Michael Uslan: The ordinary guy who rescued Batman

Michael Uslan bought the rights to Batman from DC Comics when he was in his 20s. COURTESY PHOTO

Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved comic books.

He loved them so much, he started collecting them at a young age.

By the time he graduated high school, he had amassed more than 30,000 of them.

I know there are a lot of you older moms and dads out there (mine would’ve fit the bill) who believe comic books are the most brain-rotting, lowest form of literature — if you can even call it (gasp!) literature — to ever plague America’s youth. Which also means you’d probably bet that any kid so passionately sh obsessed with said comic books would most likely amount to nothing in life.

Well, then … allow me to introduce Michael Uslan.

Not familiar with the name? Look him up on the International Movie Database ( imdb.com ), and you’ll find he is credited with being some level of producer of every Batman movie — live-action and animated (including the ones with Lego and Scooby-Doo) ever made since 1989. That’s the year Michael Keaton famously donned the costume and pitted himself against Jack Nicholson’s Joker in director Tim Burton’s version — the one that started a tsunami of renewed interest in bringing comic book characters to the screen that continues to this day.

MichaelM Uslan’s book, “The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir,” has beenb turned into a play headed for Broadway — but will first premiere ini Southwest Florida. COURTESY PHOTO

To anyone who loves superhero comics, cartoons, live-action movies and video games, Uslan is your real-life hero.

True, he doesn’t wear a cape, punch his way through solid steel or leap over tall buildings in a single bound — but he’s a hero just the same. He’s the unarmed David who defeated the Goliath of naysayers in Hollywood with nothing but the determination he picked up along the way.

And the road to his victory makes for an incredible story — full of joy, sadness, pathos, daunting challenges, crushing failures and unbelievable successes — which he recounts in his book, “The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir.”

But this article isn’t about that story. Rather, it’s about how his book has been turned into a play headed for Broadway via London’s West End — but not before making its world premiere right here in Southwest Florida, at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.

Yes, it’s a bit of a drive from the Sarasota County area — but for fans of either superheroes or Broadway theater, it is also the opportunity of a lifetime.

“I would love for people to understand what we’re doing, and hop in their cars and take the drive up,” Uslan said. “We are Broadway-bound, we’re London-bound — and it’s all starting here in Florida.”

And that, in itself, is quite a story.

Comic-conscious

“My mom may have given birth to me, but my comic books formed me and made me who I am,” Uslan writes in his book.

That probably explains why, at 73 years old, his voice on the phone exuberated with all the zeal, promise and exhilaration of a high school kid when the last bell rings signaling the start of summer vacation.

Uslan is one of those rare individuals whose résumé reflects more activity than what should be possible in one person’s lifetime.

From humble beginnings in a blue-collar family in New Jersey, Uslan became an attorney in the motion picture industry, at one point working for United Artists. But he had already made a splash as an undergraduate at the University of Indiana by introducing what would eventually become the first college-accredited course on comic books as a literary form, comparing superheroes to the gods and heroes of mythology and even religious tradition.

In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Monmouth University in New Jersey — the first-ever given for the art of the comic book.

He has written comics for DC while still in college, and once received a surprise phone call from the late Stan Lee (the legendary creator of Spider-Man and other Marvel superheroes), who became his mentor.

A great believer in “giving back,” Uslan has donated 45,000 comic books and other memorabilia from his personal collection to the University of Indiana’s rare book- and manuscript-laden Lilly Library.

And then there’s the ultimate vindication of a comics-obsessed kid as an adult: A number of those old comic books, some that sold for as little as 10 cents, currently have been valued in the thousands — even millions — of dollars.

Of course, Uslan was blessed with that rare mother who was willing to cut him a deal: He could keep his comic book collection if he also read books, magazines and newspapers.

“Having been one of the lucky few who collected and was allowed to keep my collection, I have to thank the moms of America — because they’re the ones who made comic books so valuable by throwing them all out when we weren’t looking or when we went off to college,” Uslan quipped. “Not only did they create this huge, auction-based market for comic books, but they did the same thing for baseball cards.”

