The first big-screen Batman - Lewis Wilson in 1943, with Douglas Croft as Robin
Posted on 03/16/2019 4:33:01 PM PDT by Twotone
Happy birthday to Batman, who made his debut eight decades ago in Detective Comics, issue number 27. It was dated May 1939, but actually hit newsstands in March that year. Batman made his screen debut in 1943 - see the somewhat saggy long underwear at right, and then took a two decade break till the campy TV series of the mid-Sixties. Another twenty years later he returned in a feature film by Tim Burton, and has been a fixture at the multiplex ever since. I was trying to recall whether I'd ever met anyone who's played Bruce Wayne, and to the best of my recollection I haven't. But I've met a couple of Alfreds, the butler at Wayne Manor, which on reflection I think is cooler. Michael Gough was a fine actor who found fame late in life as the longtime major domo at Wayne Manor. Michael Caine, who succeeded him as Alfred, was a starrier name, and a very genial cove when he and the lovely Shakira swung by our table when I was dining with Conrad Black during his trial in Chicago in 2007. (Sir Michael was in town filming The Dark Knight.) But Gough was more suited to the role, and it's partly because of him that, to mark eighty years of the caped crusader, we're focusing on those Batman pictures of the late Eighties and Nineties.
It's hard to remember now, but back in 1989 everyone raved about how the Tim Burton Batman was wonderfully "dark" after the campy Sixties TV version. Twenty years later Christopher Nolan's version made Burton look like Mel Brooks, but Nolan's "dark knight" will wind up as the camp crusader sooner or later. It seems to be an inevitable trajectory for the franchise.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
I’ve been watching the campy 60s Batman lately.
Now I appreciate the satire. As a kid seeing reruns I hated it.
Issue #1000 of Detective comics will be issued later this month
I enjoyed it immensely as a kid. Now that I am older I appreciate the guest cameos more.
I wish they had written in scenes where musical guests were performing. Since so many of the scenes in gold and silver age Batman comics take place in ritzy nightclubs it would have fit well.
Bruce must be a centenarian then.
IMHO, Christian Bale has been the best Batman. Adam West was the best Bruce Wayne. I love Michael Caine, but Sean Pertwee in the “Gotham” TV series is the best Alfred.
I’ll be pulling out my copies of Secret Origins #3, which is a retelling of the origin of the Earth-2 Batman and The Brave and the Bold #200 which is a team up of both the Earth-1 and Earth-2 Batman.
DC recently created the Batman who Laughs , as well as The Grim Knight who as young Bruce shot the robber dead when he dropped his gun
Batbump
By the time I started reading comic books in the late 50s, the comic code had been issued and the teeth had been removed from them. A 5 year older cousin had some of the older ones and man they we very intense.
He was annoyed at what was done to them. I still read the comics and spent much of my allowance on them. I like Superman the most. Batman was always next, but I really loved Blackhawk and his international group of Jet Plane flying, fighting good guys. (I’ve seen early examples of Blackhawk where they flew propeller planes). Marvel became popular after I started college in 66. It was ‘camp’ in college in the late 60s to read them.
I don’t read them anymore in the beginning of my 8th decade. I do watch the current DC and Marvel based movies. Though some are a bit much for this old kid.
I’d rather not know.
As much as I love what Frank Miller did with The Dark Knight Retuns, I'll NEVER get the mess that was All-Star Batman And Robin washesd out of my gray matter.
“Gotham” is a lot more interesting than the movies.
I remember when I first went to see the first Batman done by Tim Burton. Edgy. Plus the campy tv series.
Lead acid batteries charged, carburetor engine warmed up!
“I’ve been watching the campy 60s Batman lately.”
Still the best Batmobile, IMHO.
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