Comics Review: Batman 66 and Friends

After going to work way early one day last week, I decided to go to the Downtown Mall for lunch at the Rad Retrocade.  As implied by the name, it’s an arcade, but also a bar and grill.  We’d had a company dinner there last year with nachos and other snack food and all the video games you could handle.  The food was pretty good and was it fun.  I’d wanted to try the burger on their menu, especially since they offered sweet potato fries with it. 

 

Nearby Day’s Hamburgers was the only other place I knew of that served those kind of fries.  Unfortunately, Day’s closed down last year.  I was there the day after they announced they’d be closing at the end of the month.  It was me and a restaurant full of other patrons who wished to pay homage to the decades-old establishment.  It took an hour get served, but it was the best burger I’d ever had there (and their burgers are great to begin with).         

 

The Rad burger and fries were great, too.  The burger was thick and juicy, though it took awhile to get it.  I don’t think they were expecting someone to come in in the middle of the afternoon for lunch.  For eating at what was essentially a restaurant, the price was reasonable, as well.  I told the waitress to thank the chef, since the meal was really good.  She gave me a puzzled look, “It was?”

 

I still had plenty of time before work, so I walked over to Zia Comics and Coas Used bookstore.  I ended up picking up a pile of older comics from both places.  I couldn’t find anything new on the rack that interested me or any books or graphic novels.  There was an older Conan trade that I was interested in, but not for $40.  In retrospect, I should picked that up and not bothered with the rest.

Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 #4

I remember quite a while ago, I bought the original Batman ’66 revival trade paperback for a friend.  I read it before giving it to him and was fairly impressed with it.  Later, I found a few issues of Batman ’66 meets Archie.  My review of that was mixed mostly because the story felt very unnecessarily decompressed.  Still, it was fun.  What I did not know was that this concept has been turned into a full franchise of nostalgia. 

 

I’ve seen the Wonder Woman ’77 comic based on the Lynda Carter show and a Superman ’78 comic based on the Christopher Reeve movies.  I suppose the teamup would be a natural.  (They could also do a 70’s Shazam comic with Isis.  There could also be a 40’s Superman from the cartoons and a 50’s Superman based on George Reeves.  Why not?) 

 

The guest villain for this issue is Ra’s Al Ghul.  He seems a little intense for Batman ’66.  His daughter, Talia, is there simping for Batman.  Catwoman is on Team Batman in this issue, too.  At the end, Catwoman gets asylum from the Amazons to avoid Batman taking her back to prison.  And, she blames the patriarchal society for her being bad.  I think tongue was in cheek there.  Then, Batman credits Wonder Woman to inspiring him to be hero.  (Maybe Catwoman was being serious.)   

 

We do get the obvious pairing of Robin and Wonder Girl.  Him teaching her the “Bat-tusi” is the best part of this issue.

 

The second best is this F-4 Phantom Batjet.  I would love a model of this. 

 

Batman ’66 Meets Steed and Mrs. Peel #1 & #3

I don’t know why they didn’t call this Batman ’66 Meets the Avengers? 

Oh, wait. 

Okay. 

 

I showed this to a co-worker and she had no idea who the English characters were.  That’s understandable.  The first time I encountered the British Avengers in the 80’s, I had never heard of them either.  I only got to see them a few years ago when episodes were shown on the Charge network briefly.  They showed them uncut.  As it was an English show and ran longer than an hour, they had to show two episodes to even it up.  (Space: 1999 had the same issue when they were shown on the Comet network.)        

 

The first page of issue #1 was all feminist Agenda, as Bruce endures a lecture from a modern woman, but plays along in hopes of getting some.  In issue #3, it turns out that she’s the villain.  It sort of feels like a mixed message to the comic’s presumed young female audience.  (Of course, they’re not actually reading this.  They’d have no interest in 60’s superhero nostalgia.) 

 

The villain woman even had the cheek to tell Mrs. Peel she’d be replaced and that Mr. Steed has had other partners.  This is all actually true.  The show is only identified with Diana Rigg, but there were ***three other women partners*** on the show, including Honor Blackman, who was a Bond Girl (as was Rigg).   

 

The artwork is like it’s traced and painted over photographs.  I don’t think it is, but I can’t say for sure.  It’s odd, but not unappealing.  It’s certainly distinctive. 

 

Catwoman appears in issue #1.  I’m surprised both of these series feature the Julie Newmar Catwoman.  You’d think they’d do the obvious race-swap with Eartha Kitt, just to be annoying.  Issue #3 just features an Avengers villain, I think. 

 

Steed and Mrs. Peel are reasonably witty, which was a hallmark of the Avengers.

I was admittedly pleased to see Aunt Harriet make an appearance.  The characters are much more in-character in this series than the other two series I’m reviewing.  While the other two series are aping; this one is a genuine homage.  I liked this series the best of bunch, but I’m not entirely sure I recommend it, even if you’re a fan of both shows.      

 

Batman ’66 Meets the Man from U.N.C.L.E. #2

This issue suffers from way too many characters.  It reminds me of the teamup with Archie in that respect.  There’s a whole menagerie of villains and Batgirl.  Also, this was a bit of an odd pairing.  Batman and the British Avengers works as the Avengers was a fairly surreal kitschy show at times.  UNCLE wasn’t hugely realistic, but was a bit more grounded and known for its gunplay, which Batman doesn’t deal with.  Being a 60’s TV show was, I guess, enough of a connection.    

 

There’s some action in this and some dialogue interplay, but this one left me disappointed.  Maybe it was the artwork.  I thought Batman was smarter than that.  I almost want to read the rest of this series just to see if there’s a NCIS reference somewhere.  (UNCLE and NCIS share an actor, if you don’t know.) 

 

Overall, these comics seemed to be aimed at kids, which is an odd choice.  Granted the Batman and Wonder Woman TV shows have been in constant syndication to where kids might have watched them, but UNCLE and the British Avengers are much more obscure.  I’d have gone for an older audience. 

 

I feel like this concept would have worked better as a continuing series, rather than six-issue limited series.  Like the classic TV show, every story could be two parts with a special guest villain and maybe a hero.  These comic stories were suffering from decompressed storytelling, which only has a chance of working with really great artwork.  Tightening up the stories and limiting the guests would have helped.  The best choice DC made was with the Michael and Laura Allred covers on all these issues.  They are very eye-catching. 

Also cool were the ads for Batman: The Animated Series action figures.  

Here’s more nostalgia.  Now this would have some kid appeal.

 

Continued in Part 2.