The Fans of the Dark Knight
He is vengeance. He is the night. And he is the hero that Gotham deserves.
Batman has become a huge cultural icon since his creation in 1939 by Bob Kane. From Adam West’s hero portrayal to Ben Affleck’s depiction of the Caped Crusader, people have gone bats for the superhero. In turn, Batman’s fans have honored his character by building websites for other fans around the world.
Personally, I enjoy watching Batman movies and playing Batman video games. Along with Batman comes the DC Comic Universe, which includes Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and a plethora of other superheroes and villains.
Coming from a nerd like myself, I like hearing about upcoming superhero flicks and/or video games. While browsing the web for any Batman-related websites, I came upon three interesting sites, created by some fans. Although I look for official websites related to my content, I found these sites to be an interesting take on news towards Batman and the DC Universe.
The first site I clicked on was batman-news.com. Right away I noticed the bright colors of popular articles at the top of the page, along with a dark cityscape as a background design. I like the way the colors cooperate with each other. In the top left corner is a giant Batman logo designed for the site, and after scrolling down, the main page maintains a black and white color scheme, which works perfectly.
All the articles on the main page include Batman stories, other DC news and even news from other brands (like Marvel and Star Wars). At the top of the page are eight tabs, including information about movies, comics, TV/DVDs, photos and even a contact page. Although there are random ads on the side, the layout of the page and all the content deserve praise.
The second site is tomztoyz.blogspot.com. Although it’s written by one guy, he still includes other Batman fans’ news and work. This blog has a basic design, with nothing too distracting, so that’s a plus. The header grabs the attention first, as it is a black and white picture with a hint of color for the Bat-Blog.
The main page includes blogs written by the creator and content sent in from other fans, including a photo of a fan in Batman gear, a parody video and Batman-themed items being sold at an auction. The cool thing is that the fans who send in material get tagged for their work, so everyone can see their content.
Overall, it’s a neat little site, but there are two things that could be changed. There are plenty of ads on each side of the page, since it’s just a blog and not an “official” site. Also, the blog is a little outdated, as the last content was published in May 2016. Otherwise, it’s not a terrible blog site to check out, but not one for die-hard fans.
The final fan site is thebatmanuniverse.net. This site takes the cake for the best Batman fan site out of the three I chose. This one includes everything that batman-news.com has, but revamped and looks more appealing.
The objective for the site is to inform others with tabs about upcoming news, comics, podcasts and other events that are related to Batman and the DC Universe. The main page has a giant Batman logo near the top, social media links in the top corner and on the right side. It also includes a moving header underneath the tabs, displaying popular articles.
Scrolling down, you’ll see articles about everything, from general news to editorials and comic reviews. Off to the right side, there is a Twitter column for everything tweeted about Batman and DC. There are no ads here, as the site states they need donations to help keep it ad-free, which is neat. I thought that this site was pretty legit and the creators seem to really take care of their work and push out the best content they can, and that’s why I chose this one as the top fan site.
Batman has been a huge sensation for comic book and nerds everywhere throughout the years. Being able to create fan sites for even a fictional character is cool, where fans from all over can come together to a website and interact with each other and learn all about Batman and his universe.
