Rebooting Batman

[clavierankh]

Reboots and re-imaginings of TV shows and comic characters are very popular these days. We have had a reimagining of Battlesttar Galactica a reboot of Star Trek and of course it's always popular to redo the origins of comic book characters from time to time

.Suppose you had the opportunity to do a reboot of Batman what might you change.

You could change something small like letting more people know Batman's identity, for example Commissioner Gordon.

Perhaps Batman needs a larger posse. The conceit of the show is that Batman is so brilliant he could build the Batmobile theBatcomputer and even the Batcave atomic pile. But perhaps in a reimagining Batman has a computer expert a mechanic maybe even a martial arts instructor.

You can even alter his origin. Perhaps his parents were murdered when he was a boy. Instead he grew up a Playboy eventually got married and had a child. Then one night while out with his wife they are held up she is murdered. This is what causes him to start his crusade against crime. Eventually his son grows up and becomes Robin the boy wonder. This would change the relationship between Bruce and Dick from two unmarried males living in a house to father and son. This would at least get rid of the silly gay innuendo

.These are just some thoughts, maybe not good ones. What sort of changes might you make?

[elmrgraham]

We need Mattman to be involved with this again.

[dell]

Well the big question is do you still do it camp or do you make it more serious? A huge part of the charm for me is the camp aspect of the show. They never took it too seriously and could let the guest stars ham it up.

I think the campy aspect kept them from creating back stories for a lot of the villians. Since the villians were bad (duh), they would have had to make their back stories sad or evil. I think that would have introduced too much seriousness into the show. The same with Batman and Robin; we never really learn anything about their history.

Doing a campy show is like walking a tightrope; you can't deviate too far in any direction or you fall off. The 1960's TV show did a great job with this concept at first; they usually made it just campy enough to keep it entertaining without getting goofy. After the first season we all saw the decline in the quality of the scripts. Eventually, the show deviated so far from camp that it just got silly (The Nora Clavicle episode with the mice bombs).

So if you don't do another camp version I think you have to make it serious and dark. Why? The main character is dressed as a bat. He appears in public in a very strange costume and he fights against some very strange criminals. There are only two ways to do that in my opinion; camp or dark and serious (and campy to a certian extent).

Look at a selection of non-animated superhero TV shows:
Batman - camp
Superman - camp
Wonder Woman (or Vonder Voman as the Nazis used to say) - camp
The Incredible Hulk - dark
The Greatest American Hero - camp
Elctra Woman - camp
The Green Hornet - serious, but the Green Hornet didn't have an outrageous costume or anything bizarre. He just had a really cool car. His costume was a trench coat, hat and mask. He had no special powers.

Since the original version of Batman was done so well, I don't think we will see a remake of it any time soon.

[66batmaniac]

Batman, the character, has forever been in reboot mode. It is what has made the character so relevant for 75 years.

Beginning with Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s pulpish creation, to the role model of the 40s, to the science fiction and fantasy of the 50s, to the Schwartz reinvent and the pop art/camp movement of the 60s, to the O’Neil/Adams rebirth in the 70s, to the Miller darkening of the 80s, to the Animated rebirth of the 90s to the big screen renaissance in the 00s, to the recapturing the glory of our youth in the embrace of all things 66 Batman of the 2010s; Batman is constantly in the state of reboot.

The one constant is Batman has always been a reflection of the times that surround him. A reinvent of the 60s Batman is impossible. All the factors: the casting, the costumes, the color, the camp, the originality, were signs of the times. The perfection that was the first season of the 66 Batman series cannot be duplicated, nor should it be. Today’s world needs a different Batman. A Dark Knight.

But, we still have our Caped Crusader.

[John Mack]

I don't like reboots. To me, they imply that the first one was substandard. Leave well enough alone.

John

[High C]

I don't like reboots. To me, they imply that the first one was substandard. Leave well enough alone.

John

+1000

[Riddlersgurl]

Batman in the comics has been rebooted to death.

We don't need to reboot the 66 TV version as well. We may have our issues with it, but it's just fine the way that it is.

If, and I say IF, there is a new Batman TV series, it really should be rebooted that much. Bruce can still be a Dark Knight, but we need to keep a lot of the bloodshed in the comics OFF of the TV screen.

TV is violent enough, we don't need to add to it.

I have to say that I DON'T like the new 52, and I DON'T like the way that DC has been treating the characters that we have come to love.

[Yellow Oval]

Riddlersgurl, you rock!

I agree as I don't so much as hate the New 52 - I absolutely despise it as both a Batman fan and comic fan in general! I found DC showed a lot of disrespect towards the 1966-1968 TV show by trying in the late '90s up to now to make Batman as dark, depressing, and demented a character as possible to counter the so-called "camp" version. They seem to have forgotten if not for the TV show Batman was doomed to cancellation as a comic character and would have been long-forgotten by now. For some reason it's in vogue that Batman should be Darth Vader's long-lost brother rather than the benevolent hero we all knew and loved growing up with.

