Ideal Batman? TV, Movies, Animated, Comics?

[Kal-el]

Many different Caped Crusaders to choose from here. In their own way, they all have some appeal to me. The first Batman movie seemed to capture some of the finer points that "make" Batman. B:TAS and TNBA were very good, but none of them really captured the darkness I crave when it comes to Batman. IMO DC has done the best job of this. Darkness and Batman go together for me. Gotham is a dark, dreary place with Batman as it's protector.
Any thoughts? Opinions? Theories?

[optimal321]

Well, my fav Batman representation is BTAS. I'll admit i'm partially biased because it was the first i was really introduced to, but it also has a lot of better aspects than DCU, imo. Of course, i'm not an avid comics reader either. And personally, i thought that BTAS had just the right amount of darkness to it. It's just that when i think Batman, i think the animated Batman.

[Squall]

For me, the ideal Batman (and Joker, Superman, Lex Luthor, Darksied, etc.) will always be the Dini/Timm cartoons, especially The Batman/Superman Adventures. I never before (and probably never again) have seen someone take such a large pool of characters, "fix" a formerly corny and messed-up DC Universe (like the older comics, which got waay too complicated, or the 1970's "Superfriends" cartoon, which is the epitomy of corny), and get it all done the RIGHT way, from the characters to the setting. :)

[Calhoun07]

If the animated series takes Batman back to the basics, then wouldn't your favorite Batman in reality be the one that was originally in the basics? Before it all got campy with that series in the 60s? That was the Batman that inspired Timm. Personally, I have to go with the Batman that inspired all the rest. The original can't be beat.