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Batman has NEVER been a "Spongebob Squarepants" kind of character, no matter the decade. That remark is just dumb...and woefully misinformed.

I've read Batman comics since the 1960's, collected Golden Age stories (as well as Silver Age, which happen to be my favorites), and I also love the Neal Adams/Marshall Rogers stuff. Batman has always been grim when it came to dealing with crooks, villains, and the underworld. In real life, as Bruce Wayne, he was far from grim. This "grimness," where he's tortured and tormented in real life, stems completely from Miller's Return of the Dark Knight--where Wayne is a 50-something retired crimefighter whose emotional and mental issues can't let him sit still. I liked the story, think it's a classic...but it certainly doesn't define Batman.

By the mid-80's, DC was a far second to Marvel in sales. Marvel had hit upon a winning formula for its most popular heroes of that period: Wolverine and The Punisher. Make the hero just as dangerous as the villain. Wolverine was always threatening to gut his fellow heroes, and The Punisher was driven beyond driven. When I opened my comics shop in late 1985, my two biggest sellers were X-Men (especially if there was a Wolvie cover) and the last issue of The Punisher's original mini-series. That's when I came to know the term "Marvel Zombie." A typical Marvel Zombie was a 15 year old boy who'd buy ANYTHING Marvel put out, but his favorites were X-Men (Wolverine, actually), GI Joe (because he played with the toys and watched the show), and The Fantastic Four (because John Byrne was man of the moment, fan-wise). A Marvel Zombie would die before even touching a DC comic.

And that's how it was in late 1985. DC was trying to make inroads. They released Crisis on Infinite Earths, an epic 12 issue maxi-series that changed the DC Universe, supposedly "forever." Again, in my store, issue #12 (on sale when I opened) sat on the shelves, untouched by the Marvel Zombies--who made up at least 75% of my clientele. In the middle of 1986, DC finally was able to crack Marvel's hold on the market. And how? By stealing a page from Marvel's own book--DC, the oldest continously publishing comic book company and the one who "started it all," became a Marvel clone.

First came Return of the Dark Knight, a revamp of Batman as seen through the eyes of Frank Miller. Frank Miller, who--up to then--had made his name drawing and writing Marvel's Daredevil. He was a cult favorite for that Marvel effort, and now he was at DC. Hmmm, thought the fan base. Wonder what that could mean? Then Dark Knight #1 hit. I had 20 copies of the book in my store. At $2.95 a pop and in a new square-bound format, it was definitely unusual. I sold approximately 5 before the month was out. No Marvel zombies purchased or even looked at it. I had a few hardcore DC buyers (older guys in their 40's) and some who glommed onto anything that might be "hot" and a "good investment." Overall, my sales on Return of the Dark Knight were poor...in the beginning.

Then, about a month or so later, Rolling Stone ran a cover story on Miller's the Dark Knight. Suddenly, I began getting calls about the book. College students strolled in and bought copies. Before long, I only had two left. I put one up on the wall for $30.00, just as an experiment. Within a day, someone from miles away (a collector who couldn't find Dark Knight anywhere) scarfed up the book for that price! DC's experiment had worked.

And that's not all. In June, they'd wooed John Byrne--just about Marvel's biggest gun--over to the DC fold and gave him completely control over the Superman books. An epic "Man of Steel" mini-series followed (weekly), with an innovation for issue #1--a "special cover" was only available through comic shops, guaranteeing that fans would flock to the nearest one. It worked. Man of Steel was a smash. In the meanwhile, DC had stopped publishing all its Superman books. In August of 86, after the mini-series had finished and "sunken in," Superman #1 made its debut. The original Superman's title was changed to "Adventures of Superman" and continued the numbering, and Action Comics was now a Superman team book. All under John Byrne's direction.

Fan interest was intense, and DC hit another home run out of the park.

Eventually (and I can't recall exactly when), DC actually OUTSOLD Marvel, according to Diamond Comics. That was big news and actually was the headline in their publicity material. Marvel Zombies slowly became a dying breed. And then when Image came along and stole away what was left of Marvel's big guns, the die was cast. Todd McFarlane was their biggest new talent--they'd even created a new Spider-Man book for him, which broke the sales records for a new #1, with several versions (bagged, silver web, green background, platinum, etc.). Then DC "killed" Superman, and sales for issue #75 became legendary. I think it's still the best-selling "non #1" issue of all time.

