The 1966Batmantelevision series starring Adam West has been contentious among comics fans at times, but the show had at least one admirer: none other than Marvel Comics’Stan Lee. A smash success from the moment it aired,Batmanpropelled the Dark Knight to the big time, creating a full-blown cultural movement when it hit the airwaves in the late sixties.
The Comics Journal#181 reprinted an interview with Stan Lee from 1968, at the height of the “Marvel Age” that helped to revolutionize the comic book industry. Conducted by Ted White, the interview offers arare glimpse at Leeduring his most productive time in comics.
Lee makes a number of salient points during the interview, but perhaps themost interesting of all is what he had to say about the contemporaneousBatmanshow:
That television show is so much the style of our comic magazines that, if we did our comic magazines live, we would almost look as if we were imitatingBatman.
BatmanPushed the Dark Knight Into the Big Time
The Camp Classic Was a Huge Hit in the Sixties
Lee was impressed withthe look ofBatman, as he well should have been. The West-starring show had one of the largest budgets of any television series at the time, andthe brightly colored sets and costumes surely helped to sell a lot of color TVs at a time when they weren’t already in every household. Later in the interview,Lee opines how he would be thrilled to see the Marvel characters get the same treatment, stating, “I would love for some of our characters to be done with the kind of budgetBatmanhas.”
Adam West’s Batman Universe Is So Much Bigger Than You Think
The lovably campy Batman TV series of the 1960s is part of a surprisingly large universe which includes many other DC superheroes.
While the campy humor ofBatmanmade it a hit with adults and kids alike, not everyone was happy.Some comics fans saw the show as making fun of their childhood hero, and once the initial success of the show wore off, the comics industry struggled to be taken seriously after the “Biff! Bam! Pow!” style of the show. White brings this up in the interview, which leads Lee to agree. “You get the feeling that they’re ridiculing or laughing at their own characters,” Lee says, pointing out the issues that many comic book had with the show’s humor.
Batman’66 Lives On in DC’s ‘66 Comics
DC Keeps the Camp Humor Alive in New Stories
Batman was given a makeoverin the comics in the years after the TV show was canceled, as creators such as Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Frank Robbins returned the character to his dark roots. While theBatmanTV series was stigmatized by comics fans for a long time thereafter, the show has seen a resurgence of popularity over the last decade, as it was made available on home video and VOD and has even been featured inofficial continuations from DC Comics. It’s interesting to learn thatStan Leesaw the potential of the Adam WestBatmanseries all those years ago.
Source:The Comics Journal
Batman
One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.
