Though it only appears onscreen for maybe thirty seconds, plus a number of in-cockpit shots of Batman, the Batskiboat makes quite an impression in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns as it jets through the sewers of Gotham City towards a confrontation with the Penguin.

Unlike Batboats seen in other movies and TV shows, the Batskiboat seems to functionally be closer to a hydrofoil, or maybe a catamaran — a pun is right there — or a float plane, maybe? I would be interested to hear about what real-world vehicle this most closely resembles. Anyway, with a fuselage shaped like a sleek fusion of submarine and Batmobile, the Batskiboat is basically the coolest thing ever.

While at a glance it may seem to epitomize Batman’s possession of tools with incredibly-specific use cases, e.g. Shark-Repellent Batspray, things that just happen to come in handy given the events of the current story, I would make a case that the Batskiboat may in fact be a more practical daily-driver than the Batmobile, in the sense that it allows Batman to travel mostly unseen through the sewer network of Gotham City.

Of course, the more compelling argument may be “¿Por qué no los dos?”

It’s not what you drive to the Night Thread, it’s that you get there in style 🦇