Category: Batman

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Batman: Terror of the High Skies


By Joe R. Lansdale, illustrated by Edward Hannigan & Dick Giordano (Little, Brown & Co.)
ISBN: 0-316-17765-2   ISBN-13: 978-0-316-17765-8

We parochial comics fans tend to think of our greatest assets in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Superman, Spider-Man and especially Batman have long-since grown beyond their origins and are now fully modern mythological creatures who inhabit a mass of medias and even age ranges.

A case in point is this superbly rowdy, rollicking and rousing boy’s own adventure which was released in the early 1990s as part of the perennial drive to get kids reading…

Terror of the High Skies was written by the brilliant and prolific Texan Joe R. Lansdale, whose credits range from novels to screenplays and cartoons to comicbooks in genres as broad as horror, comedy, westerns, crime-thrillers, fantasy science fiction and all points in between, and he is as adept at challenging adult audiences as he is beguiling – far harder to impress – young readerships…

The tale begins as young Toby Tyler slowly adjusts to life in Gotham City after growing up in Mud Creek East Texas. One night as his parents play host to old friend – and Police Commissioner – Jim Gordon, Toby hears a cat in distress and climbs out of his bedroom window onto the roof of his building, only to find a flying galleon heaving-to and the infamous Joker capering about in the guise of a movie pirate.

Toby’s a big fan of films and keeps up to date on the news, so when the Mountebank of Mirth makes the kid walk the plank off the roof he hears some clues that will eventually lead to the Clown Prince’s defeat…

It’s also where he first meets the daring Dark Knight as Batman swoops out of the darkness to save him before confronting the Joker and his gang of plundering sky-pirates…

Already deeply involved in solving taunting card-clues to the villain’s future crimes, Batman comes close to ending the case right there, but the wily Harlequin of Hate hastily escapes and embarks on a campaign of pirate-themed plundering, unaware that the plucky Toby has deduced where and when he will strike next…

With the focus very much on the valiant boy – just as young Jim Hawkins is the narrative voice of “Treasure Island” – readers are treated to a splendid adventure as Toby is allowed to join Batman’s search for the Joker in a fantastic chase that encompasses a visit to the Batcave, meeting and rescuing his favourite horror-film actor, “stowing away” aboard the floating marauder, facing a (mechanical) sea monster and eventually foiling a spectacular scheme to unleash a wave of madness on the unsuspecting city…

Bold, fast-paced and engaging; delivered very much in the manner of Batman the Animated Series (for which Lansdale wrote a number of episodes), this delightful prose escapade is also graced with eight breathtaking full-page action-illustrations by Batman veterans Ed Hannigan & Dick Giordano and would make a perfect primer for younger fans to begin their – hopefully – life-long love affair with reading…
© 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Published under license from DC Comics.

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Batman: the World’s Finest Comics Archives volume 2


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Joe Samachson, Norman Fallon, Dick Sprang, Win Mortimer, Ray Burnley, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0163-6

The creation of Superman propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative comicbook celebrating the start of the New York World’s Fair, with the Man of Tomorrow prominently featured among the four-colour stars of the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics.

A year later, following the birth of Batman and Robin, National combined Dark Knight, Boy Wonder and Man of Steel on the cover of the follow-up New York World’s Fair 1940. The spectacular 96 page anthology was a huge hit and the format was retained as the Spring 1941 World’s Best Comics #1, before finally settling on the now legendary title World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45-year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and de-cluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Until 1954 and the swingeing axe-blows of rising print costs, the only place Superman and Batman ever met was on the stunning covers by the likes of Jack Burnley, Fred Ray and others. Between those sturdy card covers, the heroes maintained a strict non-collaboration policy…

This second glorious deluxe hardback dedicated to the Gotham Gangbusters’ early appearances reprints the Batman tales from World’s Finest Comics #17-32 (Spring 1945 – January/February 1948), in gleaming, glossy full-colour and also includes a fascinating Foreword by author and fan Bill Schelly and concludes with brief biographies of all the creators involved in these early masterpieces.

In between those text titbits there is unbridled graphic enchantment beginning with ‘Crime Goes to College’ by Bill Finger, Norman Fallon & Dick Sprang, wherein the Dynamic Duo tracked down a cracked academic determined to prove that he could make crime pay whilst ‘Specialists in Crime’ scripted by Don Cameron, pitted the heroes against a wily team who seemed to have the right man for every job they pulled…

In #19 the Joker organised ‘The League for Larceny’ (Joe Samachson, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley) to promote the finer points of criminality until Batman and Robin stepped in whilst in #20 (Winter 1946, and the last quarterly edition: from the next issue the comicbook would appear every two months) benign numismatist Mark Medalion turned out to have a very sinister other face as ‘The King of Coins’, a clever and exotic thriller from Cameron & Win Mortimer.

WF #21 (March/April 1946, illustrated by Mortimer and the uncredited writer is probably Cameron) introduced ‘Crime’s Cameraman’ Sam Garth, a keen shutterbug whose unwitting enthusiasm masked a deadly secret, whilst ‘A Tree Grows in Gotham City’ (written by Alvin Schwartz?) spoofed the infamous novel by pitting the Dynamic Duo against a gang of thugs determined to dig up an elderly oak belonging to an equally elderly gent… but why?

‘Champions Don’t Brag’ (William Woolfolk & Mortimer) focussed on Dick Grayson’s understandable desire to excel at sports: a wish constantly thwarted by the need to keep his Robin alter ego secret. When his school’s best athlete was kidnapped the fear proved justified since the abductors then tried to ransom the “Boy Wonder” they sincerely believed they had captured…!

The unknown writer of ‘The Case of the Valuable Orphans’ told a powerful tale of cruel criminality as thugs exploited carefully placed adopted children to case potential burglary jobs, whilst ‘The Famous First Crimes’ by Cameron, Mortimer & Howard Sherman in #25, found Batman and Robin helping an enterprising inventor whilst battling bandits determined to steal historical scientific breakthroughs and ‘His Highness, Prince Robin’ (by anonymous & Mortimer) saw the Boy Wonder pinch-hitting for a wayward royal absconder in a clever twist on the classic Prince and the Pauper plot.

In WF #27 ‘Me, Outlaw’ revealed the big mistake of car thief and murderer Wheels Mitchum in a tense and salutary courtroom drama by Finger & Jim Mooney, whilst ‘Crime Under Glass’ depicted the horrific and grisly murder spree of the chilling Glass Man in a taut mystery illustrated by Sprang by Fallon and #29 offered ‘The Second Chance’ to freshly released convict Joel Benson who increasingly found life out of prison temptation beyond endurance in a classy human drama by Cameron & Mortimer.

Most later Batman tales feature a giant coin in the Batcave and World’s Finest #30 is where that spectacular prop first appeared; spoils of a successful battle between the Caped Crusaders and the vicious gang of Joe Coyne and ‘The Penny Plunderers!’ (Finger, Kane & Burnley), after which ‘The Man with the X-Ray Eyes!’ (scripted by Cameron) saw the heroes struggling to save from unscrupulous thugs a tragic artist cursed with the ability to see through anything – including their masks…

This superb collection of Dark Knight Dramas ends with ‘The Man Who Could Not Die’ (Finger, Kane & Burnley from #32) a deliciously fearsome fable wherein petty gunman Joe “Lucky” Starr got a twisted horoscope reading and believed that he knew the day he would be killed. Of course, until then, he could commit any crime without possibility of harm – even if Batman and Robin interfered…

These spectacular yarns provide a perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing development from bleak moody avenger and vigilante agent of revenge to dedicated, sophisticated Devil-may-care Detective in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile, and this superbly sturdy Archive Edition is indubitably the most luxurious and satisfying of ways to enjoy them over and over again.

