Denver Comic Con 2017 Day 1

There is Only One Batman

I really cannot express how excited I was for this.

Now I know I already had one re-cap of Day 1 but I had to save an entire article for this one because this was absolutely a dream come true. While I very much enjoyed some of the celebrity appearances at DCC last year, I’m a Batman girl through and through and about lost my mind when I heard Kevin Conroy was going to be at DCC this year. When I was a kid, my brother and I would watch Saturday cartoons and the one that I fell in love with and made me the Batman fan that I am today was Batman: The Animated Series. There is no better Batman story, live action or animation, than this series and if you ask me (along with many others) who the best Batman is, it will be Kevin Conroy every time. To my absolute delight, I found out this afternoon that not only is he the perfect voice for everyone’s favorite Dark Knight, he’s one of the most entertaining and genuinely wonderful people I’ve seen at DCC.

Over the course of the 45 minute interview with Claire Kramer, Kevin Conroy spoke about how he got his start in voice acting, his experiences with the rest of the crew on Batman: The Animated Series and how he came to embody such an iconic character. While I knew that Conroy hadn’t had a lot of voice acting experience prior to being cast as Batman, I had no idea that it was the first time that he’d ever done it. Conroy very firmly believes that it was his lack of preconceptions concerning Batman (he was only familiar with the Adam West TV show) and his ability to use his acting training (he began at the famous Juilliard school at the age of 17) that allowed him to bring the character to life. As someone who loved both the animated series and the Arkham videogames by Rocksteady Studios, it was fascinating to hear him talk about the differences in experience between the show and the games. It was easy to see why he and Mark Hamill interacted so well as the ever at odds Batman and Joker. Conroy has an energy level, stage presence and easy humor that captivated the entire audience. And it certainly didn’t hurt when he began singing when asked about a Justice League episode in which Batman is improbably convinced to sing.

Getting to see Kevin Conroy talk about my favorite hero and finding out that he’s a genuinely wonderful person absolutely made my day. And we have Nathan Fillion to look forward to tomorrow. Talk about luck! Did you get a chance to see Conroy or excited about Fillion tomorrow? Let me know in the comments!

– Cait