"I am vengeance. I am the night. I… Am… BATMAN!" ~ Kevin Conroy.
This isn't a story or anything. I just needed to say something after what I, and everyone had just found out about today. As many already know we have just recently lost not just a great person, but one of the most iconic figures in the history of pop culture.
I'm talking about Kevin Conroy. The one man everyone knows as the definitive version of the greatest superhero in comics history…. The Batman.
Manny fans remember Kevin for his role as the caped crusader in iconic superhero cartoons such as Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series (1996–2000), The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), Batman Beyond (1999–2001), Justice League (2001–2004), and Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006).
We also remembered him for playing the caped crusader in a plethora of video games as well such as Rocksteady Studio's Batman Arkham series, NetherRealm Studio's Injustice series, and most recently in Player First Game's MultiVersus.
You can imagine how such an iconic name can carry great meaning to a lot of fans weather they were comic fans or not. It also hurts that he attended a lot of Comic Cons, and his presence alone warmed the heart of millions of fans.
When I was a kid I personally never had the chance to meet him, nor did I ever know who he was at the time, but as I grew older I could easily recognize how much of an importance he was to a lot of people, and how he helped shape me and every kid who grew up watching him into who we are today.
It hurt me inside knowing he's officially gone, and it will be impossible to ever find anyone like him again, and even if they do… it won't be the same. You would think a man like Kevin would live forever, but I suppose that this goes to show that even the greatest human beings are still mortal.
But someone once said that just because someone is gone that doesn't mean they are gone forever. I suppose in a way great men like Kevin do live on, and I believe that they will. I'm pretty confident when I say that in the next few years from now, we will all look back and still say Kevin Conroy is has was and always will be the definitive Batman.
It hurts knowing someone is gone. But as the old saying goes… time heals all wounds. The pain will be strong at the start, but overtime it will start to die off. Eventually it will become a distant memory. But this day can officially be marked as an end of an era.
To Kevin's fans and to his family I give them my deepest condolences and much like them and everyone else, I say may he rest in peace.
In loving memory of Kevin Conroy.
(November 30, 1955 - November 10, 2022)