejo. All of them bring such a fantastic feel to the character that is appropriate to their relative stories and they're all great technical artists.
If he works more on Batman, however, Jason Fabok will very quickly take their place. His style allows Batman to look like the monster of a man that he should be portrayed as, in my opinion. On top of that, his use of shadow makes Batman about as intimidating as he can be. If nothing else, he's certainly the best New 52 Bat-artist thus far."
Black_Arrow
"I voted Neal Adams because it was one of the first times that Batman was drawn so detailed and because his Batman style is very iconic, but choosing was difficult because too many great artists with different styles have worked in Batman since he first appeared."
Just because the poll is closed it doesn't mean you can't continue to praise your top Bruce Wayne artist! Go ahead and share your favorite image of the Dark Knight in the comments below. Don't forget to check the homepage next Tuesday for an all-new question, too. Do you have a great idea for a future edition of the Question of the Week? If so, feel free to share it in the comments or via Twitter.
Want to keep celebrating Batman, our latest Character of the Month? Well, he's currently battling Star-Lord and we're asking you to choose between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises, too!