Biff! Bam! Pow!

Batman ’66 #1

This was not something I was planning on picking up. Just seemed more like a cry for help from the desperate-for-attention DC Comics. But honestly, seeing that Jeff Parker, whose work includes the brilliant “The Age of the Sentry” and the very best issues of “Marvel Adventures,” would be writing this title convinced me to give it a shot.

So here we are in the world of the campy 1960s “Batman” TV show starring Adam West and Burt Ward. The Riddler is on a robbery spree, stealing sculptures by an eccentric sculptor. He raids a civic event and steals the priceless Lady Gotham statue, making his escape in a stolen biplane. He leaves a riddle behind that leads the Dynamic Duo to a dance club owned by a kinda-sorta reformed Catwoman. After a fight and an attempt by the Riddler to blow them all up with a bomb, Catwoman joins forces with Batman and Robin, and they do some more research into the stolen sculptures. Can their detective work solve the case? Or has the Riddler outsmarted them all at last?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a clever story, full of more action than you’d expect, nice dialogue, and plenty of nods to the TV show, including the familiar sound effects, over-the-top narration, and a special guest star who Batman and Robin meet while climbing up a building. The art by Jonathan Case is nice, too — the coloring might be a bit too luridly technicolor, but it does the job of evoking the feel of the ’60s TV show and of old four-color comics.

FF #9

While Bentley-23 makes his own documentary about his undersea classmates, the Uhari, the entire Future Foundation pays a visit to Charles Cotta, C.E.O. of Julian Enterprises, who is hosting a pool party for everyone. Cotta reveals that he’s actually an immortal alien who pretended to be Julius Caesar in the distant past, and he’d like to repay a favor that the Fantastic Four did for him by helping the FF locate and rescue them. Meanwhile, a splash fight in the pool gets to be more and more epic and apocalyptic. The grownups are doing fine and preparing to go save the Fantastic Four — but the kids may have lost their innocence and friendship.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The splash war really is pretty amazing — simultaneously hilarious, frightening, and sad. It’s another great, weird issue.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Geek girls and the Doubleclicks have “Nothing to Prove.”
• The original “Star Trek” series in the 1960s had a more progressive view of women than the reboot movies do. That’s not a good thing — that should embarrass the heck out of J.J. Abrams.
• You need some baby ostriches in your life.
• And to close things out depressingly: We live in a more and more insane country, where it’s declared racist to point out obvious racism, where murder is legal under the right conditions, and where the Cult of the Gun is elevated above everything else.