In a piece of fan art created by Sebastian Ciaffaglione, Adam West’s Batman replaces Frank Miller’s Dark Knight. The illustration tributes the two polar opposite Batmen who both defined the character in their times.
Throughout Batman’s comic book history, he has been written from every angle imaginable. Although he started out as a brooding vigilante in Detective Comics written by Bill Finger, he went onto become a less serious figure in the Silver Age, as represented by Adam West’s portrayal in the 1960s TV series. Eventually, Batman was reimagined again in the 80s as a dark detective, embodied by comics from writers such as Dennis O’Neil and Frank Miller. When The Dark Knight Returns released in 1986, it solidified Batman’s evolution into a more mature hero with a darker tone. The Caped Crusader was no longer a campy superhero intended for kids, as he had grown into a reckless crimefighter.
On artist Sebastian Ciaffaglione's blog, they managed to bring Adam West’s Batman into a page of The Dark Knight Returns, replacing the hulking hero in a panel. Although it might look like a parody of Miller’s approach to the character, West’s Batman is still respected by the fan base for his earnestness. It isn’t so hard to imagine his Batman reading such dialogue as the narration included, as he took his mission seriously in the live action series, even if the story might have been campy. "This should be agony. I should be a mass of aching muscle--broken, spent, unable to move. And, were I an older man, I surely would…"
The narration might not be so difficult to envision West reading, as a clip from a documentary recently resurfaced on Twitter, in which the actor read Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. Although West’s Batman would never become the maniac that Miller depicted, the page looks like it could have come from Batman ’66 illustrated by Mike Allred, which began a while after Ciaffaglione created the piece of fan art. The page substituting the original Dark Knight is practically a pitch for the graphic novel to be re-illustrated with West’s Batman.
Clever fan art such as Ciaffaglione’s piece demonstrates a possible use of fan-made work, as it emphasizes the contrast between two vastly different versions of the same character. This same framing device could bring out similar differences between different creators’ takes on Superman or Wonder Woman. However, the contrast between previous iterations of superheroes would likely be nowhere near as stark as it is with Batman's many interpretations.
Source: sebastiancreative.blogspot.com