So why don’t you…
© 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents World’s Finest volume 3


By Edmond Hamilton, Cary Bates, Jim Shooter, Leo Dorfman, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, George Klein, Sheldon Moldoff, & Al Plastino (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-585-2

For decades Superman and Batman were quintessential superhero partners: the “World’s Finest” team. They were friends as well as colleagues, and the pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes could cross-pollinate and cross-sell their combined readerships.

This third magnificent monochrome compendium gathers their cataclysmic collaborations from the glory days of the mid 1960’s (World’s Finest Comics #146-173, with the exception of reprint 80-Page Giant issues #161 and 170, covering December 1964 to February 1968): a period when the entire Free World went superhero gaga in response to the Batman live action and Superman animated TV shows…

A new era had already begun in World’s Finest Comics #141 when author Edmond Hamilton and artists Curt Swan & George Klein (who illustrated the bulk of the tales in this tome) ushered in a more dramatic, realistic and far less whimsical tone, and that titanic creative trio continued their rationalist run in this volume with #146’s ‘Batman, Son of Krypton!’ wherein uncovered evidence from the Bottle City of Kandor and bizarre recovered memories seemed to indicate that the Caped Crusader was in fact a de-powered, amnesiac Kryptonian. Moreover, as the heroes dug deeper Superman thought he had found the Earthman responsible for his homeworld’s destruction and became crazed with a hunger for vengeance…

Issue #147’s saw the sidekicks step up in a stirring blend of science fiction thriller and crime caper, all masquerading as an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt when ‘The New Terrific Team!’ (February 1965 Hamilton, Swan & Klein) saw Jimmy Olsen and Robin quit their underappreciated assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there was a perfectly rational, if incredible, reason…

In #148 ‘Superman and Batman – Outlaws!’ (with Sheldon Moldoff temporarily replacing Klein) saw the Cape and Cowl Crimebusters transported to another dimension where arch-villains Lex Luthor and Clayface were heroes and Dark Knight and Action Ace the ruthless hunted criminals, after which World’s Finest Comics #149 (May 1965 and also inked by Moldoff) ‘The Game of Secret Identities!’ found Superman locked into an increasingly obsessive battle of wits with Batman that seemed likely to break up the partnership and even lead to violent disaster…

‘The Super-Gamble with Doom!’ in #150 introduced manipulative alien’s Rokk and Sorban whose addictive and staggeringly spectacular wagering almost got Batman killed and Earth destroyed, whilst ‘The Infinite Evolutions of Batman and Superman!’ in #151 introduced young writer Cary Bates, who paired with Hamilton to produce a beguiling science fiction thriller with the Gotham Guardian transformed into a callous future-man and the Metropolis Marvel reduced to a savage Neanderthal….

Hamilton solo-scripted #152’s ‘The Colossal Kids!’ wherein a brace of impossibly powered brats outmatched outdid but never outwitted Batman or Superman – and of course there were old antagonists behind the challenging campaign of humiliation – after which Bates rejoined his writing mentor for a taut and dramatic “Imaginary Story” in #153.

When Editor Mort Weisinger was expanding the Superman continuity and building the legend he knew that the each new tale was an event that added to a nigh-sacred canon: that what was written and drawn mattered to the readers. But as an ideas man he wasn’t going to let that aggregated “history” stifle a good idea, nor would he allow his eager yet sophisticated audience to endure clichéd deus ex machina cop-outs to mar the sheer enjoyment of a captivating concept.

The mantra known to every baby-boomer fan was “Not a Dream! Not a Hoax! Not a Robot!” boldly emblazoned on covers depicting scenes that couldn’t possibly be true… even if it was only a comic book.

Imaginary Stories were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios devised at a time when editors believed that entertainment trumped consistency and knew that every comic read was somebody’s first – or potentially last – and ‘The Clash of Cape and Cowl!’, illustrated by as ever by Swan & Klein, posited a situation where brilliant young Bruce Wayne grew up believing Superboy had murdered his father, thereafter dedicating his life to crushing all criminals as a Bat Man and waiting for the day when he could expose Superman as a killer and sanctimonious fraud…

WF #154 ‘The Sons of Superman and Batman’ (by Hamilton) opened the doors to a far less tragic Imaginary world: one where the crime fighters finally found time to marry Lois Lane and Kathy Kane and have kids. Unfortunately the lads proved to be both a trial and initially a huge disappointment…

‘Exit Batman – Enter Nightman!’ saw the World’s Finest Team on the cusp of their 1,000th successful shared case when a new costumed crusader threatened to break up the partnership and replace the burned out Batman in a canny psychological thriller, whilst ‘The Federation of Bizarro Idiots!’ in #156 saw the well-meaning but imbecilic imperfect duplicates of Superman and Batman set up shop on Earth and end up as pawns of the duplicitous Joker, after which #157’s ‘The Abominable Brats’ – drawn with inevitable brilliance by Swan and inked by both Klein & Moldoff – featured an Imaginary Story sequel as the wayward sons of heroes returned to cause even more mischief, although once more there were other insidious influences in play…

In ‘The Invulnerable Super-Enemy!’ (#158 by Hamilton, Swan & Klein), the Olsen-Robin Team stumbled upon three Bottled Cities and inadvertently drew their mentors into a terrifying odyssey of evil which at first seemed to be the work of Brainiac but was in fact far from it, whilst ‘The Cape and Cowl Crooks!’ (WFC #159) dealt with foes possessing far mightier powers than our heroes – a major concern for young readers of the times.

To this day whenever fans gather the cry eventually echoes out, “Who’s the strongest/fastest/better dressed…?” but this canny conundrum took the theme to superbly suspenseful heights as Anti-Superman and Anti-Batman continually outwitted and outmanoeuvred the heroes, seemingly possessed of impossible knowledge of their antagonists..

Leo Dorfman debuted as scripter in#160 as the heroes struggled to discredit ‘The Fatal Forecasts of Dr. Zodiac’, a scurrilous Swami who appeared to control fate itself.

World’s Finest Comics #161 was an 80-Page Giant reprinting past tales and is not included in this collection, and jumping in with #162’s ‘Pawns of the Jousting Master!’ is another fresh scripting face in Jim Shooter, who produced an engaging time travel romp wherein Superman and Batman were defeated in combat and compelled to travel back to Camelot in a beguiling tale of King Arthur, super-powered knights and invading aliens…

‘The Duel of the Super-Duo!’ in #163 (Shooter, Swan & Klein) pitted Superman against a brainwashed Batman on a world where his mighty powers were negated and the heroes of the galaxy were imprisoned by a master manipulator, after which Dorfman produced an engaging thriller where a girl who was more powerful than Superman and smarter than Batman proved to be ‘Brainiac’s Super Brain-Child!’

