“They were making the man… an idiot”: Both Zack Snyder and Frank Miller Know How the Adam West Show Damaged the Reputation of Batman

SUMMARY

• Adam West's Batman TV series has been counter-productive to the image of the Dark Knight that has found a more mature status in DC in past 2 decades.
• Frank Miller, Zack Snyder, and Christopher Nolan have helped redeem Batman from the 1960s era that enjoyed making a joke out of the Gotham superhero.
• Frank Miller vehemently criticized the Adam West series and composed The Dark Knight Returns as a countermeasure to vindicate the superhero's image and reputation in pop culture.

In the mythology of comic book superheroes, Batman and Superman have been the two most enduring figures on the glossy pages. When it comes to the silver screen, however, the story is entirely different. While some deify the versions portrayed by Zack Snyder, others ridicule them for being darker, more psychologically complex, and morally grey heroes who are otherwise meant to be the beacon of hope and a self-made avenger of the oppressed.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder [Credit: Warner Bros.]

While the comic book legend Frank Miller particularly associates himself with the darker representation of these pop culture icons, there is no single way of dissecting a creative work that has been reviewed, revisited, and rewritten by hundreds of authors and artists over dozens of decades throughout the last century.

Even still, the DC fans can come together in unity to stand opposed to one specific adaptation of Batman: the Adam West TV show version.

Adam West’s Batman Alienates the DC Fandom

Adam West as Batman [Credit: ABC]

There is no telling how frenzied a fandom surrounding a pop culture figure can get when their protagonist gets disintegrated in front of their very eyes. In the days of Adam West‘s television series, Batman was luckily spared the kind of elitism that Christopher Nolan brought to the table.

The Oscar-winning director radically revolutionized and reshaped Batman to be the most notorious superhero that can ever exist in the comic book world, along with a Joker who is unquestionably the most maniacal psychopath to walk the earth. With Nolan, Batman found a second coming in a new golden age of comic book superheroes.

However, when placing Nolan and Zack Snyder‘s adaptations parallel to Adam West’s TV show version of the billionaire avenger, it is almost laughable how cruelly the ’60s ridiculed the concept of Batman. West’s hero was a man out of his depths, the butt of the joke that underlies every Batman comic, and in Frank Miller‘s own words, “the TV show was constantly telling you how stupid the comic book was.”

It was no argument that the camp classic has a devoted fanbase of its own but compared to what the modern audience values in Christian Bale’s take on the superhero, Adam West has certainly alienated the DC fandom with his ridiculous and goofy joke of a man.

Zack Snyder & Frank Miller Share Their Concerns

Batman – Year One by Frank Miller [Credit: DC Comics]

It is hardly justifiable to argue with the genius behind such classic comic book issues as Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns. But Frank Miller not only changed the perception of Batman from a silly version to a grittier and more realistic one filled with violence and emotional abuse but also proved that the nocturnal do-gooder has substance and his story can be equated to a tragedy worthy of Greek epics.

Zack Snyder followed in this visionary’s footsteps to bring to the big screen a darker, more mature version of the Justice League superheroes, attempting to redeem DC from its Batman & Robin mishap and the infamous fiasco of the nippled Batsuit era.

Critiquing the 1966 adaptation, Frank Miller revealed during an interview for Inverse:

Snyder added: “Yeah. Because it was counterculture against authority and they sort of saw Batman as the man. And so I just felt like they were making the man out to be sort of an idiot.”

In Miller’s opinion, this guy is no joke. And his artistic products show just how relentless and dangerous one man can be when driven by a sense of justice in a world painted in shades of reds and greys. But despite Snyder’s reductive take on a Batman who has gone completely rogue and morally bankrupt, he helped resurrect an extreme side of the Caped Crusader that Adam West could never have dreamed of. And DC is all the better for it.

Adam West’s Batman series is available to rent/buy on YouTube and Apple TV.

Written by Diya Majumdar

Articles Published: 1874

Armed with a degree in literature and a love for pop culture, Diya Majumdar has over 1800 published articles on FandomWire. Her passion and profession both include dissecting the world of cinema while being a liberally opinionated person with an overbearing love for music and Monet.