Doing What The Joker Couldn't: George Clooney Finally Admits He Killed Batman

For some 78 years since his arrival on the #comicbook scene, the rogues gallery of Gotham City has tried its best to do away with the Caped Crusader. While #Batman has had more than a few brushes with death, none have come as close as the "Batcard," "Buttgirl," and rubber nips. We are of course talking about #JoelSchumacher's diabolical Batman & Robin. 1997 was heralded as the year that #superheroes died, as an iceberg of Mr. Freeze puns sunk the film quicker than the Titanic.

However, leaving Arnie out out the equation, the blame was also firmly laid at the door of #GeorgeClooney, the man who slipped on the spandex as the sixth live-action Batman since 1943. While Clooney's career survived into the Ocean's films and Nespresso commercials, the 55-year-old has finally opened up and admitted "Batman died with me."

The Darkest Night

Speaking about the darkest time in the Dark Knight's cinematic run, Clooney exclusively spoke at CinemaCon, revealing what went wrong and his feelings about his brief tenure in tights 20 years ago. George also revealed that he still hasn't seen #BenAffleck in Batman v Superman and has no intentions of either:

"I haven't seen it, you know? Because I feel like Batman died with me. As you can imagine, don't you guys feel the same way? Let me just point this out, I wore a rubber suit and giant rubber nipples, and I still have a career."

Awww poor Georgie, however, it seems a little unfair that the Hollywood heartthrob refuses to watch his successor's work, especially considering that Batman & Robin is frequently labelled the Worst Superhero Film Ever. Also, the flippant comments about Batman seem to prove that he just wasn't the right guy for the job and had no real interest in the lore of Bruce Wayne.

Bat To The Future

In a way, you can see Clooney's point of view though, he must get sick of people constantly bringing up those maligned chest bumps and crotch-first suit, and has apologized on numerous occasions. Clooney also implies that no matter what, you can survive a bad Batman film — take note, Affleck.

Certainly, Ryan Reynolds came back from playing Deadpool to play, erm, Deadpool, and even Affleck is no stranger to a flop superhero film, rising from his performance in Daredevil to play Batman. The landscape of supes films is very different nowadays, with studios ploughing even more time and revenue in their blockbuster men (or women) in tights features.

Affleck's first solo film #TheBatman may be undergoing some serious teething problems, but thank your lucky batarangs that it is nothing compared to Batman & Robin. You have to remember that it was the film that effectively kept the Dark Knight off our screens until Batman Begins in 2005; there were admittedly other factors but B&R takes the flack.

Whatever your opinions on the Clooney era, it seems he is none too phased now, and more than happy to exit the Batcave without looking back. As for Affleck, the writing's on the wall of Wayne Manor on how well he will fare, but it couldn't be worse, could it?