Comic Books 101

by Chris Ryall

  In between the film appearances, Batman and Robin also made their debut on the radio, America's sole mass-media system of the day, exposing the characters to a far larger audience than the serial did. On a 1945 episode of The Adventures of Superman, one of the more popular radio programs, Superman discovers an unconscious boy in a rowboat, wearing a red tunic and a yellow cape. With Robin on the scene and Batman not far behind, soon Superman, Batman and Robin team up against the evil Zoltan. Following that first appearance, Batman and Robin would periodically return to take over the program for a week or two, whenever Superman actor Bud Collyer needed a vacation, filling in for the ailing Superman. There were several attempts to give Batman his own radio program, but it never happened.

  CAMPING IT UP

  After the 1949 serial, Batman remained ensconced in the four-color world of comics until the mid-1960s. As the legend goes, Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner had taken to showing some of the 1940s serials for “Movie Night” at the Playboy Mansion in Chicago, and the Batman serials were a favorite. One of these screenings was attended by an ABC executive, who then acquired the television rights to the character from National Comics. The project was handed off to producer William Dozier, who embraced the cliffhangerserial origins, devising the 1966 series Batman as an unprecedented twice-weekly program, allowing for a cliffhanger every week. Also held over from the serial inspiration was the over-the-top narration, which was provided by Dozier himself.

  Luckily, Batman's filmed exploits would only get better than this initial 1940s effort. And then worse, and then better again.

  BATMAN: THE COMPLETE 1943 SERIALS COLLECTION © 2005 LAYOUT AND DESIGN SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  While the show was at times wickedly funny and campy, thanks to the tongue-in-cheek scripts provided by writers such as Lorenzo Semple Jr. and Stanley Ralph Ross, the show's success can be chalked up to two factors: the production design and the casting. The Batcave was one of the most fantastic sets ever created for a television series. Throw in the various villain's lairs, the bright, garish costumes (another key to the series success: color TVs were a relatively new arrival in 1966, and there wasn't anything on TV more colorful than Batman) and, of course, the fabulous George Barris-designed Batmobile, and you had a show that looked and sounded like nothing else on television.

  Of course, all this would've been moot without the right people inside the costumes. Anchoring the series was Adam West, who wisely opted for a more understated portrayal of Batman, only chewing the scenery when it was really called for and otherwise maintaining a deadpan approach that made his lines all the funnier. Though West wasn't called to play Bruce Wayne that much in the series, when he did, it was with a droll smoothness that fit the character well. Joining West was neophyte Burt Ward, who brought an emphatic enthusiasm to the role of Robin, one that didn't call for much besides the ability to wear the outfit and not look horribly out of shape.

  The Batman and Robin parts were cast with solid, if unremarkable, actors intended to serve as the baseline for the show's real stars: the villains. In a bravura casting coup, the parts of Batman's four most significant villains were each filled by actors who would forever define the roles, and in turn be forever identified with them. The first to appear was the Riddler, played by comedian and impressionist Frank Gorshin. A popular nightclub act and character actor in film, Gorshin was catapulted into stardom by the part. His Riddler was a manic, hyperactive antagonist, constantly chortling and skittering about the scene, and occasionally letting loose his trademark Riddler laugh, instantly identifiable to this day.

  The Dynamic Duo returned to theaters in 1949, matching wits for fifteen chapters with the mysterious Wizard.

  BATMAN AND ROBIN: THE COMPLETE 1949 MOVIE SERIAL COLLECTION © 2005 LAYOUT AND DESIGN SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  In an interesting side note, Gorshin disliked the closely fitting Riddler tights so much that on some days he would just refuse to wear them, necessitating the creation of a second outfit for the Riddler, a natty green sport jacket, tie and derby combo that became just as closely identified with the character, appearing in Batman comic books, cartoons and toys for decades to come. (John Astin made a single appearance as the Riddler, but he lacked the frantic giddiness that Gorshin brought to the role.)

