BATTYMAN

BATMAN (1989)
dir: Tim Burton

BATTYMAN
#289, September 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
I posted their parody of the TV show earlier, now here's the 1989 movie

This was the first gritty reboot as part of the campaign to get Batman (and superheroes in general) treated seriously by the public, and portray him as the creature of the night he was originally meant to be. Before this, the 1966 TV show was the only image most had of the character, reinforcing the impression the public had of comic books as silly juvenile drivel.

As a young fanboy, I thought this new image would help with the general public's impression of my chosen hobby and profession. The Dark Knight had come out a couple years earlier and I thought with that we had finally arrived. Copies were printed on expensive paper and looked more like books than magazines. Now everyone would know what I was into was more than just kiddie fare. That phase only lasted a year or two after I moved into the city and weaned myself onto comics that weren't superheroes.

In retrospect, it doesn't all age well, in the proper use of the term. There have been other reboots of the Batman and Joker characters since that make this movie seem just as campy as the TV series it was trying not to be like, and as I get older I prefer the daytime Asperger's Batman anyway.

The casting of Lee Wallace was because of his resemblance to Ed Koch, who was then the mayor of New York. Here the mayor is actually drawn as Ed Koch. Charles Bronson is in the splash because his Death Wish franchise is also about a vigilante cleaning up the city.

Ironic that “faggy” is used to describe Batman's costume considering sequels directed by Joel Schumacher would focus on the homosexual overtones of the character and his costume.

Crime boss Gus Grissom (Jack Palance) has sent assistant Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) to raid a chemical company, which Jack doesn't realize is a set-up to kill him because he has been fooling around with Grissom's mistress (Jerry Hall).

Meanwhile, journalist Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) and photographer Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), who are investigating the mysterious Batman, meet Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) at a fund-raiser in his home.

At the chemical plant, Jack falls into a vat of chemicals while fighting the Batman. This is the origin of The Joker.

(The pin is a reference to the film Shane, where actor Jack Palance first made his mark thirty years earlier. “Joke and Dagger Dept.” was what MAD calls their Spy vs. Spy feature. National Rifle Association was once considered non-partisan.)

Joker has ordered a plastic surgeon to have his face fixed, which is forever stuck in a permanent smile.

Bruce has started dating Vicki, encouraged by his butler Alfred (Michael Gough). Joker, realizing he has being set up, kills Grissom, and is now head of the business.

He then goes on a spree vandalizing a museum and knocking everyone out. Vicki was to meet Bruce there, but he's late and the Joker shows up, infatuated with her.
Later, Bruce shows up at her apartment about to confess his dual identity, but is interrupted yet again and disappears.

The fanfare on television is interrupted by an infomercial for cosmetics with the Smylex products, the ones that have been knocking everyone out, which leave you dead with a grin.

Bruce Wayne continues his obsession with the Joker, realizing the Joker and Jack Napier are the same person. The Joker has tried to kidnap Vicki Vale, but Battyman comes and rescues her in his Batmobile. The caricature is of Bob Kane, the man who put his name on Batman.

MAD can't resist one of their old standby jokes: when a computer is called “Mother” they make it an actual mother.

(Joe Isuzu was a car campaign at the time in which the dealer was a compulsive liar.)

Bruce gets a tip that the Joker has kidnapped Vicki so he changes into Batman to rescue her.

During the Gotham City bicentennial, The Joker announces on TV he's going to drop $20 million from balloons floating over the city but doesn't mention the balloons will also release Smylex gas on all the citizens.

Batman realizes through a repressed memory the Joker was the one who killed his father and have a climactic fight scene on top of a building. In the end Batman releases the balloons and wins, but in MAD's twist he jumps too.

MAD usually takes scenes from the movie out, but this time they had ones that weren't in the final cut of the movie. Batman may have been the most hyped movie in advance up to that time, and by then it was expected any blockbuster film would be parodied by MAD. Since Batman and MAD were both owned by DC Comics, the issue was released as a defacto product tie-in. Usually MAD's parodies were a few months after the movie, but because these had to be concurrent they used scenes they didn't know would be cut out for theaters.

The letters column regarding this issue a few months later featured Jack Nicholson reading the issue.

And then there's Cracked

BAT$MAN
Cracked #249, November 1989
w: Mort Todd
a: John Severin

The issue before this had all kinds of articles about the superhero, this one had a proper parody of the movie.

The introduction is given by a fanboy who tells the audience that this parody helps complete his collection. Included here but not in MAD is actor Billy Dee Williams as well as Anton Furst and Tim Burton.

Prince had done the soundtrack for the movie.

This is when Gus tries to kill have Jack killed but fails, Jack becomes the Joker and takes over, and meanwhile Vicki and Alexander are at a function at Bruce's home trying to find a connection between him and Batman.

Joker pitches his product on TV.
Then vandalizes the museum.

Now his plan to release gas at the city bicentennial.

During the final showdown between Batman and the Joker, they get a rude awakening...

...they may be cash cows, but they're not the only ones in town.