That said, as much as I would like a TV series on Batman I just can't see it because first - the camp humor is definitely long gone as is the '60s. Second, Hollywood is hooked on navel-gazing angst, woe-is-me, and all that (I refer to 'Smallville'). Third - they are obsessed with murderous violence. Look at what they've done to Green Arrow. The show 'Arrow' (which I've refused to watch since the first episode) has Green Arrow killing people, he's messed up mentally, and is just a travesty all around. All with DC's and Warner's permission.

Can we even imagine what a Batman series would be now? A young 20-something Bruce Wayne returns from missing for a few years with an angry (read: murderous) vengeful streak he intends to bring on all Gotham's underworld. He is accompanied by Alfred and Commissioner Gordon - both with handguns. Then there's the requiste rookie detective who is trying to find out who Batman is and predictably Catwoman would meet Batman (as Bruce and Selina) at a high society ball and would be intrigued by him and pop in and out of various episodes as friend and foe. Dick Grayson they'd end up making as Bruce's younger, angry brother who eventually discover's the truth and becomes Robin of some variant. Barbara Gordon, the Commissioner's niece, who becomes known as Batgirl, but instead wears a black trench, boots and a domino mask because it's more "realistic". Yeah - that would work! And on and on and on it would go like a CW teen soap opera... One Bat Hill or Bruce Wayne's Creek! Maybe it would be called Bat Master & Son. You name it. Not to mention grabbing Christopher Nolan-seque concepts wouldn't help.

No... let sleeping bats lie. Hollywood has a strong tendency now to mangle anything they touch. We have the iconic TV show. When it gets DVD release it will be like the show starting out all over again only we'll get to see it in richer color and detail than anyone has ever seen it - even better than those who watched it in '66!

All I ask is DC Comics (that I stopped buying regularly in 1999) regain their edge and stop catering to a small niche better suited to the Dark Lords of the Sith.

And for the record, Batman '66 wasn't all that camp. I have a friend who even today still dislikes seeing any pictures of Cesar Romero's Joker as he says Cesar scared the living daylights out of him as kid. And who could forget their first viewing of False Face?

[Riddlersgurl]

I could come up with something better than that, and it wouldn't be a reboot, but an expansion of the series.

I'd actually give the villains a bit of contextual background, and flesh them out more as people.

I've got a rough outline (as in VERY rough) as to what happened in their lives; their relationships with each other and with the cops.

If anyone is interested, drop me a PM, and I'll send it to you.

As soon as I write it! LOL!

[clavierankh]

I really preferred the Batman of 66 as he was. I posted this to get some conversation going the boarded been pretty quiet.

A reboot doesn't necessarily mean the original is stuff. Sometimes it just means a concept has to be updated for modern tastes.

I still prefer the 66 Batman as a good hero and role model over today's more psychopathic version.

About a year ago I was in a bookstore and saw rack of comic books. I picked up a Superman comic book and thumbed through it. It didn't look anything like the Superman I remember when I was a kid.

[Yellow Oval]

No, Clavierankh, Superman and all the rest are not the same. For some reason the comic companies think we all want the heros to be dark, depressed, angry, mentally deranged, etc. They've pretty much now made the heros as bad as the villains. They're severely misjudging the fanbase. They only cater to a niche that's a fraction of what the fanbase used to be. These are the ones who want everything to be more "realistic". Like TV with its "reality" shows that has driven a huge segment to either Youtube for old show viewing or buying DVD sets - none of the entertainment mediums get it anymore concerning what is supposed to be entertainment - not depressivement - and are losing a lot of cash because of it which just stubbornly or ignorantly (take your pick) causes them all to go further in the wrong direction. They just can't seem to comprehend the fact that we don't want reality or what they think passes for it in our entertainment. We get that every day when we walk out the front door. We want to be taken to worlds where we can just relax, enjoy, and forget. Adam West's Batman, and '60s/'70s TV in general, were very good at it.

[Waterratt]

I would do a "Smallville" type of show following a young Bruce Wayne traveling the world learning his skills and thwarting crime along the way, I would call it "Gotham Knight."

[exm]

If the 66' Batman was a reflection of the childish dopiness of the early 60's comics, wouldn't a reboot today need to be a parody of the dark, brooding violent Batman? I don't know how you do that, though, and make it something just suggests 'TV Series' instead of just a 10-minute 'skit'

[BatDavidEvanSmith]

I was so upset with the vigilante show "Arrow" on the CW network, that I started doing concept work on a Batman series, done in a more serious tone, and was able to get about 10 seasons worth out of it, echoing the longevity of Smallville.

I'd love to post the concept ideas here for seasons, episodes and casting, from my series "Gotham".

In researching, there was a concept for a Smallville-type series that focused on Bruce Wayne's evolution INTO Batman (Waterratt's idea), but I didn't like that as much, cause you're dealing with all the characters BEFORE they became the characters, which I find less fulfilling. To read up on it, type in "Bruce Wayne (TV series)" in at Wikipedia.

[elmrgraham]

The 66 Batman was,and still is,a classic.