C2E2 Report: DC Comics – Batman

Saturday was a big day for this year’s C2E2, with a lot of DC and Marvel’s biggest panels taking place. Besides entry in the morning, the longest line I saw all weekend was for this panel. Hundreds of fans filed through the doors of the convention’s largest panel space, and with good reason.

As things got started, John Cunningham, DC’s Marketing VP, introduced us to our panelists: James Tynion IV, former writer of Red Hood and the Outlaws and Talon and an architect of Batman: Eternal; Scott Snyder, writer for Batman, lead writer for Batman: Eternal, and all-around Batman superfan; Jason Fabok and Dustin Nguyen, the two artists for Batman: Eternal; Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi, the artist and writer, respectively, on Batman and _____; and Jim Chadwick, an editor with DC’s digital division who works on Batman ‘66, among others.

Cunningham started by reminding us that this year is the 75^th anniversary of Batman and promised a slew of celebration, most clearly embodied in a “Batman Day” sometime this July. He also mentioned the two animated shorts commissioned for the anniversary and, as a thank you, revealed that we’d be screening them before the panel began.

Unfortunately there was some technical trouble, kicking off a friendly rivalry between Cunningham and the people running the projector.

Unable to resolve the problem immediately, we turned to the comics.

The first book mentioned was Grayson, which received a warm reception, but just as quickly as it was brought up, Cunningham informed us that he couldn’t talk about it yet. Instead Scott Snyder took the opportunity to enlist the audience in a campaign to make sure that DC used the slogan that he and the other writers had come to love, “You think you know Nightwing, but you don’t know Dick.” It seemed to take off with the fans. DC had actually published the line in the Grayson #1 solicit a few days earlier, but after this panel I’m sure they were pleased that they went ahead with it.

Next on the docket was Batman and Scott Snyder’s “Zero Year” storyline, which has just entered its final phase, “Savage City”. Snyder, ever eager to share with the fans had thrown in a couple of extra slides into the presentation as a thank you. “You guys are our bosses,” he said, quoting a sentiment that drives he and Greg Capullo’s work on the title.

Batman ’66 #8 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Rubèn Procopio (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: King Tut—how’d you get so funky?  Funky Tut—did you do the monkey?

The Review: I can’t say that I exactly had high expectations for this series—no matter what, it’s still an adaptation of a TV show that was campy even back in the sixties—but the first issue was such an outstanding blend of winking comedy, credibility, and homage that it perhaps set the bar too high for the rest of the series.  Quite honestly, Batman ’66 has been running on the ever diminishing momentum of that strong start, and now it’s almost completely petered out.

I’ve implied this from the beginning, but this title didn’t have a prayer of long-term success if Parker simply kept it a straight transfer of what we saw on TV to the page.  We’re all friends here, so let’s be honest: Batman was not that great a show.  It’s important today as a record of sixties pop culture, like Laugh-In, but unlike Laugh-In, it never claimed nor even pretended to have any real substance.  That’s just not going to cut it anymore, not with the literate, snarky audience that makes up comic book readers today.

Batman ’66 #7 – Review

By: Jeff Parker & Tom Peyer (story), Christopher Jones & Derec Donovan (art), Tony Aviña (colors)

The Story: Batman’s enlisted to track down Gotham’s newest villain—Bruce Wayne.

The Review: Parker definitely took on a different kind of challenge in committing himself to Batman ’66.  Although the show has garnered a cult audience over the years, even the cultists know better than to take the show very seriously.  Somehow, Parker has to sustain long-term interest in the series with a pool of story possibilities limited by the original show’s innocence, simplicity, and campiness.

Although Parker got compelling reads out of the first couple issues, the ones that came after have struggled to find a balance between retro and modern sensibilities, just as this issue does.  The plot, of course, is nothing much: villain False Face masquerades as Bruce Wayne to carry out his evil doing free from suspicion.  Obviously, this puts Batman in the awkward position of working with the police to capture himself, which Parker could have gotten a great story out of, but somehow falls short.

Batman ’66 #6 – Review

By: Tom Pever & Jeff Parker (story), Ty Templeton & Ted Naifeh (art), Tony Aviña (colors)

The Story: The evil Bookwork demonstrates the danger of reading.

The Review: Fun fact about me: I’m an addict for PBS kids’ shows.  I’m particularly fond of Wordgirl, which combines three of my favorite things into one show: superheroes, vocabulary, and self-aware humor.  One of its most endearing features is the supervillains, each of whom comes with his or her own gimmick which dictates their crimes.  Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy, for example, spends the bulk of his time harassing delis and grocery stores.

This might explain why I seem so inordinately entertained by the villains on this series.  Of course, it helps when the writer finds a way to spin what could otherwise be a rather predictable obsession.  Bookworm, for example, sets his sights beyond the library tomes for weirder, less expected targets.  At the suggestion that he’s out to steal Bruce’s ceremonial check for a literacy charity, Bookworm sneers, “I don’t want your giant check…I want your giant checkbook!”

