Category: Batman

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Batman and the Outsiders: The Chrysalis


By Chuck Dixon, Julian Lopez, Carlos Rodriguez & Bit (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-070-3

Following the forcible dissolution of Nightwing’s covert and pre-emptive strike force, Batman once again took over the leadership of the Outsiders and, after a daunting series of auditions, settled on a core squad comprising the Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho, Grace, Katana and Catwoman, with standby options on a number of others and rejecting mass-moving powerhouse Thunder mooching about on probation…

This first slim tome collects issues #1-5 of the second run of Batman and the Outsiders, and is the initial book of a triptych of volumes (the last still forthcoming) covering an epic struggle against a terrifying extraterrestrial plot which threatened to engulf the Earth; eventually growing to involve a goodly portion of the planet’s metahuman protectors…

Written throughout by Chuck Dixon and inked by Bit, the breakneck action erupts in ‘The Chrysalis’, illustrated by Julian Lopez, wherein master strategist Batman dispatches Katana, Metamorpho and Catwoman to infiltrate the skyscraper HQ of mystery Eurotrash money-man Mister Jardine, whose corporate conglomerate has been making some very peculiar purchases – items dubious enough to set alarms roaring in the Bat-computer…

With the Martian Manhunter inserted as a psionic Trojan Horse inside the building, the infiltrators discover the enigmatic billionaire has not only illegally stockpiled radioactive and fissionable materials but also unearthed a deadly anti-metahuman weapon of the sort which nearly overran the world during the Infinite Crisis…

The Observational Metahuman Activity Construct – or Omac – is a nanotech-purposed cyborg designed to overcome any super-powered foe, and in ‘Infestation’ (pencilled by Carlos Rodriguez) the freshly repurposed death-machine goes after the Outsiders whilst the Manhunter plunders Jardine’s data.

With the situation rapidly going south, Thunder defies Batman and rushes to the rescue, proving his assertion that she is not professional enough for the team. Already en route, rowdy Amazon Grace Choi is preparing an escape route for the sorely pressed team when, in a desperate move, the Element Man channels all the citadel’s power through his own unique body and immobilises the Omac…

‘Throwdown’ (with Lopez returning to the pencil art) sees the terrified and self-preserving Catwoman quit and replaced by Cassandra Cain, the reformed assassin who was briefly the third Batgirl, as Batman and the Outsiders defy the Justice League by refusing to destroy the captured nano-nemesis.

When it suddenly reactivates itself, both teams are simultaneously attacked and only a tremendous joint effort subdues it once more.

In the aftermath, JLA-er Geo-Force quits and rejoins his old Outsider allies, unaware that the Dark Knight has manipulated his former comrades, allowing his science squad Francine Langstrom and Salah Miandad time to reprogram the death machine as another member of the covert team…

In ‘Mission: Creep’ a pair of mysterious strangers also enlist, as does radical wild card Green Arrow, before the Outsiders invade French Guiana to stop a commercial space launch. Langstrom’s investigations have revealed that the sinister Jardine has been using Omac technology to create new biological species designed to live off-Earth…

Whilst the billionaire moves to take over the site, eliminating the launch personnel and loading two ships with his mysterious payloads, in the surrounding rainforest wildly differing perspectives and methodology have set the Outsiders at each others’ throats…

Meanwhile in Gotham, Salah has finally erased the captured cyborg’s protocols and dubbed the reformed member Remac, blissfully unaware that the giant automaton still has a measure of its old sinister sentience…

And in the jungle, Batman and his squad close in on the launch-pad determined to stop whatever Jardine wants rocketed into space, blithely oblivious to the cadre of metahuman mercenaries waiting to ambush them…

This first cliffhanging chronicle concludes with ‘Ghosts’ as Batman’s ethereal emissaries Ralph and Sue Dibny (dead but still battling evil as Ghost Detectives) scuttle the trap, allowing Metamorpho, Katana, Green Arrow and Batgirl to overcome murderous assassins Gunhawk, Militia, Bunny and Camorouge, whilst even Jardine’s personal Omac bodyguard is unable to withstand the gravity-warping power of Geo-Force.

Nevertheless, the mission is not a success as one of the ships manages to launch, carrying with it into appalling unknown dangers the valiant but vastly over-matched Metamorpho…

To Be Continued…

Fast and furious, beautifully illustrated and totally mesmerising, this spectacular romp is a fabulous Fights ‘n ‘Tights thriller to delight fans of the genre and art-lovers will also adore the gallery of covers and variants by Doug Braithwaite, Ryan Sook, Eric Battle & Art Thibert.

Straightforward action adventure at its very best…
© 2007, 2008, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Turning Points


By Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Chuck Dixon, Steve Lieber, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano & Bob Smith, Brent Anderson, Paul Pope & Claude St. Aubin (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1360-2

Over the many decades of Batman’s existence, almost as important as the partnership between Dark Knight and assorted Boy Wonders has been the bizarrely offbeat yet symbiotic relationship between those caped and costumed vigilantes and Gotham City’s top cop James Gordon.

