Respected Artists Who Were Actually Terrible People

Bob Kane's greatest claim to fame was being the artist who claimed he'd invented Batman. Bill Finger's greatest claim to fame was being the artist who actually invented Batman, only to watch as his more influential friend took all the credit, belittled Finger's own claims, and left him to die in obscurity. Yep, the greatest superhero America has seen came from a broken home with two warring dads. But while Bat-dad Kane would make money off Batman from day one, Bat-dad Finger wouldn't get a creator credit until 2015.

Comics Alliance has the story. In the late 1930s, Kane came up with the concept for a character called Bat-Man. He would wear a red suit, have wavy blonde hair, and fly around using a pair of bat wings. Kane conscripted his friend to flesh out the character, and Finger was savvy enough to realize Kane's concept sucked. Finger created the Batman costume known today, removed the character's superpowers, made him a detective, and created Catwoman, Robin, and the Joker to boot. Kane, meanwhile, used his own creative powers to invent ways to steal Finger's credit, securing a contract with DC that forbade them from crediting his friend.

When Kane died in 1998, his gravestone finally acknowledged that Batman had a co-creator. It claimed God helped Kane write his comics.

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