And Then I Read: BATMAN ’66, THE LOST EPISODE

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

The Batman TV show of the 1960s is something I enjoyed as as kid, but even then I knew it was being played for laughs, which I found disappointing, as I thought of Batman as a more serious crime fighter. I’ve tried watching it more recently, and it doesn’t work for me at all now. I haven’t read the comic series based on the show, but the lure of a Harlan Ellison “lost episode” adapted by Len Wein and José Luis Garcia-Lopez was too tempting to pass up.

Under a cool Alex Ross cover, the book looks great, and reads well enough, but in the campy humorous style of the TV show, which I still don’t care for. Even the wonderful drawing was not enough to make me love this comic, I’m afraid. The story is slight, filled with references to the number 2, and even has comic relief in the form of “Aunt Harriet,” who I’d forgotten, mercifully. The action sequences are about the best thing here, and of course they’re much better than anything on the show. Padding out this book are complete scans of the pencils by Garcia-Lopez and the original story pitch by Ellison.

Mildly recommended.