- Brave and The Bold (Volume 1) #200: I like stories where Batman, the star of Detective Comics, is actually shown to a detective. This story has a nice mystery to it. It isn't one of his ten usual rogues. As a Brave and The Bold story- it is by definition a team up. I don't include it under the Batman around the DC Universe section because here Batman of Earth-2 teams up- in a kind of sort of but not really sense- with the Batman of Earth-1. It's a case that spans more than 40 years and two universes. It is a great look at the different methods Batman uses on the different worlds and how the more things change the more they stay the same.
- Detective Comics #822: The Riddler is my favorite Batman villain. Why? Because aside from a few stories, he's never really been trying to kill Batman. He just wants to prove that he is smarter. This story asks the question what would happen to Edward Nigma if he could actually do that? The answer is truly astounding. "Go away Batman, you bore me." Gotham's got a new Greatest Detective. Forget flashing the Bat-signal. Unlike Batman, Nigma is a P.I. with a license. He advertises on the internet and in the newspaper. Which means you can always find him when you need him.
- Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?: Here, Neil Gaiman writes his love song to all things Batman. Almost every version of almost every Batman character shows up to pay respects to the Caped Crusader after his supposed death in Batman RIP. It's a weird and wonderful story that is sometimes silly, sometimes somber and still quite foreboding. It also examines what death really means in super hero comics- or maybe even mythology. It also serves as a quiet homage to Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" which I'm sure I'll talk about in the months to come.
- Batman: Going Sane: I reviewed this one for "Did I Get What I Paid For?" and I still feel the same way. While I think Killing Joke has a better story- this one is a better examination the dynamic between Batman and Joker. It's a real head spinner that makes you question Batman's moral superiority. What kind of man allows love to draw him out of a deep dark hole? A fairly rational one, I'd say. What type of guy goes around tormenting a schizophrenic who has found peace and is actually self medicating in a way that is a lot healthier than massacring dozens a people? What type of man dresses up in funny clothes to beat up purse snatchers? Either someone who is extremely asocial at best or a Grade A sociopath.
- The Long Halloween: As I've said - I love Batman stories that are actually mysteries. He is supposed to be "The World's Greatest Detective" after all. While this one features all the usual suspects, Batman suspects all of them and he'd love to get his hands on all of them. This time he's in a bind because for once- they didn't do it. Eventually all the clues start adding up- but it's a caper that takes 13 months to solve. With the team of Loeb and Sale hitting it out of the park, it is well worth the wait.
- Absolution: Yet again, J.M. Dematteis proves just how amazing Batman mysteries can be. Only this one is not a who done it. That's a forgone conclusion. It is more of a "Why done it?" and a "Where is She?" story. The biggest mystery of all is "Can a person change?" What truly makes this story amazing isn't the fact that, as with Going Sane, there is the distinct possibility that Batman might be wrong- but that for once the villain isn't some psychopath in a funny suit. It's just an ordinary, run of the mill, garden variety emotionally damaged person. Somehow that makes the story pack a bit more of a punch.
- The Mad Love: I know what you're saying. This is a Batman: The Animated Series comic book. However it is a Batman: The Animated Series comic so amazing that writer Paul Dini campaigned for years to get it adapted to an episode. Once they were on the WB, where standards and practices were less strict than Fox, he got his wish. What is great about this story is that it boils Batman down to his essential elements and doesn't try to do too much. Not to say there aren't twists and turns - there are plenty of them. However it is really a character study of the fall from grace of Dr. Harleen Quinzel. There is plenty of Batman and The Joker as well- but it is really her story. It packs a lot of meat and potatoes considering it is an animated series comic.
- Batman: Year One: Again, this is the third one I also covered during the run of "Did I Get What I Paid For?" It is one of those stories that redefined Batman. It finally killed the annoying 50s and 60s Batman forever. It has often been imitated but never quite duplicated. It is also wins points for being just as much Jim Gordon's story as it is Batman's. In fact, in some way's Gordon's story is the more interesting of the two since he is shown to be a much more flawed man.
- The Killing Joke: This story is one of the darkest, dreary Batman stories ever written. It truly paints a picture of who The Joker really is. Or does it? Even Alan Moore doesn't say for certain how much of Joker's story is true. In fact he seems to implies quite the opposite. However the story is also a great horror story. Judging from Joker's actions there is no telling how far he'll go or what the end result will be. It's a story that leaves you hanging until the end.
- Dark Knight Returns: This dark and dreary dystopian future set the standard for all Batman stories after it. It seems like the full realization of the direction DC had been trying to take Batman to since the late 70s. Unlike many of the other dark Batman stories, this one has at least a few moments of humor in it. Here you have a Gotham without a Batman that has pretty much gone to hell. Then things occur which pull a sixty some year old Batman out of retirement. Aided by a teenage girl- who becomes the new Robin- Batman begins cleaning up the streets. Only he runs afoul of a system that doesn't want to be cleaned up and ends up going up against a certain Man of Steel.
- Sandman #72: This bit is short but very, very funny. In it Superman, Batman and J'onn Jonnz discuss their dreams. It is an interesting way of poking fun at the way the heroes are portrayed in other media. However, J'onn's remarks about never having a dream about being a character on TV seem outdated now. First, J'onn appeared in the unaired Justice League pilot from 1997. (Actually, some people I know say it aired on TV at least in the Philippines.) Then he appeared on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. Eventually he ended up on Smallville.
