Batman
Some licences are reduced to soulless merchandise faster than you can say Batmobile. A logo on a mug, a cowl on a drawstring bag, slapping a symbol on anything that’ll hold some ink on it. Batman has been canonised more than most. That’s why it takes effort to find things that are actually worth giving. We did that effort so you don’t have to.
Here’s the thing about Batman as a gift topic: Batman fans care. Like, really care. This is not ‘nice jumpered guy who likes telly’ territory. The person you’re trying to buy for will have strong opinions on what animated series is best, which movie they will argue is best and whether the ’66 comedy stylings deserve more credit than they generally receive. They’ll notice a lack of quality. They’ll know when something has been churned out to grab a licence fee. They will KNOW if you bought something that was chosen with care or because it happened to have a bat on it.
That knowledge was what we were going for when we compiled this list. We researched stuff that would withstand closer inspection. That didn’t just wear the Arrowed Brand logo as a symbol of quality assurance. Things that wouldn’t look stupid in the collection of someone who could tell you the difference between Gotham and their elbow. If it was easy to find it doesn’t necessarily mean it made the cut. Plenty of perfectly acceptable Bat merch was left on the cutting room floor because it felt like lazy fan service in spandex pants.
That stuff we left out is what you should avoid when you’re buying. Thanks to decades of enduring popularity the Caped Crusader has some genuinely excellent merch available if you know where to look. We did look. We argued about these picks all among ourselves. Anyone who knows us knows that’s a sign of a good decision being made. If we can’t agree, it usually means we care enough about doing it right to want things to go both of our ways.
Buy for the comic loyalist who spent their adolescence reading the pages by torchlight or the Buffy obsessed friend who fell into the CAPED CRAZY after seeing Year One and never looked back. Everything we’ve picked works on both those levels and probably a few others we haven’t considered. It’s thoughtful without being nerdily obsessive. It’s familiar without falling into generic trap. Trust us. That’s a lot harder than it sounds and we think we nailed it.