Sunday, August 2, 2020

BATMAN: “THE BOOKWORM TURNS” (1966)



PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*



Roddy MacDowall’s Bookworm provides one of the best original villains, though I must admit that he probably wouldn’t have been as good had he returned for further exploits. As the name suggests, Bookworm is as obsessed with books as Riddler is with riddles, and that obsession is even given a smidgen of motivation, in that Batman calls him a “frustrated writer.” Indeed, the villain as good as admits this failing in a rant to his henchmen, including the alliteratively named henchwoman Lydia Limpet.

Still, writer Rik Vollaeets starts the episode off with a literal bang. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, watching a televised dedication of a bridge in Gotham, are horrfied when they see the apparent shooting of Commissioner Gordon. Gordon is of course alive, and the imposture was apparently just a device to get the heroes thinking about bridges, specifically relating to the one in Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The heroes follow Bookworm’s clue-trail, get ambushed, and beat down the villain’s thugs, though they all get away. The point of the attack is to insert the delectable Lydia as a stalking-horse, designed to lure both heroes into a trap. Batman sees through the rather obvious scheme, but outsmarts himself by leaving Robin in charge of the henchwoman—whereupon she mousetraps him, at least in part thanks to her womanly charms. Thus the Boy Wonder suffers the fate intended for Batman: to be smashed to death by a giant bell-clapper.

Batman bails out his partner with a contrived, if still enjoyable, rescue. Afterward, Bookworm excels himself in luring the Duo into a second deathtrap, a giant metal book that threatens to steam the two bats to death. For once, the villain’s main purpose is to kill the heroes in order to take possession of the weapons in the Batmobile, and with the use of the “Bat-beam,” Bookworm tries to steal a priceless book-collection. But the heroes come back from apparent death and consign the crooks to incarceration.


Vollaerts’ use of numerous literary references and in-jokes makes this episode above-average, not least because all of these learned allusions reflect the war of wits between Bookworm and the senior member of the Bat-team.  

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