Batman ’66 #5 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Rubén Procopio & Colleen Coover (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Batman’s going to get a good rest, even if he has to fight crime to do it!

The Review: This title has got itself in a permanent bind.  Because it features a gentler, kindlier world of Batman, it can never reach past a limited boundary of appropriate violence, pathos, and complexity.  At the same time, subsisting on a regular diet of mercenary, buffoonish villains is bound to get old.  Somehow, within this narrow framework, Parker’s got to find new ways to challenge Batman without overstepping his bounds.

So far, Parker has impressed by giving the revolving door of villains fairly clever plans that fit the campy tone of the series, but still feel as if they have some brains behind them.  Our latest rogue, the Sandman (not of Justice Society fame), makes good use of his sleeping powder and its hypnotic side-effects, a fire truck, and Gotham’s emergency broadcast system to purloin the city en masse, but also to discover Batman’s secrets.  It’s not glamorous, but at least it’s original.

Batman ’66 #4 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Jonathan Case (art), Sandy Jarrell (art), Tony Aviña (colors)

The Story: Batman and Robin, guaranteeing that villains get off their high hat.

The Review: It’s not surprising superhero comics tend to stagnate over time, given their penchant for having the same heroes fight the same villains, always in the same setting. As traditional as it is to see Batman battle evil in Gotham, there are times I wonder if part of the reason why he can never lighten up is because he’s always trapped in that hole of urban crime.  Maybe if he gets out once in a while, he’d have more perspective.

So kudos to Parker for taking advantage of the sixties’ romance for exotic lands to take Batman, Robin, and Alfred to England.  It doesn’t matter that they just end up doing their usual crime-fighting thing anyway.  What matters is the breath of fresh air that comes from a change in pace.  Even if the differences are mostly superficial (Parker goes as far as to include a British Batmobile and a Commissioner Gordon facsimile in the form of his cousin, Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector Gordon), at least they beat the done-and-done Gotham hijinks.

Batman ’66 #3 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Joe Quinones & Sandy Jarrell (art), Maris Wicks & Rico Renzi (colors)

The Story: Don’t let the Joker get into your head; he may decide to never get out.

The Review: I don’t know if Parker has learned some lessons from Li’l Gotham—I don’t know if anyone reads Li’l Gotham for anything other than to melt into a helpless puddle of adoration for the sheer cuteness of it all—but he’s surely taking care to avoid the missteps of its fellow digital-first series.  Entertainment and laughs are all well and good, but there’s no reason why you can’t have good character work and plotting, too.

Parker already hinted at a shift towards more serious stories last issue, with suggestions of a potentially long-term plotline.  Here he goes full throttle, setting aside his usual jokey antics for something that actually resembles a more traditional Batman mission.  True, you’re not genuinely in fear of anything too dire happening, but there’s still very much a dramatic tension moving the feature along.

Batman ’66 #2 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Ty Templeton & Jonathan Case (art), Wes Hartman (colors)

The Story: When Batman’s down and out, it’s up to his chum and his girlfriend to save his skin!

The Review: One of my favorite things about the sixties and in particular a certain type of story that was especially (some might even say inexplicably) popular during that period is the needlessly elaborate and complicated plots.  Granted, these plots often got so convoluted that you suspect even the writers lost track of what they were talking about, but there has never been a better time for complete and utter, anything-goes confidence in storytelling.

That’s why I take especial delight in Batman ’66.  Parker not only emulates the tone and syntax of the show with exceptional precision, he also channels the imaginative spirit of the era.  See, it’s not enough that Penguin puts Gotham’s economic activity to a standstill by blocking the harbor with a Titanic-crushing iceberg; he goes ahead and gets it recognized by the United Nations as a sovereign nation, making any incursion upon it an act of war.  There is just so much factually wrong and entertainingly right about this plan.

Batman ’66 #1 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Jonathan Case (art)

The Story: Bam!  Pow!  Zap!  Here come Batman and Robin!

The Review: Scoff all you want, but Batman has become such a part of our pop culture that even if you never watched an episode of the show in your entire life, like I never did, there are still fragments that have a hold on your consciousness: Adam West and Burt Ward, the goony sound effect blurbs flashing on the screen, the frenetic theme song that recalled an auditory whirlwind, Robin’s “Holy ________!” exclamations, and over it all, the major camp factor.

Parker brings back, even revels, in all these familiar elements, and the result is equal parts parody and credibility.  Ultimately, your enjoyment depends on complete acceptance that this world is merely inspired by the Batman mythos, but operates according to an entirely unique set of rules and values, one that reflects a more innocent, enthusiastic, confident era.  Embracing this title thus requires a sense of self-aware humor equal to that of the series itself.