It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman (1975) vs Batman: The Movie (1966)

After Columbia pictures used Batman for WWII propaganda in 1943 (and rebooted him a few years later with the smallest budget ever for a TV series) and way before Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan brought a darker, edgier Batman to the big screen there was Batman circa 1966. Pop art was the style of the time and Batman was as bright and bold as anything Andy Warhol ever painted and Roy Lichtenstein's work was surely a clear influence. Adam West played the Caped Crusader and for many he will always be a favorite. Sure the new films kick bottom but his Batman was the one of most peoples childhoods and as camp and silly as it was, we all still love it. After season one received a moderate response a feature length episode was made for movie theatres in order to gain more followers for season two. It worked pretty well too, the big pull being that Batman would be up against all of the audiences favorite baddies. Frank Gorshin returned as The Riddler, Cesar Romero the Joker and Burgess Meredith The Penguin. Lee Meriwether took over the role of Catwoman from Julie Newmar who was unavailable to return for the film, the jury is still out on who played it best, both were fantastic. Adam West's Batman was joined by Burt Ward's Robin, a character prone to stating the obvious, starting every sentence with the word 'Holy' and attaching the word 'Bat' to every object and constantly using it as an adjective. West and Ward were and are a much loved classic double act. The thing I always loved about the over the top, silly and often ridiculous Batman shows were that everyone looked like they were having huge amounts of fun, the film being no exception. The story is ridiculous, contrived and nonsensical and all the better for it. My favorite scene has to be when Batman, who is hanging from a rope ladder connected to the Batcopter, is suddenly attacked by a shark who jumps up from the sea and tries to bite his legs off. After several minutes of wrestling the killer fish, he remembers he is carrying a bottle of homemade Bat-Shark repellent, that he quickly pulls out of his utility belt, squirts in the face of the beast (rendering it powerless) before it sinks into the sea and explodes. Batcopter. Shark. Bat-Shark repellent. Explosion. Amazing. In the very same year, writers David Newman and Robert Benton - no doubt influenced by Batman's popularity - had got together with musical talents Charles Strouse and Lee Adams and created Superman the Musical, to be known as It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman. It received positive reviews on Broadway but was never picked up by the mainstream audiences. It continued to tour in smaller theatres around America and still plays here and there around the world to rave reviews. I have never seen it but I'd like to. It is said to be far better than the misjudged TV movie that came just three years before Superman's epic return to form. The ABC TV movie special was knocked for completely changing the story, songs and structure of the musical. I can believe this, especially as David Newman and Robert Benton co-wrote the great Superman (1978). The original musical was camp, silly and a bit of nonsensical fun, everything that made 1966's Batman so great, but It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman took itself far too seriously. It's never clear what the film wants to be and it ends up looking worse than the worst ever amateur dramatics production ever made. The songs are okay but delivered badly, the acting is atrocious and the overall quality is terrible. It doesn't even come close to being 'So bad it's good', it's just bad. I always joke that when a franchise goes bad they should always follow it up with a musical (Jaws the musical anyone?) but this may well prove me wrong. A pure adaptation would have been interesting but I do wonder whether Batman still wouldn't have knocked it on it's backside. 'Pow'.

In this particular episode of Superman vs Batman - Batman wins!