SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATMAN VOL. 1

[ShinDangaioh]

Ah yes.  I think the only thing that came from the camp era of Batman that still endures to this day is Barbra Gordon.

A completely silly character that over time became one of the more respectable ones.

The run in her tights was a bit corny.

[dto]

ShinDangaioh, and let's not forget the return of Alfred Pennysworth -- DC in its infinite wisdom KILLED HIM OFF shortly before the Adam West TV show aired.     (The Wayne Foundation was originally named in Alfred's honor.)  But Alfred became so popular on television that DC had to bring him back to life!  How?  Well, it's convoluted, and frankly embarrassing -- first Alfred was reborn as a VILLAIN named "The Outsider", then... 

[Permanus]

... he looked like a zombie and had all sorts of psychic powers and got zapped by a ray and it made him all better. And he got his job back. I thought I'd repressed the memory of that, but here it all comes racing back.

[India Ink]

Hm, I get this warning that this topic hasn't been posted in in 120 days, but I haven't posted here in a few years.  All things are relative.

But I finally remembered my password--and might not remember it again--and didn't want to waste the opportunity.

Reading this thread about the Batman Showcase--where you'd think there would be some positive comment--especially since the ThruTheAges site is a positive pro-Silver Age place to go--WELL this really got my back up.

The New Look was the greatest age of Batman (in my memory--no accounting for taste). And deserves much better appreciation (check out the thread I did on the DCMB "DC Archives" site--Batman: A "New Look" Ahead).

First off, the "New Look" occurred long enough before the TV show that the two shouldn't be mixed up.  There were definitie directions established before the TV show. And ideas that re-emerged after the TV show went away.

Second, the TV show actually did Batman a lot of favours, but it didn't introduce Batgirl (she'd been around for half a year before that--introduced by Schwartz/Fox/Infantino) and was always a well-respected character (unlike Kathy Kane, Batman doesn't seem to urge this distaff counterpart to get out of the business)--with the exception of that cheesecake story that happens to be cover-featured on the new Showcase.

The TV show hastened the re-introduction of Alfred, but not in rapid time. Schwartz took his time in bringing back Alfred, long after the TV show had made its appearance.  In the end Alfred's return was a good thing (especially once Dick Grayson left the nest--who would Bruce talk to without Pennyworth? not dipsy Aunt Harriet I think). However Alfred's undeadness hijacked the Outsider subplot--which started out as a good idea--nevermind that tapioca pudding character he eventually ended up as.

Various villains were borrowed from the comics (like Eivol Ekdal--one of my favourites). The fortunes of some were revived--like Mr. Freeze(Zero) (who was slow to return to the pages of DC comics) and the Mad Hatter--and probably the Riddler would not be the established puzzler he is if not for the TV show. Heck, the TV show brought back Catwoman, while Schwartz seemed determined to never use her again. Finally Selena Kyle returned--and a good thing that was.

Yes the show dragged Batman down. Although not to the extent some seem to think. And yes it probably drove an opposite reaction--where Schwartz tried to get rid of everything that defined the TV version of Batman including much of Bill Finger and Bob Kane's creation.  But Batmania won Batman many new fans (including myself) and probably saved the character from cancellation for the next twenty years.

Meanwhile, in the comics--Broome, Fox, Moldoff, Giella, Greene, Infantino, Stone, Kanigher, and others created fascinating tales that can be read over and over, and never run out of interest (for those who care).

But that's my opinion. And I'm entitled to it.

[MatterEaterLad]

It has been a few years, hasn't it? 

I just never bought any Batman in the 60s, maybe 3 or 4 total of Batman and Detective. I was a big fan of the 80 page Giants that reprinted late 40s/early 50s stories, I liked Batman and Robin traveling through history or to other countries.

[India Ink]

It has been a few years, hasn't it? 

I just never bought any Batman in the 60s, maybe 3 or 4 total of Batman and Detective. I was a big fan of the 80 page Giants that reprinted late 40s/early 50s stories, I liked Batman and Robin traveling through history or to other countries.

Batman --and the Batman TV show-- is the reason I'm any kind of comics fan at all.

As I explained on the DCMB thread, it was the TV show that got me buying comics (as opposed to sampling everyone else's comics--there were lots to found in every house back then). And if it hadn't been for Batman appearing in a copy of Action (and advertised as such on the cover) I might never have become a Superman fan.

I owe my life to Lorenzo Semple, Jr. And don't doubt that he collects on that debt every day.

[MatterEaterLad]

For me, I started sampling my older brother's 1959-64 collection, then buying (well begging my mother) soon after.  By the time I saw the TV series, my brother was telling me how it was meant for laughs and that it was not the same kind of story.

[India Ink]

I guess I was lucky then to have an older brother who didn't have any interest in super-hero comics. He was much more interested in marbles and baseball cards.

Although, I always wish that he (when he was seven in 1956) had had the uncanny luck to buy several copies of Showcase no. 4. We would be rich!

Or better yet, if my mother or father in 1938 had thought to buy Action no. 1 (both being in their late teens around then). Now that would have been a miracle of great fortune.