Batman Busy On TV

Holy couch potato, Batman!

The Caped Crusader, too busy to fight crime....

...all because of a TV show?

What is going on here, on this cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson for Batman #183 from August, 1966?

Well, after a brief interlude, the facts will be revealed!

A Touch Of Poison Ivy

The first story in this issue by Robert Kanigher, Sheldon Moldoff (signed as Bob Kane) and Joe Giella, is a return battle against a femme fatale introduced just two issues before, Poison Ivy!

Poison Ivy has got Batman under her control.

However will Batman free himself from this dastardly dame?

Well, with a bit of luck, his incredible detective skills, and help from Robin, Batman turns the tables on the green goddess, throwing off her chemical control, and finding a way to put her back in behind bars.

Poison Ivy has been pruned.  But, what about the cover mystery?

Batman's Baffling Turnabout

Now, to the heart of the mystery, in a story by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff (signed as Bob Kane) and Sid Greene.

Batman and Robin were catching some criminals on a pier warehouse, when Batman fell prey to a deadly trap....with an imposter all ready to take his place!

Robin was too smart to fall for the phony's scheme, but played along, taking him to a back-up Batcave, where, when left alone, the imposter revealed his plan to blow up the Batcave.  Faking that, Robin then followed the phony, as he was checking to see if Batman was dead, but Batman had escaped the sticky trap, battling the bogus Batman, and winning. 

The caped criminal was a foe Batman had put in prison 5 years previously, thus he didn't know about Batman's logo change, the clue that tipped off Robin, and stopped this perilous plan from becoming fatally final.

Of course, the writing style might have tipped you off to the real mystery....taking the tone of the 1966 Batman TV series to remember the late Adam West, star of that show, who was the first Batman for so many of us, and was born on September 19th, 1928!

Flash Facts CBS TV Show Comic

The original Flash TV Show ran on CBS from September 20th, 1990 to May 18, 1991 for 21 episodes plus a pilot, and introduced TV viewers to Flash (played by John Wesley Shipp), and his friends (like Tina McGee played by Amanda Pays and Julio Mendez played by Alex Desert) and a few foes (most notably Captain Cold played by Michael Champion, Mirror Master played by David Cassidy and the Trickster played by Mark Hamill) in a series produced by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo and influenced by the Michael Keaton Batman movie which came out the year before.

But, this TV series also inspired a comic book (not unlike how Barry Allen had become the lightning bolt which turned him into the Flash....the TV show inspired DC to make the Flash TV Special #1 which came out on May, 28, 1991.

Flash TV Special

The comic contained two stories...

...the first by writer John Byrne and artist Javier Saltares, in which we find out who is "The Quick and the Dead", wherein Barry and Tina McGee faces off against what he believes to be the ghost of wheelchair bound electromagnetic scientist Dr. Wells!

...the second was by writer Mark Waid and artists David Williams, Darick Robertson and Gary Martin, wherein this TV Flash was to "Meet Kid Flash" (not quite the clean-cut kid that Wally West was, Vince Everett was more of a street criminal who bedevils the Central City police, especially Bellows and Murphy)...but, another ironic bit of foreshadowing the future, as Mark Waid would come to write the regular Flash DC Comic with Wally West as the Flash a few months after this book came out.

The book also contains some behind the scenes info on the Flash TV series, as well as a episode guide to the series, and illustrations of the Flash by artists Tom Lyle, Joe Kubert and Eduardo Barreto.

CW Flash Comic

The current CW Flash TV show has inspired comics based on it as well...which started with its first issue in December, 2014, and has used a few photo cover with Grant Gustin as the Flash and featuring Caitlan Snow (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes), Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), Dr. Harrison Wells (played by Tom Cavanagh, but the character has no relation to the one in the TV Special comic), Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) and Iris West (Candace Patton), and even has had Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), the Atom (Brandon Routh) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) as they appear on the show in stories by Andrew Kreisberg, Brooke Eikmeier, Katherine Walczak, Marc Guggenheim, Lauren Certo and Kai Wu, and art by Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur and Marcus To!

Of course, the best part of the new Flash show...is that Barry's dad, Henry, is played by John Wesley Shipp (the 1990s TV Flash)!



Keeping that feeling of the unending circle of inspiration and legacy, that the Flash continues to run on everyday!

Holy Birthdays, Batman!

Well, it's actually the birthday of Burt Ward, the actor who played Robin on the 1966-1968 Batman TV Series!

With friends like these, who needs Batman?