So, what convinced Uslan’s mom to be that exception to the maternal rule?

“My mother said, ‘I believe these things are sparking your imagination. They’re certainly helping you learn to read. They’re certainly increasing your vocabulary.’ I was the only 5-year-old in my neighborhood who used words like ‘indestructible’ and ‘invulnerable.’”

Those words would come in handy when it came time for him to chase his lifelong dream.

Dark Knight of the soul

As you can imagine, Batman was a favorite of young Michael Uslan. When he found out the character was going to become the subject of a TV series, the boy was brimming with anticipation.

On that chill winter night in January 1966 when the show premiered, I imagine he propped himself in front of the television set like it was a holy altar, preparing to revel in the exploits of Bruce Wayne, psychologically damaged since boyhood after witnessing his parents’ brutal murder. Bruce Wayne, the millionaire by day who assuaged his demons by roaming the shadows of Gotham City by night, dispensing his brand of justice to a host of some of the most psychotic villains in all of comic bookdom.

“I was so excited. I had been waiting months for this night,” Uslan recalled.

But there was one glitch.

“I couldn’t figure out why TV Guide put in the little square ‘Comedy.’ And I thought, ‘What the heck is that? Batman is no comedy.’”

As anyone who has seen even a single episode of the original series knows, there was nothing dark about that version of the Dark Knight. The brooding, somber tone of the comic was replaced with camp, gags and ridiculous gadgets. Batman’s mentally unstable nemeses were instead portrayed as ludicrously cartoonish — more clowns than villains.

“About 20 minutes in, it hits me: Oh, my God, they have made a joke out of Batman. The whole world is laughing at Batman — and that’s what killed me.

“In my basement den, that night after the show, I made a vow the way Bruce Wayne once made a vow when he was a kid — except he made his vow over the bloody, slaughtered bodies of his parents in the street; my parents were safe in the kitchen upstairs — and I said, ‘Somehow, someday, I’m going to show the world the true Batman, the guy created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane as this creature of the night. And I’m going to make these three words go away: Pow! Zap! and Wham!”

Uslan was able to execute the first phase of that dream while still a young man.

“People don’t know … that, as a kid in my 20s, I bought the rights to Batman from DC Comics,” he said. “People today go, ‘That’s impossible! That’s inconceivable! A kid in his 20s buying the rights to Batman? Can’t be done!’ But in the context of the times, the audience will learn that nobody else on the planet showed up.”

Armed with this newly acquired Holy Grail, this all-powerful talisman, Uslan was ready to approach the Hollywood studios to produce the first truly serious live-action comic book film — one he was certain would lead to sequels, animated series, toys, games and ardent fans. Like a superhero himself, Uslan would barge into Tinseltown’s great dream factory and hit it big.

Or so he thought.

“I was turned down cold by every single studio in Hollywood. They all told me I was crazy, that this is the worst idea they ever heard. They said, ‘Kid, you’re nuts. You can’t do serious comic book movies. You can’t do dark superheroes.’

“So, from the time I bought the rights ’til we finally got the first movie out — with Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson — it was a human endurance contest of 10 years. Ten years of rejection. Ten years of not knowing how I was going to pay my bills next week. Ten years of my wife, who I met the first day of my freshman year of college, sticking with me and being my sup- port system, along with my parents, to help me manage to stay afloat until I could make these dreams come true that I believed in so desperately.”

Recounting the astonishing journey from comic book-loving kid to launching that 1989 film (which became the top box office draw of that year) — and being a producer of so many major, star-studded Batman movies since — is the topic of Uslan’s book.

Little did he know that his story was not destined to remain only on a printed page.

An offer he couldn’t refuse

“It began where a friend of mine sent a copy of my memoir, ‘The Boy Who Loved Batman,’ to his friend, Bob Nederlander (president and CEO) of Nederlander Worldwide,” Uslan recounted. “When it comes to Broadway, the ‘kings’ of Broadway are the Nederlanders and the Shuberts.

“Lo and behold, I wind up having dinner with Bob, and he said, ‘So, let me ask you this. What would you think about having a Broadway play based on your memoir?’