Bill Finger & Al Plastino stepped in to craft WF #165’s ‘The Crown of Crime’ (March 1967) which depicted the last days of dying mega-gangster King Wolff whose plan to go out with a bang set the underworld ablaze and almost stymied both Superman and Batman, after which Shooter, Swan & Klein produced ‘The Danger of the Deadly Duo!’ in which the twentieth generation of Batman and Superman united to battle the Joker of 2967 and his uncanny ally Muto: a superb flight of fantasy that was the sequel to a brief series of stories starring Superman’s heroic descendent in a fantastic far future world

WF #167 saw Cary Bates fly solo by scripting ‘The New Superman and Batman Team!’: an Imaginary Story wherein boy scientist Lex Luthor gave himself super-powers and a Kal-El who had landed on Earth without Kryptonian abilities trained himself to become an avenging Batman after his foster-father Jonathan Kent was murdered. The Smallville Stalwarts briefly united in a crime-fighting partnership but destiny had other plans for the fore-doomed friends…

In World’s Finest Comics #142 a lowly and embittered janitor suddenly gained all the powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes and attacked the heroes out of frustration and jealousy. He was revived by Bates in #168’s ‘The Return of the Composite Superman!’ as the pawn of a truly evil villain but gloriously triumphed over his own venal nature, after which #169 featured ‘The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot’ a whimsical fantasy feast from Bates, Swan & Klein wherein the uppity lasses seemingly worked tirelessly to supplant and replace Batman and Superman before it was revealed that the Dynamic Damsels were mere pawns of an extremely duplicitous team of female felons – although a brace of old WF antagonists were actually behind the Byzantine scheme…

Issue #170 was another mammoth reprint edition, after which #171 revealed ‘The Executioner’s List!’ (script by Dorfman); an intriguing and tense murder-mystery wherein a mysterious sniper seemingly targeted the friends of Superman and Batman, whilst the stirring and hard-hitting Imaginary Story ‘Superman and Batman… Brothers!’ (WF #172 December 1967) posited a grim scenario wherein orphaned Bruce Wayne was adopted by the Kents, but could not escape a destiny of tragedy and darkness.

Written by Shooter and brilliantly interpreted by Swan & Klein, this moody thriller in many ways signalled the end of the angst-free days and the beginning of the darker, crueller and more dramatically cohesive DC universe for a less casual readership, and thereby surrendered the mythology to the increasingly devout fan-based audience.

This stunning compendium closes with World’s Finest Comics #173 and ‘The Jekyll-Hyde Heroes!’ again by Shooter, Swan & Klein, as a criminal scientist devises a way to literally transform the Cape and Cowl Crusaders into their own worst enemies…

These are gloriously clever yet uncomplicated tales whose dazzling, timeless style has returned to inform if not dictate the form for much of DC’s modern television animation – especially the fabulous Batman: the Brave and the Bold series – and the contents of this tome are a veritable feast of witty, gritty thrillers packing as much punch and wonder now as they always have.

Unmissable adventure for fans of all ages!
© 1964-1968, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Blind Justice


By Sam Hamm, Denys Cowan & Dick Giordano (DC Comics)
ISBN 10: 1-56389-047-X       ISBN 10: 978-1563890475

1989 was a banner year for Batman. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the Caped Crusader and the world was about to go completely Bat-crazy for the second time in twenty-five years, so DC were pushing the boat out preparing a brand-new title to add to the Gotham Guardian’s stable of comicbooks.

Two years earlier in 1985-1986, the venerable publisher had grabbed headlines by boldly retconning their entire ponderous continuity via the groundbreaking maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths; ejecting the entire concept of a multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only ever been one Earth. For readers, the planet was now a perfect place to jump on at the start: a world literally festooned with iconic heroes and villains draped in a clear and cogent backstory nobody knew yet.

Many of their greatest characters got a unique restart, with the conceit being that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Because of the Tim Burton movie Batman’s popularity was at an intoxicating peak and, since DC was still in the throes of re-jigging the entire narrative continuity, this three-part epic (two 80-page specials bracketing a single regular issue, reprinting Detective Comics #598-600, March-May 1989) can in many ways be seen as a transitional tale in the re-imagining of the Dark Knight for the 1990s…

After an introduction by the author the saga begins with ‘The Sleep of Reason’: Bruce Wayne awakes from an uncharacteristic nightmare and walks into a perplexing and macabre murder mystery wherein a night watchman has been reduced to a sack of powdered bones and organs. Across town, plucky Jeannie Bowen has just hit Gotham, looking for her brother who simply vanished one day after leaving work at Waynetech…

The nightmares continue to plague the Batman’s alter ego as Jeannie comes up against an administrative stone wall. Her brother’s boss claims no “Roy Kane” has ever worked for the cutting-edge research firm, but when the Dark Knight barely survives an encounter with a technological monster dubbed the Bonecrusher the disparate events begin to gel together…

‘The Kindness of Strangers’ brings Bruce Wayne to Jeannie’s aid and together they pierce the corporate wall at Waynetech and discover brother Roy was indeed employed there, but his tenure and subsequent disappearance have been excised from all records.

Roy had been the assistant to the company’s paraplegic genius Kenneth Harbinger, whose groundbreaking discoveries into cybernetic replacements and enhancements had offered great hope for physical trauma patients, but the junior had simply not turned up for work one day…

Now a police sweep finds Roy amnesiac and derelict on the streets. Apparently brain-damaged, he also seems to have a psychic connection to the devastating Bonecrusher…

When the hulking brute self-destructs rather than surrender to Batman and the cops, Roy and Jeannie move into Wayne Manor and, as the billionaire begins to clean house at Waynetech, they discover that the young man has been surreptitiously fitted with a memory transceiver biochip: a cybernetic back-door which allows a mystery mastermind to possess bodies at will. Bonecrusher is not one man but a slave army of remote control killers…

Only the seemingly benign Harbinger can be behind it, but further investigations in ‘The Price of Knowledge’ reveal that he had not worked alone. Wayne’s companies have been targeted by a clandestine “Cartel” of corporate raiders intent on possessing all his wealth and technologies, but as the Batman moves in all he finds is Harbinger’s corpse…

Moreover, someone has pieced together Wayne’s eccentric lifestyle, history and expenses and had the playboy arrested as a communist spy…

Harbinger is not dead. The crippled genius has simply abandoned his broken body and taken up residence in other unsuspecting biochip recipients. Free and fit, he goes on a spree of physical excess and wilful murder whilst Bruce Wayne festers under house arrest, enforced helplessness and increasingly horrific dreams…

As the government prosecutors track down the men who individually trained the boy-orphan Wayne as he travelled across Europe and the East years ago, the case against the accused spy looks to be unshakable, especially once French manhunter Henri Ducard agrees to be a bought witness and say whatever the prosecutors wish…

However proceedings take a dark turn when Harbinger in another borrowed body and, now at odds with his former Cartel paymasters, shoots Wayne on the Courthouse steps, possibly crippling him permanently…

‘Hidden Agendas’ finds Harbinger setting up his own organisation and powerbase just as the ruthless and amoral Ducard puts together scraps of information and deduces Bruce Wayne’s real secret. However the broken and demoralised Gotham Guardian gets a new lease of life when Roy discovers the Batcave and offers to lend his bio-chipped body to the disabled crusader for use as a surrogate Batman…

Wayne refuses but Roy is persistent and the continual threat of Harbinger’s hidden new life eventually leads the desperate and debilitated detective to make the biggest mistake of his career…

‘Covert Operations’ sees a Dark Knight haunting the alleys and rooftops of Gotham after weeks of absence, prompting Ducard to fetch up at the mansion with an astonishing proposition…

‘Ulterior Motives’ sees the compelling if convoluted saga come to a shattering climax as Wayne’s mind in Roy’s body tracks down and confronts Harbinger and his platoon of augmented Bonecrushers before turning the tables on the cartel. Of course the price paid for the victory is heartbreak, tragedy death and relentless guilt…

This is amongst the very best of modern Batman yarns: dark, intense, cunning and incredibly complex; blending high-tech adventure with brooding psychological drama, doomed romance with corporate and political intrigue, all illustrated with mesmerising verve and style by Denys Cowan & Dick Giordano.

Moreover, as an anniversary event, the collected edition also includes a superb gallery of graphic appreciations from Bob Kane, Neal Adams, Kyle Baker, Norm Breyfogle, Howard Chaykin, Mike Zeck, Mike Mignola, Walt Simonson and David Mazzucchelli.

If you haven’t seen this supremely engaging tale – criminally out of print but well worth hunting down – then you don’t really know the Dark Knight yet…
© 1989, 1990, 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told: volume 2


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Dennis O’Neill, Irv Novick, Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-037-2

By the time this sequel collection of Batman classics appeared, graphic novels were becoming fully established as a valuable second marketplace for comic adventures, not just celebrating standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history but also as a format for new and significant works.

