Batman '66: The Lost Episode #1

Batman '66 (Single Issues) #One-Shot

by Len Wein (Adaptation), Harlan Ellison (Original story), José Luis García-López (Artist)

During the original Batman television series run, legendary science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison turned in an outline for a story that would have introduced Two-Face. The story never made it to air, and Two-Face never entered the TV show’s Rogues Gallery. Now, “The Two-Way Crimes of Two-Face” is adapted to comics by two comic book legends: writer Len Wein and artist José Luis Garcia-Lopez. Also included in this special edition are Ellison’s original prose story outline and the complete, original pencils by Garcia-Lopez.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Superheroes, Crime, Graphic Novels

Unknown Binding

First published November 19, 2014

About the author

Len Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men (including the co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.

Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on a 'lost' Harlan Ellison script - wish it would have been made. Batman '66 has been a really fun trip back in time for me; grew up with the TV series influencing every little boy in my neighborhood. We all wanted to be the caped crusader - and mom had to have A BLUE TOWL to safety pin it around your neck. The things moms do for us...she is a true superhero!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellison wrote a pitch for an episode of the Batman tv series way back in 1965, before the show was on the air, featuring Two-Face. The episode was never produced for television, but has been ably adapted into a comic with a script by Len Wein, a nice Alex Ross cover, and gorgeously illustrated by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez... almost a half-century later. It's a fun book, but not a great one. The story is printed in its entirety twice, once as the finished product and then again as just the penciled pages; a few samples would have been sufficient, I think, but it's interesting. I think the story would have been a little too dark for the tv series, no matter how much they watered it down, and would have probably been too costly to produce back then. The Batman '66 comics series is a nice nostalgic concept, especially great for old folks like me who lived through it. One thing that I couldn't help thinking was that if the book had been published in '66 it would have cost twelve cents, but today sets you back ten dollars... a good example of just much times have changed.

[Alex Sarll]

The great Harlan Ellison wrote the only good episode of Star Trek, and here we see what he could have done for another sixties action mainstay - an adaptation of his script for the Adam West Batman series, greenlit but ultimately never produced, in which Two-Face would have joined the TV rogues' gallery. The degree to which the Boy Wonder gets sidelined is amusingly blatant.

[Philmore Olazo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I'm someone that was not alive when the Adam West Batman was around, however I do remember the reruns and the movie that was always on the weekends for some reason, and it was, and still is, really fun.

One of Batman's most interesting villains to me has always been Two Face, since he faces (nice) a really peculiar mental illness.

Two Face was never on the old 60's Batman show but not because of lack of trying, there was a script completely done and ready for shooting.

This little comic adapts that script for the episode never done and it is as fun as the original TV show.

The campy humor, the silly resolutions and the villain does act as a villain from the show. I guess it's a bit darker but in general it's the same tome.

Some differences are with the action as it feels much more dynamic and here you can see it's mostly night time. On the show they needed to tell us it was night time, because they needed to shoot in the day so it's really light all the time.

It's good and I recommend it, read it if you like the Adam West Batman and in general if you like a good time.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "lost episode" of Batman '66 is a comic realization of a famous bit of geek trivia: the never-produced Two-Face episode of "Batman" was penned by sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison. As depicted here, it's a great blend of Ellison's more oddball leanings with the tongue-in-cheek campiness of the sixties Batman franchise (only Ellison would write a character's face melting off in a sixties kids' show!).

[Jameson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The art failed to evoke the iconic visuals of the show: maybe it’s a legal thing, but none of the characters look like the actors so what we end up with is one of those silver age stories with ugly modern coloring. Boring. And with so much bonus material/padding you’d think they’d have found the space to explain why this story was never produced. Very workmanlike script from Ellison, at least as rendered here.

[Mariana Calmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

As ilustrações são lindas e as cores super vibrantes, porém, eu gostaria que a história fosse maior

[Steven Shinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is very much worth reading even if you’ve already seen Batman vs Two-Face. A lot of work went into the art here.

