Batman '66, Volume 5

You look at the cover and you're probably saying 'Batman '66 never fought against Solomon Grundy or Clayface!' However, you have to remember that this DC comics webseries turned comic book is supposed to be an imagining of what could have been if ABC never destroyed the sets and NBC picked up Batman for a fourth season!

Plus, you would be wrong in your assumptions about Grundy and perhaps Clayface. If you are like me and you remember the awesomely terrible Legends of the Superheroes and the even worse sequel, the Adam West Batman along with the Burt Ward Robin went up against Solomon Grundy, played by character actor Mickey Morton. Plus, it's a fan theory that the one-shot villain False Face, played by heavy Malachi Thorne, was in fact Basil Karloff, the first Clayface! Well, thanks to Jeff Parker, that theory became reality with a story that sees False Face falling into a polluted swamp and becoming the Matt Hagen version of Clayface!

This volume is sadly the last volume collection of Batman '66 stories. Thus, I think with cancellation on the horizon, the creative team got a chance to give their wildest wishes a chance to get the Batman '66 treatment. Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Bane all make debuts. I loved every page, though there was just a little too much of Marsha, Queen of Diamonds. She's in 2 issues!!! I'd rather give Shame or the Minstrel another chance to shine.

There's a great story where Barbara Gordon takes a temp job at an ad agency that gets held hostage by the Big Four: Catwoman, Joker, Riddler and the Penguin. They want the ad execs to create a campaign, changing their reputation as villains. Unable to change into Batgirl, Barbara has to use her wits and the baddies' hubris to play the antagonists against each other. It's a brilliant story that doesn't see any capes!

Unfortunately, we never get a Batman '66/Superman '52 team-up. Though we come really close in the last issue! The Allred Family wrap up the series with a brilliant tale that reveals true story behind the battle Batman and Robin undertake in the animated sequence performed every episode, during the show's theme song. Towards the very end, we get an amazing cameo of George Reeves' Clark Kent, as well as several other appearances by characters who might have existed in the '66 universe. 

This volume wraps up my having read everything tied into the classic 60s TV version of the Caped Crusader.  I still have a Wonder Woman '77 team up with the Bionic Woman and some of the other more recent releases to go. But hopefully we'll get some more adventures of the Gothamites of 1966. I can understand DC wanting a cooling off period to not over-saturate the brand. But the number of devotees to that show are dwindling. We're not getting any younger. Here's to hoping we don't have to wait until 2066 for further adventures...

Worth Consuming!

Rating 9 out of 10 stars.

Batman/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1 (Family Comic Friday)

Variant Cover C by Turtles Co-creator, Kevin Eastman.

  Earlier this year, the worlds of Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collided for the very first time. But that comic team-up was aimed at teen and adult audiences. (Very few people know that the Ninja Turtles was originally a very gritty and mature parody of Frank Miller’s Daredevil comics.)

   Well, in order to placate those who called for an all-ages teaming of the two franchises, DC and IDW joined forces again to bring us Batman/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. The miniseries which hit shelves with issue #1 this past Wednesday is set in the TMNT Nickelodeon animated universe and the Batman: The Animated Series Universe, marking the return of the original TAS universe in comics form in almost 20 years! When I saw the ad for this series a couple of weeks ago, it immediately went on my wish list and issue #1 did not disappoint!

   In the Batman Universe, a number of inmates from Arkham Asylum have escaped and seemingly vanished without a trace. When the Dark Knight finally catches up with Two-Face, the dual villain rambles on about a world without a ‘Two-Face...without a Harvey Dent… Without a Batman!’

   Meanwhile, in the Ninja Turtles universe, the Shell-heads are facing a problem of their own. Archenemy Kraang and his people have activated another inter-dimensional portal into the Turtles sewer lair. But instead of a bunch of pink brain creatures pouring through it, the guys battle a man made of mud that can change into anything and anyone: Clayface!

   Though the Caped Crusader and the Heroes in the Half Shell never meet, parts of their two universes do bleed over. I believe that there’s supposed to be a total of 6-issues in this storyline. So the two parties are going to come face-to-face. I just hope it’s sooner than later.

     The artwork is primarily in the vein of the Nickelodeon series. But Ninja Turtle  artist Jon Sommarvia along with inker Sean Parsons do a fairly good job in their renderings of Batman, Alfred, Two-Face and Clayface. But there were a couple of characters that really look nothing like the original animated series or the Batman/Robin and Justice League spin-offs for that matter. I’d tell you who they are, but I don’t wanna ruin the surprise yet…

   I really enjoyed this issue. Various Batman titles writer Matthew K. Manning has done a great job thus far and I think this will end up as one of the all-time classic team-up stories that appeal to a wide spectrum of generations of Batman and Ninja Turtle fans.

  

   Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Joker’s Asylum II: Clayface (the 160-Character Review Challenge)

Clayface haunts a film festival, turning horror buffs into his own concession stand. The basis of a great episode of Gotham. wc 10/10