Holy Burn, Batman: Adam West Has Something To Say About DC's Films!

Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by a DC film. If so, you have a pretty major player on your side too. It looks like the original #Batman, Adam West, is none too fond of what Warner Bros. has been giving us recently. That's right, the 88-year-old slipped on his spandex one more time to hurl a batarang of shade at the DC slate.

Batman... Returns

West was promoting the animated Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders at New York Comic-Con animated, when he told a group of journalists exactly what he though of the recent incarnations of the Caped Crusader:

"The new movies, Batman is very full of vengeance and deep-seated angst and so on...They’re very dark."

To be fair, of course Batman is full of angst: Rachel got blown up, Bane broke his back, and someone burned his house down — AGAIN! It is a far cry from the days of hand buzzers and shark repellent that West brought to the 1960s.

The original Dark Knight then went on to rally the cause for a return to the lighter days of Batman:

"Enough violence. Let the costume work for you. And put a little humor into it. I think it’s about time to relieve that all of that kind of attitude of vengeance and 'I can’t take it anymore, I’m going home and I’m going to suck my thumb.'"

Surely he can't mean... no really... Batman & Robin? I doubt that West was being that literal, because we all know how that costume turned out, but let's look back on eight moments that made 1997 the year of Joel Schumacher's only Batman film:

1. Ice to meet you.

I love good a good pun as much as the next person, but Arnold Schwarzenegger's one-liners were "pun-believably" bad! "The Ice Man cometh," "Chill," need I go on?

Mr. Freeze's lair was ridiculous enough being inside a giant ice cream factory, but put in scantily clad eskimos, and this song really took the biscuit. Can you even call it a song?

3. No bones about it.

Along with pop-up ice skates and a Robin-shaped hole in the wall, the museum scene is one of the film's wackiest. Sorry, is this Batman & Robin or The Flintstones?

4. Surf's up!

It seems that in the 30+ years between West's Batman and 1997, we hadn't mastered how to seamlessly use green screen. Also yeah, because sky gliding from the outer-reaches of the atmosphere is just that easy!

5. Flower Power

It isn't just Arnie who fell victim to Schumacher's script! Somehow Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy actually ended up being one of the best parts of the film — just don't ask us how!

6. Buttgirl

Apart from Chris O'Donnell's questionable acting, it seems that Alicia Silverstone got the short straw too. Perhaps also shoe-horning Batgirl into the script was a step too far. However, she certainly did add to the S&M feel of the film.

7. The Bat-Card

For everything else there's Gothcard, he never leaves the cave without it! Up there with one of Batman's weirdest gadgets, what's wrong with a good ol' American Express?

8. Nip Slip

Batman & Robin became synonymous with the strange addition of rubber nipples on the suits — now you can relive that in all its GIF-worthy glory!

The Wild, Wild, West

Still want to go back to comedy, Adam? Perhaps West's criticism is a little unfair. The original Batman series was a product of its time, and sure, it is great to visit the nostalgia in cartoon form, but a full-blown cinematic outing would be a step too far.

Also, to be fair to DC and Warner Bros., this year's Suicide Squad may have been a vastly flawed outing, but it was 1,000 times lighter in tone than the Nolanverse era of Batman. It was like swapping a morgue for a funfair. However, it looks like someone, somewhere, is listening to Mr. West; in a turn away from his usual exploits, Zack Snyder seems to be adding more humor to his #JusticeLeague outing. Whether or not that will transition into Ben Affleck's solo-Batman remains to be seen, but we are keeping our wings crossed for no more rubber nips.