Overview
Batkid is the nickname given to Miles Scott, a child cancer patient who ventured across the city of San Francisco dressed as Batman as part of an event orchestrated by the Make-A-Wish Foundation in November of 2013.
Background
On November 15th, 2013, the Make-A-Wish Foundation produced an event for Miles Scott, a 5-year-old cancer patient who has been battling leukemia, in San Francisco, California, by transforming parts of the city into the fictional Gotham and re-enacting memorable scenes from the Batman franchise with fictional villains Riddler and Penguin in various locations. According to the foundation, the event drew about 13,000 people to cheer him on along the way. That same day, San Francisco Chronicle uploaded a video footage of the event to Vimeo (shown below),[14] where it received more than 367,000 views and 3,000 likes in less than 72 hours.
Notable Developments
Online Reactions
Throughout the day, several posts highlighting the BatKid surfaced on the front page of Reddit, further boosting the online news coverage of the Make-A-Wish event (shown below).[1][2][3][4]
Meanwhile, other Redditors reacted to the event with image macro commentaries and GIFs, including an Insanity Wolf instance joking that Scott’s parents must be killed for him to become the true Batman in canon (shown below, left) an Everyone Loses Their Minds example scolding Redditors for moving on so quickly from the sufferings in the Philippines in the wake of the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan (shown below, middle) and a reactionGIF of an animated Batman crying (shown below, right).[5][6][17]
On November 16th, The White House posted its first Vine clip[15] featuring a congratulatory message from President Barack Obama to BatKid for “saving the Gotham.”
Batman Actor Reactions
Also on November 16th, English actor Christian Bale, who portrayed Batman in the films Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), praised Scott in an interview with the tech news site Vulture.[16]
“This little kid, oh my God -- what a wonderful day for the little fella! It’s just fantastic, seeing all those people who were out there to support it.”
In addition, other Batman actors applauded Scott and the foundation on Twitter, including Adam West from the 1960s Batman live action television series and Ben Affleck, who was recently cast in a Superman-Batman crossover film set for release in 2015.
What a wonderful thing. Relieved that Gotham is safe again thanks to Miles. #SFBatkid#makeawish… http://t.co/xxX4WQSnfy
— Adam West (@therealadamwest) November 16, 2013
Batkid. Best Batman ever. #SFBatKid#MakeAWish@SFWish
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) November 16, 2013
New Media Coverage
In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the Make-A-Wish event, including The Guardian,[7]NPR,[8] E! Online,[9]CNN,[10] The Daily Mail,[11] NY Daily News[12] and The Huffington Post.[13]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Reddit – Thanks to Make-A-Wish Miles got to be Batkid in Gotham City
[2]Reddit – San Francisco is Gotham City Today
[3]Reddit – Some images from Miles day as Batkid
[4]Reddit – This little guy has leukemia but he didnt let that stop him when Gotham needed him
[5]Reddit – Turning SF in to Gotham
[6]Reddit – Hes the hero Gotham deserves
[7]The Guardian – Batkid saves San Francisco
[8]NPR– Holy Heartwarmer! No One Can Seem To Get Enough Of Batkid
[9]E! Online – Christian Bale Praise Batkid
[10]CNN– Dark Knights Christian Bale loves Batkid
[11]The Daily Mail – Behind the scenes with Batkid
[12]NY Daily News – Batkid lauded by Batman actors Christian Bale
[13]The Huffington Post – Ben Affleck And Christian Bale Praise Batkid
[15]Vine – President Obama Has a Message for #SFBatKid
[16]Vulture – Christian Bale on Batkid: ‘What a Wonderful Day for the Little Fella!’