Vicki Waiting

A while back, I posted the covers of what were, for me, the seminal Superman stories: the comics that shaped my understanding of The Man of Steel as a kid. This time, thanks to my impromptu visit to Batman Live in Glasgow on Saturday last, I'm going to revisit the Darknight Detective.
Some of my earliest memories of television are of the Adam West series and my earliest Batman stories reflect that incarnation of the character:

 Even in less frivolous stories, the Caped Crusader, with his sidekicks Robin and Batgirl, was a staunch ally of Superman. I read a number of fifties and early-Sixties stories in the 80-page giants of the period, in titles like World's Finest:

 A Neal Adams-Cary Bates collaboration

 As I've said before, however, within a couple of years when the camp craze had waned, a strikingly darker, more Gothic version of Batman appeared, closer to the earliest conception of the title. Robin became an Angry Young Man, involved in student riots and hippie communes, while Bruce Wayne was a dread Creature of the Night, as pencilled by Neal Adams and Jim Aparo:

 My first exposure to Two-Face and a crazy ghost story from Bob Haney. Love the Viking Prince!

 Wildcat was a fan-favourite character for the first half of the 70s

 Batman's pulp roots were acknowledged in the comics when it was revealed that Bruce Wayne was inspired by that Master of Men, The Shadow:

As the Seventies progressed, Batman moved away from the satanic cults and demonic possession stories of the post-Blatty, post-Manson USA back to urban crime: drug trafficking, gang warfare and hijacking. The Joker had also been revised as a less clownish, more homicidal criminal. In the mid-part of the decade, Englehart and Rogers delivered a stylised version of Batman which married the colourful characters of the Sixties with a noir-ish, nightmarish quality.

 The end of the Seventies also marked the introduction of a favourite  new character on the Golden Age world of Earth-Two: Helena Wayne, daughter of the Original Batman and Catwoman:

In the early 80s, Brave and Bold was cancelled and replaced by Batman and the Outsiders, a Marvel-esque team which took me some time to learn to love. BATO has been quite unfashionable for some time, possibly because of its very Eighties "dramedy" tone. Writer Mike W. Barr revived elements from the Fifties and Sixties on the title and most noticeably, in his brief run with England's Alan Davis:

 The mid-to-late 80s saw the descent of comics into their infamous grim'n'gritty phase. Not only was Jason Todd, the second Robin, killed off a the result of a fan phone poll, but Batman himself was successfully reimagined by Frank Miller, as the terrifying Dark Knight. I liked the Carrie Kelly Robin but this extreme version of Batman was supremely influential for the next twenty years.

I'm just not a fan of the wrathful, obsessive, vigilante Batman, however, so since I enjoyed the Tim Burton version on film (and the Prince soundtrack), the animated iteration (and his futuristic successor) was my preference through the Nineties, particularly because of Bruce Timm's admiration for Jack Kirby:

 There have been two further animated incarnations in the Noughties: the first added a manga sensibility to the humourless and naturalistic Batman Begins; the second revisits some of the whackier characters and scenarios of the Sixties and Seventies, and is one I really dig, True Believer!

 The dominant image of Batman in the mainstream DC universe, however, has been the look of Jim Lee's Hush storyline and the All-Star B'n'R from Lee and Frank Miller, which staggered to a halt a few years ago, (among criticisms of its Spillane-ish dialogue and decompressed plot). This is also the visual aesthetic that informs Batman Live.

 I had a vague notion that it was being performed at the SECC last week but I hadn't expected to be able to get a ticket. Nor did I expect to get a good view from a twenty-pound seat! I had very much enjoyed Dr. Who Live last autumn and this show was also great fun: a blend of circus show, dance, acrobatics and animation with a melodramatic tone that didn't dwell on the darker elements of insanity and perversion ( as Grant Morrison's Batman stories have been wont to do).
I liked the fact that Batman's origin was dealt with quite quickly and in a stylised way, leaving the narrative to retell the story of Robin. I appreciated that, quite contrary to modern fanman sensibility, the storyliners recognised the significance of the Boy Wonder and also the way that Catwoman was positioned as a morally-ambiguous character.
The combination of animation and modelwork created a Gotham City setting that evoked the more classical lines of the early tv shows, rather than the brooding, organic spires of Anton Furst. The models played with size and space wittily and were an effective contrast to the colourful circus scenes. I was impressed by the Flying Graysons' trapeze acts and the wirework for Catwoman and the Joker (and especially by the eerie, stilt-walking Scarecrow).
I also enjoyed the blending of elements from the screen iterations of the Dynamic Duo: echoes of Burgess Meredith's Penguin; Posion Ivy and Two-Face from the Schumacher movies; Harley Quinn from the Animated Series; and a Burton-esque Batcave (with dinosaur!). While I would have liked a bit more Riddler (channeling Jim Carrey, I thought) I accept that The Joker had to be the principal villain and  felt the character was pitched very well between quipping prankster and ruthless killer. ("You killed my parents!/ Only in the literal sense.")
The auditorium was probably only a quarter-full, I would reckon. Not only were ticket prices high, the memorabilia- t-shirts, posters etc.- were also pricey. Since there were several necessarily-talky exposition scenes, it might have been a little slow-moving for very young children. But while it could have been an expensive morning, I would say it was a suitably all-ages production.

I read today that the plug is being pulled on Grant Morrison's Batman Inc. Despite the sadism and obscurity of his writing, I liked his assembly of international Bat-allies and I don't think I see anything in the New 52 that represents the Batman I like. However, Paul Levitz is returning to the Huntress and since I hope to review the Cap Movie before the end of the week, I'm going to sign off with this image by cantankerous curmudgeon Byrne:

The Legal Bit: all images are presumed copyright of their respective owners.