One team-up issue featuring Batman and Deadman laid the foundation for Batman’s modern reinvention with a dark and mysterious atmosphere carefully handcrafted by comics legend Neal Adams. Batman had spent years during the Silver Age taking part in silly adventures thanks to restrictions imposed by the Comics Code Authority, but in one fell swoop Adams was able to transition the character to a darker and more mature era.
The Comics Code Authority was established in response to the moral panic caused by the publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent. Strict adherence to this code of self-regulation rendered virtually every comic published throughout the 1950s and 1960s saccharine and bloodless. The characterization of Batman was further diluted by the campy nature of the Caped Crusader’s popular 1960s television series. The acquisition of DC Comics, formerly National Periodical Publications, by Kinney National Company in 1967 and the cancelation of the wacky Batman live-action series in 1968 created a rare opportunity for rebranding the character. Julie Schwartz, a DC Comics editor, actively recruited any writers and artists who could make Batman comics that resonated with a new audience, but there was one noteworthy exception: Neal Adams.
The soon-to-be legendary Neal Adams tried to land an assignment on either the Batman or the Detective Comics series when he first became a freelance artist for DC Comics. After months of rejection from Schwartz, Adams pursued a story for The Brave and the Bold series under the direction of its editor Murray Boltinoff. The series featured team-ups of characters from across the DC Universe with Batman usually being the main focus. Deadman was an obvious choice because Adams was the regular writer and artist for his feature in the Strange Adventures series. The Batman and Deadman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #79, written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Neal Adams, instantly became a linchpin moment in the Dark Knight’s history.
Neal Adams Restored Batman’s Darkness
The approach Adams took to Batman’s design recovered important visual and thematic elements that had been mostly missing since the character’s earliest published adventures. Adams lengthened Batman’s cape and the ears on his cowl, insisted on nighttime settings whenever possible, and darkened the overall coloring of the Batsuit. These subtle changes made it easier to depict Batman as a mysterious creature of the night swooping down from rooftops to terrify criminals. According to artist and comics historian Arlen Schumer:
“Nothing prepared us for the tsunami-like impact of his team-up with Deadman. This was the dark, mysterious, bat-like Batman we Bat-fans had been waiting for, almost as if Adams had dipped our collective Bat-unconscious and pulled out the Batman of our dreams. It’s all in that one issue, the Bat-blueprint for everyone who’s drawn Batman since: the longer ears, the darker cowl, the impossibly long cape as an almost-living entity.”
The fan response to this modern foundation for the Dark Knight was overwhelmingly positive. However, it led to a heated confrontation between Adams and Schwartz:
“After a couple months, Julie Schwartz corners me at DC Comics, he has a handful of letters and he stops me in the hallway and he says, ‘How come all these fans say the only Batman at DC Comics is in Brave and Bold?’ I said, ‘Well, Julie, in Brave and Bold he’s really Batman. He is not walking around in the daytime in his underwear, he is skulking around at night.’ He said, ‘What makes you think you know how to do Batman?’ I said, ‘Julie, it’s not me who knows how to do Batman, it’s me and every kid in America who knows what Batman ought to be. The problem at DC Comics is that no one knows what Batman is.'”
Adams successfully overhauled one of the most iconic characters in comics history by returning Batman to his darker roots. Batman once again became a mysterious figure cloaked shadows that hunted dangerous criminals and turned them into frightened prey. The modern version of Batman only exists today because Neal Adams used a partnership with Deadman to breathe life back into his character.
