The Unseen Horrors of 60's Joker

The Darker Side of Cesar Romero's Joker

The first live-action iteration of The Joker, played by Cesar Romero in 1966’s Batman television series, is a far darker character than viewers may think. The classic Batman TV series is famous for being a more campy and comedic take on the Dark Knight's mythos among the many live-action versions of Batman, with the show influencing the collective perception of Batman and his supporting cast for decades, until the 1989 film of the same name presented a darker and more serious mainstream iteration.

Ceasar Romero Joker

Despite typically being portrayed as more of a prankster than a murderous crime boss, Romero’s Joker committed numerous heinous acts off-screen. Due to heavy censorship at the time, Silver Age Batman comics were far more lighthearted than their Golden Age predecessors. While Batman stories had previously melded gritty crime drama with surreal fantasy and science fiction, the Silver Age stories were far less violent and more whimsical, reestablishing the Batman comics as family-friendly tales. These stories would be the basis of the 1966 TV show, making it an earnest and authentic representation of the comics of its era, with the classic Batman series adhering to the collective Batman comic mythos more closely than more recent and darker iterations of the character.

Cesar Romero's Joker: A Ruthless Criminal Mastermind

Even with every episode featuring far more camp and playful plots, Cesar Romero’s live-action version of the Joker is still canonically a ruthless criminal mastermind, something that is referred to in passing and used for comedic effect. The Batman season 2 episode “The Impractical Joker” has two of The Joker’s henchmen reference the lengths he went to get them out of prison. These included sneaking files into their prison, murdering their parole officer, kidnapping an entire jury, and holding a judge’s wife hostage. While all these events happened off-screen, they nevertheless feel more appropriate for The Joker as he appears in modern Batman adaptations than the intentionally silly 60s iteration.

While the 60s Batman episode fittingly played The Joker’s off-screen horrors for laughs, the show’s in-continuity comics from the 2010s took things far further. Jeff Parker and Marc Andreyko’s Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 comic not only establishes that Adam West’s Batman and Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman inhabit the same continuity, but it also provides glimpses into the futures of many of the Batman TV show’s characters. Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing, Barbara Gordon succeeds her father as Gotham’s Police Commissioner, and Catwoman reforms. Unfortunately, the stories of Batman, The Joker, and Alfred are far less upbeat.

Wonder Woman and Bruce Wayne discuss Alfred and The Joker in Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77.

The Darker Story of The Joker in Batman '66

As Wonder Woman discovers, Batman has retired after a final and tragic confrontation with The Joker. His old nemesis discovered his secret identity and infiltrated the Batcave, startling Alfred enough to give him a fatal heart attack. Batman responded by killing The Joker and subsequently retiring out of shame for his actions. Although this comic storyline arguably misses the point of the classic 60s Batman series, it proves that even in the Dark Knight's zaniest series, The Joker is still one of the Caped Crusader’s darkest opponents.