1960s 'New Look' Batman

[CLARKY]

What do you think of the 'New Look' era of Batman that began in 1964?

Done by C.Infantino, I'm not a big fan, but the same design done by N.Adams, rocks hard.
I love the design, I think it suits to Batman. Love it.

 

[Joker]

...

and what... does that change?

Okay I get it:

Batman is teh dark and badass so he wears teh black. Teh black is teh kewl.

Batman is a "weird creature of the night." Even taking away his "dark" personality, he uses stealth quite a bit. And wearing a stupid, bright blue costume with a giant yellow symbol on the middle is completely counter-intuitive to that. Also, it just doesn't look very good. The black and grey not only fits the character more, but is more visually appealing.

 

[Evil Twin]

I've read quite a bit of these books due to the Dynamic Duo archives, the two Showcase Presents volumes, and my own back issue collection. Some thoughts:

The initial change from Sheldon Moldoff doing a Bob Kane impersonation to Carmine Infantino and Moldoff being inked in a manner closer to Infantino, was a breath of fresh air. As an action storyteller, Infantino was at the height of his abilities and a lot of the fight scenes just pop off the page. The new Batmobile worked well too and the whole design sense caught back up with the rest of the industry. And, Infantino was the master of the story hook cover. This is one of the best eras for covers.

Story-wise, if they didn't go all the way back to Batman's original dark roots, they at least went back to the more straightforward late 40s era and ditched all the bad ideas of the 1950s. And although I wouldn't call the books sophisticated, they weren't as simple and childish as it was before and was basically of a piece with the rest of DC's superheroes. That's an era when DC first started introducing running subplots and The Outsider played a prominent role in the books. To a lesser degree Zatanna's quest also fit in.

To me there are several eras of the "New Look" and it's a mistake to lump them all together. There's the early era which emphasized crime fighting and detective work but didn't feature much for costumed criminals. "Castle of Wall to Wall Danger" and "Two-Way Death Trap" being two very good examples of the strength of that approach. And after an initial period of experimentation, a return to costumed bad guys but with a twist or two. "The Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler", the Getaway Genius, the Cluemaster, and, perhaps especially, "Death Knocks Three Times" are strong stories and the feature really had found its footing.

That was followed by an emphasis on emulating the television show. There's some good stories here, "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl" springs to mind, but my reading I get the sense that editorial is being pulled in two directions, keep up with the rest of the industry or cash in on the tv show, and I don't think either direction was entirely satisfied.

After the end of the show, I think things returned to a more natural progression. Things turned more serious again, Bob Kane basically retired and Gil Kane, Bob Brown, and Irv Novick came on board as artists, and a more down to earth approach, and Frank Robbins as writer with an emphasis on detective work. There also was an emphasis on Robin starting to grow up and the 60s social scene came into play. Robin leaving for college wasn't some out of thin air development. Some good stories, "Die Little, Die Big" for instance, and the seeds were laid for what would be the 70s Batman starting with "One Bullet Too Many" and "Secret of the Waiting Graves".

 

[theMan-Bat]

"Secret of the Waiting Graves".

"Secret of the Waiting Graves" (Detective Comics #395, January, 1970), Neal Adams' first collaboration with writer Denny O'Neil, well as being the first Batman story O'Neil wrote, and the first Batman story Adams illustrated (outside of the Brave and Bold title). The beginning of the O'Neil/Adams '70s run. "I just wanted to make it Gothic and spooky," Denny O’Neil explained. "We went back to a grimmer, darker Batman, and that's why those stories did well," inker Dick Giordano explained. Neal Adams said, "They were following the old TV show. Following the old TV show was ridicules because you had Batman walking down the street in the middle of the day in this bat costume, the kind of thing that really makes the character smaller in the eyes of the public. So I had no interest in doing that Batman. I had an interest in doing: The Batman. That's what I wanted to do. Our Batman was simply the old Batman."

 

[theMan-Bat]

But so what? FOr most of his fictional existence it was blue - well into the 90s.

SO that's Batman for me. Plain and simple. The iconic version.

Blue does not have the effect Bruce Wayne was attempting to accomplish.

"Black, terrible.." Not "blue, beautiful.." Blue is not a bat color. The blue was originally used as the blue refection on a black surface. The blue take over comes from lazy inkers. Problem is, once these changes occur, over time they become carved in stone -- and some fans themselves will cling to this altered version - so Batman's color becomes 'blue and grey' - and some will even complain about artists putting "too much black on Batman"!

 

[deathfromabove]

while i appreciate the fact that some prefer to never think of batman wearing blue, to deny that it was ever intentional is foolish.

while the blue was originally a highlighting technique on bob kane certainly black garbed creation, many other artists have used blue to represent, blue. including but not limited to jim lee, neil adams, carmine infantano, norm breyfogle, tim sale, frank miller, mike mignola, jim aparo, dick sprang, and a guy named brian bolland. and i am well aware that just as many (including some of the same fellows) have made him cloaked in black but that is not the point.

while batman would likely never wear blue in the "real world" applying the color palate of comic books outside of its context and conversly the inabilty to appreciate certain color choices in the context (not to mention era!) of a comic book belies a vast misunderstanding and/or ignorance of the art form and its visual history.

 

[theMan-Bat]

while the blue was originally a highlighting technique on bob kane certainly black garbed creation, many other artists have used blue to represent, blue. including but not limited to jim lee, neil adams, carmine infantano, norm breyfogle, tim sale, frank miller, mike mignola, jim aparo, dick sprang, and a guy named brian bolland.

Is Keaton's Batman Returns suit blue? It sure looks that way but that's just the blue refection on the black surface.

