Review: Batman '66 #20

This issue features a new writer, Rob Williams, who turns in a story featuring the Joker seemingly becoming a crime fighter, which in reality is just an elaborate ruse to snake the loot of all of Gotham's other arch criminals.  Williams' effort is kind of uneven. He gets in some good moments, like a frustrated Bruce yelling "Blast!", only to apologize for his dark side. Contrast that with a Joker who really doesn't come across as the Cesar Romero version.  The art by Ruben Procopio is generally good, but there are some mystifying inconsistencies, such as the second half of the story sees Jokerman in a completely different costume and Jokermobile than the first half with no explanation.  Likewise, the first part of the story has Mayor Linseed portrayed as a generic white man (not looking like the actor who portrayed him, Byron Keith), while the second half of the story sees Linseed once again erroneously portrayed as the African-American mayor from Batman Forever. Despite Procopio getting credit, it almost looks like a different artist drew the second half. This issue earns a C+.

Petition Rhino for Monkees on HD BluRay

With the release of the Batman TV series on BluRay, transferred into HD from the original camera negatives, all Monkees fans should respectfully and politely petition Rhino to do the same for the Monkees TV series.  To use the original negatives would also restore all missing scenes, such as the missing scenes of Vern in "Too Many Girls", and the missing tag in "A Nice Place To Visit".  Some new audio commentaries by Micky, Mike and Peter should be added in addiiton to reusing the ones from the DVD release.  One of the crimes of the DVD release was that Micky only contributed two audio commentaries.  Of course they should include all the expected extras: the unaired color-corrected pilot, all the recently discovered outtakes and bloopers, 33 1/3, the 1997 ABC TV special, the HD version of "Head", the Monkees' original screentests in HD, all the Kelloggs, Yardley, Kool Aid, and Nerf commercials, the 1969 TV musical performances from the Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell shows, the complete 1996 Billboard concert, and the 1976 Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart TV special directed by Micky.
Email Rhino to request this:  DrRhino@Rhino.com 

Review: Batman '66 #19

In this issue writer Jeff Parker brings back third season villains Lord Marmaduke Ffogg, his sister Lady Penelope Peasoup, and their finishing girls' class of crime students.  Parker comes up with a good script that in some ways is superior to the original three-part TV episode. Ffogg and his team have come to Gotham during an Old English festival to spread his new fog that drugs people into "seeing things his way".  Clever moments include Alfred saving the Dynamic Duo when Ffogg's daughter Prudence cuts their Bat-rope during a Bat-Climb, and how they handle fighting the all-girl gang without punching.  Once again, Mayor Linseed is incorrectly portrayed as the African-American mayor from Batman Forever, a continuity gaffe that puts it in conflict not only of the TV series, but of Ralph Garman and Kevin Smith's Batman '66 Meets The Green Hornet miniseries.  The art by Leonardo Romero is excellent, and ranks up there with some of the best of the series.  His only mistakes are drawing Batman's costume a little too baggy, and getting Robin's tunic wrong in several panels.  Overall, this issue earns a B.

Elvis' 80th Birthday

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 80th birthday.  To celebrate, here are the links to the Elvis articles I published on this blog.

The Best Elvis Songs You've Never Heard

Young Dreams: A Look at Elvis' Movies

What If Elvis Lived?

Of course, it needs to be mentioned Elvis was a big fan of The Marvel Family, specifically Captain Marvel Jr.  With the upcoming movie, hopefully the producers (and Dwayne Johnson- who is a self-professed Elvis fan) are savvy enough to be aware of this, and include several of Elvis' tunes on the soundtrack.

Happy Birthday, Elvis.

Review: Batman '66 #18

This issue has something different.  Two short stores.  The first story is written by Tom Peyer and is an effort drowned in the weaknesses of a typical season 2 episode. The Archer is back, to steal a computer, that he uses to form his own rival police force. The story is quite weak, featuring a weak villain, and weak artwork by Dave Bullock. This story earns a C-.

Next up is a Batgirl solo, written by Jeff Parker. The Bookworm makes an appropriate villain for librarian Barbara Gordon's alter ego.  Parker turned in an enjoyable script, and the archaic writings in the book the Bookworm is after is quite the in-joke. The only gripe about this story was, as with several other recent issues, treading too much into the supernatural, which does not suit the character of Batman in general, especially not the 66 version.  Bookworm uses the archaic spells in the book to transform his henchmen into giant silverfish to attack Batgirl. The art is by Richard Case, who does a great job, yet I can't help but wonder how Joelle Jones, who turned in some exceptional art for the Batgirl solo in issue 10, would have handled it. This story earns a B, averaging a C for the issue.