Category: Batman

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Batman: Harley and Ivy The Deluxe Edition


By Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Ty Templeton, Shane Glines, Dan DeCarlo, Ronnie Del Carmen, Rick Burchett, Stéphane Roux & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6080-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Psychosis and Spice and Everything Nice… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic effect.

Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV animation series revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iteration, leading to some of the absolute best comicbook tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all iterations of the character and, without diluting the power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance and panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to. In fact, so many didn’t object over the years that in August 2024 we got a fresh bite of the cherry. If you love Batman, are steeped in the vast mythology of Gotham City and adore stylish animated wonderment, you owe it to yourself to watch the Reinvented-But-Just-As-Good show Batman: Caped Crusader…

Thirty-plus years ago (!) the original TV series offered a superbly innovative retro makeover for many classic supervillains and even added one unexpected candidate to the Rogues Gallery. Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As soon become apparent, however, the manic minx had her own off-kilter ideas on the matter…

Harley was first seen as the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing September 11th,1992) where she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – infiltrated mainstream DC comicbook continuity and into her own title. Along the way a flash of inspired brilliance led to her forming a unique relationship with toxic floral siren and plant-manipulating eco-terrorist Poison Ivy – a working partnership that delivered a bounty of fabulously funny-sexy yarns, and has brought the pair film and TV fame as a romantic power couple…

Collecting the eponymous 3-issue miniseries from 2004 plus cool stuff from Batman Adventures Annual #1 (1994), Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1 (1995), Batman and Robin Adventures #8 (July 1996), Batgirl Adventures #1 (1998) and material from Batman: Gotham Knights #14 (April 2001) and Batman Black and White #3 (2014), this spiffy deluxe hardback/eBook is an amazing cornucopia of comic treasures to delight young and old alike, and a perfect reminder why Batman & Co. remain so popular even after 85 years (and counting…).

It begins with a global-spanning romp written by Dini, illustrated by Timm & Shane Glines from Batman: Harley & Ivy #1-3 as the ‘Bosom Buddies’ have a spat that wrecks half of Gotham before escaping to the Amazon together to take over a small country responsible for much of the region’s deforestation and spreading a heady dose of ‘Jungle Fever!’. Once Batman gets involved the story suddenly shifts to Hollywood and the very last word in creative commentary on Superheroes in the movie business. ‘Hooray for Harleywood!’ delivers showbiz a devastating body blow Tinseltown will never recover from…

As we all know, Harley is (certifiably) insanely besotted with killer clown The Joker and next up Dini, Dan DeCarlo & Timm wordlessly expose her profound weakness for that so very bad boy when she’s released from Arkham Asylum only to be seduced back into committing crazy crimes and stuck back in the pokey again, all in just ‘24 Hours’…

‘The Harley and the Ivy’ comes from Batman Adventures Holiday Special #1 wherein Dini & Ronnie Del Carmen depict the larcenous ladies on an illicit shopping spree thanks to a dose of Ivy’s mind-warping kisses and up-close-and-personal close encounter with Bruce Wayne…

‘Harley and Ivy and… Robin’ (Batman and Robin Adventures #8, by Dini, Ty Templeton & illustrator Rick Burchett) features more of the same, except here the bamboozled sidekick becomes an ideal BoyToy Wonder: planning their crimes, giving soothing foot-rubs and bashing Batman until a little moment of green-eyed jealously spoils the perfect set-up…

Batgirl Adventures #1 was the original seasonal setting of ‘Oy to the World’ (Dini & Burchett) as plucky teen Babs Gordon chases thieving, thrill-seeking Harley through Gotham’s festive streets and alleys only to eventually team up with the jaunty jester to save Ivy from murderous Yakuza super-assassins. Next up, Batman: Gotham Knights #14 gifts us brilliantly dark yet saucily amusing tale ‘The Bet’ (Dini & Del Carmen). Incarcerated once more in Arkham, the Joker’s frustrated paramour and irresistible, intoxicatingly lethal Ivy indulge in a small wager to pass the time: namely, who can kiss the most men whilst in custody. This razor-sharp little tale manages to combine “innocent sexiness” with genuine sentiment, and packs a killer punch-line after the Harlequin of Hate unexpectedly pops in…

The madcap glamour-fest finishes with a late arriving moment of monochrome suspense (from Batman Black and White #3, by Dini & Stéphane Roux) as ‘Role Models’ sees a little girl escape her manic kidnapper and find sanctuary of a sort with the pilfering odd couple…

For years DC sat on a goldmine of quality product before finally unleashing a blizzard of all-ages collections and graphic novels such as this one: child-friendly iterations (and others not-so-much) of key characters stemming from the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm Batman series. These adventures are consistently some of the best comics produced of the last four decades and should be eternally permanently in print, if only as a way of attracting new readers to the medium.

Now a bone fide Christmas tradition – just like arguing about Die Hard or pondering what to do with brussels sprouts (eat them if you like them, pass if you don’t?), Batman: Harley and Ivy is a frantic, laugh-packed hoot that manages to be daring and demure by turns. An absolute delight and an irresistible seasonal treasure to be enjoyed over and over again.
© 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Teen Titans: Year One (New Edition)


By Amy Wolfram, Karl Kerschl & Serge Lapointe, coloured by Stéphane Péru & John Rausch, lettered by Nick J. Napolitano (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6724-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: How Growing-Up-Super Really Feels… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

The concept of kid hero teams was not a new one when DC finally entrusted their big heroes’ assorted sidekicks with their own regular comic:  resulting in a fab, hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil.

The biggest difference between juvenile wartime groups such as The Young Allies, Newsboy Legion and Boy Commandos or 1950s holdovers like The Little Wise Guys or Boy Explorers and the creation of the Teen Titans was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “the Teenager” as a discrete social and commercial force. These were kids who could – and should – be allowed to do things themselves without constant adult “help” or supervision. As early as The Brave and the Bold #54 (June/July 1964), DC’s Powers-That-Be tested the waters in a gripping tale by Bob Haney & Bruno Premiani teaming Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad.

The wild punt was a huge hit and the kids – supplemented by Wonder Girl and Speedy – got their own title, offering teen tinged tales crafted by old(ish) white guys. To be fair, the sagas were certainly unlike anything else DC was concurrently producing and have certainly withstood the test of time as a peek at Teen Titans The Silver Age volumes 1 & 2 will confirm.

However, ways in which society relates to kids – and vice versa – has changed radically since the hazy crazy, shimmery sixties, and this delicious dose of post-modern retro-revelation details how a new century and fresh thinking can reevaluate the trials and costs of growing up super. Originally released in 2008 as 6-part miniseries Teen Titans: Year One, this coming of ages yarn is packed with humour and pathos as well as action, making many memorable points whilst delivering a wonderful superhero romp. It was crafted by animation screen writer/comics writer Amy Wolfram (Sym-Bionic Titan, Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go!, The Secret Saturdays, Supergirl, Legion of Super-Heroes) and Karl Kerschl (Adventures of Superman, Gotham Academy, All-Flash, Majestic) with the assistance of inker Serge Lapointe, colourists Stéphane Péru & John Rausch and letterer Nick J. Napolitano.