“Never in my life had the word ‘yes’ slipped through my lips faster.

“He said, ‘You know, Michael, Broadway’s changing, post-COVID. We’re looking for more intimate stories, stories that can inspire people while they entertain people, stories that can make people laugh but bring a tear to their eye — and we think your story is exactly the right one for our audiences.’

“And that’s what began the process.”

From there, the production took on writer Asa Somers and Tony Award-nominated director Jeff Calhoun. Then the Straz Center came aboard to help with the show’s development.

“Right now, we are going to see how we play to audiences,” Uslan said. “I’m from the world of motion pictures and we test our movies before they come out. So, this is like our first dramatic test. Everybody that’s been involved in it, especially the good folks from the Straz Center when they’ve been at our readings, there is magic in the air; there is something really, really special.”

Tony Award-winning actor Dan Fogler — whose credits include the post-Harry Potter “Fantasic Beasts” movies, “The Walking Dead” TV series, and a stint portraying director Francis Ford Coppola in the streaming series “The Author,” about the making of the movie “The Godfather,” among others — will play Uslan from ages 7 to 40.

“Dan Fogler playing me at age 7 — it’s a hoot,” Uslan said. “And Dan’s also a comic book guy; he’s a geek like me. What he brings to this is incredible.”

While “The Boy Who Loved Batman” is Uslan’s story, and he believes audiences will be thrilled to learn how the Batman movies came to be, his focus is not on himself.

He has, he admitted, an ulterior motive. And he sums it up in one word.

Broadway bound

“I think what we’ve hit on here is a story that is a comedy, but a comedy with tragedy — one that mixes the laughs with tears,” Uslan noted. “And when you leave that theater — and I don’t want to give too many hints away — to the notes of Danny Elfman’s Batman theme, I think and I hope that a lot of young people, in particular, will be inspired to believe that if they go out and explore and discover their passion, and if they follow their passion, get up off the couch and be proactive and persevere — persevere — that they can make their dreams come true, because I did.”

Uslan considers himself no different from anyone else. He’s a blue-collar kid from New Jersey whose father was a stone mason and whose mother was a bookkeeper.

Even in phone conversation, it’s clear that, in spite of his overwhelming success, he’s just a regular, stand-up kinda guy … like a friendly, humble next-door neighbor who never lets on that he’s actually a gazillionaire Powerball winner.

“I didn’t come from money, so I couldn’t buy my way into Hollywood,” Uslan said. “I had no relatives in Hollywood. I didn’t know anybody in Hollywood.”

All he had was his passion — but he learned that, if you are sufficiently fired up, that’s enough.

“I would love it if young people see this — or parents or grandparents see it and go, ‘My kids must come to this,’ or ‘My grandkids must see this.’”

And therein lies Uslan’s secret motivation for the show.

“At this stage of my life and my career, I guess it’s summed up in one word, and that’s ‘legacy,’” he said. “I’d love to have this inspire lots of people in that regard.

“I even think it could do that for people in their 40s and their 50s. The world is changing around them. Their jobs are changing; their jobs are disappearing. And we all, periodically, have to roll the dice and reinvent ourselves, just the way we reinvent Batman periodically. I just hope this is inspirational to everybody to just follow their dreams.”

Uslan sees “The Boy Who Loved Batman” more as “a story of family. It’s a love story,” he said. “Yeah, you can make your dreams come true — but not necessarily alone. Sometimes you just need family, friends, a support system. I think that these are important things to learn about, and (in the show), you can learn about them in a way that’s very funny and periodically tear-jerking.”

After its world premiere in Tampa, the next stop will be London’s West End — and then, ultimately, Broadway.

“It is this exciting journey,” Uslan said. “And here I am at this ripe old age and I’m going back to my high school reunion in three weeks, and 90% of the kids I grew up with have retired. And more than 50% have been counting the days since they turned 50 years old — they were bored by their jobs or they hated what they did.

“And now, at this age, I feel like I’m a college kid in my first job … and I’ve started this whole new career working in theater and heading toward Broadway.

“I feel, inside, like I’m still that boy who loved Batman.”

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