In this collection, compiling five individual pastiches released as the miniseries Turning Points in 2001, readers saw revealed significant moments in the development of that shadowy alliance produced, as an added bonus for long-term aficionados, in tribute to key eras in Batman’s waxing and waning career by veteran artists and the toast of the new wave creators…

It all begins with ‘Uneasy Allies’ by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber, set in the days – and style – of the mysterious vigilante’s stormy debut in Frank Miller & Dave Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One.

Police Captain Gordon is still the only honest cop in a corrupt and brutally gung-ho force, reeling from the shock of his wife divorcing him. When bereaved, heartsick and crazed college professor Hale Corbett takes a wedding hostage, Gotham’s SWAT team commander is champing at the bit to storm in and rack up the body-count, but wanted felon The Batman offers Gordon a slim hope of ending the siege without loss of life…

All the masked nut-case wants in return is a sympathetic ear at the GCPD…

A working relationship established, ‘…And Then There Were… Three?’ (by Ed Brubaker & Joe Giella – who drew many of the 1960s stories and the Batman newspaper strip) celebrates the era of TV’s “Batmania” as, about a year after their first meeting, reports of a garishly garbed boy assistant to Batman begin to filter in. As deadly psychopath Mr. Freeze rampages through the city, Gordon demands to why the now-tolerated Caped Crusader is recklessly endangering a child…

In a romp filled with such past icons as giant props and gaudy villains, a decidedly deadly outcome makes Gordon realise the true nature of Batman and Robin’s relationship…

‘Casualties of War’ (Brubaker, Dick Giordano & Bob Smith) is set in the bleak aftermath following the death of second Robin Jason Todd, the crippling of Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon and the torture of her father, all at the bone-white hands of The Joker.

A solitary, driven Dark Knight haunts the streets and allies, ceaselessly crushing criminals with brutal callousness, whilst sinister serial killer The Garbage Man prowls unchallenged…

When the wheelchair-bound Barbara fails in an attempted intervention to calm a Batman pushing himself near to breaking-point, it takes a rooftop heart-to-heart with now Commissioner Gordon to finally crack the Gotham Guardian’s shell and begin the healing process…

Years later, as a result of a strategically systematic attack by would-be crime-lord Bane, an exhausted and broken Batman was replaced by another, darker hero. Set during the Knight-Fall publishing event, ‘The Ultimate Betrayal’ (by Chuck Dixon & Brent Anderson) describes the moment Gordon realised that his enigmatic ally had become a remorseless machine and exterminating angel hunting criminals with no regard to life anymore.

If only third Robin Tim Drake could have told him that the man behind the cowl – and claws and razor-armour – was actually Azrael: hereditary and murderously programmed living weapon of an ancient warrior-cult…

The journey comes full circle with ‘Comrades in Arms’ by Rucka, Paul Pope & Claude St. Aubin, wherein a mysterious stranger and his family hit Gotham on a mission to find Gordon and Batman, just as the Commissioner introduces his destined successor Michael Akins to the Major Crimes Unit.

Word on the street is that the Russian mob are planning a huge retaliatory strike and every cop is waiting for the hammer to fall when Hale Corbett walks into Police HQ demanding to see Gordon and the masked manhunter who changed his life all those years ago…

Filtered through gritty modern sensibilities but still able to revere past glories and the Batman’s softer side, this superbly readable collection also includes a cover gallery by artistic all-stars Javier Pulido, Ty Templeton, Joe Kubert, Howard Chaykin, Pope & Tim Sale.
© 2001, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman Archives volume 4


By Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Joseph Greene, Dick Sprang & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-414-9

Debuting a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and later Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented National Comics as the market and genre leader of the nascent comicbook industry, becoming the epitome of swashbuckling derring-do and keen human-scaled adventure.

This fourth scintillating deluxe hardback chronicles Batman yarns from Detective Comics #87-102 (cover-dated May 1944-August 1945) and is particularly special since it almost exclusively features the artwork of unsung genius Dick Sprang, revealing how he slowly developed into the character’s primary and most well-regarded illustrator during a period when most superhero features experienced a gradual downturn and eventual – albeit temporary – extinction.

Sprang even drew the lion’s share of the stunning covers reproduced here – the remainder being divided between Jerry Robinson, Bob Kane, Jack Burnley and inker George Roussos…

No less crucial to the Dynamic Duo’s ever-burgeoning popularity were the sensitive, witty, imaginative and just plain thrilling stories from an exceedingly talented stable of scripters such as Joe Greene, Don Cameron, Edmund Hamilton, Mort Weisinger, Alvin Schwartz and original co-creator Bill Finger: all diligently contributing as Batman and Robin grew into a hugely successful media franchise.

One final point of possible interest: Sprang actually began drawing Batman tales in 1941 and editor Whitney Ellsworth, cognizant of his new find’s talent and the exigencies of the war effort, had the 26-year old former Pulp illustrator frantically drawing as many stories as he could handle, which were then stockpiled against the possibility of one, some or all of his artists being called up.

