There are few things more glorious in superhero comics right now than the Batman ‘ 66 / Wonder Woman ‘ 77 mash - up series . But its last few chapters , despite feature the awing Burt Ward Robin ’s phylogeny from Boy Wonder to disco goddamn Nightwing , have also take a fascinatingly dark turn .
Batman ‘ 66 / Wonder Woman ‘ 77 — by Marc Andreyko , Jeff Parker , David Hahn , Karl Kesel , and Madpencil — has actually done an amazing job of leveraging the history behind the classic Wonder Woman tv set show to tell a story across several dissimilar clip periods . The original ‘ LXX telly show was in the first place set in World War II , before its 2d and third time of year transition to its then - present twenty-four hour period set . This comic has used that range to order a tale begin with Bruce Wayne ’s childhood during the war ( where he witnessed Wonder Woman in action for the first time ) , to a Batman and Wonder Woman team - up in Batman ‘ 66 ’s swinging ‘ 60s , to , most recently , a story set up in 1977 .
But a mickle has changed in between Diana ’s last encounter with the dynamic duo . Although she ’s remained a superhero , Batman has retire — and just as he did in the comics , the Boy Wonder has graduated from Robin to Nightwing , as Wonder Woman quickly discover while on the grammatical case of a smuggling ring that brings her to Gotham City once more .
Diana eventually reunites with Bruce to discover why he fall up his cowl , and it ’s actually quite a dismal find — as Batman continued to fight down , his foes began to get more and more dangerous . And as Dick moved on to go to college , and Barbara leave crimefighting to care for her trouble father ( and eventually become GCPD commissioner in his position ) , Bruce was left alone to face a world where his biggest foes were getting crueller and crueller . That roil over when the Joker discovered his indistinguishability , invaded Wayne Manor , and terrorise Alfred into suffering a heart attack … which ostensibly led to Batman killing the Joker in his ensuing rage .
Some fan may abound at the thought of the coterie play of Batman ‘ 66 devolving into the more traditionally darker storytelling the strip and next adaptation did , but it ’s a riveting direction that leverages the unique style of the old show to do something a spot dissimilar with these interpretations of the characters — something neither the show or its own digital comic could rightfully do , and only possible thanks to the self-love of Diana ’s length of service and her own show ’s timeskip .
That does n’t think Batman ‘ 66 / Wonder Woman ‘ 77 is without its sense of camp , though — did I bring up the fact Burt Ward is running around as Disco Nightwing already ? Diana ’s team - up with the honest-to-god Dick ( who now counts Catwoman as an friend , to boot ) leads to a secret plan in today ’s novel chapter that brings both Ra ’s al Ghul and his girl Talia to Gotham Cioty in search of Lazarus fossa . And if you ever want to see what a ‘ 70s League of Shadows look like , well …
Hell yeah evil disco dancers .
Hell yeah , evil disco dancers fight down Wonder Woman and Nightwing . Despite the dark turn this book has put on the campiest embodiment of the Dark Knight , Batman ‘ 66 / Wonder Woman ‘ 77 is still having an infrangible ton of fun — and the fact it can do that and deliver a compelling look at Adam West ’s Bruce Wayne beyond his life in the masquerade is pretty amazing .
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