Holy Hollywood, Batman! The Caped Crusader of comic book, TV and film fame is set today to become the first superhero with a star on the Walk of Fame.
The ceremony is set to begin at 11 a.m. in front of The Hollywood Guinness World Records Museum on Hollywood Boulevard. The star will be next to those of Adam West, who portrayed Batman on the campy 1966-68 ABC TV series, and Bob Kane, a co-creator of the character.
Jim Lee, the president, publisher and chief creative officer of DC Comics, and Anne DePies, the general manager and senior vice president of the company that publishes the Batman comic books, are set to speak at the ceremony.
Michael Empric, an adjudicator with Guinness World Records, will make a presentation awarding Batman with the Guinness World Records title as the first superhero with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Burt Ward, who played Batman's sidekick Robin on the ABC series, is set to attend.
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The ceremony comes one day after publication of ``Batman: The Last Halloween,'' a 10-part comic book series in which Gotham City learns to fear Halloween once more as a terrible event threatens to destroy the life of police Capt. Jim Gordon -- and puts Batman and Robin's teamwork to the test more than ever.
The star is the 2,790th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars.
The ceremony will be streamed on the Walk of Fame's website, walkoffame.com.
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The south side of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and McCadden avenues will be closed at 9 a.m. to accommodate the ceremony and be re-opened “as soon as possible,” Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, told City News Service.
The star will be in the category of motion pictures. Batman made his film debut in 1943 in the 15-chapter serial from Columbia Pictures titled “Batman,” which was followed in 1949 by another 15-chapter serial, “Batman and Robin.”
West starred in a 1966 “Batman” movie. Warner Bros. released four Batman films between 1989 and 1997 -- “Batman,” “Batman Returns,” “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin.”
Following the poor critical and box office reception to “Batman & Robin,” the proposed sequel “Batman Unchained,” was canceled, as were two later film proposals.
But the franchise was rebooted in 2005 with the first installment of what would become known as “The Dark Knight” trilogy -- “Batman Begins,” followed by “The Dark Knight” in 2008 and “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012.
Batman was created because of the desire of DC Comics editor Vincent Sullivan for another costumed hero following the 1938 debut of Superman.
Sullivan asked the 22-year-old Kane, who was then selling humorous stories to DC Comics, for his ideas.
“I went home that weekend, traced some sketches of Superman and started penciling different costume ideas,” Kane, who died in 1998 at the age of 83, once said. “It was then that I got my first brainstorm.”
“I remembered one of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches -- a drawing of a flying machine with bat wings. That's what germinated the idea for Batman.
“The second influence on me was the hero with the dual identity in ‘The Mark Of Zorro.’ And then I thought about ‘The Bat Whispers,’ a mystery movie written by Mary Roberts Rinehart.”
Kane drew a character with bird wings and called him Bird Man, but realized “that wasn't quite right.”
“So I changed the wings, made them bat-like, and called him Batman,” Kane said. “Almost every famous character ever created had a kind of simplistic, definitive design that was easily recognizable, and that's what I was striving for with Batman.”
The first published appearance of “The Bat-Man,” as he was then known, was in the May 1939 issue of Detective Comics. The first comic book devoted exclusively to Batman was published in 1940.
Kane continued to illustrate Batman comic books until his retirement in 1968. He served as a consultant on the 1989 film “Batman” and its three sequels.
While Batman is the first superhero to be honored on the Walk of Fame, he's not the first fictional character.
Mickey Mouse and his longtime sweetheart Minnie also have stars -- as do Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, The Simpsons, The Muppets, Shrek and Snoopy.
