I had originally planned to write an article on superheroes that are being adapted for life in a steampunk alternate universe. However, upon researching Batman, he seems to have been given a lot of limelight of his own.
It appears to have begun back in 1989 with the release of the DC comics Elseworlds publication called Gotham by Gaslight and features a plot of a Victorian era Bruce Wayne battling Jack the Ripper who conveniently appears in Gotham City and is related to Wayne. It was so successful that it spawned a sequel in 1991 called Batman: Master of the Future. Interestingly, the comics use more of a Victoriana approach, given that steampunk was in it’s infancy at the time of publication.
However, scroll forward to 2013 and there’s a release date for a video game version of Gotham by Gaslight. Sadly it was cancelled after THQ couldn’t secure the rights, but not after it got gamers and steampunks worked up into a lather first. Especially when the teaser videos showed a distinct steampunk look to Gotham City.
In the original comic, the Joker got a brief mention and for the game a Gaslight Joker and Gaslight Catwoman were featured. As I said, the video game has been noted to have a certain steampunk aesthetic quality to it and this isn’t the first time that Catwoman has been featured in a steampunk outfit. The video game Injustice has a Catwoman character complete with goggles and tight fitting corset that holds a bull whip tail. You may remember I reported on it the first time I played the game.
When Duela Dent claimed to be the daughter of Joker, she takes on a steampunk look with top hat and goggles.
Throughout her appearances in the comics, she’s also claimed to be the daughter of Catwoman, Scarecrow, The Riddler, Penguin, Two-Face, Doomsday, Dr. Light and Punch & Jewelee. She is actually the daughter of The Jokester (a heroic version of The Joker from an alternate dimension) and Evelyn Dent, who is Three-Face on Earth-3 in the Countdown series of comics.
Recently an excellent cosplay of Duela was used as a disparaging meme but fell foul of the creator’s own inability to know anything about comic characters as the cosplayer actually nailed it.
For those of you with a keen interest in following a Caped Crusader with goggles and sporting a leather tunic, you can go a like the Steampunk Batman page on Facebook.
He operates on a similar tangent to Steampunk Boba Fett by travelling around various Conventions and making appearances. Kudos to Steampunk Batman for choosing a girl as Robin. I simply cannot find fault with that line of thought.
Many of the Batman villains have been cosplayed with a steampunk look to them. Here’s what I consider the best:
Click here for a plethora of Steampunk Batman art and photography on Tumblr: Steampunk Batman images on Tumblr
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