sterlling wrote:
I know a lot of posters on this thread were original buyers of the books off the stands but as a collector of Batman who wasn't even born until the 1970's the "new look" Batman was only less silly than the previous version. I don't see any hard attempt to get completely out of the silly period until the 70's O'Neil run.

Yes many silly characters were cut loose in 64' and the monsters,aliens,giant hands mostly disappeared but as a modern fan that grew up with Miller's version how am I supposed to view the gorilla bomb cover on a Detective comics #339 or Batman auctioning his clothes on the cover of Batman #191?

The post 64' may be less silly than the previous version but it still was rocking silly into the 60's to me.

I love collecting the books (The cover to the very camp giant hand on Batman #130 is awesome) but isn't the 64' new look more about subtle "improvements" than any full attempt to return the character to darker roots?
I mean hey, if I was a villain I'd probably throw Batman on to Robin (Batman #196) but things like that and the new yellow oval on his chest made the character pretty silly still.

People might disagree but I see the new look version until Adams and O'Neil arrive as a transition period that is still very lightweight reading as a fan.
Batman took on a more serious, even grimmer tone about 1968, in my opinion, when Frank Robbins came on board as writer, and Irv Novick and Bob Brown as artists.