  Appearing most frequently was Burgess Meredith's Penguin. The Penguin worked far better on screen than he ever did in the comics, thanks to Meredith's charisma. The actor's waddling and squawking character was a favorite with audiences, and the villain returned to the program again and again. The Joker also showed up quite often, played with zeal by Cesar Romero. Romero's Joker was also a standout, gleefully chewing the scenery and bounding about the room as the Clown Prince of Crime. Somehow, the Joker's dyed-white moustache didn't even register as out of the ordinary. While the Joker's laugh still came in second to the Riddler's, Romero's booming chortle and incessant chuckling served the character well.

  The cast of ABC's Batman television series hit the silver screen in 1966, but it was the quartet of villains and all-new Bat vehicles that stole the show.

  BATMAN: THE MOVIE ©2001 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX ENTERTAINMENT, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Finally, there was Julie Newmar, who absolutely owned the screen as Catwoman. Wearing a skintight black outfit that was probably illegal in some states, Newmar purred, pouted and flirted her way through the series. When film commitments forced Newmar to drop out of the role in the third season, she was replaced by Eartha Kitt. Though Kitt was attractive, she had neither Newmar's charm nor sense of humor in the part.

  There were other characters from the comics who showed up in the series, such as Mr. Freeze and the Mad Hatter, but the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and Catwoman were the most popular, and made the most appearances. When the show's popularity shot through the roof and being a Bat-Villain was suddenly the “in-thing” to do in Hollywood, all manner of goofy villains were devised to suit whatever celebrity was slated to appear. Some of these turned out to be great — for example, Victor Buono's hilarious turn as King Tut and Vincent Price's Egghead. Others were just plain atrocious such as Milton Berle's mind-numbingly bad Louie the Lilac, a flower-obsessed crime boss with the insipid and meaningless catch-phrase, “It's lilac time, Batman. Lilac time.” Wow.

  At the height of the show's popularity between the first and second seasons, a theatrical feature was released, 1966's Batman, pitting Batman and Robin against the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler and Catwoman. All involved resumed their roles, with the exception of Julie Newmar, who bowed out because of a back injury and was replaced by former Miss America Lee Meriwether. The feature, designed to help sell the TV series to overseas markets, made use of a heightened budget to introduce fabulous prop vehicles such as the Batcycle, the Batboat and the Batcopter, all of which would be utilized in stock footage throughout the series' run. One of the movie's high points is a hilarious sequence filmed on the Santa Barbara pier, in which Batman desperately tries to get rid of a bomb with a slowly burning fuse, and is foiled at every turn, by families, nuns, ducks and even a marching band, prompting an exasperated Batman to grumble, “Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb…”

  When ratings for Batman began to fall at the end of the second season, panicked producers cut the show back to once a week, and introduced Yvonne Craig as Batgirl in an effort to increase the show's sex appeal. Even with the addition of Batgirl, the third season suffered a drop in quality thanks to a run of uninspiring, lame villains, such as Lord Ffogg, evil feminist Nora Clavicle and Minerva, Queen of Diamonds. Still, the season was not a total loss, as we did get to see Batman face off against the Joker in a surfing contest in the episode “Surf's Up! Joker's Under!” By the end of the third season, ABC wanted out, and the show was canceled. NBC was interested in picking up the series, but before a deal could be met, ABC execs had already ordered the sets demolished, and NBC balked at the $800,000 cost of rebuilding the Batcave.
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  Batman returned to television in animation the following year with The Batman-Superman Hour cartoon on CBS, but the Filmation-produced series was nothing special. Batman's next significant TV appearance came in 1973, with Batman and Robin's starring roles in the ABC Saturday-morning cartoon Super Friends, along with Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Throughout most of the show's thirteen-year run, Batman and Robin were played by Olan Soule and Casey Kasem, although the last two seasons in 1984 and 1985 featured none other than Adam West as the Caped Crusader.

  In an unusual bit of programming, while the Hanna-Barbera-produced Super Friends was running on ABC in 1977, CBS aired its own all-new Batman Saturday-morning cartoon, The New Adventures of Batman, again produced by Filmation. This time, Adam West and Burt Ward returned to the roles of Batman and Robin, but that's pretty much the only redeeming quality to this mess of a cartoon. It featured not only the addition of Bat-Mite as comedy relief, but also some of the more insipid villains Batman has ever faced, including Moonman, Professor Bubbles and — get this — Sweet Tooth, a candy-obsessed villain who fiendishly replaces Gotham City's water supply with chocolate syrup. Where's Louie the Lilac when you need him?