They were also a superb high-ticket item for enhancing public buzz from media events such as the follow-up Batman Returns movie. However, although this tantalising selection of tales starring Catwoman and the Penguin was designed to cash in on the second feature film, it does contain a superb procession of brilliant criminal clashes which no true fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction could resist…

After ‘Of Fowls and Felines: Fifty Years of Felony’, an erudite introduction by Marty Pasko, and Mike Gold’s fact-filled Foreword ‘The Deadliest Duo’, both liberally illustrated with pin-ups by José Luis García–López, Brian Stelfreeze, Jim Aparo, Don Newton, Brent Anderson and others, the dramatic duels begin with ‘The Cat’ (by Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson from Batman #1, Spring 1940) – later adding the suffix ‘Woman’ to her name to avoid any possible doubt or confusion – who plied her felonious trade of jewel theft aboard the wrong cruise liner and fell foul for the first time of the dashing Dynamic Duo, whilst the perfidious Penguin debuted in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941, by Kane, Finger, Robinson & George Roussos) primed to make the Batman and Robin the victims of ‘One of the Most Perfect Frame-Ups’…

‘The Secret Life of Catwoman’ comes from Batman #62 (December 1950-January 1951, by Finger, Kane & Charles Paris) and saw the Felonious Feline reform and retire after a head trauma cured her larcenous tendencies, after which ‘The Penguin’s Fabulous Fowls’ from #76 (April-May 1953 by Edmond Hamilton, Kane & Paris) found the Umbrella King turn xeno(crypto?)-biologist to capture mythical avian monsters and turn them loose in Gotham…

January 1954’s Detective Comics #203 exposed the ‘Crimes of the Catwoman’ when the bored and neglected Selina Kyle took up her whip and claws once more to prove she was still the Queen of Crime in a classy caper by Hamilton, Kane & Paris.

In the mid 1950s costumed villains faded from view for almost a decade until the Batman TV show made them stars in their own right.

Batman #169 (February 1965) saw the wily, bird-themed bad-man triumphantly return to make the Caped Crusaders his unwilling dupes and ‘Partners in Plunder!’ in a stirring romp by Ed “France” Herron, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella, whilst full-length epic ‘The Penguin Takes a Flyer into the Future’ (#190 March 1967 by Gardner Fox, Chic Stone & Giella) mixed super-villainy and faux science fiction motifs for an enjoyable if predictable fist-fest.

When the Tigress of Terror eventually resurfaced with Batman #197’s ‘Catwoman Sets her Claws for Batman’ (December by Fox, Frank Springer and Sid Greene) the frankly daft tale pitted her in romantic combat against Batgirl for the Gotham Gangbuster’s attentions. This one is most fondly remembered for the classic cover of Batgirl and whip-wielding Catwoman squaring off over Batman’s prone body – comic fans have a psychopathology all their very own…

Batman #257 in July-August 1974 produced a canny thriller in ‘Hail Emperor Penguin’ by Denny O’Neil, Irv Novick& Dick Giordano, wherein the Parasol Plunderer kidnapped a young Middle Eastern potentate and fell foul of both Batman & Robin and Demon’s Daughter Talia Al Ghul.

The Teen Wonder returned in Detective Comics #473’s ‘The Malay Penguin!’ as the podgy Napoleon of Crime challenged the temporarily reunited Dynamic Duo to an entrancing, intoxicating duel of wits, courtesy of Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin from November 1977.

After an informative ‘Catwoman Featurette’ from Batman #256 May (Jun 1974), a two part Catwoman solo feature by Bruce Jones, Trevor Von Eeden & Pablo Marcos proved her potential as a force for Good in ‘Terror Train’ and ‘In the Land of the Dead’ from Batman #345-346 (March and April 1982) whilst ‘Never Scratch a Cat’ from #355 (January 1983, by Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Alfredo Alcala) re-emphasised her savage, independent nature and unwillingness to be ignored by the Dark Knight…

A ‘Penguin Featurette’ from Batman #257 then precedes ‘Love Birds’ from Batman Annual #11 (1987) wherein Max Allen Collins & Norm Breyfogle explored the Penguin’s softer side – and found it lacking – before ‘Eyrie’ (Detective #568, November 1986 by Joey Cavalieri & Klaus Janson) firmly re-established the Little Emperor of Crime’s stylish, deadly and bloody bona fides in a chilling tale of extortion and murder…

This terrific tome, edited by Paul Kupperberg and Robert Greenberger – who provided the creator biographies and End-notes – is also packed with many compelling cover reproductions filling up all those half-page breaks which advertised new comics in the originals to make this another captivating collection of utter superhero excellence: fun-filled, action-packed and wildly beguiling.
© 1940, 1941, 1953, 1954, 1965, 1967, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1992 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: hc 0930-289-35-8        pb 978-0-93028-966-9

When the very concept and feasibility of high priced graphic novels was just being tested in the early 1990s, DC Comics produced a line of glorious hardback compilations spotlighting star characters and celebrating standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade. They even produced themed collections which shaped the output of the industry to this day such as this captivating compendium of tales released in 1988 designed to promote interest in the then still-forthcoming Batman movie.

As one of the earliest graphic novel collections of the time the accreditations in this tome are sometimes incorrect and I’ve endeavoured to correct any inaccuracies I’ve spotted wherever they occur…

The non-stop rollercoaster ride begins with ‘Batman versus the Vampire parts 1 and 2’ which originally appeared in Detective Comics #31-32 (September and October 1939 by Gardner Fox & Bob Kane), a sublime two-part gothic shocker which introduced the first bat-plane, Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Julie Madison and vampiric horror The Monk: a saga which concluded in an epic chase across Eastern Europe and a spectacularly chilling climax. The tale was re-imagined by Matt Wagner in 2007 as Batman and the Mad Monk.

From Batman #1, 1940 ‘Dr. Hugo Strange and the Mutant Monsters’ follows as a brilliant old enemy (see Batman Archives volume 1) returned with laboratory-grown hyperthyroid horrors to rampage through the terrified city. Bill Finger, Kane & Jerry Robinson’s pulp masterpiece was also later reworked by Wagner as Batman & the Monster Men.

‘Nights of Knavery’ from Batman #25 (October/November 1944, Don Cameron, Hardin “Jack” Jack Burnley & Jerry Robinson) saw the Joker and Penguin temporarily united in a tempestuous and foredoomed alliance against the Dynamic Duo after which the Wily Old Bird starred in a solo saga from the Sunday section of the short-lived Batman syndicated newspaper strip.

‘1001 Umbrellas of the Penguin’ (from February 10th – March 10th 1946, by Alvin Schwartz, Burnley & Charles Paris) recounted a hilarious episode wherein the arch-criminal’s formidable Aunt Miranda came to visit, blithely unaware of her nephew’s nefarious career, after which ‘The Origin of Batman’ (#47 of his solo title, June 1948, by Finger, Kane & Paris) added tone and depth to the traumatic event when The Gotham Gangbuster at last confronted the triggerman who murdered his parents…

A new high-tech, gadget-fuelled era opened with ‘The Birth of Batplane II’ (Batman #61, October 1950: David Vern, Dick Sprang & Paris) as the Dynamic Duo lost their old aircraft to criminal aviators and constructed a whole new look for themselves…

After WWII Robin had a long-running solo-strip in Star-Spangled Comics and from #124 (January 1952) comes ‘Operation Escape’ by an unknown writer – possibly Bill Finger – and artist Jim Mooney wherein the Boy Wonder proved his ingenuity in liberating himself from an impossible criminal trap, whilst in ‘The Jungle Cat-Queen’ (Detective #211 September 1954, by Edmond Hamilton, Sprang & Paris) he and his mentor were hard-pressed to outwit the sultry Catwoman after she marooned them on a tropical island rife with deadly killers, animal and human…

‘The First Batman’ (Detective Comics #235, September 1955) was a key story of this period and introduced a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins courtesy of Finger, Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye, disclosing how when Bruce Wayne was still a toddler his father had clashed with gangsters whilst clad in a fancy dress bat costume…

When the Man of Tomorrow replaced the Caped Crusader with a new partner in World’s Finest Comics #94 (1958) it led to a timely review and partial revision of ‘The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team’ in a timeless tale by Hamilton, Sprang & Stan Kaye after which ‘Robin Dies at Dawn’ re-presents the eerie epic which first appeared in Batman #156 (June 1963, Finger, Moldoff & Paris) wherein the Gotham Guardian experienced truly hideous travails on an alien world culminating in the death of his young partner.

