Batman Retrospective

I know I don’t usually post on Tuesdays, and I guess this isn’t really a review, but I still wanted to talk a little about Batman since today just happens to be the 50^th (!!!) anniversary of its debut.  Click behind the cut for some fangirl reminiscing.  Or just wait until Saturday for the next Avengerous Tale.  Or both.  Both is good.

Of all the superhero shows I’ve seen, none have had a stronger effect on me than Batman.  I saw it for the first time when I was twelve years old.  I even remember the episode—it was “Green Ice,” the first of the two episodes guest-starring Otto Preminger as Mr. Freeze.  Not the greatest episode, compared to some of the others, but I didn’t know that at the time and, a little while later, when I happened to see the show again, I was intrigued enough to stick around and watch.

Soon I was hooked.  Me.  The kid who hadn’t given a fig for superheroes since losing interest in the Power Rangers.  How the heck did that happen?

I still have no idea, but the fact that Batman is utterly unlike any show I’ve seen before or since probably helped.  The colors!  The staging!  The humor!  The cliffhanger endings!  The heroic heroes!  The villainous villains!  And the characters really are just that easy to describe.  There was very little room for nuance, but it really isn’t the kind of show that would thrive on nuance anyway.

From there, I gradually gained an interest in other DC superheroes and teams, and in other superhero media, especially comic books, and after that I branched out to Marvel and miscellaneous other heroes.  I currently prefer Marvel over DC because Iron Man, but I haven’t forgotten that Bruce Wayne was the first orphaned tech-geek billionaire playboy/businessman I ever took a shine to.

This show also precipitated my first official fandom experience; Batman was the first fandom I ever read (and wrote) fanfiction for.  I’ve gone on a few hiatuses from fanfiction since then, but I always seem to come back in one fandom or another, all because of the wonderfully creative and talented Bat-fans who first showed me how liberating fanworks could be.  In my Real Life, I’m currently working on a series of Sherlock Holmes short stories, which I wanted to do because the Downey films made me interested in the character, and the Iron Man films made me interested in Downey, and Batman made me interested in Iron Man.  All roads lead to Gotham for me.

I haven’t even seen the show or the movie since I reviewed it for this blog (though I’ve read vast swaths of Batman ’66, as should you), but the ripples from its impact continue to grow.  Batman has been described as revolutionary television—it really seems like it exists in its own little world, apart from all other superhero shows.  But it was also revolutionary for me on a personal level.  If not for this show, this blog would not exist.  If not for this show, I would not exist as I do today.  So thank you, Adam West.  Thank you, Burt Ward.  Thank you Alan Napier, Neil Hamilton, Stafford Repp, Madge Blake, Yvonne Craig, Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, Julie Newmar, Burgess Meredith, William Dozier, Howie Horwitz, Stanley Ralph Ross, Nelson Riddle, Neal Hefti, and everyone else who worked so hard to make Batman what it is.  In everything I ever write, even if it’s not directly Bat-related, you will always be there with me.  I know that might seem like a pebble next to all of your accomplishments, but to me, it’s Mount Everest.