  BAT-MANIA

  Bat-mania returned in a big way in 1989 with the release of Tim Burton's long-awaited feature film version, Batman. Starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker, the film at long last shattered the common public perception of Batman as a goofy, Batusi-dancing Adam West, and opened the door for more serious versions of Batman in the mass media. As for the movie itself, the good outweighs the bad.

  Despite the initial fan uproar over the casting, Keaton's distracted, haunted portrayal of Bruce Wayne resonated well, and anyone would look like Batman in the sculpted rubber suit he lurched around in. Jack Nicholson's Joker was also a standout, equal parts hilarious charm and creepy menace — the scene in which the Joker murders his former boss is quite effective and chilling. Even Kim Basinger isn't bad as Vicki Vale, although she doesn't have a whole lot to do besides look pretty and scream a lot. The film looks amazing, thanks to Burton's signature style and direction and the production designs of Anton Furst. The biggest problem is the script, which was the victim of a writer's strike during production. The strike prompted a new writer to come in and rewrite the ending, which is a mess. Precisely why Alfred would let Vicki Vale into the Batcave is still a mystery, and revealing that the Joker killed Bruce Wayne's parents is just plain lame. Still, Batman hits a lot more than it misses, and was the first time the Batman material was treated seriously outside of the comics.

  Burton and Keaton returned to the character in 1992 with Batman Returns, an even darker look at the Caped Crusader that pitted him against Catwoman, as portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, and a new grotesque version of the Penguin, played by Danny DeVito. Muddying things up further is a third villain, Gotham magnate Max Shreck, as played by Christopher Walken. Pfeiffer's Catwoman is spot-on brilliant, and the scenes between her and Keaton's Batman (as well as the romantic moments between Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle and Keaton's Bruce Wayne) make up the movie's high points. Burton's vision of the Penguin as a sewer-dwelling flippered mutant doesn't quite work, and one can't help but wonder what DeVito might have done with the character if he'd been allowed to play it as conceived by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Overall, Batman Returns improved on the first in both script and direction, and even misgivings about the new Penguin can't detract from what is still the best of the four 1990s Batman films.

  THE ANIMATED SERIES

  Also premiering in 1992 was Warner Bros.'Batman: The Animated Series, which stands to this day as the single best version of the character in any medium: comics, TV, movies, you name it. Before 1992, action-adventure animation was all but dead on American television. Following the success of its new comedy series Tiny Toon Adventures, Warner Animation President Jean MacCurdy announced that they were looking to develop a new Batman animated series and that anyone with an idea was welcome to make a pitch. Tiny Toons storyboard artist Bruce Timm and background painter Eric Radomski were chosen to put together a sample reel, and their two-minute short netted them the jobs as the producers of the new series. Writers Alan Burnett and Paul Dini were brought in to spearhead the scripting of the series, sharing Timm's vision of how the character should be portrayed: dark, serious and brooding.

  But it wasn't just the stories that were groundbreaking. The character design, primarily the work of Bruce Timm, along with artists Lynne Naylor, Kevin Nowlan and Mike Mignola, eschewed the detail-heavy, ultra-real style favored by adventure cartoons in the past, in favor of a cartoonier approach, for lack of a better word. The art combined the barrel chests and square jaws of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons of the 1940s with the clean linework of Alex Toth (the influence of whose Space Ghost design is clearly apparent). The influence of Batman artists such as Bob Kane, Dick Sprang, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli also is evident.

  Furthermore, the entire series was given a moody, timeless feel with 1940s architecture, wardrobe and roadsters co-existing with late 1990s-technology. The backgrounds, designed by Ted Blackman and based on Eric Radomski's vision, were painted on black paper, lending the entire series a noirish darkness appropriate to their vision of the Dark Knight.

