6. Adam West
There are some that would disagree with this placement, but Adam West’s Batman simply doesn’t hold a candle to modern incarnations. The 1960s saw Batman get a decidedly campy makeover, with 1966 marking the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the character. West’s Batman was lithe and the world he existed in was wacky and (mostly) family-friendly, which is mostly why he’s so far down in the rankings.
West’s Batman lacks any of the edge or darkness that the character embodies. Even the earliest comic book incarnations acknowledged the element of fear that Batman utilized to combat his foes, and that simply wasn’t something that was present in 1966’s Batman. Adam West simply didn’t cut an overly fearsome figure in his stretchy bodysuit, and the irrefutable campiness of the entire affair just doesn’t capture the true nature of the character.
This isn’t down to West’s performance as much as the overall tone that the adaptation employed. It wasn’t intended to be a dark examination of the nature of heroism or the duality of the character, but simply a fun and simplistic retelling of the basic idea of vigilante crimefighters. It’s easy to see why Adam West’s version of Batman has so many steadfast fans, but he simply isn’t a particularly interesting or compelling character in comparison to more recent iterations.