And for many artists like Neal Adams, it's intended as just a refection.

 

[Crowforge]

I never dressed up as batman as a youth and this is telling as I dressed up as beastman so you know I had low standards.

If the 'new look' suit is what lead to the camp batman era I hate it. It certainly never struck me as scary and I think the batman suit should to straddle the line between hero and villain.

 

[twilitezoner]

Batman is a "weird creature of the night." Even taking away his "dark" personality, he uses stealth quite a bit. And wearing a stupid, bright blue costume with a giant yellow symbol on the middle is completely counter-intuitive to that. Also, it just doesn't look very good. The black and grey not only fits the character more, but is more visually appealing.

One thing you need to remember is the fact that the redesign saved the Character. So it was fine with me.

 

[The Batman]

But so what? FOr most of his fictional existence it was blue - well into the 90s.

SO that's Batman for me. Plain and simple. The iconic version.

not to mention they've reverted back to blue again, when they have the tech now to do otherwise

 

[The Batman]

And not to mention it was Bob Kane himself who had the grey and blue....about a year into his batman run

 

[Joker]

not to mention they've reverted back to blue again, when they have the tech now to do otherwise

Most likely cause the artist has a personal prefference for blue. Just like any group of people you'll get those who preffer the black and those who preffer the blue.

And not to mention it was Bob Kane himself who had the grey and blue....about a year into his batman run

Yeah he did it at the same time he introduced Robin and started making the book more "kid friendly." I still contend it was supposed to be black, but using blue as shading (wolverines hair back in the day was always blue, for example). The other option is that they dumbed down the look of the character to pander to children.

 

[batpawn]

that's also what "justice league: the new frontier" makes fun of. in the first half, batman wears his black cape and cowl and changes this in the second half into blue. when asked why he did this, he answered "i want to scare criminals, not children". so, yes, making the batsuit blue was clearly for the sake of making the comics more kid friendly.

 

[Crowforge]

Artistic fiat, otherwise he's be in all black.

 

[Nepenthes]

kids are horrible how dare they make Batman more attractive to kids

 

[Cain]

^ Yep damn the kids nevermind that a lot of us were kids when we first got into Batman and he wore blue and grey with a yellow and black oval t:

Carmine Infantino was the ****.

Amen brother, amen.

 

[Crowforge]

I didn't like the blue batman costume even then

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Batman looks best in all black, although this would not work in the comics.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

kids are horrible how dare they make Batman more attractive to kids

The kids are alright...

 

[Crowforge]

Batman looks best in all black, although this would not work in the comics.

You just have to accept that you can't see every detail of batman's costume all the time.

 

[CLARKY]

^that's what I think too. I remember that in the cartoon (BTAS) sometimes, when batman's black cowl is in the front of shadows or a black wall, the ears are not visible, nor the sides of the cowl.For instance the right ears :
http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/batman/btas/bios/batman/12.jpg
And I disagree with you Kevin Roegele, I think it works. I remember the H.Porter JL days, vs Prometheus for example, batman is dressed in black, and I think it works perfectly.
Anyway, even if I'm not a fan of the actual costume, I think it owrks pretty well depending of THE ARTIST. Tim Sale, OK Brian Bolland, ok, Van Sciver, OK. He's a creature of the night, I don't care if he's in blue or red, if he IS drapped in shadows.
My wish being a black uniform nonetheless.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

And I disagree with you Kevin Roegele, I think it works. I remember the H.Porter JL days, vs Prometheus for example, batman is dressed in black, and I think it works perfectly..

If you go back and read those issues, Batman is not all in black, just very dark blue and gray.

 

[TruerToTheCore]

The "New Look" gave Batman an iconic look, like Superman when his logo changed from black into yellow.

I can definitely understand why some people would want Batman black (or even all black) and the black bat instead of the yellow oval. Okay. It makes more sense, but if you are honest you will admit that Batman's costume doesn't make sense at all. It's style over substance. It's just his superhero "uniform" and when the writers say that people are scared by this appearance in the DCU, well they we have to accept it. In the 90s when they started to use computers heavily they made everything in Batman comics so dark and then Batman even darker... sorry I never liked that look.

I've never understood why people are so dogmatic about it. Let's say the blue one is the "superhero" suit, when Batman is into the JL stuff or does the "generic" superhero stuff (fighting costumed villains, monsters and so on) and the dark one for the grittier and more "realistic" crime stories. But on the other hand I've always liked the symbolic character of the blue suit in a dark story: A dark blue that shows a kind of "innocence" compared to the dark threats he faces.

 

[CLARKY]

^ I'm in complete agreement with you. Personnally, I think black is good for Batman, but as I stated, even dressed in red, with the appropriate artist, it could work. I'm not for realism at all, batman suit is as you put it "style over substance". I don't like the current batman suit, and I think the black emblem doesn't make it more realistic at all or more darker. Like TruerToTheCore, I liked the "naivity" of the blue and the yellow oval. It make him superheroic in a world where everything is black. I remember the "killing Joke" and there is absolutely no need to dress him in black nor erase the oval to make the character very dark.

If you go back and read those issues, Batman is not all in black, just very dark blue and gray.

Not at all. I just have the prometheus arc with me, and he's dressed in black. I think I see what you are talking about, during the "tower of babel" story arc I think I recall a suit like what you are talking about ; anyway, for the "rock of ages" and "Prometheus" story arcs, Batman is in black and it works fine.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Not at all. I just have the prometheus arc with me, and he's dressed in black. I think I see what you are talking about, during the "tower of babel" story arc I think I recall a suit like what you are talking about ; anyway, for the "rock of ages" and "Prometheus" story arcs, Batman is in black and it works fine.

My mistake.