BEWARE OF...POISON IVY! by Dave Goode

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most imagined episodes of the Batman television series was an adaptation of a story that appeared in Batman No.181 (June 1966). Beware of Poison Ivy was a 12-pager written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff (pencils) and Joe Giello (inks) "ghosting" for Bob Kane. This was the first of two Silver Age appearances of the villainess Poison Ivy. The character had no origin story back in the 60s. She was simply a comic book seductress. The embodiment of "Comic Book Cliche No.8"... the temptress that attempts to seduce the stalwart hero into a life of crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the reason so many Silver Age fan-boys wanted to see an adaptation of this story is because the actress we imagine playing Poison Ivy is the one and only Ann-Margaret. One of the most famous sex symbols of the 1960s , Born Ann-Margaret Olsson in Sweden she came to America with her parents at age 6. She would study at Northwestern University before heading to Las Vegas to begin a career as a singer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovered by George Burns she would go on to a triple threat career as a singer , dancer and actress. She would become a Top 10 Box-Office star appearing in movies like BYE, BYE BIRDIE, VIVA LAS VEGAS and KITTEN WITH A WHIP. Oddly enough Poison Ivy's creator Robert Kanigher reportedly modeled the character's look after legendary pin-up and fetish model Bettie Page.

Kanigher's original story was just as campy as anything that appeared on the television series. I can see it easily adapted to the small screen with a few minor tweaks. One of the things that needed to be kept in the story was the inclusion of Poison Ivy's rivals Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth. They could have been portrayed by Edy Williams, Marilyn Hanold, and Sivi Aberg who played Liberace's henchwomen in the Batman episodes The Devil's Fingers and Dead Ringers.

I myself imagine Burt Ward's second wife Kathy Kersh playing the Tiger Moth character. Miss Kersh would appear on the series in the episodes The Impractical Joker and The Joker's Provokers. Hmmm. Batman might have had to take Robin's advice from the comic book to "take a cold shower".










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Alias... Dick Grayson by Dave Goode

I had just started reading Batman and Detective comics a couple of years before the Batman television series premiered. I was introduced to Batman through a crossover story in one of the Superman titles and thought the character was pretty cool. So I started picking up titles that featured this other " caped crusader ". When I did I discovered a character that over the years would become my favorite comic book/comic strip hero. Robin, the Boy Wonder...alias Dick Grayson. Actually I liked him as Robin, Nightwing, or just Dick Grayson. As a kid when playing Batman with friends I got to be Batman because I was the tallest. But I secretly wanted to be Robin.

Honor student, top athlete and wholesome boy next door. Dick Grayson was the ultimate big brother even if there was no Tim Drake or Jason Todd during the Silver Age to look up to him. Seriously I imagined Tony Dow portraying him.

That is until the Batman series premiered.

There is a certain gold standard when it comes to casting comic book /comic strip heroes and heroines. It starts with Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon and continues with Irish McCalla (Sheena of the Jungle) , Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) and Burt Ward as Robin , the Boy Wonder. Actor Burt Ward as Robin looked like artist Carmine Infantino's  Boy Wonder come to life. Burt Ward (born Bert Gervis Jr.) was a sort of " boy wonder " in real life. At age two he was billed as the world's youngest professional figure skater.








The publicity department for the Batman show had put out some press releases describing him as as a brown belt in karate. As part of his audition he demonstrated some ukemi and tameshiwari techniques so these claims might have had some validity.

The funny thing is that in a 3-part story that ran in Batman No.234 (Aug.1971) , Batman No.235 (Sept.1971) and Batman No.236 (Nov.1971) written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano Robin gives a karate demo at a commune where writer Friedrich describes Robin as being a karate brown belt. Hold the phone! Robin was only a brown belt in karate? This was as bad as Barbara " Bat-Girl " Gordon in her first appearance in Detective Comics No.359 (Jan.1967) written by Julius Schwartz and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson being described as a brown belt in judo.

I can't understand why any writer would depict someone fighting a guerrilla war against crime in the streets as being anything less than a 5th dan black belt. Perhaps this was writer Friedrich's way of of paying tribute to Burt Ward's martial arts skills. I wonder if there was some story during the Silver Age where Robin was described as a black belt?

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King Tut's Gorilla by Dave Goode

Of all the Bat-Villains that were created specifically for the Batman television series of the swinging sixties my favorite was King Tut. I could easily picture the character in the comic books. Actually I would have loved to have seen him in the comics. A King Tut would be added to the list of Bat-Villains in the comics. But that would be decades after the series was canceled. And that Tut had very little to do with the over the top character portrayed by Victor Buono on the 60s TV show. That of schizophrenic William Omaha McElroy,professor of Egyptology at Yale who when conked on the noggin imagines himself the reincarnation of King Tut.

Buono's leering and lecherous Tut set a new standard for scenery chewing on a series that was known for over the top performances. I personally thought he would have been great playing Nero or some other decadent despot in an Italian costume melodrama.

One of the things that I found sorely missing from the Batman series was a gorilla. Think about it. This show was aired during the Silver Age of Comics. But it never featured one of the Silver Age's most popular tropes. Now I'm not suggesting that there should have been episodes that featured Karnak,the Living Beast-Bomb from Detective Comics No.339. But one of the Bat-Villains could have owned a pet gorilla. The logical choice would have been the bad guy who thought himself the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh. The only question would be who would play the beast. George Barrows or Janos Prohaska?

 

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The World's Finest Models by Dave Goode

 If you are a Silver Age Kid chances are you probably owned the Superman model kit from Aurora. This was a decided must have for fan-boys of the era. Pure bosso-keeno coolness from 1963. It's coolness began with the illustration on the box cover of Superman (looking more than a little bit like George Reeves) smashing through a brick wall. That was an image burned into this Silver Age kid's mind from repeated viewings  of The Adventures of Superman. The man of steel more powerful than a locomotive and faster than a speeding bullet crashing through a wall to save the day.

A couple of years later during Batmania , Aurora would give comic book readers a Batman model kit. It had the caped crusader swinging on a tree branch brandishing his batarang. I kept the two figures on top of a bookcase in my room for years guarding a stack of books. It was just too bad that the figures weren't heavy or strong enough to use as actual bookends. Still later Aurora would come out with a couple of other superhero model kits. Superboy and his pet Krypto , the Superdog dragon-hunting. And Wonder Woman roping an octopus with her magic lasso. But the only other superhero model kit I picked up was Robin , the Boy Wonder heroically pulling the lever on some machine in the Batcave. Why oh why didn't they have him swinging on his bat-rope and brandishing his batarang?

 Aurora would also come out with a line of Marvel superhero model kits. The Amazing Spider-Man,the Incredible Hulk and Captain America , the Living Legend of World War Two. But after putting together the "World's Finest Team" I really had no further interest in superhero models. Now Aurora's line of classic Universal monsters was an entirely different story. I owned the model kits for Count Dracula , the Frankenstein Monster , the Wolf Man , the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. All very cool stuff.

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