Detective #345 (November 1966) introduced a terrifying, tragic new villain in ‘The Blockbuster Invasion of Gotham City!’ (Fox, Infantino & Giella) as a monstrous giant with the mind of a child and the raw, physical power of a tank was constantly driven to madness at sight of Batman and only placated by the sight of Bruce Wayne…

This is followed by a chilling murder-mystery from the most celebrated creative team of the 1970s. ‘Ghost of the Killer Skies’ (Detective Comics #404, October 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams & Dick Giordano) found Batman attempting to solve a series of impossible murders on the set of a film about German WWI fighter ace Hans von Hammer and the same team are responsible for the moody masterpiece which follows, reintroducing one of Batman’s most tragic and dangerous foes.

As comics became increasingly more anodyne in the 1950s the actualised schizophrenic Two-Face had faded from view, but with the return of a grimmer, grittier hero the scene was set for a revival of Batman’s most murderously warped villains too. ‘Half an Evil’ from Batman #234, August 1971 is a spectacular action-packed mystery, as the long-gone two-in-one man perpetrated a series of bizarre events for no perceptible purpose…

‘Man-Bat Over Vegas’ (Detective #429, November 1972, written and illustrated by Frank Robbins) was an epilogue to the triptych of tales which introduced the tragic Kirk Langstrom, whose experiments doomed him to life as a monstrous winged mutant. Although Batman assumed the scientist was cured, when a nuclear test led to a rash of vampire attacks in Nevada the Caped Crusader rushed west to investigate…

‘The Batman Nobody Knows’ comes from Batman #250, July 1973 and was a celebrated attempt by Robbins & Giordano to rationalize the then newly-restored aura of mystery to the character. This quirky campfire tale recently inspired the creation of African Dark Knight Batwing as part of DC’s “New 52”…

When Archie Goodwin took over the editor’s desk from Julie Schwartz in Detective Comics #437 (November 1973) he also wrote a stunning run of experimental yarns, beginning with ‘Deathmask’: a brilliant supernatural murder-mystery featuring an Aztec curse; magnificently depicted by Jim Aparo. From #442 (September 1974) ‘Death Flies the Haunted Sky’ provided reclusive graphic genius Alex Toth with an opportunity to show everybody how powerful comic art could be.

Goodwin & Toth’s collaboration on the magnificent barnstorming murder-spree thriller is one of the best Batman tales ever created.

Next up is ‘There is no Hope in Crime Alley!’ (Detective Comics #457, March 1976): a powerful and genuinely moving tale which introduced Leslie Thompkins, the woman who first cared for the boy Bruce Wayne on the night his parents were murdered, delivered with great skill and sensitivity by O’Neil & Giordano.

‘Death Strikes at Midnight and Three’ comes from DC Special Series #15 (Summer, 1978): an ambitious but not quite successful text-thriller which married a wealth of superb illustrations by Marshall Rogers to O’Neil’s surprisingly lacklustre prose.

Rogers had first come to prominence drawing Steve Englehart’s classic reinterpretation of the Batman legend and ‘The Deadshot Ricochet’ (Detective #474, December 1977, and with Terry Austin on inks) was perhaps the best of a truly stellar run. The second ever appearance of the murderous high society sniper (after an initial outing in Batman #59, 1950) so reinvigorated the third-rate trick-shooter that he’s seldom been missing from the DC Universe since, starring in a number of series such as Suicide Squad and Secret Six, and even in a couple of eponymous miniseries.

‘Bat-Mite’s New York Adventure’ from Detective 482 (March 1979) is a hilarious fourth-wall busting romp by Bob Rozakis, Michael Golden & Bob Smith which finds the geeky fifth-dimensional sprite invading the offices of DC comics to deliver a protest in person, whilst its back to grim business as usual in the bombastic ‘A Caper a Day Keeps the Batman at Bay’ (Batman #312, June 1979, by Len Wein, Walt Simonson & Giordano) as the obsessed bandit Calendar Man attempts to commit a themed robbery every 24 hours…

In Detective #500 (March 1981) Alan Brennert & Giordano sent Batman and Robin to another Earth to prevent the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne in the beguiling ‘To Kill a Legend’ and the story-portion of this book concludes with another Brennert alternate world saga as in 1955 the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman clashed with the Scarecrow before finally sheathing their claws and getting married in ‘The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne’ (The Brave and the Bold #197 April 1983) illustrated by Joe Staton & George Freeman.

The hardcover book is edited by Mike Gold, Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid & Robert Greenberger, with a spectacular collage of covers as endpaper illustrations, ‘Growing up with the Greatest’ – an introduction from Dick Giordano, and text features ‘Our Darkest Knight’ from Gold and a captivating end-note article by Greenberger. Also on show are copious creator biographies liberally enhanced with even more tantalising cover reproductions, even filling up all those half-page breaks which advertised new comics in the originals.

I defy any nostalgia-soaked fan not to start muttering “got; got; need it; Mother threw it away…”

This unbelievably enchanting collection was released in both hardcover and paperback editions and is a pure parcel of superhero magnificence: fun-filled, action-packed and utterly addictive.
© 1939-1983, 1988 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Prey


By Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy & Terry Austin (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-968-3

When DC found the World had gone completely Bat-crazy for the second time in twenty-five years, they quickly supplemented the Gotham Guardian’s stable of comicbooks with a new title designed to reveal the early days and cases of the Batman.

Three years earlier in 1985-1986, the publisher had boldly retconned their entire ponderous continuity via the landmark maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths; rejecting the entire concept of a vast multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only ever been one Earth. For readers, the sole DC world provided a perfect place to jump on at the start: a planet literally festooned with iconic heroes and villains draped in a clear and cogent backstory that was still fresh and unfolding.

Many of their greatest properties were graced with a unique restart, employing the tacit conceit that all the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Batman’s popularity was at an intoxicating peak and as DC was still in the throes of re-jigging the entire narrative continuity, the new title presented multi-part epics refining and infilling the history of the post-Crisis hero and his entourage. The added fillip was a fluid cast of premiere and up-and-coming creators.

Most of those early story-arcs were collected as trade paperbacks, helping to jump-start the graphic novel sector of the comics industry, and the careful re-imagining of the hero’s early career gave fans a wholly modern insight into the highly malleable core-concept.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #11-15 (September 1990-February 1991) featured the official re-debut of one of Batman’s oldest foes: mad scientist Professor Hugo Strange (who had initially appeared in Detective Comics #36 in February 1940, Batman #1 and elsewhere) transformed into a contemporary pop psychologist at a time when the Caped Crimebuster was still an urban vigilante hunted by Gotham’s corrupt cops…

Batman: Prey added more background detail, psychological refinements and further expanded the mythos as the Dark Knight established a working relationship with Captain James Gordon – the only honest cop on the force – and built his first Batmobile…

‘Prey’ begins with the mysterious Batman again stealing the Police Department’s thunder, forcing Mayor Klass to succumb to public pressure drummed up by TV psychiatrist Hugo Strange by setting up a task force to take the masked vigilante off the streets.

