Batman has passed

[breakinglight11]

Kevin Conroy passed.

Batman. My Batman. The Batman. One of the single most important, influential performances of my life.

We all have the pieces of art that shaped us, became part of our DNA. Batman: The Animated Series is one of those for me, in my bones in a way that shapes the way I move through the world. It shows up in my own art in a thousand small ways. There would certainly, certainly be no Mrs. Hawking without it. Mrs. Hawking came out of his version of the bat.

I’ve kind of given up on Batman films and television anymore. Even though he’s probably my all time favorite superhero, I just kept running up again and again against the fact that, even if they’re interesting or good… they aren’t him. They’re always kind of unsatisfying because he was Batman. Nobody was ever better, or more right. Every time, especially if it was an animated vocal role, I was like, “Why don’t they just get him?” So I quit even giving them a chance, because I knew they would never measure up.

Kevin Conroy knew how to differentiate the voices in a way that was full of meaning. He knew that he was his truest self when he wore the mask, and that Bruce Wayne was a charming façade. He had the wit to make Bruce seem a silly, inconsequential man so that people would dismiss him and leave him to his work. He knew when to let Batman break down due to his essential tragedy, and when to take a light touch— because as coping mechanisms go, being Batman is pretty cool. He made Batman.

While there are many famous actors I would enjoy meeting, for various reasons, I always said there were only two I would LOSE MY SHIT in front of because of the degree to which I admired their work. One is David Hyde Pierce, whose Niles Crane is another one of those in-my-bones characters. The other is— now was —Kevin Conroy. Because he was Batman, my Batman, the real and only Batman. The one who shaped the rest of my artistic life.

Mrs. Hawking stands on the rooftops above the city because he did first. She knows the mask is her realer self, because he showed what that looked like. Everything she knows, she learned watching him. He was vengeance. He was the night.

Batman has passed. There’s no more Batman.