COMIC BOOK REVIEW: THE LOST EPISODE: BATMAN '66

The Lost Episode: 

Batman '66 "The Two-Way Crimes of Two-Face"

REVIEW BY TYLER OCHART

I am a Batman fan, a huge one, but unfortunately, when it comes to the Adam West 60's Batman television show, I have only seen 2-3 episodes, and the movie. Not that I didn't enjoy it, in fact I own the movie and love it, I just never have gotten a chance to watch the show (hopefully that will change with the recent blu-ray release of the series). I have always been interested, so I decided to pick up this new one-shot release "The Lost Episode; Batman '66" , which is in fact an actual episode that was never made, featuring one of Batman's greatest villains Two-Face, who never made an appearance on the show. This one shot is based on the original story by Harlan Ellison and turned into this really awesome comic book. 

Being based on the 60's television show, I found it slightly off-putting that this one shot seemed slightly dark, likely due to the light, cheesy fun of the TV show, and the pretty dark and gruesome origin and look of Two-Face's acid caused disfigurement, but fortunately, it actually worked well together. It definitely kept the feel of the show nonetheless with the cheesy dialogue and silliness of some of the situations. The story was fun, and although a darker tone then the television show, it still isn't anywhere near the typical dark tone of Batman comics you have come to love. If the 60's Batman Show was the color yellow, this comic is the color orange, and the usual Batman comics the color black (best way to describe it). 

The artwork by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is excellent. I know this guy has been around, but I don't think I have ever seen his work until now (Not to my knowledge at least), but HOLY ARTWORK it is absolutely amazing. I definitely will have to keep checking out this old chums work. As an artist myself, I am completely in envy. 

The price tag is much more then the usual three to five dollar comic book, and some might find it a bit steep for only 30 page or so of actual story, but with it comes the actual pencil work from Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez of the entire story, and pencil work of the variant covers, as well as a manuscript of the original lost episode penned by Harlan Ellison. Some still may find that 9.99  is too much, most people will just read the story, and by pass everything else, but as an artist (sorry to bring that up again) I really truly enjoyed the pencil work and could even take from it artistically. The manuscript was also a fun read as well.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this one-shot comic, I loved the fun story, and excellent artwork by Garcia-Lopez. I know the Batman '66 comics are an ongoing thing, and I just picked up issue 2,3,4,6 of Batman'66 Meets Green Hornet (gotta get 1 and 5! Ugh), a special 6 issue story written by an inspiration of mine, Kevin Smith. So stay tuned for when I get all 6 I will definitely be reviewing those! I am glad that 'The Lost Episode' wasn't a bomb, because some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.

4.5 out of 5