The Caped Crusader

The sound of water dripping in a cave, the sound of a swarm of bats intensifying, and the sound of a storm at night. We've seen him again and again over the years. He's known by many names: The Caped Crusader, The Dark Knight, The World's Greatest Detective, and, of course, Batman. Over the years, Batman has been portrayed by Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney (sigh), Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and yet to be seen Robert Pattinson. This year I decided to make a Batman costume from scratch. I've always been a DC fan and more particularly, a Batman fan. I hope you enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed the process of creating something spectacular.

I got inspired to do a Batman costume for three reasons. The first reason is due to the fact that I like Batman. The second reason is because of the new upcoming Batman film and previous Batman films as well. Lastly, I enjoy diy projects and I thought to myself, hmmm, I have materials just lying around and said to myself, you know what? Let's create a Batman costume from scratch.

Okay...so the first reason. I like Batman. I know, I know. So vague right? Wrong! Batman has captured my attention in particular because of the fact that he's just a man with a lot of fancy gadgets. He has no superpowers like his associates Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, or Green Lantern do. Aside from being the billionaire playboy philanthropist Bruce Wayne, Batman is equipped with a multitude of gadgets and a variety of notorious foes, including Mister Freeze. My particular costume is Mr. Freeze edition. The dark and light shades of blue combined with the black makes this costume freeze in style, not to mention the illuminating LED lights.

The second reason...sorry Two Face, I know the number two is kind of your thing, but right now it's mine. Sorry I had to do it. What really inspired me to create this costume were the films. From a young age, I was always like, I want to be Batman. Why not, right? The new upcoming Batman film got me very inspired. The action sequences combined with the noir aspect of the film is alluring. With my costume, I wanted to make it feel realistic and also young. What I mean by young is a costume that would represent Batman in his early years where he's still trying to figure things out. A costume that might only be adapted for a certain foe. In this case, Mr. Freeze.

Finally, the third reason. I recently have enjoyed exploring my creative side and making things from scratch. I really enjoy doing stuff myself because I think it creates a satisfactory feeling of accomplishment. I wanted to bring one of my favorite characters to life and make him my own version. A version where he still has a lot to learn before developing into the hero we all know and love.

Now that we've discussed the why, it's now time to discuss the how.

When creating this costume, I faced many challenges. It was a lot of trial and error before arriving to the final version of my own personal bat suit. I'm going to break this down to three components: the cowl, the torso/body, and the legs.

The Cowl

One of the most iconic characteristics of the bat suit is no question, the infamous cowl. My cowl consists of the following parts: a black head cover with two eye patches, two pieces of black fabric, two custom bat ears, two small triangular pieces for the pointy nose, black electrical tape, black eyeliner, and the optional white eyes that we sometimes see on batman. The black head cover with two eye patches was made from a black windbreaker jacket that I had. I cut two eye holes in it and cut off any excess material so that it would cover half of my face, exposing my jaw. The two pieces of black fabric get tied on the top of my head and also my jawline. The two bat ears that I made custom from cardboard and oil pastel are inserted near the ears. The two triangular pieces I made are inserted on either side of my nose to create that pointy effect. I then use black electrical tape near my ears, on my nose, and above and below my eyes. Black eyeliner is applied as needed. I also have a black collar from the black windbreaker jacket that I secure around my neck.

The Torso/Body

The body consists of the following: a blue windbreaker jacket, a harness for the cape, a blue graduation gown, black electric tape, cardboard, mechanical pencils, two led circular lights, a black and grey scarf, a brown belt, brown paper bags, oil pastels, two walkie talkies, and a piece of foamboard with scrapes in it. I made the bat symbol from cardboard and designed it from scratch. The ab pieces on the torso were designed from scratch and colored with different shades of blue oil pastel. The harness holds my blue graduation gown which is suppose to be the cape. The infamous utility belt is made up of the black and gray scarf with the brown belt on top. The walkie talkies and foam board are secured in. The circular led light has a little bat symbol that I designed adhered to it, which is then adhered on the center of my brown belt. The gauntlets are made from two bags made of black plastic and gray underlining, three pieces of cardboard for the spikes on both gauntlets, and mechanical pencils. I have tubing and blue cardboard designed on the gauntlets as well as the gloves. One of the gauntlets has a circular led light on it. The torso is by far one of the most complicated features of this costume, along with the cowl.

The Legs

The legs are just dark navy jeans with light blue shoes and the armholes of the black windbreaker jacket. Those are suppose to resemble the boots. The legs are definitely the easiest part of this costume.

From my love of the character to the films he's portrayed in, I've custom designed a bat suit in the early stages of the dark knight's long career as the world's greatest detective. As a bonus, one of the pictures featured has me holding Mr. Freeze's signature ice gadget. The materials for that consist of toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, plastic soda bottles, mechanical pencils, black electrical tape, and blue led string lights. One thing is for sure, this costume is a blizzard of sorts that may be as cool as the ice man himself. I had to do it. Oh and yeah, I'm Batman!