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? |
Death of Robin II (Jason Todd) |
Robin III (Tim Drake) |
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.
It amazes me what a different time it was when most of these panels first ran. Not only for Batman, when a lot of the early DC comics were just littered with casual sexism, innuendo and other goodies, especially when taken out of context.
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