One Of Hulu's First Ever Original Movies Was About Batman

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Everybody knows Batman, partly due to his enduring star power as a cinematic icon. But far fewer people have ever heard of the Black Bat. The same year the Dark Knight debuted in "Detective Comics" #27, this almost identical crime-fighter was introduced in the July 1939 issue of pulp magazine "Black Book Detective." When I say the Black Bat was almost identical to Batman, I mean it. Black Bat dressed in all-black, donning a coat designed to mimic bat's wings and strike fear into the hearts of criminals. Interestingly enough, this character's origin differed significantly from Bruce Wayne's, but it was strikingly similar to Batman villain Harvey Dent/Two Face, in that former District Attorney Anthony Quinn was blinded by acid before adopting his crime-fighting alter-ego.

At the time, the man credited with creating Batman, Bob Kane, claimed he had no prior knowledge of the Black Bat when designing his dark avenger — despite threats of lawsuits to adjudicate the issue (the Black Bat eventually hung up his bat wing coat in 1953). But then, Kane hasn't got the best track record when it comes to claims of originality, as evidenced by the fact that Bill Finger, whose contributions to Batman's creation arguably defined the character, didn't get full credit for his work until 2015.

The struggle to have Finger's invaluable work acknowledged was the subject of a documentary that premiered on Hulu on May 6, 2017, and represented one of the streamer's first original movies and its first ever original documentary.

Released two years before Hulu's first ever original narrative film, "Batman & Bill" was directed, written, and produced by Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce. But it couldn't have existed without author Marc Tyler Nobleman, who'd written the 2012 book "Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman" (illustrated by artist Ty Templeton). Much like the book, the film chronicles the creation of the Batman, focusing specifically on how Bob Kane became known the sole creator of the character — a notion he embraced for decades. Meanwhile, Finger remained overlooked, despite the fact he'd created defining characteristics of Batman and his mythos.

When you think about Batman as the truly iconic cultural figure he is, it starts to seem somewhat silly for any one person to take credit for his creation. As author Mark Cotta Vaz explained in "Tales of the Dark Knight: Batman's First Fifty Years, 1939-1989," Batman was the product of a dizzying array of influences. "The heroic form of Superman and even Flash Gordon provided inspiration," wrote Cotta Vaz, "as did the quixotic quality of the Lone Ranger, Zorro, the Phantom, and other masked heroes. The dark menace of the Shadow provided a piece of the puzzle, as did the grim purpose (and weird villains) of detective Dick Tracy." Heck, even Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee influenced the history of Batman. With that in mind, the "by Bob Kane" byline added to multiple Batman comics throughout the years already seemed somewhat dubious, but it was much more egregious than that because it entirely elided the work of Bill Finger (which is partly why Finger's 1966 "Batman" TV episodes were a much bigger deal than you realize). "Batman & Bill" was a film about that historic injustice.

The documentary delves into the history of Finger, his contribution to Batman and his mythos, how Kane received and welcomed the credit for the character's creation and only acknowledged Finger in his later years, Nobleman's efforts to set things straight in that regard, and the legal battle to have Finger recognized as Batman's co-creator. The author actually manages to find Finger's granddaughter, with DC Entertainment ultimately reaching an agreement with Finger's family to include a "created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger" byline on Batman media. That agreement wasn't reached until 2015, however, meaning Batman existed for 76 years before one of his main creators was officially acknowledged.

"Batman & Bill" was an auspicious first documentary effort from Hulu. Not that the site which claims there are just two perfect war movies in the history of cinema should be fully relied on, but the film has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes critic score.

Julie Hinds of the Detroit Free Press was impressed by the way the documentary contained something for even comic book connoisseurs, writing, "The comics cognoscenti, who are aware of Finger's saga, should still find much to appreciate in the documentary." The San Francisco Chronicle's David Wiegand, meanwhile, praised what he claimed was a "beautifully directed" film, even while he noted that Kane's side of the story was missing from the narrative. Rolling Stone included "Batman & Bill" in its "10 Best Movies and TV Shows To Stream" list in May 2017, recommending this "long-overdue recognition to the Dark Knight's original and unaccredited creator" as its top pick for the month.

"Batman & Bill" is still streaming on Hulu if you've yet to catch up, and is well worth a watch. Anyone who's seen Bob Kane's original Batman sketch should appreciate Bill Finger's input as being crucial to defining the character that became such a cultural force, but there's still so much to the story and Hulu's first documentary lays it all out in meticulous detail. All of this is to say nothing of original Batman pencillers Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang, whose creative input was also indispensable to defining the character. For now, as detailed in "Batman & Bill," we can at least be glad that Finger's contributions have been officially acknowledged.