Beyond his usual sidekicks, Batman has had his share of partners over the years, but none of them have proven so enduring as Scooby-Doo and his friends. The Caped Crusader has taken a turn for the grim of late, with even Superman proving a reluctant partner at best. And yet the Mystery Machine gang endures, not only as fellow solvers of kooky mysteries but as the perfect fit for the lighter side of the Dark Knight. The recent announcement of The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries comic has drawn renewed attention to their enduring partnership.
Looking back, six Batman voice actors have played opposite Scooby-Doo, constituting a hefty percentage of beloved Bruce Waynes. Scooby and his friends change very little over the course of these appearances, making them an excellent barometer to the actors’ different approaches to Batman.
Kevin Conroy
Kevin Conroy starred in the legendary Batman: The Animated Series and remains a favorite among fans. Getting him for the retro Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? was the finishing touch on an episode filled to the brim with Batman nostalgia. The gang heads to Wayne Manor to visit Daphne’s “Uncle” Alfred, only to find Pennyworth gone and an extremely grumpy Batman hot on his tail. Conroy -- perhaps the most serious Batman on this list -- fully embraces his straight man role here while forced to answer awkward questions about his identity and suffering the indignity of Velma hacking his utility belt. His Dark Knight tops a staggering amount of Batman Easter eggs, from the hidden switch to the Batpoles in Wayne Manor to the oddball samurai armor from the 1989 Tim Burton film. There’s even an abandoned department story named Miller and Frank’s.
Diedrich Bader
Diedrich Bader currently plays Batman on Harley Quinn, serving as a kind of exasperated grown-up to the show’s anarchic heroine. But his original take on the character goes back to Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which presented more family-friendly team-ups with fellow DC superheroes. It made perhaps the ideal environment for Scooby-Doo. Scoob and the gang initially appeared in Season 2, Episode 25, “Bat-Mite Presents: Batman’s Strangest Cases,” which ironically didn’t use Bader’s voice for Batman. That fell to Frank Welker, the long-time voice of Fred Jones, who pulled double-duty in an homage-laden short to the first Bat/Scooby riffs in the 1970s. It took a 2017 direct-to-video movie to properly team Bader’s Bat with Mystery, Inc. The results were worth the wait.
Will Arnett/Troy Baker
LEGO Dimensions is a bit of a deep cut as a crossover platform game consisting of LEGO variant characters joining forces in an effort to save the LEGO Multiverse. Troy Baker voiced Batman for the bulk of the game -- he’s been the staple for games of this type -- but a LEGO Movie Batman World appeared as a Dimensions expansion, as did a Scooby-Doo world. Will Arnett voiced Batman in his own world, while Matthew Lillard and Frank Welker did the same for Shaggy and Scooby respectively. All three are playable characters in the game, allowing fans to literally team up and solve the various puzzles together.
Adam West
Adam West is still considered the progenitor of Batman’s live-action incarnations, and the influence of his hit 60s show can’t be overstated. Ironically, he’s the only name on this list who didn’t play his most famous role opposite Scooby. But he made up for it with sheer variety, appearing in three separate Scooby entries as three separate characters. The most prominent is Aloha, Scooby-Doo! a 2005 direct-to-DVD movie that sent the gang to Hawaii. But he also appeared in the console video game Scooby-Doo Unmasked the same year, as well as a 2015 short, Scooby-Doo! and the Beach Beastie. The video game features Scooby in a number of superhero costumes obviously inspired by Batman, making West’s role an overt tip of the cap.
Olan Soule
Olan Soule is perhaps the least known actor to modern audiences, but he was the voice of Batman to an entire generation. He appeared in a constant stream of cartoons between 1968 and 1984, most produced by Hanna-Barbera, who was also responsible for Scooby-Doo. That led to the first Batman/Scooby pairing in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Batman and Robin (voiced by Casey Kasem, who also played Shaggy for many years) were largely played straight. Soule’s recognizable voice established that this was the Batman, setting the stages for all the Scooby-based team-ups to come.