Offering a compelling reinterpretation of those classic quirkily eclectic Silver Age sagas, there’s a heavy emphasis on the kind of adults who would expose kids to violent thugs, murderers and psychopaths on a nightly basis… including the pressures involved all around and the coping mechanisms evolved to manage that kind of life…

It begins with the Boy Wonder distracted and painfully not meeting Batman’s expectations, wasting time with some costumed sidekicks he’s recently met. Soon the kids are trading stories and covertly working together against the likes of The Ant and Ding Dong Daddy, becoming overnight sensations as in the background, psionic monster the Antithesis is making its move.

It all gets crazy serious when the super-juniors realize their guardians and mentors are going off the rails and becoming increasingly dangerous to the world and themselves, and it’s now up to them to save the day and the world…

Despite how heavy that all sounds, the epic exploit – originally entitled “In the Beginning…’, ‘Flash in the Pan’, ‘Young Heroes in Love’ and ‘Awakening’ – is actually bright, breezy, inspiring and frequently hilarious, but it does pull no punches.

Fast paced, funny, compelling and captivating, this is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful and you absolutely should get this book, Absolutely.
© 2008, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Identity Crisis 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition


By Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales & Michael Bair & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-2592-5 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Dark Highlights Not to Be Forgotten… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

For most of us older acolytes, comics – drenched as they are in childhoods shared and solitary – are a nostalgic wonderland as much as fantasy playground. We grew up with certain characters and they mean a lot to us. It’s often a wrench to share such golden moments with other – usually new or just younger – disciples, especially if those new guys have different notions on what we communally cherish.

Jam-packed with all the heroes and villains and supporting cast Silver Agers and Boomers grew up with, 2004 miniseries Identity Crisis was, more than any other, the story that changed the tone and timbre of the DC universe forever.

For such an impressive, far-reaching comics event, the core collection is a rather slim and swift read. Whilst the serialised comic book drove the narrative forward in the manner of a whodunit, most of the character by-play and staggeringly tectonic ripples of the bare-bones murder-mystery at the heart of the story could only be properly experienced in interlinked, individual issues of involved (or perhaps “implicated”) titles. As this was all absorbed week-by-week, month-by-month, the cumulative effect was both bewildering and engrossing, and I doubt that such a muti-level entertainment experience could be duplicated or even attempted in traditional publishing… or any other medium.

Comprising and compiling Identity Crisis #1-7, with additional editorial material from Identity Crisis, Absolute Edition, this potent memento mori opens with an ‘Introduction by Dan Didio’ explaining some hows and whys of the tale. Still controversial after all these years, the plot unfolds next, involving DC heroes brutally, painfully and uncompromisingly re-assessing their careers whilst frantically hunting a murderer.

This assailant struck too close to home however, killing Sue Dearborn-Dibny, the beloved and adored-by-all wife of second-string hero/deceptively top drawer detective The Elongated Man. The deed is done in ‘Coffin’, exposing a toxic ‘House of Lies’ and leading to escalating incidents that point to a cape-&-cowl ‘Serial Killer’ on the rampage. However, with heroes at each other’s throats and cuttingly questioning past mistakes – especially a very vocal younger generation of costumed champions only just learning of cover-ups and dubious decisions made by their mentors – eventually, rational heads and deductive procedures force distraught protagonists to ask ‘Who Benefits’.

This leads to revelatory discoveries on ‘Father’s Day’ and appalling disclosures between ‘Husbands and Wives’ before the culprit is unmasked and the superhero community reels and begins a long, painful recovery…

As the investigation proceeds, the heroes – and villains – confront and reassess many of their bedrock principles including tactics, allegiances and even the modern validity of that genre staple, the Secret Identity.

Throughout, characterisation is spot-on and dialogue is memorable with the artwork never short of magnificent. Moreover, this time the aftershocks of revelation did indeed live up to their hype. How sad then than this central book feels like a rushed “Readers Digest” edition, whilst many of the key moments are scattered in a dozen other (unrelated) collections. Maybe it’s time to start more modern omnibus collected editions, and even make them available digitally  too?

As befits a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, there is a vast amount of extra material, and behind the scenes treats including a ‘Cover Gallery’, heavily-illustrated essays ‘The Making of Identity Crisis’, ‘The Making of The Covers’, ‘The Making of the Action Figures’ (!!) and an appreciative memorial piece ‘Remembering Michael Turner’.

Gripping, painful in places but extraordinarily cathartic, Identity Crisis is a book every superhero fan must see and will never forget.
© 2004, 2005, 2011, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Tiny Titans volume 3: Sidekickin’ it


By Art Baltazar & Franco with (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2653-4 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fun Family Fables …9/10

DC’s characters have become a mainstay of kids’ television fare with their much-missed Cartoon Network imprint arguably the last bastion of children’s comics in America, consolidating the link between TV and 2D fun and thrills with stunning interpretations of such TV landmarks as Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and others. That kids’ comics line also reverse-engineered truly exceptional material based on TV iterations of their proprietary characters like Legion of Super Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold, Supergirl and Krypto the Super Dog as well as material like Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! which was merely similar in tone and content.

For many – me included – the imprint’s finest release, and one which has a created a sub-genre recreated at many different publishers, was a series ostensibly aimed at beginning readers, but which became a firm favourite of older fans… and a multi-award winner too.

Superbly mirroring the magical wonderland inside a child’s head where everything is happily mixed up together, Tiny Titans is a sublime antidote to continuity cops and slavish fan-boy quibbling (erm, uh…  I think you’ll find that in…) by reducing the vast cast of the Teen Titans Go! animated series, the greater boutique of the mainstream comic books and (ultimately) the entire DC Universe to little kids and their parents/guardians in the wholesome kindergarten environment of Sidekick City Elementary School. It’s a scenario spring-loaded with in-jokes, sight-gags and beloved yet gently mocked paraphernalia of generations of strip readers and screen-watchers…

Collecting issues #13-18 (April to September 2009) of the magically madcap and infinitely addictive all-ages mini-masterpiece, this third volume begins on a petulant note with Pet Club at Wayne Manor. Art Baltazar and co-creator Franco (Aureliani) have mastered a witty, bemusingly gentle manner of storytelling that just happily rolls along, with the assorted characters getting by and trying to make sense of the great big world, having “Adventures in Awesomeness”. The method generally involves stringing together smaller incidents and moments into an overall themed portmanteau tale and it works astoundingly well.

After a handy and as-standard identifying roll-call page, ‘Tough Cookie’ features Raven feeding park critters but desperately striving to keep her hard-as-nails rep intact, after which bubble-headed Psimon goes to science club and gets caught in some uncool name-calling. The main event kicks off with the kids and their pets convening at Stately Wayne Manor and incurring the wrath of dapper, long-suffering manservant Alfred. The Penguins don’t help… no, wait, they actually do. ‘A Hot Spot’ then finds Raven and Kid Devil trading power sets with Firestarter Hotspot and evoking the joys of being a Bird Scout, after which The Kroc Files shows the Wayne’s wonderful ultimate butler and the roguish reptilian each demonstrating ‘How to Pick up the Dry Cleaning’, before the issue ends with a Tiny Titans Bubble Squares puzzle and a pinup of bird-themed champions Hawk, Dove and Raven.

Sea-themed issue #14 opens with a proudly shouted ‘Aw Yeah Titans!’ and class trip to Paradise Island. The boys just can’t understand why they have to stand on tables while the girls can run about freely wherever they like and play with the all the weird animals…

Back in Sidekick City, Cyborg’s vacuum cleaning invention runs amok while Beast Boy and little Miss Martian stage a shapeshifting duel, even as on Paradise Island ‘Stay for Dinner’ sees Wonder Girl and the other Wonder Girl guests for lunch – as lunch – of Mrs. Cyclops.

Wrapping up affairs is another Kroc Files (‘How to Bake a Chocolate Cake’), a string of gags in Time for Jokes by the Riddler’s kid Enigma plus a ‘Paradise Island Pet Club Pin-up!’

The next issue finds ‘Bunnies, Bunnies, Everywhere Bunnies’ at Wayne Manor, where Alfred opts to stay home and watch the kids and their pets. Sadly, magician Zatara joins the fun and once more loses his magic wand to playful Beppo the Super Monkey. Cue rapid rabbit reproduction…

Elsewhere, Deathstroke’s daughter Rose lands her share of babysitting duties, and soon learns how to handle the Tiny Terror Titans before a ‘Tiny Titans Epilogue’ reveals a marvellous secret regarding one of those proliferating bunnies, as issue concludes with more activity freebies: ‘Pet Club Mammal Travel’ and a bonus pin-up of Rose and those Tiny Terrors…

Issue #16 revisits a perennial puzzle of comics, specifically ‘Who’s the Fastest?!’ as Coach Lobo sets his heart on making the Sidekick Elementary kids ultra-fit. Part of the regimen includes a footrace around the entire world, and Supergirl, Inertia and Kid Flash all think they have it nailed…

Lesser-powered tykes find unique ways to cope with natural obstacles – such as the ocean – in ‘As the Race Continues…’ while the Coach takes a load off with coffee and comics, and the Wonder Girls and Shelly trade costume tips. Down south, late starters Mas y Menos join the final dash to the finish where a non-starter surprisingly triumphs…

In the aftermath, shrinking-hero contingent The tiny Tiny Titans indulge in ‘One more Contest’ before an ‘Aw Yeah Pin-up’ of Supergirl and Kid Flash follows a Tiny Titans Coin Race activity page. ‘Raven’s Book of Magic Spells’ starts as a play date but is bewilderingly disrupted when Trigon’s devilish daughter shows off her latest present in ‘Mixin’ it Up’: accidentally manifesting unlikely mystical heavyweight Mr. Mxyzptlk. And so, hilarity and impish insanity ensue…

Back in what passes for the land of reason, Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg are tasked with recovering Batman’s cape and mask in ‘Battle for the Cow’ (if you read DC regularly, you know how painful a pun that is). Naturally, Starfire and Bumblebee have a sensible, pain-free solution to their woes, after which the Boy Wonder’s birthday party displays a fashion parade of alternative costumes in the present-giving portion of festivities…

Those tiny Titans go clothes hunting in ‘Shop Shrinking’ while Kid Flash, Robin and Cyborg ask ‘Hey, What’s Continuity?’ Wrapping up is another Kroc Files contrasting how Alfred and the lizardly lout cope with ‘Walking in the Rain’, topped off with Special Bonus Pin-up ‘The Return of the Bat-Cow!’

Concluding the juvenile japery is a fall from grace which can only be called ‘Infinite Detention’ as lunch lady Darkseid is demoted to Janitor for the Day and typically overreacts to boisterous behaviour in the hallways. With both good kids and bad suffering after-class incarceration, arguments ensue and the stern Monitor increase the tally for the slightest infraction. Soon kids are facing days of detention. Sadly for the Monitor, his nemesis Anti-Monitor has popped by with coffee and more stupid pranks…

One final Kroc Files reveals ‘How to go Bowling’ and Enigma offers another session of ‘Aw Yeah Joke Time!’ before the tome terminates with a selection of character sketches and studies repackaged as ‘Class Photos’.

Despite being ostensibly aimed at super-juniors and TV kids, these wonderful, wacky yarns – which marvellously marry the heart and spirit of such classic strips as Peanuts and The Perishers with something uniquely mired and marinated in pure comicbookery – are an unforgettable riot of laughs no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly intoxicating. What more do you need to know?
© 2009, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Batman Annuals volume 1 – DC Comics Classic Library


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, France Herron, David Vern Reed, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang, Stan Kaye, Charles Paris & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-215-8 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Nostalgia Box to Celebrate the Season… 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

DC’s Classics Comics Library of hardbacks was a remarkably accessible, curated collectible range of tomes, much missed by all today. One of the best of them was this wonderful aggregation of three of the most influential and beloved comic books of the Silver Age.

Originally released in June 1961, Batman Annual #1 hit newsstands a year after the startlingly successful Superman Annual #1. The big, bold anthology format was hugely popular with readers. The Man of Steel’s second Annual was rushed out before Christmas 1960 and the third came out a mere year after the first! That same month (June 1961) the first ever Secret Origins collection and this Bat-Blockbuster all arrived in shops and on newsstands. For us budding fanboys, it was like what I imagine one’s first hit of recreational narcotics must feel like…

It’s probably hard to appreciate now but these huge books – 80 pages instead of 32 – were a magical resource with a colossal impact for kids who loved comics. I don’t mean the ubiquitous scruffs, oiks and scallywags of school days who read them and chucked them away (most kids were comics consumers in the days before computer games) but rather those quiet, secretive few of us who treasured and kept them, constantly re-reading, discussing, pondering. Only posh kids with wicked parents read no comics at all: those prissy, starchy types who were beaten up by the scruffs, oiks and scallywags even more than us bookworms. But I digress…

For budding collectors these Annuals were a gateway to a fabulous lost past. Just Imagine!: adventures your heroes had from before you were even born…

Those colossal compilations of the 1960s changed comics publishing. Soon Marvel, Charlton and Archie Comics were also releasing giant books of old stories, then new ones, crossovers, continued stories, et al. Annuals proved two things to publishers: that there was a dedicated, long-term appetite for more material – and that punters were willing to pay a little bit more for it. This vast compendium reassembles the first three Batman Annuals in their mythic entirety: 21 terrific complete stories, posters, features, pin-ups, calendars and those iconic compartmentalized covers. There are also creator biographies and articles from Michael Uslan and Richard Bruning to put the entire experience into perspective, and original publication information and credits (the only bad thing about those big books of magic was never knowing “Who” and “Where”…)

The editors wisely packaged Annuals as themed collections, the first being ‘1001 Secrets of Batman and Robin’ starting the ball rolling with ‘How to be the Batman’ by Bill Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Stan Kaye, wherein an amnesiac Caped Crusader must be re-trained by Robin. As always there’s a twist in this tale, before ‘The Strange Costumes of Batman’ (Edmond Hamilton, Dick Sprang & Charles Paris) highlights specialised uniforms the heroes use over their outrageous careers.

The self-explanatory ‘Untold Tales of the Bat-Signal’ (writer unknown, Schwartz and Paris) again uses past exploits to solve a contemporary case, whilst ‘The Origin of the Bat-Cave’ (Finger, Sheldon Moldoff & Paris) is only revealed by a quick time-trip back to revolutionary war days. ‘Batman’s Electronic Crime-File’ (anonymous, Sprang & Paris) is a cracking thriller confirming the Dynamic Duo’s love of cutting-edge technology. ‘The Thrilling Escapes of Batman and Robin’ (Finger, Moldoff, Kaye) concentrates on their facility at escaping traps, and excitement peaked in a dazzling display of ‘The Amazing Inventions of Batman’ (Hamilton, Sprang, Paris).

‘Batman and Robin’s Most Thrilling Action Roles’ opens with tension-packed mystery ‘The Underseas Batman’ (Hamilton, Sprang, Paris), then explores Wayne’s Scottish connections in ‘The Lord of Batmanor’ (Hamilton, assisted by his wife Leigh Brackett, Sprang & Paris) before once more tapping into the Westerns zeitgeist with ‘Batman – Indian Chief’ (France Herron, Moldoff & Kaye). ‘The Jungle Batman’ (David Vern Reed, Schwartz & Paris) is pure escapist joy and we get a then-rare glimpse of Bruce Wayne’s training in ‘When Batman Was Robin’ (Hamilton, Sprang, Paris) before returning to foiling deathtraps with ‘Batman the Magician’ (Finger, Moldoff, Paris), and this section concludes with a pivotal tale ‘Batman – The Superman of Planet X’ (Herron, Sprang & Paris): one forming a key thematic plank of Grant Morrison’s epic Batman R.I.P. storyline and later exploits.

The third Annual (which came far more frequently than once a year) featured ‘Batman and Robin’s Most Fantastic Foes’ beginning with ‘The Mad Hatter of Gotham City’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris), special-effects bandit ‘The Human Firefly’ (Herron, Sprang, Paris) and hyper cerebral mutant ‘The Mental Giant of Gotham City’ (Hamilton, Sprang, Paris) before the Clown Prince of Crime steals the show with a squad of skullduggery specialists in ‘The Joker’s Aces’ (Reed, Schwartz, Kaye).

Eerie and hard-hitting ‘The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City’ (Reed, Schwartz, Kaye) was one of DC’s earliest Ape epics, and although gripping, ‘The New Crimes of Two-Face’ (Finger, Schwartz & Paris) starred only a stand-in for the double-dealing psychopath. ‘The Mysterious Mirror Man’ (Finger, Moldoff and Paris), however, was the genuine article and well worth a modern do-over…

For me Christmas is inextricably linked to Batman. From my earliest formative years every Yule was capped by that year’s British hardcover annual, often reprinting US comics (if somewhat imaginatively coloured) but occasionally all-new prose stories liberally illustrated and based slavishly on the Adam West/Burt Ward TV series. As I grew older and became a more serious reader and collector (the technical term is, I believe, addict) I became an avowed appreciator of regular seasonal tales appearing in Batman or Detective Comics or the “Golden Age Classics” that too infrequently graced them. Over decades some Batman’s very best adventures have occurred in the “Season of Good will” and why DC has never produced a Batman Christmas Album is a mystery even the World’s Greatest Detective could not solve…

This book might not actually contain any X-Mas exploits but it is the kind of present I would have killed (or died) for all those hundreds of years ago, so how can you possibly deny your kids the delights of this incredibly enjoyable book? And just like Train Sets, Scalextric and Quad Bikes, when I say kids of course I mean “Dads”…
© 1961, 1962, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: The Golden Age volume 2


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6808-4 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Batman: The Golden Age volume 2 is another paperback-format feast (there’s also a weightier, pricier and more capacious hardback Omnibus available) re-presenting our anniversarial Dark Knight’s earliest exploits. Set out in original publishing release order, it forgoes glossy, high-definition paper and reproduction techniques in favour of a newsprint-adjacent feel and the same flat, bright-yet-muted colour palette which graced the originals. Those necessary details dealt with, what you really need to know is that this is a collection of Batman tales depicting how the character grew into the major player who would inspire so many: developing a resilience to survive the stifling cultural vicissitudes coming decades would inflict upon him and his partner, Robin.

With the majority of material crafted by Bill Finger and illustrated by Bob Kane, there’s no fuss, fiddle or Foreword, and the book steams straight into mesmerising mysterious action, re-presenting astounding cape-&-cowl classics and iconic covers from Detective Comics #46-56, Batman #4-7 and the Dynamic Duo’s stories from World’s Best Comics #1 and World’s Finest Comics #2-3: cumulatively covering all groundbreaking escapades from December 1940 to November 1941…

Plunging right into perilous procedures, Detective #46 (Kane with regular embellishers Jerry Robinson & George Roussos) features the return of Batman’s most formidable fringe scientific adversary as the heroes must counteract the awesome effects of ‘Professor Strange’s Fear Dust’, after which #47 delivers drama on a more human scale in ‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness’. This action-packed homily of parental expectation and the folly of greed leads into Batman #4 (Winter 1941) which opens with a spiffy catch-all visual resume prior to ‘The Joker’s Crime Circus’, plus the piratical plunderings of ‘Blackbeard’s Crew and the Yacht Society!’. ‘Public Enemy No.1’ tells a gangster fable in the manner of Jimmy Cagney’s movie Angels With Dirty Faces, and ‘Victory For the Dynamic Duo’ involves the pair in the treacherous world of sports gambling.

Detective Comics #48 finds the lads defending America’s bullion reserves in ‘The Secret Cavern’, and they face an old foe when ‘Clayface Walks Again’ (Detective Comics #49, March 1941), as the deranged horror actor resumes his passion for murder and re-attempts to kill Bruce Wayne’s old girlfriend Julie. DC #50 pits Batman & Robin against acrobatic burglars in ‘The Case of the Three Devils’, leading neatly into Batman #5 (Spring 1941). Once again, Joker plays lead villain in ‘The Riddle of the Missing Card’, before the heroes prove their versatility by solving a quixotic crime in Fairy Land via ‘The Book of Enchantment’.

‘The Case of the Honest Crook’ follows: one of the key stories of Batman’s early canon. When a mugger steals only $6 from a victim, leaving much more behind, his trail leads to a vicious gang who almost beat Robin to death. The vengeance-crazed Dark Knight goes on a rampage of terrible violence that still resonates in the character to this day. The last story from Batman #5 –‘Crime does Not Pay’ – once again deals with kids going bad and their potential for redemption, after which World’s Best Comics#1 (Spring 1941 – destined to become World’s Finest Comics with its second issue) offers an eerie murder mystery concerning ‘The Witch and the Manuscript of Doom’. With most stories still coming from unsung genius Finger and art chores shared out between Kane, Robinson & Roussos, the team got a new top contributor as Fred Ray signed on to produce fantastic World’s Finest covers that offered the only venue to see the Gotham Gangbusters operating beside the Metropolis Marvel.

Sordid human scaled wickedness informs ‘The Case of the Mystery Carnival’, ‘The Secret of the Jade Box’ and ‘Viola Vane’ (Detective #51, 52 and 53 respectively): all mood-soaked crimebusting set-pieces featuring fairly run-of-the mill thugs, serving as perfect palate-cleansers for ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Remember!’ from WF #2: a powerful character play and a chilling conundrum that still packs a punch today.

‘Hook Morgan and his Harbor Pirates’ finds the Dynamic Duo cleaning up the docks whilst the quartet from Batman #6 (‘Murder on Parole’, ‘The Clock Maker’, ‘The Secret of the Iron Jungle’ and ‘Suicide Beat’) offer a broad range of yarns encompassing a prison-set human interest fable to the hunt for a crazed maniac to racket busting and back to the human side of being a cop. Detective #54 heads back to basics with spectacular mad scientist thriller ‘The Brain Burglar’, after which a visit to a ghost town results in eerie romp ‘The Stone Idol’ (Detective #55) before World’s Finest #3 launches a classic villain with the first appearance of one of Batman’s greatest foes in ‘The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow’.

The volume ends with a grand quartet of tales from Batman #7. ‘Wanted: Practical Jokers’ again stars the psychotic Clown Prince of Crime, whilst ‘The Trouble Trap’ sees our heroes crushing a spiritualist racket before heading for Lumberjack country to clear up ‘The North Woods Mystery’.

The last story is something of a landmark case, as well as being a powerful and emotional melodrama. ‘The People Vs. The Batman’ finds Bruce Wayne framed for murder and the Dynamic Duo finally sworn in as official police operatives. They would not be vigilantes again until the grim ‘n’ gritty 1980s…

Kane, Robinson and their compatriots created an iconography which carried Batman well beyond his allotted life-span until later creators could re-invigorate it. They added a new dimension to children’s reading… and their work is still captivatingly accessible.

Moreover, these early stories set the standard for comic superheroes. Whatever you like now, you owe it to these stories. Superman gave us the idea, but inspired and inspirational writers like Bill Finger refined and defined the meta-structure of the costumed crime-fighter.

Where the Man of Steel was as much Social Force and juvenile wish-fulfilment as hero, Batman and Robin did what we ordinary mortals wanted to do most: teach bad people the lessons they richly deserved…

These are tales of elemental power and joyful exuberance, brimming with deep mood and addictive action. Comic book heroics simply don’t come any better.
© 1940, 1941, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition


By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77951-269-7 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utterly Uncanny and Irresistible Comics Chillers… 9/10

This book includes some Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

The creative team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale tackled many iconic characters in many landmark tales, but one of their earliest is still, to my mind, their best.

Set during the Batman: Year One scenario created by Frank Miller, and originally released in 1996 as a 13-part miniseries (running from Halloween to Halloween) it shed newer, darker light on the early alliance of Police Captain Jim Gordon, Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent and a mysterious masked vigilante who seek to unseat, if not destroy, the unassailable mob boss who runs Gotham City: Carmine “The Roman” Falcone…

Trenchant with narrative foreboding – long-time fans already know the tragedies in store for all participants, although total neophytes won’t be left wondering long – this gripping Noir thriller effortlessly carries the reader along on a trail of tension. Here and back then, Gotham is a dirty paradise for criminals and the corrupt, a modern Sodom and Gomorrah unofficially ruled by a ruthless, savage patrician of evil.

However, good people live here too. At this moment, when the Big Boss is seeking to allay growing fears in his deputies over legal strikes by a certain cop and pushy ADA, a rise in freaks, killers and weirdo thieves, and tales of attacks by a nut dressed as bat, more trouble strikes…

As seen in opening episode ‘Crime’ a costumed burglar is targeting Falcone’s holdings. The Roman’s evening and life in general suddenly get worse as, beginning at one of his lavish soirées, a mysterious killer stalks him, callously slaughtering close family and criminal employees, once a month, on every public holiday. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day and so on, each hit crushing more of The Roman’s perfect world, just as the three compulsive crimebusters had secretly sworn to.

Is the Holiday Killer a rival mobster, a victim of criminality, one of a newly ubiquitous plague of super-freaks, or has perhaps one of our heroes stepped over a line in their zeal for Justice? To make matters worse, Batman is real and “his” army of costumed nuts continually insert themselves into every attempt to get back to business… And what part does the sultry Catwoman play in all this?

The personalised pogrom continues in ‘Thanksgiving’ (with Solomon Grundy adding an appetite for destruction), and expands across ‘Christmas’ and ‘New Year’s Eve’ (The Joker, Calendar Man), ‘Valentine’s Day’ and ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ (Catwoman, Poison Ivy) and ‘April Fool’s Day’ (with The Riddler being asked questions for a change).

With bodies dropping and Gordon, Dent and Batman increasingly at odds over ending the killings and stopping The Roman, the assassination campaign intensifies on ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Independence Day’ (all sinisterly celebrated by Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter), before personal tragedy strikes home on a ‘Roman Holiday’ when Dent is literally defaced and confirms his descent into madness as Two-Face.

Most shockingly, with his organisation in tatters and his surviving familia at each other’s throats, ‘Labor Day’ sees Falcone – and Batman – no closer to exposing the Holiday Killer. All that changes in concluding chapter #13 as ‘Punishment’ ushers in Gotham City’s era of the freaks…

Effortlessly blending the realms of the mobster with Batman’s more usual super-foes (most of whom make a memorable appearance) and graced with startlingly powerful images of Mood, Mystery and Mayhem from the magic pencil and brush of Tim Sale, this serial killer whodunit is an utter joy to read that should keep you guessing until the very end.

As a Deluxe Edition, there are plenty of extras added here, culled from many, many previous collections, but especially Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween. These include sketches, promo pieces, cover designs for previous collections, the captivating ‘Long Halloween Interview’ conducted by letterer Richard Starkings, Loebs & Sale’s picture-packed ‘Original proposal’, and an exhaustive feature on the creation of all ‘The covers’ of the iconic limited series. Also included are comprehensive ‘Character studies’, the creative process behind the cover to Overstreet’s Fan #18, plus covers, sketches, unused alternate images and even the Action figures designed for the event.

This is one of the very best Batman adventures of modern times and a tale any comics reader and crime buff must see.
© 1996, 1997, 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The Silver Age Dailies volume 3 – 1963-1966


By Jerry Siegel & Wayne Boring (IDW Publishing/Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-6134-0179-4 (HB)

his book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

The American comic book industry – if it existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment which epitomised the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse.

We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew their four-colour origins and are now fully mythologized modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

Far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. His globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined a series of astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and helmed two films and his first smash, 8-season live-action television show. He was a perennial sure-fire success for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and in his future were even more shows (Superboy, Lois & Clark, Smallville, Superman & Lois), a stage musical, franchise of blockbuster movies and almost seamless succession of games, bubble gum cards and TV cartoons. These started with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and have continued ever since. Even superdog Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the planet – it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic-books. It also paid better.

