DC COMICS: Batman '66 (Batman s1 ep 9 & 10)

Batman '66 in the mediaBatman '66 in the media

ZELDA THE GREAT:
Every April Fool's Day, a mysterious thief robs one of Gotham City's banks of exactly $100,000. Unknown to the authorities, the culprit is Zelda the Great, a world-famous magician and escape artist who uses her takings to pay Eivol Ekdal, an Albanian mastermind who devises each of her escape devices. Hoping to trap the crook this year, Batman plants a story in a newspaper which claims that the stolen money was counterfeit. After reading the article, Ekdal refuses to give Zelda his latest device, the Inescapable Death-Trap, until he is paid, and he sends Zelda to steal a rare gem on display in a local jewellery store - unaware that this is another fake story planted by Batman.

A DEATH WORSE THE FATE:
With Aunt Harriet Cooper held prisoner encased inside a nylon staitjacket in Zelda’s clutches, Bruce Wayne, Robin and Police Commissioner Gordon deliver the ransom money through live television, and convince the villain that the money she stole from the bank was in fact real. Poor Aunt Harriet is exhausted. Franticly kicking her sheer pantyhose feet back and forth as she dangles over the boiling oils' flames while they negotiate her safe return. Meanwhile, Aunt Harriet passes out from the suffocating heat. Her head slumped forward. Swaying back and forth. Dangling from the cable. Zelda has the cable moved away from the vat. Aunt Harriet is lowered to the floor. Zelda's men drag her from the room and out to the car. She is safely returned, to a park bench, along with a clue in her pocket: a matchbook advertising Ekdal's Gnome Bookstore. Unaware that this is a ruse to draw them into a trap, Batman and Robin head off to the bookstore, only to become trapped in Ekdal's Inescapable Doom Trap - a transparent cage made out of Jet Age plastics that rapidly begins filling with deadly gas… Ekdal and Zelda planned to trap the Dynamic Duo in the Doom Trap so they could learn the secret of how to escape from it. Ekdal had two gangsters hiding in two Egyptian sarcophagus with machine guns to kill Batman and Robin when they escape.XXXAs Zelda watched Batman and Robin escaping from the Inescapable Doom Trap, she began to become fascinated with them especially Batman. Batman and Robin escape. Zelda warns them about the gangsters in the sarcophagus. Batman and Robin escape the gangsters who end up shooting each other. Ekdal panics and tried to run but is stopped by Batman's Bat Boomerang. Zelda steps out behind the stage in tears. Batman touches her cheek. "Fake tears." Says Robin. "No real tears." He tells him, as Zelda holds out her wrists as Bat Cuffs are put on her. Bruce Wayne later visits her in prison and arranges for her to be reformed as a resident magician working in children's hospitals helping children. Grateful, she thanks him as she magically produces a rose to be given to Batman if he sees him. Zelda is escorted by a guard back to prison while Bruce Wayne puts the rose in the lapel of his jacket.

MONITOR'S NOTES:
The new comic book  version of Zelda look more like a comic villain than before.