Is Batman’s suit bulletproof?

There have been numerous portrayals of Batman on screen through the years and a new Batsuit to go with each depiction. Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck are just some of the actors to don the mantle of the caped crusader with Robert Pattinson’s name to be added to the list very soon. All of these iterations of Batman have had vastly different Batsuits. The question is though, Is Batman’s suit bulletproof? Well, it depends.

Batman’s suit in the early days

Adam West played Batman in the 1960’s. Given what Batman has become in the modern age it’s quite funny looking back at this version of the character. The cowl had eyebrows drawn on. He wore his underpants outside of his pants. His suit was essentially just grey spandex, and not even thick spandex at that! It’s not specifically mentioned during the show but I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this suit could not have been bulletproof.

To be fair to the writers of the show I don’t think they ever intended on having their Dark Knight having to defend himself from serious gunfire. It just wasn’t that kind of show.

Is Batman’s suit bulletproof?

Let’s examine some more recent evidence.

In the closing scenes of Batman Returns starring Michael Keaton as Batman, The defender of Gotham is shot by Max Shreck (played by Christopher Walken). At first we see him drop to the ground. A few moments later we see him rise up again seemingly unhurt and with no blood visible. There is no dialogue to confirm it but this would suggest that this Batman suit is bulletproof.

Some of the best evidence we do have to confirm that the Batman suit is bulletproof comes from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. These movies star Christian Bale as Batman and are grounded in reality. So much so that they needed to explain in detail how he wasn’t just a guy wearing his underpants outside of his pants. This version of the Dark Knight is prepared for anything, even gunshots. His armor is based on a military prototype vest with a $300,000 price tag, which is why it never made it to large scale production.

The movies explain how the suit can stop knives, most caliber pistols and shotguns. It will basically protect Batman from anything except a bullet shot from point blank range.

Next up we have Robert Pattinson’s The Batman. Right now we only have a trailer to go on. But a trailer that reveals a lot. In the trailer we can see Batman come under serious gunfire in multiple scenes. In one shot we even see him take a gunshot at point blank range and carry on as if nothing happened. It goes to reason that this Batman suit will certainly be bulletproof in 2022’s The Batman.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Batman’s suit is indeed bulletproof. At least in the modern era judging by the evidence above.

As always thanks for reading.