While speaking to Forbes, Schumacher described Batman as a childhood favorite of his. Indeed, he was born in 1939, the same year Batman debuted in “Detective Comics #27.” Schumacher preferred Batman to Superman, as, “[he] was always since childhood a little on the dark side.” He also notes he grew up reading the comics themselves, not watching Batman on television; he was 26 when Adam West made his small-screen debut as the Caped Crusader.
Schumacher’s childhood love of Batman comics meant he was naturally interested in the offer to direct a movie. Rather than approaching the material with an auteur’s lens like Burton had, Schumacher would put the stories of his youth on the big screen. He recounts: “Comic books were like storyboards, as you know […] So to me it was kind of, ‘Oh my God, I could get to make a Batman comic. Are you kidding me? This is so cool!'” Too bad Schumacher and Batman fans had different types of comics in mind.
