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None of the live-action Batman films have yet depicted the Batcave as being quite as grandiose as it is in the comics. In the “Dark Knight” trilogy, it’s just some railings, platforms, and a computer console built into the cave systems under Wayne Manor. The DC Extended Universe films, from “Batman v Superman” onward, depicted the cave like a modernist house with lots of glass paneling. The best reimagining was in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” which made the Batcave look like an abandoned underground subway station — perfect for a Batman who lives and hides in the heart of Gotham City.
The comic’ Batman, though, doesn’t just keep his equipment — from his Batmobile to his Batcomputer — in the Batcave. It’s also stocked with trophies from his more memorable adventures. The three biggest trophies, as you might have seen in “Batman: The Animated Series,” are a giant Joker card, a giant penny, and a life-size T-Rex statue. The last one is especially hard to miss. When The Flash first visits the Batcave in “Justice League,” he’s awestruck: “That’s a giant dinosaur!” (Alfred: “And I thought Batman was the detective.”)
Where did Batman get this fine statue? It goes back to 1946’s “Batman” #35, where Batman and Robin had an adventure on Dinosaur Island.
DC Comics
Now, this isn’t the “real” Dinosaur Island introduced in 1960, which houses actual living and breathing dinosaurs. No, in “Batman” #35, an eccentric showman named Murray Wilson Hart decides to build a theme park of animatronic dinosaurs. He invites Batman and Robin to tour it, but a criminal named Stephen Chase hijacks the dinosaurs to try and kill the Dynamic Duo. He fails, but Dinosaur Island doesn’t go anywhere; Batman got to keep the park’s T-Rex animatronic, and he stuck it in the Batcave.
The Batcave’s T-Rex statue goes back to the early Batman comics
What about the other trophies in the Batcave? Do they have similarly dynamic origins?
It’s easy enough to guess where the Joker card comes from, nicked from Batman’s archnemesis. The Giant Penny comes from “World’s Finest” #30, published in 1947 (notice the penny is dated for that year). That comic had a story where Batman & Robin fought the dastardly villains, the Penny Plunderers, who tried to steal the giant penny from a public exhibition. Instead, Batman got to keep it. “Batman: The Animated Series” made the penny a trophy from Two-Face, Batman’s much more famous coin-themed villain. As shown in the classic episode “Almost Got ‘Im,” Two-Face once tied Batman to it for a lethal coin flip, only for the Dark Knight to cut himself free.
As for why these are the three trophies that most often and consistently appear in the Batcave? They’re big and hard to miss, which means they get ingrained in Bat-fans’ memories as important fixtures of the Batcave. “Batman: The Animated Series” featuring them also contributes; that show defined itself as the definitive Batman for a generation. Plus, drawing a Batman comic doesn’t usually offer many chances to draw dinosaurs, so maybe artists leap at the chance.
Exaggerated architecture has always been a feature of Gotham City, whether that be the giant toy chest feel of the Silver Age, the dark German Expressionism of Tim Burton’s “Batman,” or the mid-20th century art deco in “Batman: The Animated Series.” Batman’s dinosaur-sized furnishings in the cave he calls home fit in right with the look of Gotham City itself.