Appointed to head the team is Captain James Gordon who has been promised every resource he needs and no interference…

Bruce Wayne isn’t worried by that: he and Gordon have a clandestine understanding and the mystery man is far more interested in his side-project – building a suitable vehicle to get him around Gotham quickly and safely.

The real problems only start after the Professor is attached to the task force and Strange’s public deductions and suppositions hit painfully home. Soon the Batman starts to doubt his own motivations and sanity…

Gordon picks Sergeant Max Cort as his number two, unaware that the brutal, old-school cop is riddled with jealousy and dangerously unstable – much like Strange himself, who spends his evenings pontificating, wining and dining a lingerie mannequin, and dressing up as the Batman in an effort to get into his head…

As the real hero stalks deadly drug-baron Manny the Fish and high-profile thief Catwoman begins to prowl the rooftops of the wealthy, Cort’s squad closes in, but the dope-peddler escapes the raid because some of his men, bought and paid for by the gang-boss, warn the Fish in advance.

In the resulting melee Batman again physically humiliates Cort before escaping, pushing the Sergeant far over the edge…

‘Dark Sides’ sees Wayne’s self-doubt increase and confusion mount as the task force accuses Batman and Catwoman of being partners-in-crime and Cort begins to investigate his own boss Gordon, who he correctly suspects of aiding the Dark Knight…

After Batman spectacularly takes down The Fish, Gordon devises a method of secretly contacting Batman by placing a bat-silhouette over the Police HQ spotlight, before disclosing to his silent partner how Strange and the Mayor are working closely together. The situation goes from bad to worse when Cort becomes the psychiatrist’s latest patient and is turned into a mesmerised uber-vigilante to literally show Batman how it should be done…

When the Mayor’s daughter belittles Strange and defends Batman, the Professor unleashes Cort as the ‘Night Scourge!’ – going on a savage rampage through the underworld, maiming and killing petty thugs and bikers. The Professor then accuses Batman of insanity, threatening the social order and inspiring dangerous copycats…

When Cort almost kills Catwoman, Batman intervenes and the hypnotised cop barely escapes, after which Strange has his perfect pawn impersonate the Dark Knight; attacking Mayor Klass before kidnapping his daughter Catherine.

The real Batman is blithely unaware: when he turned his back on her, Catwoman bashed his brains in…

Tensions escalate in ‘The Nightmare’ as the increasingly crazed Strange drugs and almost murders the wounded Batman before seeking to replace him, whilst the death-hungry Cort ups his own campaign of bloodletting and terror.

When the psychiatrist finally deduces his target’s true identity he turns Wayne Manor into a colossal psychological death-trap for Batman’s soul and sanity resulting in a staggering three-way showdown and bitter triumph for the Dark Knight in ‘The Kill’…

This five-part epic by Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin established a new and grimly sexy aesthetic for Batman’s adventures, setting the scene for the next decade as it depicted the orphan billionaire’s growing obsession and mistrust of even his own intentions: a world of technological wonders where Batman became real and Bruce Wayne faded into a mere bit-part…

Fast-paced, action-packed and deviously compelling, this frantic caper is a breathtaking Fights ‘n’ Tights fiesta for fans and casual readers alike, further redefining the Caped Crusader’s previously shiny innocuous Gotham as a truly scary world of urban decay, corrupt authority, all-pervasive criminal violence and nightmarish insanity.

This is another superb modern Batman yarn: dark, intense, cunning and superbly understated. If you haven’t seen this supremely engaging tale – criminally out of print but well worth hunting down in the DC or British Titan Book edition – then you don’t really know the Dark Knight at all…

© 1990, 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-932289-36-6

When the very concept of high priced graphic novels was just being tested in the late 1980s DC Comics produced a line of glorious full-colour hardback compilations spotlighting star characters and celebrating standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade.

They then branched out into themed collections which shaped the output of the industry to this day, such as this fabulous congregation of yarns which offered equal billing and star status to one of the most enduring arch-foes in fiction: the Monarch of Malignant Mirth known only as the Joker.

Devised as a bookend and supplementary edition to the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told and devised in the run-up to the launch of the immensely anticipated 1989 Batman movie, this glorious comedy of terrors features an eclectic and absorbing selection of stories (co)starring the Clown Prince of Crime which followed him through the then five decades of his comicbook existence.

Edited by Mike Gold with associates Brian Augustyn and Mark Waid, this splendid tome opens with ‘The Joker’s Dozen’ by Gold, describing the history and selection process involved in choosing from the literally hundreds of eligible stories, and also includes an end-piece essay ‘Stacking the Deck: The other Joker Stories’ by Waid, expansive biographies on the creators involved, and a fabulous gallery of the striking covers from tales which didn’t make the final cut.

However, fascinating and informative as those features are, the real literary largesse is to be found in the 19 stirring tales which comprise the bulk of this tome…

One note of advisement: when this collection was released many of the stories’ creative details were lost, but have been rediscovered since. Many of the credits are mistaken or just plain wrong, so wherever possible I’ve substituted the current attributions.

The suspenseful entertainment opens with ‘Batman vs. The Joker from Batman #1 (Spring 1940 by Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson) which introduced the greatest villain in the Dark Knight’s rogues’ gallery via a stunning tale of brazen extortion and wilful wanton murder.

A year later ‘The Case of the Joker’s Crime Circus’ (Batman #4, Winter 1941) saw the Mountebank of Menace plunged into depressive madness before recruiting a gang from the worst that the entertainment industry and carnival trade could offer; setting off on a renewed course of plunder, mayhem and death…

‘The Joker and the Sparrow’ comes from the Sunday section of the short-lived Batman syndicated newspaper strip (from October 28th – December 9th 1945, but misattributed to 1946 in this volume) wherein Alvin Schwartz, Hardin “Jack” Burnley & Charles Paris recount the gripping and often hilarious war between the Deadly Jester and a mysterious new contender for the title of “Gotham’s Cleverest Criminal”…

‘The Man Behind the Red Hood’ (Detective Comics #168, February 1951) finally gave the Joker an origin in a brilliantly engrossing mystery by Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Win Mortimer, which all began when the Caped Crusader regaled criminology students with the story of “the one who got away”…

‘The Joker’s Crime Costumes’ comes from Batman #63 (February/March 1951, by Finger, Dick Sprang & Charles Paris), recounting how the Laughing Larcenist impersonated famous historical comedy figures and clowns such as Falstaff, Mr. Pickwick and Old King “Coal” to commit modern day mayhem.

