Batsuit

Batsuit
Batman's suit as it appears in promotional art for Batman: Rebirth #1 (June 2016); art by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Lex Sinclair.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Detective Comics #27 (May 1939)
Created by	Bill Finger and Bob Kane
In story information
Type	Costume
Element of stories featuring	Batman Robin

The Batsuit (or Bat-Suit) is the costume of the fictional superhero Batman, who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Although the suit has been drawn in many different ways by different artists, and the stories themselves have described Batman as modifying the details of his costume from time to time, it usually consists of a tight grey body suit, the chest emblazoned with a stylized black bat, and blue-black accessories: a wide scalloped cape, gloves with a series of fin-like projections, boots, and a close-fitting cowl (covering the upper half of his face) with ear-like projections to suggest a bat's head; and a utility belt containing a variety of gadgets.

Batman's costume is used to both conceal his identity and frighten criminals. Most versions of the Batsuit incorporate some form of body armor, and often night-vision, gas filters, and other aids for protection or effectiveness in combat.

While brooding in his study over how to be a more effective crime fighter, Bruce Wayne saw a bat come through his window (in the earliest Detective Comics portrayal simply flying in an open window, in Post-Crisis continuity such as Batman: Year One, dramatically crashing through the glass). Reflecting that "criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot," Bruce adopts the persona of a bat in order to conceal his identity and strike fear into his adversaries. In the later elaborations on the origin, Bruce terrified by bats as a child, and in the Silver Age story The First Batman (later retold in the 1980 miniseries The Untold Legend of the Batman) the inspiration for the batsuit comes in part from a bat costume worn to a costume ball by his father Thomas Wayne.

Batman's cape, cowl, gloves, briefs, and boots are usually either of black or dark blue with the body of the costume being grey. Originally the suit was conceived as being black and grey, but due to coloring schemes of early comic books, the black was highlighted with blue. Hence, over the years the black cape and cowl appeared as dark blue in the comic books. Thus artists' renditions depict the costume as both black and grey or blue and grey.