NOBODY EXPECTED BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM

TO BE AS GREAT AS IT WAS — EXCEPT THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT. THIRTY YEARS ON, THEY LOOK BACK AT AN ANIMATED CLASSIC — AND THE ACTOR WHO GAVE THE DARK KNIGHT A HEART

WORDS AMON WARMANN

ILLUSTRATION MIKE CATHRO

Kevin Conroy’s Dark Knight in full flight in Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm.

BATMAN HAD DIED.

That’s what it felt like when word came through that Kevin Conroy, the man who had voiced the character for 30 years in animated films, TV shows and beyond, had passed away after a short battle with cancer in November last year. The impact of his loss was deeply felt across generations of Bat-fans. For many, Conroy had been the beloved Batman of their childhood. He is an inextricable part of the Dark Knight’s legacy. So the mourning was for more than the death of an iconic voice actor: it really did feel like we had lost Batman himself.

That voice was so definitive that Conroy carried on playing the Caped Crusader for three decades, long after Batman: The Animated Series had called it a day. And each time it was confirmed that he was on board another Bat-related project, there was an added layer of excitement for those eager for another hit of fresh Conroy vocals. It almost seemed as if he would outlive us all and be voicing Batman forever. When Empire speaks with Mark Hamill, Conroy’s friend and long-time co-star as the Joker, it’s on what would have been Conroy’s 67th birthday, and the emotions are still raw. “I’m still sort of in semi-denial about losing him, you know,” says Hamill. “Just doesn’t seem real to me.”

Though Conroy may no longer be with us, his iconic work remains. Hours and hours of animated episodes, films and video games showcase why he was the perfect vocal steward for the Dark Knight. He could play gruff. He could play vulnerable. He brought the gravitas. In one memorable episode of Justice League Unlimited, ‘This Little Piggy’, he even sings. None of it ever felt false. Conroy sounded exactly how Batman should sound.

In 1993’s feature-length animation Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm, he gets to play all those notes (minus the singing) and more across 76 magnificent minutes. “It was a great Batman story, and a great Bruce Wayne story,” says writer Paul Dini today. “And it’s really a tour de force role for Kevin, where it really stretches what he could do, as Bruce and as Batman.” It’s a big reason why the movie is still held up as a cinematic peak of Batman storytelling, 30 years after its Bat-signal first lit up the silver screen. Yet it was never meant to hit cinemas at all.