A look inside the other man behind the Dark Knight, and the author who brought this knowledge to light.
In 2012, author Marc Tyler Nobleman released a book entitled Bill the Boy Wonder – The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. It was about how comic writer created most of the Batman mythos that people are familiar with and that it wasn’t a solitary effort from Bob Kane. Like most hardcore comic fans, I knew of Bill Finger, but I never knew the full impact he had with helping to create Batman. Not just the look of Batman, but also characters like Robin and the Joker. For many years Bob Kane took all the credit.
Nobleman saw this as an injustice and set out to find out more about Finger and hopefully change the way the world saw Finger. In the end, Nobleman did succeed and now Bill Finger is created in helping to create Batman.
The documentary Batman and Bill is about Bill Finger, but it’s also about what Nobleman went through to make sure Finger got the much-needed credit he deserved. I found the documentary very interesting, mainly because I’m a strong supporter of comic creator’s rights.
The filmmakers, Sheena Joyce and Don Argott, were very smart in the visual stylizing of this documentary. It’s not all talking heads. Since a lot the past with Bill Finger is undocumented, the filmmakers choose to use animation that looked like comic book panels. This really helps keeps the viewers very engaged with it. But it’s the entire story that so intriguing. All the hurdles that Nobleman had to jump through because he saw a wrong that needed to be righted.
I can not recommend this documentary enough. It really is a great insight to Bill Finger and all he had to endure.
Batman and Bill premieres exclusively on Hulu on May 6th.
Newsdesk