I understand that the bat logo on his chest is like a sigil, I understand that the yellow oval is to draw gunfire to the chest which is the only bullet proof part of his costume, I understand the purpose of the cape and cowl is to make him look like a bat and I understand that choice of black and grey as they make it easier to hide in shadows, what I don’t understand is the colour blue! Why does a guy who sneaks around in the night wear blue, and in some comics the blue is actually quite bright almost a sea green turquoise.
So why this strange choice of colour?
Answer
As it turn out a blue sheen on a black surface is meant to represent a glossy black surface in DC Comics (and possibly other comics) for example Superman's hair. As the years passed and printing technology improved this look was kept perhaps because it had become traditional.
In old school Batman comics Batman's cape and cowl also had a similar blue sheen which indicated that they were black within the context of the story even though they appeared blue from the point of view of the reader.
The blue sheen look was made by colouring the majority of the area in with black ink leaving only the highlights uncoloured and then the colourist would eventually go over these areas with blue.
As the years passed for one reason or another the artists stopped filling in areas of the cape and cowl with black with a small area left to be coloured blue and the majority of the cape became blue, leading to Batman's light blue look from the 1940s to the 1990s.
But even though the cape and cowl appeared blue within the context of the story they were still black. In Batman #445 Alfred confirms that Wayne's costume is black and grey and not blue and grey. An interesting side note is that the yellow oval on Batman's chest was never yellow but was meant to be gold.
Batman's blue cape and cowl are meant to have been black they were just coloured blue with the assumption that the reader would understand they were black.
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