Batman #73, (October/November 1952, by pulp sci fi writer David Vern, Sprang & Paris) described a classic clash with the Dynamic Duo temporarily stymied by ‘The Joker’s Utility Belt’ as the Harlequin of Hate created his own uniquely perverse iteration of the heroes’ greatest weapon and accessory whilst, almost simultaneously over in World’s Finest Comics #61 (November 1952), ‘The Crimes of Batman’ by Vern, Kane & Paris found Robin a hostage and the Gotham Gangbuster compelled to commit a string of felonies to preserve the lad’s life. Or so the Joker vainly hoped…

From a period when the Joker appeared almost once a month in one Bat-title or other, Alvin Schwartz, Sprang & Paris concocted something extra-special for Batman #74 (December 1952-January 1953). ‘The Crazy Crime Clown’ had the exotic but strictly larcenous Baroque Bandit apparently go bonkers and end up committed to the Gotham Institute for the Insane. Of course, there was method in the seeming madness as Batman discovered when he infiltrated the worthy asylum in disguise…

By the time of World’s Finest Comics #88 (May/June 1957) the solo strips of the Man of Steel and Caped Crusader therein had amalgamated into a series of shared adventures, and ‘Superman and Batman’s Greatest Foes (by Edmond Hamilton, Sprang & Stan Kaye) offered a clever mystery as “reformed” villains Lex Luthor and the Joker set up in the commercial robot business as a blind for their most audacious scheme whilst in Batman #110 (September 1957), the ‘Crime-of-the-Month Club’ by Dave Wood, Sprang & Paris, a series of seemingly unconnected but brilliant robberies proved to be the Joker’s latest scheme: selling his felonious plans to other thieves while he worked on a much grander scheme…

‘The Great Clayface-Joker Feud’ (Batman #159 November 1963) was a bright moment at the otherwise uninspired tail-end of a bad period in Batman’s history. Bill Finger, Jim Mooney & Sheldon Moldoff produced a big story where two arch-rivals first competed and then became allies to almost overwhelm the Dynamic Duo and the original Batwoman and Bat-Girl too, whilst ‘The Joker Jury’ (Batman #163, May 1964 by Finger, Moldoff & Paris) found Robin and his mentor trapped in the criminal enclave of Jokerville, where every citizen was a criminal dressed up as the Clown Prince and where all lawmen were outlaws.

This was the very last old guard story: with the next issue Julie Schwartz ushered in his streamlined, more down-to-Earth “New Look” Batman and super-villains all but disappeared from the scene…

At least until the Batman TV show took the world by storm. Up next is a rarely seen and quite lovely tale by E. Nelson Bridwell, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson which appeared in the Premium promotional giveaway Batman Kelloggs Special 1966.

‘The Joker’s Happy Victims’ is sheer graphic poetry in motion as the Dynamic Duo were forced to extraordinary measures when all the victims of the Riotous Rogue’s latest rash of robberies refused to press charges…

During the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – possibly in reaction to the mass-media’s crass and crushing over-exposure – and the Batman books sought to escape their zany, “camp” image by methodically re-branding the character and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim and driven Dark Avenger.

Such a hero demanded far deadlier villains and with one breakthrough tale Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams & Dick Giordano also reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off the readers of the Golden Age Dark Knight.

‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ (Batman #251, September 1973) is a genuine classic that totally redefined the Joker for our age as the Mirthful Maniac stalked his old gang, determined to eradicate them all as the hard-pressed Gotham Guardian desperately played catch-up. As the crooks died in all manner of Byzantine and bizarre ways, Batman realised his arch-foe has gone irrevocably off the deep end. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this is the definitive Batman/Joker story.

Brave and the Bold #111 (February/March 1974) boasted “the strangest team-up in history” as Batman joined forces with his greatest enemy for a brilliantly complex tale of cross and double cross in ‘Death has the Last Laugh!’ – by Bob Haney & Jim Aparo – which may well have lead to the Harlequin of Hate’s own short-run series a year later.

‘The Last Ha Ha’ came from The Joker # 3 (September 1975, written by O’Neil with art from Ernie Chan/Chua & José Luis García-López) wherein a robbery and the kidnap of star cartoonist Sandy Saturn, by a green-haired, laughing loon, led the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper was the culprit. Cue lots of eerie cackling, mistaken identity shenanigans and explosive action…

When Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin took over the Batman feature in Detective Comics their landmark retro-styled collaboration utterly revitalised the character for a new generation of readers.

Their undoubted peak in a short but stellar run naturally starred the Dark Knight’s nemesis as his most chaotic beginning with ‘The Laughing Fish’ in #475 (February 1978) and spectacularly culminating a month later in ‘The Sign of the Joker!’, comprising one of the most reprinted Bat-tales ever concocted, and even adapted as an episode of the award-winning Batman: The Animated Adventures TV show in the 1990s. In fact you’ve probably already read it. But if you haven’t… what a treat you have awaiting you!

As fish with the Joker’s horrific smile began turning up in sea-catches all over the Eastern Seaboard the Clown Prince attempted to trademark them. When patent officials foolishly told him it can’t be done, they start dying… publicly, impossibly and incredibly painfully…

The story then culminated in a spectacular apocalyptic clash which shaped and informed the Batman mythos for the next two decades…

This terrific tome then concludes with ‘Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker…!’ from Batman #321 (March 1980), by Len Wein, Walt Simonson & Giordano, wherein the Malevolent Mummer planned to celebrate his anniversary in grand style: kidnapping a bunch of old friends like Robin, Jim Gordon, Alfred, Catwoman and others to be the exploding candles on his giant birthday cake…

The Joker has the rare distinction of being perhaps the most iconic villain in comics and can claim that title in whatever era you choose to concentrate on; Noir-ish Golden Age, sanitised Silver Age or malignant modern and Post-Modern milieus. This book captures just a fraction of all those superb stories and with the benefit of another two and a half decades of material since the release of this compendium, just think of what a couple of equally well-considered sequels might offer…

Slightly differing versions of this initial hardback volume have been released as the paperback editions Stacked Deck: The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told in 1990 and The Joker: Greatest Stories Ever Told in 2008.
© 1939-1983, 1988 DC Comics Inc. All rights reserved.

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Batman: Shaman


By Dennis O’Neil, Edward Hannigan & John Beatty (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-083-6

In 1989 when DC found that the World had gone completely Bat-crazy for the second time in twenty-five years, they were, apparently, already preparing a brand-new title to add to the Gotham Guardian’s stable of comicbooks.

Two years earlier in 1985-1986, the venerable publisher had grabbed headlines by boldly retconning their entire ponderous continuity via the groundbreaking maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths; ejecting the entire concept of a multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only ever been one Earth. For readers, the planet was now a perfect place to jump on at the start: a world literally festooned with iconic heroes and villains draped in a clear and cogent backstory nobody knew yet.

Many of their greatest characters got a unique restart, with the conceit being that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Because of the Tim Burton movie Batman’s popularity was at an intoxicating peak and since DC was still in the throes of re-jigging the entire narrative continuity, the new Bat-title was designed to present multi-part epics that were “earlier” cases; refining and infilling the history of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths hero and his venerable cast. The added fillip was a fluid cast of premiere and up-and-coming creators.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (with a November 1989 cover-date) hit the Comics specialty stores three months after the movie debut: a fascinating experiment and huge hit even if over the years the overall quality proved rather haphazard. Most of the early story arcs were collected as trade paperbacks, helping to jump-start the graphic novel sector of the comics industry, and the re-imagining of the hero’s early career gave fans a wholly modern insight into the ancient if highly malleable concept.

The very first was Batman: Shaman which added detail to the long-established origin and incisive refinements and further psychological underpinning to the steep learning curve that turned over-eager masked avenger Bruce Wayne into an indomitable and terrifying force of nature.

The five-part epic by Dennis O’Neil was illustrated by Edward Hannigan & John Beatty and ran from November 1989 – February 1990, ideally setting the scene for the next decade as it depicted the driven millionaire’s descent into an obsession where Batman became real and Bruce Wayne the manufactured disguise…

After an introduction from Kevin Dooley (which incorporates the five stunning and evocative covers produced by George Pratt) the drama begins with bounty hunter Willy Doggett tracking a murderous felon named Tom Woodley across the frozen wastes of Alaska. Doggett is accompanied by a wealthy young man who has paid a fortune to learn the hunter’s tracking tricks. When Woodley ambushes them the lawman is killed and the boy only narrowly escapes a similar fate when the bushwhacker falls off a cliff.

