I Believe In Bat-Mite: Bat-Mite In World's Funnest

Monday, March 16, 2009

Bat-Mite In World's Funnest

Now that I've covered World's Funnest itself, I'm going to focus a bit on Bat-Mite's potrayal in it. After all, this is Bat-Mite Month! Dorkin gets the Silver Age Bat-Mite to a T, as he corrects Superman when he calls him an elf and says he uses his magic to allow Batman and Robin to perform spectacular feats in the opening pages. For most of the issue, Bat-Mite is on the run from Mr. Mxyzptlk and tries to get the heroes of each universe he hides in to help him defeat Mr. Mxyzptlk. Mr. Mxyzptlk actually destroys Bat-Mite's home universe (which has a fraction for an Earth number), which causes Bat-Mite to exclaim, "What about my friends? My family? My mint-in-vault Batman memorabilia collection?"

Now the Bat-Mite in here is fun loving most of the time, but gets a little violent in a few instances. The first is of course when he burns Superman with the miniature Red Sun using a giant magnifying glass, but can you really blame the little guy? He just saw his hero magic zapped right in front of him (plus he knows that he can restore the universe with the snap of a finger). The other one is a bit of a comment on the modern DC universe, as Bat-Mite arrives to find new, gritty heroes and a Batman who doesn't know him. He goes a little ballistic, zapping quite a few "phonies" before he destroys the universe (sound familiar?) And of course, Bat-Mite wins this game of chase with a bit of fast thinking and a Flash helmet. Overall, I'd say this a great interpretation of Bat-Mite in modern times that stays quite faithful to his Silver Age origins.

Not only was Bat-Mite interpreted by the writer, but a number of artists added their own style to the imp, including...