Batman Voice Actor Criticizes ‘Batman v Superman’

It’s been non-stop Suicide Squad coverage since David Ayer’s DC villain team-up hit theaters last week, but if you’re looking for a superhero intermission, Kevin Conroy is at your service. The veteran Batman voice actor would like to take you back a few months to WB’s previous DCEU installment, and share his thoughts on Zack Snyder’s hero-vs-hero epic. Spoiler: They’re not entirely positive thoughts.

Conroy has voiced The Dark Knight in everything from Batman: The Animated Series to the Arkham video games, recently reprising the role for the Batman: The Killing Joke animated film. While speaking with IGN about the controversial new movie, Conroy praised Ben Affleck’s Batman and said it’s been “really fun” to watch the various iterations of the character:

I liked Michael Keaton and I like what Ben Affleck is doing with it now. But they couldn’t be more different. It’s just the same with the Joker. When I started working with Mark Hamill I thought no one would ever nail the Joker better than Mark Hamill, and then I saw Heath Ledger, and he knocked it out of the park in just a different way.

He does have one problem with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, however, and it’s a complaint shared by many fans: Batman isn’t supposed to be a killer. “He doesn’t cross that line,” Conroy says, adding:

In the most recent live action movie, that seems to have been a line that was crossed and it’s not one I’m particularly comfortable with.

Conroy’s criticism is particularly interesting given the negative response to The Killing Joke, the animated movie based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel, which famously drew controversy for its depiction of Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl — in the story, Barbara’s sole purpose is to be violently, physically exploited to further Batman’s narrative.

Although the animated film gives her a much more substantial role in an attempt to rectify the source material, it introduces a rather unfortunate plot development: Batgirl and Batman have sex — which is weird because Bruce Wayne/Batman has always been a father figure to Barbara. It’s senselessly icky, to say the least.

So it’s a little strange for Conroy to nitpick Snyder’s film for depicting Batman as a killer (earlier comic book iterations of the character did kill, by the way) when the film he’s promoting also departs from the character’s persona in an unsavory way. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Conroy can’t have an opinion, of course, but it is a bit funny.

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