Rob's Room: Batman Nembo Kid

Nembo Kid (mostly via Vintage Geek Culture)

In Italy from the 50s-60s, Batman is red. The reason for this is not clear, but the most common explanation is that Mondadori, the Italian publishing house, made a mistake early on, and it just stuck. In fact, when the first poster for the Adam West Batman movie was made in Italy, Batman was made red to be in line with the comics.

If you’re wondering who the “Nembo Kid” is, that’s Italy’s name for Superman. The term Superman was not used at this point, as in Italy the Nietzschean idea of the Ubermensch/Superman had tainted associations with Mussolini and the defeated fascist government, and was off limits post-war. Batman and Superman were published together in Italy by Mondadori, which is a common practice in Europe. For example, Marvel UK published several Marvel comics together like X-Men as a 60p magazine called “The Daredevils.”