The superhero genre evolved with three key films, featuring its biggest names: Superman (1978), Spider-Man in 2002 and 1989’s version of The Dark Knight. Other important stepping stones exist – Blade, Iron Man – but these three took superhero films and figured out how to make them regular mainstream entertainment. Superman set the template, but Batman showed what star power could do, provided they were given opportunities to turn on the charm. This is what led to Jack Nicholson receiving top billing for playing Joker. It also led to a couple of scenes that were obviously not in the original script, but added a chance for Keaton and Nicholson to square off face-to-face, or let Tim Burton put his visual stamp on certain scenes while also obviously helping to sell the soundtrack by Prince. The seams are as obvious here as they are on the suit Catwoman wears in the sequel, yet you understand the entertainment value of such adjustments.
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