The latest trailer of the greatly anticipated “The Dark Knight Rises” is now being shown before most screenings of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.” This theatrical trailer is the first substantial exposition of the characters, setting, and snippets of plot so far. Likewise a six minute opening prologue, which has been playing in select IMAX showings of “Mission: Impossible- Ghost protocol” as well as floating around the internet, gives the first extensive depiction of this film’s main villain, Bane, played by Tom Hardy.

With all of this buzz and excitement circulating around the forth coming end of Christopher Nolan’s Batman saga, I have decided to take a look back at the humble roots of some of images and icons of Batman.

Posters- the public face of any movie, helps portay the tone of the film as well as show who’s actually in the film.

This was the poster of the 1966 film Batman, which was the first big screen incarnation of the batman or as the poster touts, “For the first time on the motion picture screen in color,” an apt description. I learned this wasn’t actually the first Batman movie. There was series of serial films made in the 1940s.

The poster itself has a disjointed visual theme. The art team who put it together must not have all been on the same page, half the poster is live action stills of the protagonists, antagonists, and two Bat-means of conveyance. The other half of the poster is comprised of cartoon renderings apparently of five anonymous bad guys who have been clobbered by the Adam West and Burt Ward, Batman and Robin. This quaint little poster does a great job portraying the campiness of the film and the earliest portrayal of Batman.

Holy Crap. Those were the words that went through my head the first time I saw this poster. “The Dark Knight Rises” will supposedly be the last Batman film Nolan will direct and Christian Bale will star in, and is apparently a definitive end to the Bruce Wayne story. That taken into account this poster reflects the dark gritty foreboding of an actual end of a Batman story which has never been done on film.

The Batmobile- is one of the mainstays of the Batman universe, it embodies the futuristic side of the caped crusader.

This was the original batmobile. This is the first Bat car which Adam West drove around Gotham in the 1960s television show as well as the 1966 film. Based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura Show Car, this bat car is exactly what a 1960s Bruce Wayne would want as a stylish posh crime busting vehicle. Like the poster, this earliest batmobile fits perfectly with the lighthearted camp of the series.

As most Quincy residents should recall, earlier this year we got to see firsthand what Nolan plans on including in the bat mobile department. The Tumbler, featured in “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” and now “The Dark Knight Rises” is according to Lucius Fox (Batman’s tech guy), “She was built as a bridging vehicle. During combat, two of these would jump over a river, towing cables.” This piece of repurposes military hardware fits well into the realism of the newest series. The sight of an armored desert camouflage vehicle in a major American city might be subtlety used by the film makers to elicit a sense of fear and panic from an audience which is all too used to seeing similarly designed vehicles rolling down the main streets of Cairo, Damascus, and Bagdad.

Alfred Pennyworth- The constant loyal aid to the Wayne family and present in almost every rendering of Batman.

Circa 1966, a fine rendering of a British butler.

Michael Cain, more please.

The Sidekick- while not every super hero has a sidekick, usually there is some character who helps the hero along the way, trades jokes, and adds a bit of comic relief.

Robin, the classic batman sidekick.

Morgan Freeman as Lucuis Fox: he looks out for Wayne Enterprises, supplies batman with new weapons and technology, but probably doesn’t look that good in a pair of green shorts.

Kevin Hahn