The boy is critically injured and almost dies: saved only by an Inuit shaman and his granddaughter in the remote outpost of Otters Ridge, who share the secret medicine story of Bat and Raven with him. Nursed back to health after months Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City to begin his mission against criminals. His saviours refuse all rewards but ask only that he never shares the healing tale with anyone…

In blithe arrogance Bruce tells anthropologist Madison Spurlock the secret sacred story before sending him to Alaska for research and to improve the natives’ lives with Wayne Foundation funds.

After his own life-changing encounter with a bat the young man creates the Batman persona and begins clearing up the streets. His first foray in costume is clearing out thieves terrorising a free clinic run by Dr. Leslie Thomkins in Crime Alley where his parents were gunned down a decade previously.

In his spooky element the triumphant avenger is staggered when a frantic eyewitness commits suicide in front of him, gasping out the name “Chubala”…

As six months pass the Batman becomes an urban legend on the city streets and a sinister cult begins to absorb Gotham’s underclass; a melange of drugs, petty crime and human sacrifice led by a seemingly crazed madman that goes spectacularly public when two bodies are found hideously mutilated and a cop is discovered babbling and near death. Moreover there’s a whiff of something more financial than fantastical about this reign of terror…

Meanwhile the anthropologist has returned and set up an exhibition of his findings. A prize piece is the carved bat-mask the Inuit shaman wore whilst saving Wayne’s life, but the avenger is far more concerned over Chubala than how Spurlock got the holy relic.

Spending his days building the Batcave and nights tracking Chubala’s thugs and a drug pipeline from tropical hell-hole Santa Prisca, the novice Dark Knight doesn’t attach as much significance to the murder of Spurlock’s assistant as he should, until an assassin wearing the Inuit mask attempts to kill him and succeeds in slaying Spurlock with arrows…

Convinced of a connection between Chubala and Otters Ridge, Bruce Wayne travels again to the Far North and sees with horror and self-loathing what his money and Spurlock’s probing ambitions have done to the once proud and noble natives…

And that’s when the next murder attempt occurs…

As the neophyte Batman struggles to piece together the disparate strands he comes to a chilling conclusion: he’s not been working on one incredibly complex case but two…

Combing a clever reworking of the origin legend with a skilful murder-mystery, a serial killer thriller and a corporate crime-caper, Batman: Shaman redefined the Caped Crusader’s previously shiny milieu as a truly scary world of urban decay, corrupt authority and all-pervasive criminal violence, all tinged with nightmarish supernatural overtones.

This is one of the very best of modern Batman yarns: dark, intense, cunning and superbly understated. If you haven’t seen this supremely engaging tale – criminally out of print but well worth hunting down – then you don’t really know the Dark Knight yet…
© 1989, 1990, 1993 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Secret Origins


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-50-1

The best and worst thing about comicbooks is the perpetual revamping of classic characters whenever changing tastes and the unceasing passage of years demand the reworking of origin tales for increasingly more sophisticated audiences.

Once upon a time, DC’s vast pantheon of characters was scattered and wholly distinct: separated and situated on a variety of alternate Earths which comprised Golden Age hold-overs, current Silver Age and later-created heroes. Further Earths were subsequently introduced for every superhero stable the company scooped up in a voracious campaign of acquisition over the decades.

Charlton, Fawcett, Quality Comics and others characters resided upon their own globes, occasionally meeting in trans-dimensional alliances and apparently deterring new readers from getting on with DC.

Thus, when DC retconned their entire ponderous continuity following Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-1986, ejecting the entire concept of a multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only been one world literally festooned with heroes and villains, many of their greatest characters got a unique restart, with the conceit being that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Fans old and new therefore had no idea what pre-Crisis stories were still “true” or valid and to counter confusion the publishers launched the double-sized Secret Origins comicbook series to peek behind the curtain and provide all-new stories which related the current official histories of their vast and now exceedingly crowded pantheon…

Of course now the multiverse concept is back and not confusing at all (who’d have thunk it?) but whatever the original reasons the dramatic 1980s refit did provide for some utterly astounding and cleverly cohesive storytelling…

This sterling softcover collection from 1989 gathered some of the most impressive headline-grabbing reworkings and even offered an all-new reinterpretation of the Batman’s beginnings to fit the new world’s reconstructed history and opened the action after ‘Legends’, a fascinating Introduction by series editor Mark Waid.

‘The Man Who Falls’ by Dennis O’Neil & Dick Giordano incorporated the revisions of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One and Batman: Shaman into a compelling examination of vengeance, obsession and duty describing how the only survivor of the Wayne Homicides dedicated his life to becoming a living weapon in the war on crime…

When DC Comics decided to rationalise and reconstruct their continuity the biggest shake-up was Superman and it’s hard to argue that change was unnecessary. All the Action Ace’s titles were suspended for three months – and boy, did that make the media sit-up and take notice – for the first time since the Christopher Reeve movie. But there was method in the madness…

In 1986 Man of Steel, a six-issue miniseries written and drawn by John Byrne with inks by Dick Giordano, stripped away vast amounts of accumulated baggage and returned the Strange Visitor from Another World to the far from omnipotent, edgy but good-hearted reformer Siegel and Shuster had first envisioned. It was a huge and instant success, becoming the decade’s premiere ‘break-out’ hit and from that overwhelming start Superman returned to his suspended comic-book homes with the addition of a third monthly title premiering in the same month.

The miniseries presented six complete stories highlighting key points in Superman’s career, reconstructed in the wake of the aforementioned Crisis and ‘The Haunting’ comes from the last issue; relating how the hero returned to his Kansas home and at last discovered his alien roots and heritage when a hologram of his father Jor-El attempted to possess and reprogram Clark Kent with the accumulated wisdom and ways of dead Krypton…

‘The Secret Origin of Green Lantern’ by James Owsley, M.D. Bright & José Marzan Jr. hails from Secret Origins #36 (January 1989) and told how Hal Jordan was selected to become an intergalactic peacekeeper by a dying alien, all viewed from the fresh perspective of a young aerospace engineer whose brief encounter with the Emerald Gladiator a decade earlier had changed his life forever. The expansive yarn re-visits all the classic highlights and even finds room to take the plucky guy on an adventure against resource raider on Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe…

Mark Verheiden & Ken Steacy then drastically upgrade the legend of J’onn J’onzz in ‘Martian Manhunter’ (Secret Origins #35, Holiday edition 1988) in a moody innovative piece of 1950’s B-Movie paranoia, nicely balanced by an enthralling, tragic and triumphant reinterpretation and genuinely new take on the story of Silver Age icon Barry Allen . The freshly-deceased Flash  reveals the astonishing truth behind the ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ in a lost classic by Robert Loren Fleming, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, first published in Secret Origins Annual #2 1988.

The creation of the Justice League of America was the event which truly signalled the return of superheroes to comicbooks in 1960, inspiring the launch of the Fantastic Four, the birth of Marvel Comics and a frantic decade of costumed craziness.

Their rallying adventure wasn’t published until #9 of their own title and was in fact the twelfth tale in their canon, because, quite frankly, origins, crucible moments and inner motivation were just not considered that important back then.

When Keith Giffen, Peter David & Eric Shanower crafted ‘All Together Now’ for Secret Origins #32 (November 1989) such things had come to be regarded as pivotal moments in mystery-man mythology but it didn’t stop the creative team having lots of snide and engaging fun as they retooled the classic tale of rugged individuals separately battling an alien invasion only to unite in the final moments and form the World’s Greatest Heroic team. The refit wasn’t made any easier by the new continuity’s demands that Batman be excised from the legendary grouping of Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash and Superman whilst the under-reconstruction Wonder Woman had to be replaced by a teenaged Black Canary…

Nevertheless the substitution worked magnificently and the daring adventure is the perfect place to end this fabulous compendium of a DC’s second Lost Age as yet another continuity-upgrade revitalises some of the most recognisable names in popular fiction.

And No, I’m not playing “how long until the next one”…
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