Tonight’s Comic> Batman ’66 #1

I want to pretend this took place the Mis-Adventures Of Adam West miniseries and failed ongoing.

Batman ’66 #1

DC Comics (September, 2013–originally released digital-first)

This series is based on the 60’s Batman TV Show starring Adam West and Burt Ward

The Riddler makes off with a prized statue that turns out to be part of a set. The sculptures are actually part of a puzzle, which Riddler is determined to solve. When Catwoman’s club is wrecked, she may not stay on the straight and narrow for long. How will the Dynamic Duo deal with all this?

What they got right: The costumes are line with how they appeared in the show, as is the Batmobile. You can tell Parker had a lot of fun writing this, right down to “introducing” 3D printing as part of Batman’s detective work. How does that work? Not the first time the show didn’t care in favor of the story. Explain it so it’s believable. That’s good enough. The “actors” resemble their real life self within legal parameters.

What they got wrong: My problems with it are more fanboy in nature regarding the presentation. The Batmobile pulls off a stunt that would be impossible for the show and while the comic otherwise makes use of the nature of the medium this particular moment felt off to me. There’s also a scene where Batman and Robin are in the Batcave (which doesn’t quite resemble the show) without their masks on. This happens in comics and some animated productions but for whatever reason it never happened in the show. I don’t like when elements of the comics sneak into a tie-in that shouldn’t be there so while this is a minor complaint that took nothing away from the story it was still of note.

Recommendation: I don’t think the TV show ever had a tie-in comic so better late than never. It’s a fun Batman and Robin story unless you really hated that show. If you enjoyed it, however, give this a look either in print or online.

I do enjoy when they throw the Riddler’s own gag at him.