My Life With Batman 1989-1992

Ok.  Confession time.  I've never been much a reader.  While I say things like "I always more of a DC comic book can than a Marvel reader when I was a kid", I honestly didn't read comic books at all until I was in 5th grade.  I was always much more interested in TV and grew up watching 80's cartoons like the Smurfs, the Thundercats, He-man, & Shera.   Why read comic books when there are all these awesome adventures on my TV every afternoon?  It took the introduction of Batman into my world to get me into reading comic books.  Here's the story. 

I was 10 years old in June of 1989 when Tim Burton's Batman was released in theaters.  But I didn't go down to our local 8 screen multiplex by Foothills Mall to see the movie that summer.   My parents stopped going out to the movies when they bought their first VCR back in the mid 80's.   But even if my parents had offered to take me to the movies back in '89 I would have asked them to take me to Ghostbusters II instead.   I was OBSESSED with the Ghostbusters at that point and watched The Real Ghostbusters cartoon every Saturday morning.    Whenever a commercial for Batman would pop up (it happened a lot while watching cartoons) I would scoff and say "Show me a Ghostbusters II commercial!!)  I had no interest in the Batman movie.

Lucky that opinion quickly changed and I have the TV to thank.  You see,  Michael Keaton wasn't they only Batman popping up on my parents 23" cabinet TV set that summer.   Adam Wests's iconic Batman series from the 1960's was making a come back!  I'm sure Fox was trying to cash in on the new movie by dusting off these classic TV shows and airing them on cable.  Well, I just fell in love this show!  I watched it every chance I could get and was soon recording it onto blank VCR tapes so I could watch it over and over again!


Fast forward a couple months and the Tim Burton movie came out on VHS, which my parents quickly rented from our local mom & pop video store down the road.  I remember my Dad warned me about the movie before we watched it.  "Now Mike, this Batman is really different from one on TV.  I've heard it's really a dark movie so you might not like it."  I wasn't discouraged.  I plopped down on the floor in front of the TV and commanded "Start the movie!!"  Of course I LOVED IT!  I learned a valuable lesson that day.  A really well crafted character like Batman can stand the test of wildly different interpretations and still be good!  I promised myself then that I'd see Batman Returns in the theater when it came out.  :)

I totally had this!!  Cool right?

I was soon begging my parents for Batman action figures and wearing my Dracula cape along with a improvised mask with Bat ears around the house claiming to be Batman's new assistant (who I named Batkid).  My 11th Birthday was sort of a Batman-Birthday.  I got the movie on VHS along with a Batman action figure (the one with the cool belt/retractable rope), the Joker, & the Penguin along with a really cool Batmobile that fired little rockets!  I wanted everything related to Batman that I could get my hands on. I did chores around the house, mowed my Grandmother's yard, fetched the newspaper for our neighbor-- all so I could earn some money to spend on Batman merchandise.  I had trading cards, cereal, magazines and... of course... comic books.  When shopping for Batman gear it doesn't take long to realize that the more economical thing to spend your allowance on is the comic book!

Death of Robin II (Jason Todd)

I remember the first Batman comic book I bought!  I was so excited to find more adventures of my favorite hero!  What I didn't know was that a lot had happened since the 60's.  Dick Grayson had out grown his Robin suit and was now fighting crime under the name Nightwing.  Bruce had taken on a new side kick named Jason Todd.  Todd was a scrappy kid on the edge of going down the wrong path when Batman caught him trying to steal the tires off the Batmoble.  He took in this orphan, trained him and made him the new Robin.  But the fans didn't like Jason as much as they had liked Dick (I mean, with a name like that what's not to love!) so DC did something monumental.  They let the fans vote on whether Robin should live or die.  Dark right?   The fans voted for the latter and the Robin II was killed off in a saga called "Death in the Family".

Robin III (Tim Drake)

Soon a new Robin was introduced.  His name was Tim Drake.  So, This is where I started reading Batman comic books.  During this whole transition between Robin #2 and Robin #3.    Can you imagine my shock?!  I was totally confused.  They killed Robin?!?!  Who is Jason Todd?  Where is Dick Grayson?  This IS NOT the Batman I know from TV or from the movie!  It took some time for me to sort it all out.  Luckily a story arc called "A Lonely Place of Dying" was a big help.  Here is a TV Guide style synopsis: "After Jason Todd's death, Batman begins to go on a rampage taking unnecessary risks and actions. Only Dick Grayson or a very young boy named Tim Drake can calm him."   I found these comic books to be an even more adult view of Batman than the 1989 movie.   I enjoyed these comics but in my heart of hearts, I preferred the campier TV version of Batman.  So I never really committed to buying every issue of Batman or of Detective Comics.  I became a casual reader, only picking up an issue a couple times a year.  

Lucky for me, there was more Batman on it's way to TV!  In 1992, Bruce Timm's Batman the Animated Series starting airing on Fox!   This show was somewhere in between the 60's TV show and the modern comics.  I was very happy that it featured Dick Grayson as Robin again.  And no one was going to die a horrific death the Fox Kids line up!  It was a fun show!  Dark, bruting, but ultimately a good kids show.  Timm and team were inspired by the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons from the 1940's and created a stylized look for Batman TAS that made it seem timeless.   These shows still hold up today.  As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I just picked up season 1 on DVD.  I can see the Warner Brothers animation style in those early episodes (think Anamaniacs).  But there is something very different about the overall feel of Batman TAS.  The artists painted onto black backgrounds-- something that was unheard of before then.  this made all the colors really pop off the page and made Gotham City look eerily dark.

I really can't write about my childhood bat-fandom without mentioning my favorite character.  One day I was sitting in front of the TV watching Batman (the 1960's TV show).   I had the opening title sequence memorized.  "Batman!! Nanananana Batman!!"  Something happened that surprised me.  Instead of seeing Batman punch the villians a 2nd time a new hero swung in a rope and kicked them.  WHO WAS THAT?!  I mind raced.  What is going on here?  Then, at the end of the title sequence a figure sped across the screen on a motorcycle.   It happened so fast I didn't get a good look at her.  I settled in and watched the episode entitled "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penquin".  I was suddenly in love with Batgirl-- in the only way a gay 10 year old boy could be.  I wanted to be her.  Forget "Batkid"-- the side kick I'd invented.  Batgirl was way cooler!

But why wasn't she in the comic books?!  What happened to this fabulous crime fighter?  It took some research, but I soon found out that Barbara Gordon / Batgirl was a character in the comic books.  But much like Robin, the comics weren't so nice to her.  She had been shot by the Joker long before I ever started reading comic books and had been confined to a wheel chair ever since.  This paralyzed Barbara Gordon continued to fight crime however, under the name "Oracle".  She used her amazing mind, photographic memory and librarian skills to become a computer wiz fighting crime one mouse click at a time.  Hmm.  Not quite as cool as Batgirl, huh?  I didn't want to read the adventures of Oracle-- I wanted more Batgirl!  So I had to seek out used comics and collected stories like "Batman in the 60's" to get my Batgirl fix.  The folks at DC introduced more Batgirls like they did more Robins over the yearss, but Barbara Gordon's Batgirl is still my favorite super hero.

So-- that sums it up.  That is a quick overview of  my childhood (pre high school) obsession with Batman, Batgirl, and the like.  As you can see it was 75% TV, 15% movies and maybe 10% comic books. Thoughts?  Please comment!