Well before Adam West became the mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island, in Family Guy, he had the auspicious (if not dubious) distinction of bringing Batman to the boob tube, and ultimately, the silver screen—following Lewis Wilson’s 1943 film version, that is. More significantly, it was in that 1966 adaptation that West’s Batman introduced to the world perhaps the single most prevalent weapon of defense yet to be paralleled: a can of shark repellent spray. (Too bad Jaws’ Captain Quint didn’t have a canister handy as the ubiquitous Carcaridon Carcarius had him as part of its “noon feeding.”)

Forty-two years later, as The Dark Knight continues to dominate the box office as though it were its own personal whipping boy, Christian Bale’s incarnation of the caped crusader, for all his 21st-century gadgetry at his disposal, could really benefit from some of that same 1960s camp logic. Namely, he could use some iceberg repellant spray.

As I write this, it is the eve of the first weekend in which the war movie satire Tropic Thunder will make its mark in the 2008 summer movie collective. And as early numbers suggest, it may very well put an end to Knight’s four-week sojourn at the top of the box office, thereby quelling any hopes of its overtaking Titanic as the all-time box office king. Score 13-year-old girls in 1998: 1; comic book dorks (myself included) in 2008: 0.

The potential outcome of the most recent box office weekend tally notwithstanding, Dark Knight probably never had a legitimate shot at that feat anyway. Although I personally can’t accept the lion’s share of spearheading that particular campaign, I certainly played no small part in the attempt—I saw the damn thing three times. (Yes, three times. I haven’t seen a movie while it was still in the multiplexes more than once since the original Die Hard. And at least I was 14 then; I have no excuse now other than that I fully embrace my allegiance to extreme geekdom.)

After Titanic ominously sailed into theaters in late December of 1997, it remained there for a staggering nine months—nine months. Yet its momentum in garnering the all-time box office trophy had been more or less established in the first two. And that is ultimately where the most salient difference between the two movie behemoths lies.

Despite the speculative degrees of quality of The Dark Knight’s competition this summer, it has still had to contend with just that—other summer movies. It’s no secret that if a studio chooses to release a film during the prime summer months (mid-May to late July), it’s betting that film will rake in some serious dough, no matter how many Mummy sequels and Indiana Jones re-boots might share a piece of the real estate.

If, on the other hand, a studio chooses to release a film in late December, it more than likely does so with the knowledge that that film’s only serious competition for the next couple of months (assuming it’s still around after that time) will be … Krippendorf’s Tribe. That last title was released in February 1998. Never heard of it, you say? Exactly. It was one of Titanic’s, um, “threats” during that time span.

The Dark Knight, for all its fortitude, has still had to navigate waters filled with the likes of Hancock, Pineapple Express, The Incredible Hulk, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor—all having boasted respectable numbers. Granted, its most likely spoiler, the latest X-Files installment, bombed worse than an Andrew “Dice” Clay gig at N.O.W. headquarters, but apart from that, it’s been a fairly stalwart summer. By contrast, in the winter of 1998, Titanic had to fend off the mighty cinematic juggernauts comprised of Hard Rain, Slappy and the Stinkers, and—remember this?—Spiceworld.

Regardless of whether or not it eventually surpasses Titanic, The Dark Knight has managed to accomplish something far more propitious: It’s made the movie-going experience once again what it should be—an experience. It’s made movies fun again. It manifests a pristine amalgamation of art-house, intellectual fare and rock ‘em-sock ‘em-blow ‘em up action. It’s a movie that makes me feel like a kid again. Just not a 13-year-old girl. I have Hannah Montana marathons for that.

Todd Guill, if he had his druthers, would see The Dark Knight for yet a fourth time, but then he would officially have to move back into his parents’ basement and take up playing Dungeons and Dragons full time.