Batman: All 10 Batcaves ranked from worst to best

9. The 1940s serial Batcaves

We’re throwing things all the way back to the beginning of Batman’s live-action journey with these next two Batcaves. The Caped Crusaders made their first appearance on the big screen in the 1943 movie serial Batman before returning (albeit played by different actors) in the 1949 sequel Batman and Robin.

We’re choosing to rank both Batcaves together as they are pretty similar. Both of them opt for a very classic horror movie look, with the shading highlighting all of the cracks and formations on the cave walls. It’s all very theatrical, particularly in the first serial which tries to lean into Batman’s unearthliness a lot more (since it was after all his first appearance).

The second one modernized things slightly, featuring even more of the gadgets and devices that the Batcave would become known for in the future, perhaps even inspiring the laboratory look of the more famous 1966 Batcave.

While many aspects of the 1940s serials haven’t aged all that well, the Batcave is not one of them. And we should appreciate these ones more often because of how they brought the horrifying design to life a lot more convincingly than some of the less characteristic modern versions.