Thus many yarns were published “out of order”, and when read now it might seem as if Sprang’s style occasionally advanced and regressed. It’s no big deal – I just thought you’d like to know…

Sprang pencilled, inked, lettered and coloured most of his assignments during this period, aided and abetted by his wife Lora, who used the professional pseudonym Pat Gordon for her many lettering and colouring jobs on Superboy, Superman and Batman stories.

After a fond reminiscence from Sprang himself in the Foreword, the dramas begin to unfold in Detective #87’s ‘The Man of a Thousand Umbrellas’ written by Joseph Greene.

The Penguin had a bizarre appeal and the Wicked Old Bird had his own cover banner whenever he resurfaced, as in this beguiling crime-spree highlighting his uncanny arsenal of weaponised parasols, brollies and bumbershoots.

As World War II staggered to a close and home-front fears subsided, spies gradually gave way to more home-grown threats and menaces. Issue #88 offered a nasty glimpse at true villainy when ‘The Merchants of Misery’ – also by Greene – pitted the Dynamic Duo against merciless and murderous loan sharks preying on poverty-stricken families, whilst ‘Laboratory Loot!’ by Don Cameron in #89, saw the return of flamboyant crime enthusiast The Cavalier, forced to join temporarily forces with Batman to thwart petty gangsters stealing loot he’d earmarked as his own…

Detective Comics #90 featured ‘Crime Between the Acts!’ (Greene) as the Caped Crusaders followed a Mississippi Riverboat full of crooked carnival performers from one plundered town to another, before Edmond Hamilton scripted a terrifically twisty tale in ‘The Case of the Practical Joker’, wherein some crazy and wisely anonymous prankster began pulling stunts and have fun at the Harlequin of Hate’s expense.

Greene revealed ‘Crime’s Manhunt’ in #92, with a particularly nasty band of bandits turning to bounty hunting and turning in all their friends and associates for hefty rewards. Once they’d run out of pals to betray they simply organised jailbreaks to provide more crooks to catch: a measure the Dark Knight took extreme umbrage with…

Bill Finger scripted the next two issues beginning with ‘One Night of Crime!’ in #93. Ed Kressy laid out the art – which leads me to suspect that this was one of the earlier Sprang inventory tales – and the story itself is a cracker: a portmanteau human interest yarn in actuality starring the ordinary folk who got on a Gotham Tour Bus just before it was hijacked by brutally casual killers. Cue Batman and Robin…

‘No One Must Know!’ in #94 was another poignant and moving melodrama with the Gotham Gangbusters tracking a pack of thugs to the little hamlet of Meadowvale, where they recognised the village’s most decent, beloved and respected patriarch as an escaped convict…

Next comes an originally untitled yarn here dubbed ‘The Blaze’, written by Mort Weisinger and outlining the short and fantastically impressive career of a brilliant criminal mastermind who organised all Gotham’s gangsters and almost outsmarted Batman. Almost…

In #96 Cameron and Sprang showed their flair for light comedy with ‘Alfred, Private Detective!’ as Bruce Wayne’s dedicated manservant finally realised his ambition to set up as a crime-busting Private Eye – with bombastically mixed success – whilst in #97 ‘The Secret of the Switch!’, by Greene, offered a baffling mystery when a dead criminal confessed from beyond the grave and led the Caped Crusaders into a deadly trap.

A bored banker tried to become an idle philanthropist in #98’s ‘The King of the Hoboes!’ (Cameron) but found that his money was too big a lure for a couple of crafty conmen – until Batman stepped – in whilst the perfidious Penguin’s cool, cruel and preposterous scheme to commit ‘The Temporary Murders!’ (#99 and Cameron again) proved once more that the Darknight Detective was far too slick for him…

Issue #100 featured ‘The Crow’s Nest Mystery!’ by Cameron, Jack Burnley & Charles Paris (although the art seems more reminiscent of young Winslow Mortimer to me) with Batman and Robin exposing a cunning smuggling scam in a spooky old house, after which a desperate mother left her appallingly badly-behaved babies with Bruce and Dick in ‘The Tyrannical Twins!’

The hilarious result was the exposure and capture of a gang of ruthless jewel thieves and a near nervous breakdown for long-suffering babysitter Alfred in a wry cracker from Cameron and Sprang before the Joker returned to close this volume on a spectacular high note in #102’s ‘The House that was Held for Ransom!’ (written by Alvin Schwartz) wherein the Clown Prince of Crime astoundingly abducted a recluse’s mansion, lock stock and barrel, and led Batman a merry chase to near disaster before his eventual, inevitable defeat…

These spectacular yarns provide a perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing range from bleak moody avenger to suave swashbuckler, from remorseless Agent of Justice to best pal to sophisticated Devil-may-care Detective in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile. Moreover, this supremely sturdy Archive Edition is indubitably the most luxurious and satisfying way to enjoy them over and over again.
© 1944, 1945, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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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.