Batman: the Caped Crusader at 75 – in pictures

A friend of Dorothy he may or may not be, but it's hard to think of Batman as her contemporary. Like Judy Garland's incarnation of the Wizard of Oz heroine however, the Caped Crusader celebrates a diamond anniversary this year, having first appeared 75 years ago in Detective Comics #27 Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar

With yet another film in the works, the obstinately rubber-clad septuagenarian remains a ubiquitous cultural icon, in large part due to a perennially elusive psychology that shifts with each interpretation.

Bob Lowery as Batman and John Duncan as Robin, in the 1949 movie serial, Batman and Robin Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

1939: Batman is introduced as a terrifying vigilante figure, prone to remorseless killing – his chilly mentality explained later with the backstory of his parents' murder Photograph: PA

1940: Justice is all well and good, but can we lighten him up a little? DC Comics editor Whitney Ellsworth orders that the character can no longer be seen to kill, initiating a move toward warmer respectability that continued through the brighter, more fantasy-driven comics of the postwar period.

This issue of Detective Comics is from December 1949 Photograph: DC Comics

1954: Not respectable enough for some, as psychologist Fredric Wertham suggests the comics "stimulate children to homosexual fantasies" through Batman's relationship with young ward Robin. Love interest Batwoman is introduced shortly afterwards, but doesn't last: girls come and go, as does Robin, but Batman's heart truly belongs to his butler, Alfred.

This issue of Detective Comics is from July 1956 Photograph: DC Comics

1966: Batman's first film and accompanying TV series strip the hero of any remaining menace, embracing a high-camp tone and upping the chemistry with Robin. It's a gesture toward swinging 60s liberalism that comic writers spend a couple of decades trying to correct.

Adam West And Burt Ward in a gravity-defying still from the TV series Photograph: ZUMA Press/Alamy

Bubble gum trading cards from the 1966 Batman trading card set known as the Black Bat series or orange backs Photograph: Alamy

1989: Tim Burton's gothic-styled Batman reintroduces the darkness, while Michael Keaton refashions Bruce Wayne as a surly, sulky and highly reticent man of mystery – he's never seemed more adolescent Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar

On the set of 1992's Batman Returns, Tim Burton directs Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Keaton Photograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex Features

1995: Joel Schumacher prefers his Batman less psychologised and more eroticised – cue a redesign of the Batsuit as fetish wear (complete with nipples), the come-out-of-the-closet taunting of the Riddler and of course, the return of a particularly twinky Robin.

Val Kilmer and Chris O'Donnell in Batman Forever Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar

2005: No sex please, we're Batman. Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy returns the figure to his origins as a ruthless peacekeeper. Suffused with post-9/11 fury.

Gus Lewis plays an eight-year-old Bruce Wayne, with Linus Roache and Sara Stewart, as his parents, in Batman Begins Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar

Christian Bale as the Dark Knight in 2005's Batman Begins Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar

2014: The Lego Movie takes Nolan's self-important Knight down a notch, pointing out the empty misogyny behind his intense facade as he plays second fiddle to a chipper construction worker Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar