Controversial Batfamily Opinions

[Jim Kelly]

In the 1960s and 1970s, when I read reprints of Batman stories from the 1940s and 1950s, I would get jazzed to find these stories from a period that I knew little about. I remember when I got the hardcover BATMAN FROM THE 30'S TO THE 70'S, I couldn't contain my excitement. Just the pages that showed thumbnails of old covers from the '40s and the '50s excited me so much. And I loved all those stories where the mythology of the Batman was being built up. Stories about the Batcave, the Batmobile, the Utility Belt. I still get a tingle thinking about these discoveries.

I wonder if kids feel the same way now. When they find info about a Batman they never knew before, one that doesn't jibe with the present version, are they excited? Or is there just so much available without any effort to find it, that kids find all this dusty old stuff really boring and not interesting whatsoever. I mean, I've seen some people react to the old comics with complete contempt--like they were hurt by such comics even existing and not being the Batman they wanted. I wonder if that's now the common response.