We’re Having A Superhero Overload!

It's seems like, these days, you can pick up a stone, give it a toss, and you're bound to hit a Superhero. Everywhere you look, there's some Superhero vanquishing bad guy's, defending a town or saving the earth and mankind.

Let's see, we have Spiderman, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Captain America, Arrow, Transformers, Wolverine, and blah, blah, blah, blah.

They swing, they stomp, they fire, they dash, they zip, and just for fun, they drop in a cutesy line or two. It's hard for an old guy like me to keep up! Who's who? Where do they live again? What powers do they have? And then on top of it all...the computer graphic's. Too much for an old man's eyes and ears, not to mention the heart!

Ah, remember back there in the old days, you know, about a half century or more ago? We lived in a simpler time and we had simpler Superhero's.

Oh, I know. A lot of those guy's were around back then, but they were off somewhere in the Superhero shadow's. But out there in the bright sunlight of...uh...Superhero-dom...there were 2. Yep, 2. You had your choice of who you like.

You were either a Batman liker...or you adored Superman. It was that easy. One or the other.

It was a little like the 'Ginger or Mary Ann' question, except with muscle's and super powers. (Oh, and if you don't know about the 'Ginger or Mary Ann' question, you must wear a younger person's skin).

George Reeve was Superman. He could fly like a jet, was faster than a speeding locomotive and hey, if you needed a tall building bounded, well, he was your guy.

Batman? That was Adam West. He looked cool in his cowl and cape. Those tights he wore, well, they weren't as tight as they make 'em today. He had a super cool 'Batcave' where everything was clearly marked so us kids watching knew what they were. He didn't have the super powers that Superman did, but he was waaaay smarter. Oh, and Robin? Well, I always though he was more of an annoyance than a side-kick. But Batman liked him, so I guess we had to, too.

Superman defended Metropolis and Batman defended Gotham City. Batman had cool villains, like the Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Mr. Freeze. (Remember who Mr. Freeze was? No, not the former Governor of California. This was the guy who went on to have the evil laugh on the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' song. Oh, and he played in a lot of old horror films too!).

Now, I know all these Superhero's today have lots of computer generated special effects so that things can blow up, explode, shake, be loud and amaze the kids.

Special effects for the old Batman and Superman? Well, if you had a trampoline just out of camera view, you were good to go. Superman would fly out the window from that hidden trampoline and land in a carefully hidden mattress somewhere off camera. But heck, to us he could fly!

Batman? Well, I seem to recall him and Robin climbing the side of a building with that Bat Rope...and suddenly seeing Dick Clark, Sammy Davis Jr., or Dean Martin poke their head out of a window. I'm sure it was all real. They were Super Hero's after all!

But the best thing about having just those 2 Super Hero's? Are you ready? The absolutely best thing?

They were free!

Yep, they just came on TV every week. In fact, if you recall, Batman came on twice a week!

And that was that, 2 to choose from, Batman or Superman. So who was your favorite? Who couldn't you miss week after week? Who's camp did you fall into?

Me? I was a Batman guy. I'd tune in every week. Same Bat-Time. Same Bat-Channel.

But I have to admit, Lois Lane wasn't bad to look at. Oh, and I was a Mary Ann guy, too.