A positive review of the tv series

[twint9]

Check this out from the Toronto Star


https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/b ... a-pow.html

[John Mack]

Always good to see our series painted with favorable brush strokes. I'm with Yellow Oval and others who think the new Superhero movies need to be more like our series. At least keep the heroes in their brightly colored costumes.
Thanks Ivan. A good review is welcome relief from the usual down trending tones so often associated with the show.

[TP-6597]

Down-trending only from people too young to remember or uninformed as to the cultural significance of the show. I agree that the newer fare is a touch dark, possibly a reflection of our times. That said, I'm glad everyone can take a flavor of Batman to admire. As Bruce Wayne said in The Dark Knight Rises; "The idea was to be a symbol. Batman could be anybody, that was the point."

In keeping with the thread title,I thought I'd posted this before but I can't find it in my posts. It's a 2011 article from the site Pop Matters discussing that cultural impact and significance. Funny, they use the same picture as the other article. Batman article from Pop Matters site

No doubt, a lot of this was lost on me as a four-year-old. However, I very much believe the do-good hero role model got through in the broader sense. After sitting in front of the TV every week, I never had any real interest in other super heroes or comic books. It was always Batman, always a positive hero. In my world, it was pop culture and it mattered.

[Fatbat]

The one thing that bugs me always is the comics costumes being jettisoned for the very dull and boring Matrix-Like leather ensembles. Be it The Avengers or Batman....the costumes are very uninspired and dull. And the MOST irritating thing EVER in the movies is the crime fighters TAKING THEIR MASKS OFF or NOT wearing them at all!!!!! There is a reason for them and it's to not compromise their civilian lives and the people they love!

[Progress Pigment]

Granted that's true about the masks, but that said, Adam West would have LOVED to have gotten more mask-less screen time. It's helpful career-wise for an actor if the public can see his face. Plus, the cowl was uncomfortable. The actor doing "Flash" is probably glad to go sans cowl as much as possible. But really, comics characters have always maskless a lot in the books. Given a choice, I'd have rather have seen Bruce & Dick go without them in the Bat-cave occasionally.

[SprangFan]

I think Mr West got the worst of both worlds: he spent more time with the mask on than off, so he didn't get the "face time" so crucial to an actor's career. And yet, when it was all over, he was STILL typecast anyway and found it hard to escape Batman's shadow.

Of course in the long run, that's proven to be a boon, but for a long stretch there I think it didn't do his career any favors.

The whole "maskless" thing doesn't bother me so much in the Marvel films, where no one seems to really have a "secret identity" anyway (Tony Stark confessed to being Iron Man in public, Steve Rogers' face is on display in the Smithsonian, Thor -- in this reality -- never had a mortal alter-ego at all) but it does get really old in the Burton/Schumacher Bat-films to have Bruce's identity exposed over and over and over again to basically everyone in his life.

[Quarhog]

I would LOVE to see a picture of Yvonne Craig in costume without her hood!! The only time she ever seems to have appeared thus was in the unaired pilot. Has anyone ever come across any other photos of her like that...?

[SprangFan]

Just realized that's a really weird design in that Colan art. Usually in the comics, the cowl is either (a) a separate piece that covers the head and neck, independent of the cape or -- more often -- (b) attached permanently to the cape to make one, big piece (like the cloak worn by The Spectre). If the former, when "at ease", Batman is shown with the cape still on, but no cowl. If the latter, Batman is shown with the cape on and the loose, floppy cowl hangs back over it behind his neck, like the hood on a "hoodie."

This is the only time I can remember seeing Bruce with the cape off, but the cowl still attached, and down. And with a big, baggy skirt that makes the whole deal look the size of a shopping bag.

Weird.

[AndyFish]

I love Gene Colan's work-- and this is from what is possibly the best story of his run when Batman and Robin take on the Monk, a vampire whose roots in Batman go waaaaay back to 1939.
Colan was a perfect choice for the storyline since he handled Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA

[Golddragon71]

I think Mr West got the worst of both worlds: he spent more time with the mask on than off, so he didn't get the "face time" so crucial to an actor's career. And yet, when it was all over, he was STILL typecast anyway and found it hard to escape Batman's shadow.

Of course in the long run, that's proven to be a boon, but for a long stretch there I think it didn't do his career any favors.

The whole "maskless" thing doesn't bother me so much in the Marvel films, where no one seems to really have a "secret identity" anyway (Tony Stark confessed to being Iron Man in public, Steve Rogers' face is on display in the Smithsonian, Thor -- in this reality -- never had a mortal alter-ego at all) but it does get really old in the Burton/Schumacher Bat-films to have Bruce's identity exposed over and over and over again to basically everyone in his life.

The worst case in this Batman Forever. I was fine with Chase finding out as it seemed a foregone conclusion by this point that Bruce's Love Interests always seem to be let in on the Big Secret. (Funny when compared to the Reeve Superman Films Bruce is actually more honest with his women than Clark is with Lois) The Dick Grayson storyline needed him to find out so that he could become Robin. And The fact that Riddler found out and shared it with Two-Face was even tolerable given how his device worked (Personally though, I don't think I'd ever step into the box willingly knowing what Bruce knew about Edward's work before Nygma left Wayne Enterprises.)
What's really annoying to me is that Two-Face's hench girls also get let into the secret (I mean, they weren't wearing Earplugs when riddler went off on his Gameshow deathtrap spiel.)
Also, we only see the actual final fates of Two-Face and Riddler. Presumably the girls are arrested but what then? Neither seemed to suffer massive brain injuries like Riddler or outright death like Two Face. If that's the case, you have two reasonably intelligent, lucid women both of whom were implicitly made aware of Batman and Robin's true Identities. Unless they were kept under strict Isolation for their prison terms, there would have been a way for them to communicate what they knew to the rest of the underworld. (although I haven't read the novelization lately so maybe something did happen off camera.)

[SprangFan]

I wouldn't worry about it. By the time the girls could say, "Batman is Val Kilmer" he'd already turned into George Clooney.