- Sergio Aragones Destroys DC: There are few artists that can make me buy a comic for the art alone. Senor Aragones is at the top of that list. Although the story by Mark Evanier is pretty funny too. Of course, this being an assault on all things DC Universe the big five get their share of riffs. Aragones is crueler to Batman than he is to most of the others but that's clearly out of love. The book is bursting to the brim with sight gags which is to be expected from the disputed master of drawing them. They aren't all slapstick bits. If you look very carefully you'll spot a few references to everything from Batlash to Plop!
- World's Funnest: This wacky story barely features Batman. However when he does show up on several of the Earths that Bat-Mite and Mxyzptlk fight over- and ultimately destroy- it is a great spoof of just about every version of Batman continuity up until the late 1990s. Everything from tame by today's standards 1940s, to the campy fifties and sixties to the grim for the sake of grim Batman is fair game. Of course a lot of the DC Universe's greatest get a little gentle ribbing here as well- from the JSA and The Freedom Fighters all the way to Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew.
- Batman and The Outsiders (#16, #20, 22 and 23) : This multi-part epic broken up amongst several not always contiguous issues explains something about the existence of the title itself. It is obvious why The Outsiders would need Batman. While he's not powered- he's a good teacher. This explains why Batman might need the Outsiders. While trying to help the amnesiac Halo uncover her true origins, Batman runs up against forces that are- to put it mildly- cosmic. While Batman's skills are great when dealing with earthly menaces like The Joker- put him up against deranged temporal observing extradimensional beings he's way of out of his depth yet unlike the Justice League who have all powerful or other super smart members- Batman's role on this team is unique.
- New Teen Titans #50: Okay- technically, this one shouldn't count. Batman does not show up at Donna Troy's wedding. Bruce Wayne does. However since the start of Wolfman and Perez's run on New Teen Titans, there was a growing divide between Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne. Dick Grayson as Nightwing became a superhero in his own right. It shows Bruce to be something other than what we've usually seen before or since- a human being. It is a nice moment- a page or two long- that shows the family bond between these two characters. It shows that things may change but that change does not have to be a bad thing. Everyone makes mistakes- even Batman.
- Justice League- Tower of Babble: Since Batman returned to being the Dark Knight in the early 80s, people wondered just how badass he was. The answer: badass enough to keep contingency plans on how to kill every single one of his friends in case their minds were irreparable compromised but not badass enough to lock those kill plans someplace safe so that if anyone other than him tried to get them that person would be dead or the data would be destroyed. So Ra's Al Ghul gets them and uses them. Some of them are just twisted. Aquaman is given controlled doses of Scarecrow's fear toxin to make him afraid of water. The unimplement plan for The Atom was to give him a pulse that would make him shrink until he became a singularity with Schwarzschild radius of about half a micron. It's a grand exercise in paranoia and shows you just the way Batman thinks.
- Brave and the Bold (Volume 1) #198: Usually when Batman mixes it up with the Legion the stories do not turn out well. Here the Legion's only non-powered member journeys back the 20th century to tie up some long standing loose ends from his solo series. Through the usual Brave and the Bold laws of coincidences Karate Kid ends up teaming up with Batman to save his ex-girlfriend from a super villain terrorist. The main story is a great adventure story. The really interesting part is looking at the heroes methods. In some ways, Batman and Karate Kid have a lot in common. They are both "the quiet one" on their respective teams. They rely more on skill and grace to survive rather than flash and super powers. In a lot of ways the art of being a "super-normal" hasn't changed in a thousand years. In other ways- they are very different. Bruce Wayne was a child of wealth and high society who chose to be a loner. Val is a young man of much poorer circumstances who is used to a life of solitude yet chooses to be a member of a team. Ultimately the two learn something from each other before Karate Kid heads home.
- JLA (Volume 2) #6: This is the second time this issue has a made a top ten list. Why? I'll tell you why... because interactions between Batman and Guy Gardener are absolutely perfect. They are such extreme opposites that they become natural antagonists. What makes it really funny is that everyone has been in a situation like that. There is a comedic theory that states while putting normal people in abnormal situations can be amusing, but putting abnormal people in run of mill situations can be a comedic gold mine.
- Fanboy #5: The team of Aragones and Evanier are back- and this time they've brought friends. The entire miniseries was a metatextual tale about why certain comic characters work, disguised as a tale about the history of comics, disguised as a romantic comedy. This particular issue examines Batman and why he is so popular. It looks at the dark brooding loner (with a sidekick?) archetype and why it would appeal to so many readers- particularly teenagers. Now- just having Aragones drawing Batman would be enough to earn such a tale a high spot. Amongst their guest artists for this issue, they tracked down some guy who had drawn a few other Batman comics. Some guy named Frank Miller. I kid you not, it was this issue of Fanboy that convinced me to pick up Dark Knight Returns a few weeks later for my 19th birthday.
- Swamp Thing #51-53: This story is, at its heart, about love and sex between a human woman and pile of swamp muck. It's also about a certain caped crusader standing up for their right to do so. Alan Moore uses superheroes to play with the expected social norms. This shouldn't surprise anyone who has read Moore's other projects. Batman get a lot of great dialogue and development here as a subplot emerges involving Swamp Thing coming to Gotham and an escape by Poison Ivy.
Next: Marvel's First Family
