Batman ’66 #7 – Review

By: Jeff Parker & Tom Peyer (story), Christopher Jones & Derec Donovan (art), Tony Aviña (colors)

The Story: Batman’s enlisted to track down Gotham’s newest villain—Bruce Wayne.

The Review: Parker definitely took on a different kind of challenge in committing himself to Batman ’66.  Although the show has garnered a cult audience over the years, even the cultists know better than to take the show very seriously.  Somehow, Parker has to sustain long-term interest in the series with a pool of story possibilities limited by the original show’s innocence, simplicity, and campiness.

Although Parker got compelling reads out of the first couple issues, the ones that came after have struggled to find a balance between retro and modern sensibilities, just as this issue does.  The plot, of course, is nothing much: villain False Face masquerades as Bruce Wayne to carry out his evil doing free from suspicion.  Obviously, this puts Batman in the awkward position of working with the police to capture himself, which Parker could have gotten a great story out of, but somehow falls short.

In particular, there are some interesting moments in the story that Parker doesn’t capitalize on as he should.  The Gotham police have little problem, at least at first, with Bruce Wayne as a suspect.  When Robin calls for a benefit of doubt, Chief O’Hara gripes, “Millionaires ain’t like us crimefighters, Boy Wonder.  They’re always lookin’ for more money!”  This heated remark reveals a prejudice that could have been the source of good tension or even just satire for this squeaky-clean world, but Parker denies the story any such heft by having Batman immediately set the coppers straight by the force of his word alone: “Such chicanery, such subterfuge could be accomplished by…only!  One!  Man!  False Face.”

Besides this missed opportunity, False Face proves to be a skilled antagonist, but not a very ingenious one.  Indeed, like so many sub-par villains, he sows his own doom by leaving behind clues for Batman and Robin to follow.  Aside from that, Parker doesn’t take advantage of False Face’s unique abilities as much as he could have, limiting the villain to mainly materialistic crimes.  Yet this is a man who can freely impersonate any person, living or dead, man or woman, even presidents.  Shouldn’t he have more ambition than pawning off counterfeit gems?

Even more disappointing is how Parker’s feature lacks much of the humor that kept most of the past issues afloat.  Instead, it’s left to Peyer to make up for this deficiency, in a back-up starring, appropriately enough, the Joker.  Here, Peyer spoofs the then-radical business strategy of streamlining, with Joker taking inspiration from big business to make his operations more efficient.  It’s a silly premise that could have borne a lot of funny fruit had Peyer been given more time to milk Joker’s callous cuts.  What we get instead is amusing, but not laugh-out-loud hilarious in the way early issues used to be.

While I still think the series should have somehow secured Jonathan Case’s services for ongoing art duties, Jones is a fine replacement, able to similarly balance the zany aspects of the Batman ’66 world while keeping it credible. Unlike Case, however, there’s a lot of wasted space in Jones’ work, with figures filling up the entirety of large panels, avoiding a need to draw in any kind of extra detail or scenery whatsoever.  Donavan’s art on the back-up is inferior, mostly because of his strangely angular linework, which doesn’t quite suit the bouncy tone of the story.

Conclusion: I had hoped that Batman ’66 could retain all the charm of its television predecessor, but enhance it with contemporary wit and satire.  This issue fails to live up to that goal, which isn’t a good sign for the series’ ongoing prospects.

Grade: C+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Does anyone else think it’s weird to bring in Riddler just to drop a bag of stolen money for False Face to pick up, then remove Riddler from the story altogether?

– I was kind of excited to see the beret-wearing moll with pigtails by Joker’s side, until I realized that this wasn’t Harley Quinn at all.  So when can we expect to see her in this series?