And rightly so: some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped their humble tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16th January 1939, supplemented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task required the additional talents of Jack Burnley and writers like Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers; a combined readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer and Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye whilst Bill Finger and Siegel provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

Then in 1956 Julie Schwartz kicked off the Silver Age with a new Flash in Showcase #4 and before long costumed crusaders began returning en masse to thrill a new generation. As the trend grew, many publishers began to cautiously dabble with the mystery man tradition and Superman’s newspaper strip began to slowly adapt: drawing closer to the revolution on the comicbook pages. As Jet-Age gave way to Space-Age, the Last Son of Krypton was a comfortably familiar icon of domestic America: particularly in the constantly evolving, ever-more dramatic and imaginative comic book stories which had received such a terrific creative boost when superheroes began to proliferate once more. The franchise had been cautiously expanding since 1954 and by 1961 Superman was seen not only in Golden Age survivors Action Comics, Superman, Adventure Comics, World’s Finest Comics and Superboy, but also in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane and Justice League of America. Such increased attention naturally filtered through to the more widely-read newspaper strip and resulted in a rather strange and commercially sound evolution…

This third and final  hardback collection (encompassing November 25th 1963 to its end on April 9th 1966) opens with a detailed Introduction from Sidney Friedfertig, disclosing the provenance of the strips; how and why Siegel was tasked with repurposing recently used and soon to be published scripts from comic books; making them into daily 3-and-4 panel black-&-white continuities for an apparently more sophisticated, discerning newspaper audience.

It also offers a much-needed appreciation of the author’s unique gifts and contributions…

If you’re a veteran comic book fan, don’t be fooled: the tales “retold” here might seem familiar but they are not rehashes: they’re variations and deviations on an idea for audiences seen as completely separate from the kids who bought comic books. Even if you are familiar with the traditional source material, the serialised yarns here will read as brand new, especially as they are gloriously illustrated by Wayne Boring at the peak of his illustrative powers.

After a few years away from the feature, Boring had returned to replace his replacement Curt Swan at the end of 1961, regaining the position of premiere Superman illustrator to see the series to its demise. Moreover, as the strip drew to a close many strip adaptations began appearing prior to the “debut” appearances in the comics. As an added bonus, the covers of the issues these adapted stories came from have been included as a full, nostalgia-inducing colour gallery…

Siegel & Boring’s astounding everyday entertainments recommence with Episode #145, ‘The Great Baroni’ (November 25th to September 14th 1963), revealing how the Caped Kryptonian helps an aging stage conjuror regain his confidence and prowess. It’s based on a tale by Siegel & Al Plastino from Superboy #107 (which had a September 1963 cover-date).

‘The Man Who Stole Superman’s Secret Life’ (December 16th 1963 to 1st February 1964 as first seen in Superman #169, May 1964, by Siegel & Plastino) was a popularly demanded sequel to the story where the Man of Tomorrow lost his memory and powers, but fell in love.

When his Kryptonian abilities returned he returned to his regular life, unaware that he had left heartbroken Sally Selwyn behind. She thought her adored Jim White had died…

Now as Clark investigates a crook who is a perfect double for Superman, he stumbles into Sally and a potentially devastating problem…

Episode #147 – February 3rd to March 9th – saw the impossible come true as ‘Lex Luthor, Daily Planet Editor’ (by Leo Dorfman, Swan & George Klein from Superman #168 April 1964) reveals how the criminal genius flees to 1906 and lands the job of running a prestigious San Francisco newspaper – until a certain Man of Tomorrow tracks him down…

March 9th saw Clark, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane begin ‘The Death March’ (originally an Edmond Hamilton & Plastino tale from Jimmy Olsen #76, April 1964): an historical recreation turned agonisingly real after boss Perry White seemingly has a breakdown. Of course, all is not as it seems…

‘The Superman of 800 Years Ago’ has a lengthy pedigree. It ran in newspapers from April 6th to May 18th but was adapted from an unattributed, George Papp illustrated story, ‘The Superboy of 800 Years Ago’. That debuted in Superboy #113 (June 1964), and was in turn based upon an earlier story limned by Swan & Creig Flessel from Superboy #17 at the end of 1951. Here a robotic Superman double is unearthed at a castle in Ruritanian kingdom Vulcania, so our inquisitive hero time-travels back to the source to find oppressed people and a very familiar inventor. Suitably scotching the plans of a usurping scoundrel, he leaves a clockwork champion to defend democracy in the postage stamp feudal fiefdom…

‘Superman’s Sacrifice’ was the 150th daily strip sequence, running from May 18th to June 20th (adapted from a Dorfman & Plastino thriller first seen in Superman #171, August 1964). Here the Man of Steel is blackmailed by advanced alien gambling addicts Rokk and Sorban, who want to wager on whether Superman will kill an innocent. If he doesn’t, they will obliterate Earth. The callous extraterrestrials seem to have all the bases covered and, even when the Metropolis Marvel thinks he’s outsmarted them, the wicked wagerers have an ace in the hole…

It’s followed by another tale from the same issue wherein Hamilton & Plastino first described ‘The Nightmare Ordeal of Superman’ (June 22nd – July 25th) wherein the Action Ace voyages to another solar system just as its power-bestowing yellow sun novas into red. Deprived of his mighty powers, our hero must survive a primitive world, light-years from home; battling cavemen and monsters until rescue comes in a most unlikely fashion…

The author of ‘Lois Lane’s Love Trap’ was unattributed, but the tale was drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger when seen in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane # 52 (October 1964). As reinterpreted here by Siegel& Boring (July 27th to August 22nd) however, it tells how Lois and Clark travel to the rural backwoods to play doctor and cupid for diffident lovers, after which August 24th to October 10th depicts ‘Clark Kent’s Incredible Delusions’ (seen in comic books in Superman #174, January 1965 by Hamilton, Swan, Plastino & Klein).

Incredible incidents begin after a visitor to the Daily Planet casually reveals he is secretly Superman. Not only does he have the powers and costume, but Clark cannot summon his own abilities to challenge the newcomer. Can Kent have been hallucinating for years? The real answer is far more complex and confusing…

A tip of the hat to a popular TV show follows as a deranged actor trapped in a gangster role kidnaps Lois and her journalistic rival, determined to prove her companion is a mobster and ‘The “Untouchable” Clark Kent’ (October 12th – November 7th): a smart caper transformed by Siegel from a yarn by Dorfman, Swan & Klein in Superman #173 November 1964.

‘The Coward of Steel’ (Siegel & Plastino, Action Comics #322, March 1965) ran November 9th to December 19th, revealing how Superman’s pipsqueak act becomes all-consuming actuality after aliens ambush the hero with a fear ray.

The year changed as Lois went undercover to catch a killer in ‘The Fingergirl of Death’ (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane # 55 by Otto Binder & Schaffenberger; February 1965), reinterpreted here by Siegel & Boring from December 21st 1964 to January 23rd.

‘Clark Kent in the Big House’ – January 25th to March 6th – by Binder & Plastino was seen in Action #323 April 1965 and saw Clark in a similar situation: covertly infiltrating a prison to get the goods on an inmate. Sadly, once he’s there the warden has an accident and nobody seems to recognise Kent as anything other than a crook getting his just deserts…

There was more of the same in ‘The Goofy Superman’ (March 8th to April 12th, taken from Robert Bernstein & Plastino’s tale from August 1963’s Superman #163). This time though, Red Kryptonite briefly makes Clark certifiably insane. After he is committed and gets better, he sticks around to clear up a few malpractices and injustices at the asylum before heading home. A different K meteor causes extremely selective amnesia ‘When Superman Lost His Memory’ (from April 14th to May 22nd and originally by Dorfman, Swan & Klein from Superman #178 July 1965). This time the mystified Man of Steel must track down his own forgotten alter ego…

‘Superman’s Hands of Doom’ was the 160th strip saga, running May 24th through June 26th, as adapted from a Dorfman & Plastino thriller in Action #328 (September 1965). It detailed the cruelly convoluted plans of big-shot crook Mr. Gimmick who tries to turn Superman into an atomic booby trap primed to obliterate Metropolis, after which a scheming new reporter uses dirty tricks to make her mark at the Planet, landing ‘The Super Scoops of Morna Vine’ (June 28th– August 21st) through duplicity, spying, cheating and worse in a sobering tear-jerker first conceived and executed by Dorfman, Swan & Klein in Superman #181, November 1965.

