‘Batman’ Archives
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
The title of this story already brings a lot of expectations to it, being obviously compared to the famous final silver ago story by Alan Moore and Curt Swan. In reality this is a very different story, but I guess the title brought attention to it. The creators are probably as big as the title, at least Neil Gaiman is. He definitely brings [...]
Batman: Faces of Evil
This is effectively the last Batman story by Paul Dini before the new Batman is introduced. It takes place over Detective Comics 852 and Batman 685 and it's drawn by Dini regular Dustin Nguyen. Since Bruce Wayne is already missing at this point, this story stars Thomas Elliot as Bruce Wayne, after the events of Heart of Hush. We see how he [...]
Detective Comics #846-850: Heart of Hush
This is the final arc of Paul Dini's run on Detective Comics, a run that I have enjoyed. But these last few issues took a different format than what he's been doing so far. This is a 5 issue story arc, telling one long story. Previously Dini wrote mostly 1 issue stories, sometimes going up to 2 issues, but they were all self-contained stories, [...]
Batman R.I.P. (676-681)
I haven't loved Grant Morrison's run on Batman so far, it had its ups and downs. However it was clear that he had an overall arc in mind since the beginning, and it seems to culminate in this infamous storyline. I enjoyed this story more than previous ones, I felt it was tighter and it did feel important, like an event. In the first half of the [...]
Batman Year One
I read this story many years ago, but I barely remembered it. I was more familiar with The Dark Knight Returns even though this was just as well regarded. Reading it again (basically for the first time) I was very surprised at how much Batman screwed up here. Basically all his appearances in this book are nearly a failure, and almost get him [...]
Batman 672-675, Detective Comics 840-845
Catching up on the 2 main Batman titles before the big RIP story. Batman 672-674 is about the Third Ghost, the previous two have appeared previously in Grant Morrison's run. 672 is pretty straightforward, Lane/Third Ghost is luring Batman out, and once he does he gives Batman a heart attack. Which brings us to the next issue, which is a mix [...]
Batman: Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul
This is the big crossover event among the Bat-Books, bringing back the greatest Batman villain. People always think of Joker, but I think Ra's Al Ghul has more affinity with Batman, not to mention that they are now officially related. This eight part crossover is very action oriented, but as with all crossovers it feels fragmented. I think the [...]
Detective Comics by Paul Dini (821-837)
I am way behind on the Batman titles, so here's the first batch of Paul Dini written issues of Detective Comics between 821-837 (11 issues in total). In reading these I really felt like I watch watching the animated series also written by Dini. Each issue is a self-contained story, and it focuses on the detective side of Batman. There is a [...]
Superman/Batman 1-26
Jeph Loeb had big success with this series and I always wanted to check it out. Now that I have I will share my thoghts. 1-6: World's Finest, Ed McGuiness This first arc surprised me a lot. It introduced the characters and their relationship, and it also showed them fighting many super villains as well as cameo appearances by many fellow [...]
Batman #655-658, 663-669
When it was announced that the Kubert brothers were moving to DC and were penciling Batman and Action Comics I was very excited. Finally some big stars on the flagship titles in the DCU. However I don't feel like their work has left any impact at all. Andy Kubert has penciled 7 issues in 12 months, and now he seems off the book. I was greatly [...]
Batman: Son of the Demon
In preparation for the recent Batman arc by Morrison & Kubert, I re-read the story that inspired them. This is a self-contained Batman story, published as a graphic novel in the 80's. The first time I read this story I just started reading comics, and I was totally unfamiliar with the Batman comics. So when I read this I was surprised to [...]
Batman: Year 100
Very fast-paced action thriller. Very few comics manage to keep the tension high, usually I need a more substantial story. In this case the mystery was a simple one, but it played very well in between the action scenes. It obviously played on the Batman mythos, but all you need to know is pretty much common knowledge. Gordon is a friend, Robin [...]
Batman: Face the Face
This is the first One Year Later storyline, and it a classic detective story. The story by James Robinson sees the return of Batman after one year, and it is slowly revealed that Harvey Dent took over Batman's job during his absence. Harvey was cured from his madness, so he stopped being Two Face, but for how long? And why are some super villains [...]
Batman: Broken City
Brian Azzarello is known for his crime noir 100 Bullets, created together with Eduardo Risso. The closest mainstream title I can think of that could suit these two artists' style is Batman. So it's no surprise that their Batman story is very noir, almost classically noir with the usual mystery, femme fatale, and great dark atmosphere. Being a [...]