DC Comics has created several tributes to Batman’s 75th
Anniversary. For the first video, DC Comics has turned to Bruce Timm, who
produced Batman: The Animated Series, which began in 1992. Many fans consider
that one of the best versions of Batman; I certainly do. Mr. Timm reached back
into 1939 as a source of inspiration for his video. It shows one of the first
cases of Batman, who matched wits with his very first adversary, mad scientist
Dr. Hugo Strange.
The second video was created by Darwin Cooke and takes place
in the future where Batman Beyond operates, mentored by the now old and retired Batman from
Batman: The Animated Series. Appropriate for Mr. Cooke to do this
tribute, since he designed the opening credits for Batman Beyond. Mr.
Cooke is also responsible for one of my favorite graphic novels, New Frontier,
which focuses on a group of heroes in the late 1950’s; it fills me with
dewy-eyed nostalgia. And that was made
into an outstanding animated feature film by Bruce Timm!
But I digress. In this anniversary video, Batman must defeat
robotic versions of Batman, and the robots are patterned after various
historical versions of Batman, even including the Batman I grew up watching, Adam
West’s 1966 version, which is now, by the way, in comic book form! More about that in it's own post.
These are both enjoyable videos but they can’t distract me
from the fact that DC has no current Batman series (Beware the Batman was canceled before one complete season was aired!) nor is a Batman movie coming
out in this anniversary year. In this case though, we’ll take what we can get
and look forward to 2016’s Batman Versus Superman: Dawn of Justice. Let’s hope Ben Affleck and Director Zach Snyder don’t ruin it!
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