The comic book version of ‘The New Lives of Superman’ – by Siegel, Swan & Klein – didn’t appear until Superman #182 in January 1966, but the Boring version (such an unfair name for a brilliant artist!) ran in papers from August 23rd – October 16th 1965: detailing how Clark has an accident which would leave any other man permanently blind. Not being ordinary, Superman had to find another secret identity and hilariously tries out being a butler and disc jockey before finding a way for Clark to return to reporting…

Something like the truly bizarre ‘Lois Lane’s Anti-Superman Campaign’ was seen in SGLL #55 (Dorfman & Schaffenberger, January 1966). As reinterpreted by Siegel & Boring for an adult readership from October 18th to December 18th, the stunts produced for the Senatorial race between her and Superman are wild and whacky (and could never happen in real American politics, No Sirree Bob Roberts!), even if 5th Dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk is behind it all. (and wouldn’t that be a comforting reason for the last year of campaigning…)

Running December 20th 1965 through January 8th 1966, as adapted from a Dorfman & Pete Costanza thriller in Superman #185 (which eventually saw full-colour print in April 1966), ‘Superman’s Achilles Heel’ offers a slick conundrum as the Man of Might must wear a steel box on his hand after losing his invulnerability in one small area of his Kryptonian anatomy. The entire underworld tries to get past that shield, but nobody really thinks the problem through…

The end of the hallowed strip series was fast approaching, but it was business as usual for Siegel & Boring who exposed over January 10th through February 26th ‘The Two Ghosts of Superman’ (Binder & Plastino from Superman #186, May 1966) as our hero goes after crafty criminal charlatan Mr. Seer. Fanatical fans might be keen to see the cameo here from up-&-coming TV superstar Batman before the curtain comes down…

The era ended with another mystery. ‘From Riches to Rags’ (Dorfman & Plastino from Action Comics #337, May 1966) has Superman compulsively acting out a number of embarrassing roles – from rich man to poor man to beggar-man and so forth. Spanning February 28th to April 9th, it sees a hero at a complete loss until his super-memory kicked in and recalled a moment long ago when a toddler looked up into the night sky…

Superman: The Silver Age Dailies 1963-1966 is the last of three huge (305 x 236 mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the Man of Steel and a welcome addition to the superb commemorative series of Library of American Comics which has preserved and re-presented in luxurious splendour such landmark strips as Li’l Abner, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, Polly and her Pals and many of the abovementioned cartoon icons. If you love the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times these yarns are great comics reading, and this is a book you simply must have…
Superman ™ & © 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Haunted Knight


By Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1 401-28486-2 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-7795-1638-1 (Deluxe HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Seasonal Wonderment… 9/10

The creative team of Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale tackled many iconic characters in a number of landmark tales, but their reworkings of early Batman mythology – such as The Long Halloween – must certainly rank amongst their most memorable. Set during the iconic Batman: Year One scenario created by Frank Miller, and originally released as a 13-part miniseries (running from Halloween to Halloween), that epic shed new light and plenty more shadows on the early alliance of Police Captain Jim Gordon, District Attorney Harvey Dent and the mysterious vigilante Batman, to destroy the unassailable mob boss who ran Gotham City; Carmine Falcone: “The Roman…”

However, prior to that epic undertaking, the creators coproduced another All Hallows adventure; one that grew like Topsy to eventually become a triptych of Prestige One-Shot Specials under the aegis of Archie Goodwin’s most significant editorial project…

After the continuity-wide reset of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and with DC still in the throes of re-jigging its entire narrative history, a new Batman title launched, presenting multi-part epics refining and infilling the history of the post-Crisis hero and his entourage. The added fillip was a fluid cast of prominent and impressively up-and-coming creators…

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight was a fascinating experiment, even if ultimately the overall quality became a little haphazard and hit-or-miss. Most early story-arcs were quickly collected as trade paperback editions – helping to jumpstart the graphic novel sector of the comics industry – and the moody re-imaginings of the Gotham Guardian’s salad days gave fans a wholly modern insight into the ancient yet highly malleable concept.

As explained in ‘Trick or Treat’ – Editors Goodwin’s reproduced introduction from the 1996 compilation – the first Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special began life as a story-arc for the monthly series, before being cannily promoted to a single, stand-alone publication released for October 1993. Its success spawned the two sequels also included in this volume and the aforementioned Long Halloween epic. If you spring for the spiffy Deluxe Edition from 2022, there are even more secrets revealed…

Otherwise, collected in one spooky, stripped-down paperback and/or eBook compilation, those three scary stories comprise a raw and visceral examination of an obsessive hero still learning his trade and capable of deadly misjudgements as seen in initial yarn ‘Fears’.

Here, after spectacularly capturing terror-obsessed psychopath Jonathan Crane, the neophyte Caped Crimebuster leaves him to mere policemen ill-equipped to cope with the particular brand of malicious insanity cultivated by The Scarecrow…

It’s fair to say that the man behind the bat mask is distracted; still attempting to reconcile his nocturnal and diurnal activities. Young Bruce Wayne is currently floundering before the seductive and sophisticated blandishments of predatory social butterfly and matrimonial black widow Jillian Maxwell. Faithful major-domo Alfred Pennyworth, however, is not so easily swayed. Left too much to his own devices, The Scarecrow has run wild through Gotham, but when he abducts Gordon, he at last makes a mistake the Dark Knight can capitalise upon…

One year later, another Halloween brings ‘Madness’ as rebellious teen Barbara Gordon choses exactly the wrong moment to run away from home: a night when her dad’s mysterious caped pal is frantically hunting Jervis Tetch – a certified nutcase abducting runaways to attend decidedly deadly Tea Parties orchestrated by a truly Mad Hatter…

Steeped in personal nostalgia as a maniac rampages through his city, inadvertently trampling upon some of Bruce Wayne’s only happy memories (of his mother’s favourite book), the heroic pursuer almost dies at the hands of the Looking Glass Loon, only to be saved by unlikely angel Leslie Thompkins – another woman who will loom large in Batman’s future…

The final fable here pastiches that Christmas classic by Charles Dickens as ‘Ghosts’ sees a delirious Bruce uncharacteristically taking to his bed early on the night before Halloween.

After socialising with young financier Lucius Fox, eating bad shrimp and crushing baroque bird bandit The Penguin, our sick and weary playboy lapses into troubled sleep, only to be visited by three spectres…

Looking like Poison Ivy, The Joker and the corpse of Batman himself, whilst representing Past, Present and inescapable Future, these phantoms prove that only doom awaits unless the overachieving hero strikes a balance – or perhaps truce – between his two divergent identities.

