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.