Bruce Lee vs Batman: the crossover that had TV writers questioning themselves
If there’s one man who inspired millions of children around the world to attempt absolutely stupid stunts and break bones, it’s Bruce Lee.
Almost every martial arts fan you know probably had a poster of the man’s abs plastered on the walls of their room at some point or another, as Lee single-handedly helmed the popularisation of Asian kung fu flicks in the West. With his cinematic aura of invincibility covering him like a shroud whenever he appeared on-screen, it was impossible to believe that he was ever going to fade away.
That’s probably why the entire world was stunned when news first broke that Lee was gone forever at the unbelievably young age of 32, fuelling decades of shitty conspiracy theories and C-grade impersonator tributes. But on the other hand, it’s not a stretch to say that Lee is still alive, in the sense that his legacy permeates the extensive evolution of the genre that has taken place in the years since.
As is inevitable with a star of his calibre, fans and producers alike wondered what it would be like to see Lee take on other mythologised heroes of the screen. Case in point, his encounter with Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon was a crucial moment in all of film history, setting the tone for high-profile crossovers as a vital part of fan service. Basically, every time you see another tired cameo which has been shoehorned into a project that kids can’t stop yelling at in the theatre, you know who to blame.
Of course, what Lee actually started is far removed from what the concept has turned into now, and he didn’t stop at Norris either. Yes, the man was even in the presence of Batman at one point in his career, and such was the sheer magnitude of his appeal that nobody for a second even entertained the idea that the caped crusader could take him on.
Alongside the iconic martial arts films that make up who Bruce Lee is, his involvement in The Green Hornet TV show was also pivotal in increasing his star power for Western audiences. He was Kato to Van Williams’ Green Hornet, and he was fucking fantastic, which many comic book fans and Lee devotees only discovered after they decided to track down his entire catalogue of work because the show was eventually cancelled.
It’s interesting to look back at all of it now, since in many ways, it was one of Lee’s biggest turning points. and pretty bizarre as well because Williams only got to know about Lee and meet him during a press event, but that was enough. That’s all it took for him to realise Lee’s strengths, as he said, “It was the first time I’d met Bruce, and we didn’t really have much time to sit down and talk or anything else, but I liked him from the moment I met him!”
Crossovers in comic books aren’t really a huge deal because that’s literally the bedrock of the entire medium. That’s why it isn’t really surprising that the producers wanted Green Hornet and Kato to come face to face with Batman and Robin, but what led to the events unfolding on the screen is the real gem of the story.
Initially, the writers had Lee’s Kato losing to Robin after Batman and his sidekick mistake the other two for criminals. But they ended up rewriting that entire sequence because they probably thought, ‘Wait a fucking minute, this is Bruce Lee! He could kick Batman’s head in before the nepo baby could pull out another dumb gadget from his belt.’
Watching the episode now, the significance of that crossover might not be apparent immediately, but the fact that the writers changed it showed just how untouchable Lee’s invincibility was, and it was that invincibility that Jackie Chan later flipped to vulnerability to usher in a new era of kung fu cinema.
