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.

Detective Comics #233

The 1950s have got to be the absolute lowest ebb for the American comic book.  At the urging of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, the U.S. Senate had spent several months in 1954 investigating the supposed link between comic books and juvenile delinquency.  And while Wertham’s primary concern was that horror comics were too gruesome for children (and, from what I’ve seen, he was right), the highly publicized Senate hearings affected all but the most innocent and infantile of comics—and that meant superhero comics were about to take a hit as well.  Publishers sank left and right, putting hundreds of writers and artists out of work.  Even Marvel, now a seemingly indestructible titan of the industry, would end up cancelling 82% of its titles and firing much of its staff by the end of 1957. 

It was into this hostile environment that Kathy Kane, the first Batwoman, was born.

The (Comic) Book Was Better - Under the (Red) Hood

 

I hear there used to be an old saying about comic books, how only three characters ever stayed really and truly dead: Uncle Ben, Bucky and Jason Todd.  Well, in January 2005, Marvel decided to stomp all over that axiom by resurrecting Bucky Barnes as the slightly unstable and infinitely more complex Winter Soldier.  The very next month, DC followed suit by resurrecting Jason Todd as the slightly unstable and infinitely more complex Red Hood.  I eagerly await the day when Marvel revives Uncle Ben only for DC to overshadow this event by reviving Thomas Wayne, but until then, let’s talk about Jason Todd and how both comic and cartoon have handled his return.

Batman, Season Three

 

*sigh* And so we arrive at the third season of Batman.  Far and away the worst of Batman’s three seasons, Season Three debuted well after the show’s popularity began to wane.  Bat-mania was dying, but the show itself stubbornly refused to die with it.  They suffered massive budget cuts that reduced their sets to the bare bones.  Even the distinctive two-part episode structure was stripped away, leaving a single half-hour episode per week with each one ending in the flimsiest of cliffhangers. (“Oh, yes, Batman and Robin may have defeated THIS villain, but look over there!  THAT villain is roaming around!!  What trickery is THAT villain up to now?  Tune in to find out in our next episode!”)

Batman, Season Two

The second season of Batman is almost twice as long as Season One, and frankly, I don’t think that was a good thing.  By this point, the show was a monster success and everyone was riding high.  It was nominated for three Emmys—Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy (for Frank Gorshin), and Individual Achievements in Sound Editing—and was even being referenced by other shows (The Monkees, Gilligan’s Island) and movies (The Fortune Cookie).  The Bat-climb celebrity cameos were in full swing, featuring everyone from Sammy Davis Jr. to… Colonel Klink from Hogan’s Heroes?  How is that supposed to work?*

The point is, the show was at the peak of its popularity, and I guess that made the writers too lazy to get up off their laurels and make sure the show continued to be a success.

Batman: The Movie

Long before Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan ever thought of bringing the Dark Knight to the silver screen, 20^th Century Fox decided to capitalize on the wild success of the ‘60s Batman series with a full-length film.  It was shot during the break between the first and second seasons on a budget of $1,377,800, which was pretty paltry even for back then.  But hey, just because a movie is made on the cheap doesn’t mean it can’t be good—Psycho, made six years earlier, famously had a budget of just one million dollars.  Is this film anywhere near as brilliant as Psycho?  Don’t be silly.  Is it one heck of a fun ride?  You bet your Bat-boots it is!

The (Comic) Book Was Better - Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

We’ve all heard it.  Heck, we’ve all said it—“That movie was good/bad/okay/fantastic/the worst piece of dreck ever put on film… but the book was better.”  In this new review series, I am going to be looking at movies (or TV episodes, though the emphasis will be on DC’s series of animated films) and the comic books/graphic novels that inspired them to determine which one told the story better.  I won’t really be comparing them per se, because otherwise you could probably narrow it all down to “the cartoon cut too much stuff out”—I’ll just be judging each version on its own merits as if I have never seen/read the other version, and we’ll see how this works. Today’s subject: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies!

Batman, Season One

Ah, the sixties Batman series.  Most superhero dorks have probably at least heard of it, even if only in the context of “that show that made nobody take comics SERIOUSLY anymore.” Because, as we all know, comic books were serious business in the 1960s.  By the way, have you been to the World of 1,000 Olsens?  Lovely this time of year.  Just don’t make eye contact with the locals.