How do you re-design Batman? He's seen countless incarnations already. Do I re-imagine him as though he'd never been seen before, or do I just try to do a new take on the established iconic design?
I leaned toward keeping him immediately recognizable. The first thing I knew was that I wanted his whole face to be covered. The current incarnation of Batgirl has a similarly covered face, and I've always thought that to be truly unrecognizable and terrifying Batman shouldn't have any of his face showing.
I thought about focusing on either enhancing the fear aspect of the Batman persona or trying to portray him more realistically than has ever been done.
Superhero costumes in film is a tricky thing. The costume needs to be believable, but also look really good. Most superhero costumes in movies are designed to look like the hero just put it on quickly when in fact, it takes a team of professionals to get the actor into the outfit and then it has to be photographed so that the seems don't show. Spiderman's mask, for example, is part of a single piece top that the actor wears so that we don't see the seem. But we should see the seam. We all know that it's there. Why try to hide it? Batman is always shown with black makeup on around his eyes so that we only see the whites under the mask. But if he takes the mask off, the makeup is gone. It should still be there. Why hide the reality of the effect, especially when realism is what the filmmakers want? Why do lightsabers clip to Obi-Wan's belt, but don't have belt clips? Why does Batman wear a rubber suit that no real person would ever be able to move in?
So I drew a version of Batman in modified riot gear, because that's something that could really work for him.
But ultimately I went with a more shrouded, more spectral look for the Dark Knight. Part of Batman's mission is to terrify criminals, but he doesn't really look that scary. So I wanted him to look like some kind of ghost, a living shadow. He could come out of anywhere.
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