[Garth · Rating 4 out of 5]

2024 - Year of The Bat (366 Days of Batman)

Day 186

[Adam Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Len Wein adapts Harland Ellison's script for a 1960s Batman episode featuring Two-Face.

This story is a somewhat typical Two-Face origin story like you might read in the 1960s. As a story, it felt like this needed to be fleshed out a bit (particularly the second part) in order to make it really feel like an episode of the TV show. That said, it's still an okay story and the art is nice to look at. It's just not a lost classic.

[Kevin Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of both Harlan Ellison and the '60s Batman TV show, I'm glad just knowing this story exists in comics form, expertly and affectionately adapted by Len Wein and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Crafted by seasoned vets who are also old friends and frequent collaborators, the story has a very natural and comfortable flow, like the comics equivalent of an Allman Brothers Band album.

But the content is pure pop art camp. "The Two-Way Crimes of Two-Face" an interesting artifact from a unique time in pop culture, but it's just not a great story. Despite the pedigree of all involved, this admittedly half-baked idea (based on an outline for an unscripted episode) is no "City on the Edge of Forever," "Demon with a Glass Hand" or "Phoenix Without Ashes."

If I didn't know the story was by Harlan Ellison, I never would have guessed. And if I wasn't already familiar with Harlan Ellison's work, this story wouldn't inspire me to read more. As a pitch, it's adapted to the style of the show, which would have had no room for Ellison's unique blend of paranoia, passion, and prickly social commentary. Instead, Ellison serves up endless puns and gimmicks based on the number two (in reference to Two-Face's split personality) and has Batman resorting to somewhat uncharacteristic trickery.

There are a few interesting moments where Ellison's ideas smash up against the edge of the show's storytelling conventions. For example, the opening scene where Two-Face's visage is revealed could have been amazingly gruesome to see on TV. Plus, there's a pirate ship for some reason and other crazy sets that would have been impractical to film.

The packaging deserves a mention. The comic itself is only 30 pages long and the cover price is $10. The extras arguably make up for the somewhat exorbitant price. But they're also a cheap way to pad the final product. Garcia-Lopez's unadorned pencil sketches and Ellison's original outline for the story offer compelling looks behind the scenes, however. As a fan of the art form of comics, it's interesting and even inspiring to see Garcia-Lopez's visual storytelling skills on display. Ultimately, I guess it's a question of who's pocketing that $10. As long as most of that money goes to the ailing Ellison (who recently suffered a stroke) I'm happy to support it.

[Norman Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of both Harlan Ellison and the 1966 Batman TV series, I was hoping this would be an amazing piece of what-if, but as translated by comic book legend Len Wein it falls flat. Much of the problem is how the story is broken down into acts; there is no real "cliffhanger" as there would be in the first half of the TV show (there is a cliffhanger of sorts about 3/4 of the way through). Batman and Robin are also split up for much of the story, which almost never happened on the show. Wein does capture much of the silliness, with puns galore, and I also liked that the story features many of the Bat-vehicles and the Batcave trophy room that would have been prohibitively expensive for a weekly series.

The format of this book is also less than ideal. it contains not only the finished story, but also García-López's original pencil art, doubling the page count, but not really adding enough to justify the $10 cover price. Ellison's original story outline is also included, which is definitely interesting, especially since there are subtle changes from Wein's final script.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I really loved this comic (and loved the inclusion of a script in the back!), it was rough spending $10 (almost as much on a graphic novel!) for a 22-page comic.

The art and story were fantastic. The extras were pretty cool. The price tag hurt a lot. I was honestly hoping for more comic pages.... It could have honestly used them.

[Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good cover and entertaining story. This would of worked well on the TV show.

[Carlos Ribeiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para quem é fã do seriado, não há do que reclamar: alguns pows e socs, deduções absurdas pelo Batman e comentários idem do Robin.
Se o roteiro não é genial, a arte é. Muito bem ilustrada e a edição de capa dura valoriza o trabalho.
Realmente uma peça de colecionador.
Faltou apenas a transição de cenas com o símbolo do Batman rodopiando.