The Teen Titans add a little holiday fun with some Tannenbaum tropes:

Willard Scott and Deborah Norville introduce Marvel’s 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float. Melba Moore dishes out a performance of her “Holding Out for a Hero” amid Cap, Spidey and the Silver Surfer posing. Emma Frost tosses in a few kicks for good measure.

Costumes look like a rehash from the 1987 offering.

Leaves are turning, stores are pimping Christmas and sale ads are hawking turkeys. Must be Thanksgiving.

And, it is.

Almost.

Along with football from the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions, there’s the over eating and family squabbles. To kick the day off is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As the culinary bouquet wafts from the kitchen, those not involved beyond devouring the dinner are watching the second-oldest American parade unfold in the living room.

For three hours.

The parade began in 1924 in Newark, NJ, then transferred to Macy’s in New York City. Character balloons began appearing in the parade in 1927. It went on hiatus during World War II, 1942 to 1944. The parade was first broadcast on network television in 1948.

Being a part of New York City, Marvel Comics was represented by Spider-Man in 1987. Attached was a camera that has become known as the Spidey-Cam.

Also introduced that year was a Marvel Universe float featuring a multitude of heroes and villains.

Today is the first anniversary of the passing of Adam West. He will forever be typecast as Batman.

For many he was their first Batman. Their only Batman.

For me he was a Batman. Not my first. That would be Denny O’Neil with either Neal Adams or Irv Novick.

Then reruns of the 1960s The Adventures of Batman and my Mego’s Greatest Super Heroes eight-inch likeness. That and some imagination.

Mr. West and his interpretation would be my third Batman. The one I watched after school on a black-and-white, rabbit-eared television in my bedroom. With two episodes back-to-back. None of this waiting a coupla days to tune to the same Bat-channel at the same Bat-time for a conclusion.

This was during the mid-1970s on UHF channel 20 outta Washington D.C.

In those days camp was what you did in the woods. In those days Batman 1966 was high entertainment. It was bif, bam pow – all with exclamation points.

As time passed and innocence was washed from my eyes I learned another definition for camp. The series became somewhat of an embarrassment. To me. To the industry. To Batman.

By 1989 a Robin had died, Frank Miller christened him the Dark Knight and Tim Burton was taking Batman back to the big screen. This time in a serious manner.

It came and went. As did Batman Returns and the inevitable sequels chasing after fanboys’ money.

These became the embarrassments. The big-budget, effects-laden movies that were to lay the 1966 series to rest.

What happened is many of us grew to appreciate the old again. Accept it for what was and will always be:  fun entertainment. It represented – and still does – a simpler time for most of us. For me it was afternoons with my Mego super heroes and villains. Playing in my bedroom, waiting for the call to supper.

It was – and still is – a piece of our childhood we should cherish.

Watching it now with my son in HD on a huge television screen is different than how I experienced it to begin with. But, Dylan’s different. The times are different.

But, Batman is still Batman. He has as many masks to charm us with as gadgets in his utility belt. Each one is as meaningful as the one before and the one that follows.

Thank you, Mr. West, for wearing one of those masks. One we can enjoy over and over again.

Replete with the character’s trademark wit and blue sense of humor, Ryan Reynold’s silver screen Deadpool has proven a hit with comic book fans.  Leading up to the original film’s 2016 release, a Christmas themed trailer teaser trailer (yes, that’s right – a trailer teaser trailer – because these are a thing now) was released in late 2015.  Enjoy.

Young Sheldon and friend enjoy a visit to their local comic shop. Notice the Christmas With The Super-Heroes (1988) cameo.

In season 2, episode 9 of X-Men Evolution – “On Angel’s Wings” – Kitty Pryde lights the menorah with her family.