I
realize that I’m starting to stretch the definition of “kid’s” as time passes.
Yet,
the intent is the same- seeing how someone unconnected to the time and culture of something’s original release reacts to it independently of its historical context.
Unsurprisingly,
my daughter knows Batman in many forms. A great deal of this knowledge came
from growing up with me, living in a house with Bat-information books and
playing with Action Figures her whole life.
The
key source of her knowledge about “real Batman” probably came when we watched
the animated Justice League and JLU series twice together. (not counting
the later episodes that originally aired when she was teeny) Plus she’s seen a bunch of Adam West and Batman the Animated Series episodes. She’s seen all of Batman: Brave and Bold and Young Justice as well, and the near
perfect (in some aspects) Lego Batman
Movie.
As
far as actual comic book stories, she’s read a bit of regular Batman, all of Tiny Titans, Young Justice and Johns's run on Teen Titans. Batman wasn’t
the star of those books, but you can learn a lot about someone by how others see
them.
She
also read through all of Gaiman’s Sandman
and related books at lightning speed last summer.
That’s
got nothing to do with Batman (minus a cameo) but was too cool not to mention.
The
point is, she knows the character in several of the universes he inhabits.
It
was interesting to see her reaction to the different live action versions, many
of which were believed to be definitive at the time.
Batman
1989
