Batman ’66 is the newest DC digital comic to be released and it is one that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. The original 60′s Batman show has a special place in my heart. I used to catch it on reruns all the time and I absolutely loved it. Yes, it is cheesy. Yes, it probably makes Dark Knight fans want to vomit, but it was great fun. It is a product of its time and its quirkiness and charm is still endearing to this day. Especially in Season 3 when Batgirl became a regular. That was when my love affair with Batgirl began and still continues to this day.
As far as the comic, well, it does a pretty good job of capturing the feel of the show and they throw in a few new tricks along the way. With Batman ’66, DC is launching their new digital comics initiative and using new, well rarely used at least, ways of telling the story. Batman ’66 uses progressive panels so as you “flip” through the comic you may have a static image that changes slightly as characters are speaking or background actions happen. It’s similar to a motion comic, but you actually control everything so it is far more intereactive than motion comics were. They even went so far as to reproduce the dots that were prevalent from the way comics were printed back in the sixties. It all comes together as a quick trip down memory lane for me and one I’m going to enjoy revisting every week. My only complaint is that they missed an opportunity by not having it start out with the same animatic that they used for the actual show. The way the show started would be a perfect fit for what DC is doing with this comic and would have been really fun.
I’ve mentioned many times before that I really like what DC is doing with their digital comics. New comics every weekday and, for the most part, they have been really solid. Legends of Batman, The Adventures of Superman and the Beyond (Batman, Superman, Justice League) titles have had great stories and art. Many of them are standalone, but some have been multi-issue arcs. All for $.99 each.
