Batman ’66 Is The Future of Digital Comics

This week marked the debut of Batman ’66, a new comic book series based on the 1966 Adam West show as well as the first release in the new DC² digital format, and it’s utterly brilliant. I can’t express that enough. I want to have this comic’s babies. It would be an excellent father.

Like the rest of the human population of Earth, I love the Adam West Batman series in all its campy, over the top glory, and this comic successfully recreates everything that was beautiful and great about that show, from Robin’s “Holy _____’s” down to the small details like the lettering of the story titles.

I know a lot of fans will agree that it’s incredible to see these old elements brought back to life after being caught in legal copyrights limbo for so long and it does the heart good to see a Batman from a simpler time, when his life wasn’t all gritty reboots and his parents being deeeaaaaad. I honestly can’t describe the joy I felt seeing Batman and Robin drawn in the style of Adam West and Burt Ward, complete with open air Batmobile and drawn on cowl-eyebrows. And seeing Chief O’Hara alive on the comic book page, fumbling around and shouting “Begorra” again is the greatest retcon in recent memory.

But it’s not just the nostalgia that makes this book great. Jonathan Case’s artwork pops with perfection in tone, actor likeness and a brilliant use of colors that makes the book feel modern but also like a blast from the past.

And the writing is particularly spot on for this project. I haven’t watched the 60’s Batman series in years, but I could still hear every line of dialogue perfectly in the voices of the actors from the show. Writer Jeff Parker manages to mimic the wisdom of Adam West’s Batman and the gentle naivety of Commissioner Gordon while at the same time providing some explosive, yet ridiculous, action sequences that the TV series never could have done but always wanted to.

This book would be amazing enough to warrant a huge recommendation from me just for it’s success as an homage to the show, but it’s also the brilliant first release from DC in their new DC² format, which they describe as “the next level” of digital comics, with good reason. This comic would be beautiful on its own but DC² is made for “Guided Viewing” in digital format which means that with each screen tap or mouse click new dialogue or sound effects pop up on the page, making the story appear before your eyes gradually instead of being completely laid out at first glance like a traditional comic. It’s not a motion comic, which is a difference medium entirely, it’s a comic that lets the reader be involved in the pace the story is told, which is really exciting, especially when done well like we see here. In case you can’t picture what I’m talking about here’s a shot of the difference in one panel after a mouse click.

It’s hard to imagine a world where this comic won’t be a huge success as it has everything going for it. Hardcore fans of Batman in any form will love it, and casual readers who just loved the Adam West show can pick it up for fun as it benefits from being a standalone comic that doesn’t tie-in to anything else. It’s a good fun read that everyone should check out. It’s currently only available in digital format, which is how I recommend reading it, but if you want to hold out for a hard copy it comes out in print on July 17th.