  The acting on the series was top-drawer, as well. Rather than going to the same recycled group of cartoon voice actors working every Saturday-morning series at the time, series voice director Andrea Romano opened the auditions to the best actors available, and instructed them to play it straight, as if they were performing a film or stage role. The cast for Batman: The Animated Series was one of the most talented casts ever assembled for an animated series — many of the actors could have easily stepped into their parts in a live-action feature-film version and performed splendidly. In addition, the score for the series, provided by Shirley Walker and her team of composers, provided lush, operatic soundtracks granting each episode a soaring, larger-than-life feel.

  Kevin Conroy as Batman gave a nuanced, textured performance, in which he wrung intimidation, anger and pathos out of as few lines as possible. Conroy deftly delineated between Batman, Bruce Wayne and Bruce Wayne's public persona, altering his voice's pitch and timbre to make them each identifiable, yet recognizable as the same character.

  As in the comics, however, Batman is only as good as his villains, and Batman: The Animated Series did a marvelous job translating Batman's rogues' gallery for animation. In many cases, the show's villains were so superior to earlier versions that they supplanted them in the public consciousness, as well as in the source-material comic books.

  You can't have a Batman series without the Joker, and Batman: The Animated Series provided one of the most well-rounded and satisfying portrayals of the Joker in any medium, comics included. As realized here, the Joker was both funny and terrifying, capable of being motivated by egotism as well as sheer insanity. The Joker design seemed most inspired by Bob Kane's original artwork, but what made the character come alive was his voice, provided by Luke Skywalker himself, Star Wars' Mark Hamill. The part was originally given to Tim Curry, but the producers recast because they didn't feel that Curry, though sufficiently threatening, provided the necessary madcap levity and humor for the part. Enter Hamill, who had already played a supporting role in an earlier episode, but wished to play one of the trademark villains. One audition later, including Hamill's unforgettable rendition of the Joker's laugh, and the part was his. Hamill's Joker could foam at the mouth in an insane rant one moment, then instantly switch gears into a witty charmer.

  As of 1996, Batman: The Animated Series had been out of production for two years, but still remained extremely popular in reruns. A variety of factors (including the show's continued popularity and a new film on the horizon) combined to encourage Warner Bros. to order the production of a new series of episodes. Rather than simply going back to the formula and cranking out new episodes in the same style as before, the producers took the opportunity to rethink
the series from the bottom up, throwing out what hadn't worked in the past, introducing new characters and relationships, and re-designing nearly the entire show. The biggest change was that the WB Network didn't share FOX's reticence of putting a child in danger, so Dick Grayson was immediately changed to Nightwing, and a new, much younger Robin was introduced in Tim Drake. With both the new Robin and Batgirl (now privy to Batman's secrets and a full-time member of his team) appearing in almost every episode, and the distant, alienated Nightwing making occasional appearances, Batman's days as a loner were over. This didn't mean that Batman lost any of his grim, scary appeal — just the opposite. With Robin and Batgirl around, Batman talked even less than he did in the first series, and was darker and scarier than ever.

  The new series, eventually named The New Batman Adventures, was set three years after the events of Batman: The Animated Series, during which time Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson had a falling out and Grayson left Gotham to travel the globe, eventually returning to Gotham to embark on a solo crime-fighting career as Nightwing (with former Robin actor Lorin Lester making a surprisingly smooth transition to the more mature Nightwing character). In Grayson's absence, Barbara Gordon, whose identity as Batgirl had long been deduced by Batman, was entrusted with Bruce Wayne's secrets and replaced Gray-sonas Batman's partner.

  As for the new Robin, thirteen-year-old Tim Drake worked as a character in a way the college-age Dick Grayson never quite did in Batman: The Animated Series. He provided a spark of humor and vitality to the show — aided by the charming voice work of Matt Valencia — and humanized Batman through his protectiveness and concern for the boy. The series' new take on Batgirl was also a great improvement, spotlighting her as a fully competent and formidable counterpart to Batman. She never needed “rescuing” and was fully capable of kicking ass alongside the Caped Crusader, while having a lot of fun doing it. Veteran voice artist Tara Strong provided Batgirl's kickier, more spunky voice. Some episodes alluded to a soured relationship between Batgirl and Nightwing, but never pigeonholed her in the category of “Nightwing's girlfriend.” Batgirl was as strong and integral a part of the team as anyone, and because of that, her character was always a welcome presence.