A Review of the Real First Batman:1966's Batman

The Place: Gotham City.

The Time: “Some 15 years ago”, as the comic book legend has it.

Strolling home from the movies, a prominent physician and his wife are gunned down in a mugging gone wrong. The only witness to the killings: the couple’s young child.

Orphaned, the child’s soul stirred and he screamed for vengeance, not just for his loss, but for the losses suffered by so many at the hands of criminals. Though the path to achieving his vengeance takes him on a journey in and out of Gotham, studies at the feet of the greatest detectives, the greatest martial artists, the greatest legal minds, all over the world.

Finally, the man was ready to begin his mission. And circumstances, childhood fears, and pure coincidence or fate put the final piece of the “plan” into motion. Bruce Wayne would assume a costume meant to invoke a primal fear, to play on the fact that criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot. He would become a Bat.

Batman was the second great super-hero in a burgeoning comic book industry in 1939. The character, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, are the only comic book characters to be published continuously from World War II to the present.

But in the early 1960’s, poor DC Comics – the publishers of Batman comics – were actually considering canceling Batman due to poor sales.

Then came 1966’s “Batman” TV show – its instant success and literal live-action recreation of a comic book on screen was something that hadn’t ever been seen before. Adults got the joke. Kids were pulled in by the adventure. And suddenly Adam West and Burt Ward were bona fide TV stars.

At the height of the program’s popularity, Batman, Robin, Commissioner Gordon, Chief O’Hara, Alfred the Butler, and Aunt Harriet transitioned to the big screen – and it might be noted this was long before “Star Trek” supposedly did it first.