Trenchant with narrative foreboding (long-time fans already know the tragedies in store for all the participants, although total neophytes won’t be left wondering) these eerily enthralling Noir thrillers by Loeb perfectly capture the spirit of the modern Batman, supremely graced with startlingly powerful images of Mood, Mystery and rampant Mayhem from the magic pencil and brush of much-missed Tim Sale, vividly augmented by the colours of Gregory Wright and lettering of Todd Klein.

Adding lustre to these moody proceedings are a gallery of prior covers culled from earlier collections as well as a Sale Batman sketch, making this one of the very best Batman books you could read.

So, do…
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 2014, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Kingdom Come – New Edition



By Mark Waid & Alex Ross, with Todd Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9096-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

With documentary The Legend of Kingdom Come out and another commemorative edition scheduled for early next year, it’s time to revisit this modern classic once more and prep for all the furore to come. It’s also a damn fine read to amble into the festive season with…

In the mid-1960s a teenaged Jim Shooter wrote a couple of stories about the Legion of Super-Heroes set some years into the team’s own future. Those stories of adult Legionnaires revealed hints of things to come that shackled the series’ plotting and continuity for decades as eager, obsessed fans (by which I mean all of us) waited for the predicted characters to be introduced, presaged relationships to be consummated and heroes to die. By being so utterly impressive and similarly affecting, Kingdom Come accidentally repeated the trick decades later, subsequently painting the entire post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe into the same creative corner until one of the company’s periodic continuity reboots unleashed possibility and uncertainty again…

Envisaged and designed by artist Alex Ross as DC’s answer to groundbreaking epic Marvels, Kingdom Come was originally released as a 4-issue Prestige Format miniseries in 1996 to rapturous acclaim and numerous awards and accolades. Although set in the future and an “imaginary story” released under DC’s Elseworlds imprint, it almost immediately began to affect the company’s mainstream continuity.

Set approximately 20 years into the future, the grandiose saga details a tragic failure and subsequent loss of Faith for Superman and how his attempt to redeem himself almost leads to an even greater and ultimate apocalypse. The events are seen through the eyes and actions of Dantean witness Norman McCay, an aging cleric co-opted by Divine Agent of Wrath the Spectre after the pastor officiates at the last rites of dying superhero Wesley Dodds. As the Sandman, Dodds was cursed for decades with precognitive dreams which compelled him to act as an agent of justice.

Opening chapter ‘Strange Visitor’ reveals a world where metahumans have proliferated to ubiquitous proportions: a sub-culture of constant, violent clashes between the latest generation of costumed villains and vigilantes, all unheeding and uncaring of the collateral damage they daily inflict on the mere mortals around and in all ways beneath them. The shaken preacher sees a final crisis coming, but feels helpless until the darkly angelic Spectre comes to him. Taken on a bewildering voyage of unfolding events, McCay is to act as the ghost’s human perspective whilst the Spirit of Vengeance prepares to pass final judgement on Humanity.

First stop is the secluded hideaway where farmer Kal-El has hidden himself since the ghastly events which compelled him to retire from the Good Fight and the eyes of the World. The Man of Tomorrow was already feeling like a dinosaur when newer, harsher, morally ambiguous mystery-men began to appear. After the Joker murdered the entire Daily Planet staff and hard-line new hero Magog consequently executed him in the street, the public applauded the deed. Heartbroken and appalled, Superman disappeared for a decade. His legendary colleagues also felt the march of unwelcome progress and similarly faded from sight.

With Earth left to the mercies of dangerously irresponsible new vigilantes, civil unrest escalated. The younger heroes displayed poor judgement and no restraint, with the result that within a decade the entire planet had become a chaotic arena for metahuman duels.

Civilisation was fragmenting. The Flash and Batman retreated to their home cities and made them secure, crime-free solitary fortresses. Green Lantern built an emerald castle in the sky, turning his eyes away from Earth and towards the deep black fastnesses of space. Hawkman retreated to the wilderness, Aquaman to his sub-sea kingdom whilst Wonder Woman retired to her hidden paradise. She did not leave until Armageddon came one step closer…

When Magog and his Justice Battalion battled the Parasite in St. Louis, the result was a nuclear accident which destroyed all of Kansas and much of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Overnight the world faced starvation as America’s breadbasket turned into a toxic wasteland. Now with McCay and the Spectre invisibly observing, Princess Diana convinces the bereft Kal-El to return and save the world on his own terms…

In ‘Truth and Justice’ a resurgent Justice League led by Superman begins a campaign of unilateral action to clean up the mess civilisation has become: renditioning “heroes” and “villains” alike, imprisoning every dangerous element of super-humanity and telling governments how to behave, blithely unaware that they are hastening a global catastrophe of Biblical proportions as the Spectre invisibly gathers the facts for his apocalyptic judgement.

In the ensuing chaos, crippled warrior Bruce Wayne rejects Superman’s paternalistic, doctrinaire crusade and allies himself with mortal humanity’s libertarian elite – Ted (Blue Beetle) Kord, Dinah (Black Canary) Lance and Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen – to resist what can only be considered a grab for world domination by its metahuman minority. As helpless McCay watches in horror, Wayne’s group makes its own plans; one more dangerous thread in a tapestry of calamity…

At first Superman’s plans seem blessed to succeed, with many erstwhile threats flocking to his banner and his doctrinaire rules of discipline, but as ever there are self-serving villains with their own agendas. Lex Luthor organises a cabal of like-minded compatriots – Vandal Savage, Catwoman, Riddler, Kobra and Ibn Al Xu’ffasch (“Son of the Demon” Ra’s Al Ghul) – into a “Mankind Liberation Front”. With Shazam-empowered Captain Marvel as their slave, this group are determined the super-freaks shall not win. Their cause is greatly advanced once Wayne’s clique joins them…

‘Up in the Sky’ sees events spiral into catastrophe as McCay, still wracked by his visions of Armageddon, is shown the Gulag where recalcitrant metahumans are dumped. He also witnesses how it will fail, learns from restless spirit Deadman that The Spectre is the literal Angel of Death and watches with growing horror as Luthor’s plan to usurp control from the army of Superman leads to shocking confrontation, betrayal and a deadly countdown to the End of Days…

The deadly drama culminates in a staggering battle of superpowers, last moment salvation and a second chance for humanity in a calamitous world-shaking ‘Never-Ending Battle’…

Thanks to McCay’s simple humanity, the world gets another chance and this edition follows up with epilogue ‘One Year Later’ ending the momentous epic on a note of renewed hope…

This particular edition – released as a 20th Anniversary deluxe hardback, a standard trade paperback and in digital format – came with an introduction by author and former DC scribe Elliot S. Maggin, assorted cover reproductions and art-pieces, an illustrated checklist of the vast cast list plus a plethora of creative notes and sketches in the ‘Apocrypha’ section, and even hints at lost glories in ‘Evolution’: notes, photos and drawings for a restored scene that never made it into the miniseries. We will have to see what Kingdom Come DC Compact Comics Edition additionally offers when it’s released next May…

Epic, engaging and operatically spectacular, Kingdom Come is a milestone of the DC Universe and remains to this day a solid slice of superior superhero entertainment, worthy of your undivided attention.
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