Adam West’s Batman from the 1960s television series is well known for being on the lighter side of Bat fare. West has reprised the role many times since the series, but one rendition that hasn’t gotten much attention before was him reading from the decidedly dark Frank Miller comic run, The Dark Knight Returns.
Yesterday, Abraham Riesman—the author of True Believer, the biography on Marvel creator Stan Lee—shared the clip on Twitter, cut from the 2013 documentary series Superheroes.
“I am once again thinking about how an obscure PBS documentary got Adam West (RIP) to read 20 seconds’ worth of narration from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and how those 20 seconds are my favorite Batman movie,” Riesman tweeted.
Based on the response, it seems that the internet agrees with him. West’s rendition of this gritty version of the Bat will send chills down your spine. “Do you know who I am, punk? I’m the worst nightmare you’ve ever had, the kind that made you wake up screaming for your mother,” West narrates in the clip above. “You’ve got a mother, don’t you? Every punk should have a mother.”
Wow! I always knew West was talented but his rendition here is truly terrifying. So terrifying, in fact, that it might keep me awake at night, afraid that West will enter my dreams and become my worst nightmare.
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