As the years wore on, several things were established. Dark Knight opened the door for "dark and gritty" and threw it open wide. Almost every hero was "tortured," even Superman, Mr. White Bread himself. The Marvel Zombies may have been a dying breed, but their legacy lived on: DC's characters, up till then staid, boring, and too perfect, now had problems. They were tortured individuals, unsure of their place in the universe. They went mad and killed (Green Lantern and even Superman, who executed the Krypton villains, something he'd NEVER do before, no matter the reason), betrayed their moral standards (Jason Todd, the second Robin, may or may not have pushed a criminal to his death from a rooftop), they became homosexual (The Joker, for years, was distinctly a "gay" character), got married (Lois and Clark. That should NEVER have happened--but again, it was in answer to Peter Parker), etc.

So, now we have this dark and gritty feel to comics, and it was ushered in hardcore by the Dark Knight. Marvel was sucker-punched. Their Wolverine and even Punisher couldn't compete with that! So, they freaked and actually gave Wolverine and The Punisher their own running titles. Before, they'd been used sparingly to "spice up" stories. Now, they were front and center. The result? Their mystique began to fade, and today, when people think of "dark and gritty" in comics, only one image comes to mind: BATMAN.

Pre-Dark Knight, Batman could lead a normal life as Bruce Wayne. He had interests away from fighting crime. Post Dark Knight, there's no rest for the weary.

The early stories of Batman were nothing like the ones today. Again, Bruce Wayne led a relatively normal life. He was rich, a playboy, squired around beautiful women, attended parties. Alfred was his surrogate father. He fought villains, but he had a strict moral code. By the 50's, his character became more fantastic because it was the tenor of the times. Comic book readers were mostly 12 year olds who liked aliens and monsters because that's what was playing at the local movie theater. Think Beaver and his friend Gilbert--they were the typical comic book fans. They didn't "collect" and esconce their books in plastic and acid free boxes. They read the books, traded them, folded the front cover over to the back, ate cheeseburgers and pizza while reading them, and even brought them (horrors) to the beach!

When I started reading, in the mid 60's, Batmania was sweeping the country. Yes, the comic stories were "campy," reflecting the show. Despite the editor's claiming they weren't aping Dozier's style, the huge "pows" and "zaps" in the books could not be dismissed. I read the letters sections, and there were complaints about the "buffoonish" Batman tales, etc. Again, it was the tenor of the times. Batman was selling a MILLION copies a month! Can you imagine that? When I had my store, X-Men (the best selling title, by far) was selling 125,000 copies a month!

I saw The Dark Knight, and though I like and appreciate the "new" Batman and his rogues gallery, I just think of them as pieces in a puzzle. In the upper left hand corner is Bob Kane's original conception. In the upper right hand corner is the 50's version. In the lower left-hand corner is the 60's campy Batman, and in the lower right hand corner, we have the gritty and "dark" knight. In the middle are all the different villains and their subsequent personality shifts and changes. But basically, they're all the same as they ever were. The pristine of the original characters continues today...of course it does, because otherwise, we wouldn't even be discussing Batman at all.

And I gotta say it, to me, the best Joker and the best Penguin EVER were Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith. With simple make-up, good costuming, and great acting, they were able to beautifully capture the classic comic book characters. Nicholson might've had "star power," Heath Ledger might be a grungy, slightly hunched gnome of a Joker, but no one caught the maniacal glee of Romero. And Meredith? Come on. Honking out those Penguin sounds with a cigarette holder clenched between his teeth? Unbelievable...and priceless.

Long live Batman and all his friends and foes!

Rod

Thanks, Mirek!

He wore an eraser mask. And that was during the "campy" era of Batman, when the book was selling a million copies a month. You might not be "down with that anymore," but those stories weren't designed for an adult. They were kid stuff, adventure stuff--but certainly nowhere near Spongebob Squarepants stuff. Do you even know what Spongebob is all about?

Rod

Carrey's Riddler was just a riff on Gorshin's. I also think Julie Newmar was/is far and away the BEST Catwoman ever. And I loved her catty theme music--just "off" enough to let us know she's a force to be reckoned with.

Rod

As a comic book store owner (former), I can understand why clerks would stare at little kids who are just there to paw every comic, read some if they can get away with it, and then leave without buying a thing.

In the direct market, the retailer buys the comics. They're not returnable. So if a comic is destroyed by someone who has no intention of buying it (and believe me, most clerks can spot those types in a minute), then the retailer must "eat" the comic. No collector wants to buy comics that have fingerprints on them. In fact, most collectors in my store would automatically take the comic behind the first one, which always amused me...since I'd routinely switch them around when no one was looking.

The worst problem I had to deal with in my store concerned adults who didn't watch their kids and would let them run around and wreck everything or adults who'd read the comics themselves without buying them. I was the only employee, the only owner, and the manager, and when I observed this--and it looked like it would continue unless I put a stop to it--I very politely said, "excuse me, sir, but you'll have to buy the comics to read them." I wanted to add, "this isn't a library." And sometimes I did, if I got attitude.

Rod