I’ve looked into Captain Marvel’s old serials which saw the super hero with magical powers and incredible strength face a masked villain with a pre-packaged villain in the comics in the form of Dr Sivana. Now I’m going to look at a different classic comic book character’s serial.

I have complained about how Captain Marvel in the filmed serials was just facing gangsters and their masked boss… well in Batman and Robin they are also facing a masked villain and his gangster goons. However, for Batman this makes far more sense. While you may not believe it, it was some time before Batman’s rogue gallery became so all pervasive. He did far more regularly face the mob or corrupt officials so him facing gangsters and their mysterious benefactor fits far better.

This is the second serial of Batman. I haven’t seen the first one so no idea if they give Batman’s origin in that. All we know is Batman has been active in his battle against crime aided by his sidekick Robin.

The story features a mysterious villain called The Wizard who seeks to capture an invention that will allow him to remotely control machinery, and does so with his team of gangsters – like Gabe!

This does mean the story is considerably less fantastical than Captain Marvel. But also means you don’t feel strongly cheated as a seemingly all-powerful hero has to be knocked out every episode to give some sense of tension at the cliff-hanger. In this first part it features Batman and Robin on a plane as it is exploded remotely by The Wizard, so a fair bit more tension than a man we know can’t be hurt by a guillotine supposedly being harmed by that. (Sgathaich: Adventures of Captain Marvel – The Guillotine)

It’s just Batman tends to work better for a story if you’re giving us low level goons or thugs than someone who later on will be used to punch Superman… super villains couldn’t come fast enough in the Golden Age (yes it took quite some time before actual super villains who weren’t just mob bosses or mad scientists to show in the Golden Age of comics)

The central mystery, as to who The Wizard is, is obscured by there being some key characters that evidence would point you to as being the man, some a bit too blatant to the point you go “either they are being dumb or it’s far to obvious to be them”.

Given most people’s earliest images of Batman are from the 60s Adam West show, seeing an old serial of him could be an interesting viewing experience. See what he was like even further back in time.

You can watch it here: Batman & Robin (1949) S01E01 “Batman Takes Over”

Rating: 🦇🦇🦇