posted April 14, 2003 04:56 PM               

The Riddler is a very peculiar case. ON the 60's show, he was Batman's ARCH-ENEMY!!! He was clearly more demented & dangerous than anyone else there. So as a kid, I was baffled about The Joker. He seemed like a 3rd-rate Riddler. I could never take him seriously, and yet he appeared in more episode than anyone else!! (Just like in the comics, small wonder.) The Penguin came in a close 2nd in appearance, by one half-hour episode, in fact.

But if you go back to The Riddler's 1st appearance, his entire personality & M.O. are different-- in fact, the John Astin episode on TV, which seemed so "off", was based on his 1st story from the comics!

It was only when I read The Joker's 1st appearance (by Finger, Kane & Robinson) that I saw for the first time a totally different Joker in the comics-- one who murdered without reservation and who was really dangerous & scary. It slowly dawned on me what had happened... In the comics, thanks to the Comics Code, The Joker was "watered down"-- Cesar Romero's portrayal was extrememly accurate to the 50's & 60's version. But when they strangely decided to use The Riddler in the TV pilot & cast Frank Gorshin, whether intentionally or not, they based him NOT on the comic-book Riddler-- but on the 1940's Joker!

posted April 15, 2003 01:47 PM               

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Originally posted by Wellington:
The Riddler's always been one of my favorite Batman villains, if not my absolute favorite (based mostly on Frank Gorshin's portrayal of him in the Batman tv show). He's clever, he's got an interesting gimmick, and the riddle-leaving compulsion lets you know that he's just a little bit out of his mind.

The tights and the suit-and-tie variation on his costumes are both incredibly cool, design-wise, too.

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His appearance in the Impulse series recently had some of this highbrow oddity to it.

I would actually recommend it -- even for my more staid fellow fans