Detective Comics #490

Bought at the September Brimfield Antique Fair, 2026.

Title: Detective Comics
Issue: 490
Date: May,1980
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Denny O'Neil, Mike W. Barr, Bob Rozakis, Jack C. Harris, Martin Pasko
Artist: Don Newton, Dan Adkins, John Calnan, Joe Giella, George Tuska, Bob Smith, Alex Saviuk, Pat Broderick, Frank McLaughlin
Colorist: Adrienne Roy, Gene D'Angelo, Tatjana Wood, Bob LeRose
Letterer: Ben Oda, Todd Klein, Milt Snapinn
Editor: Paul Levitz

The main story here has the Batman caught in the middle of a battle between Ras Al Ghul and the Sensei for the control and the purpose of the League of Assassins. The Batman races to stop a manmade natural disaster set up by the Sensei from taking out a gathering of world religious leaders, and he has more problems dealing with Commissioner Gordon's security forces than he does with the actual assassins. The Batman is having a pretty bad day by the time this one is over, although he does get a bit of reprieve by the end in the arms of Talia Al Ghul.

There are also four backup stories. A ballet-themed Batgirl story is a pretty straightforward mystery as Barbara tries to unravel the grudges in a family dance troupe that have led to attempted murder.

Robin, in college-student mode, takes on a crime that feels significantly below his paygrade as he tracks down the (obvious) suspect in a scheme to sell exam answers to cheating students. The fun part of this is his interactions with current girlfriend (and honest nursing student) Jennifer.

There's a short "Tale of Gotham City" piece that turns out to be rather cozy after opening with a voiceover that feels a bit victim-blamey. It redeemed itself reasonably well in the end.

And finally, a Black Lightning story with the hero saving a teenaged boy from some Voodoo practitioners, complete with the expected stereotypes for that sort of thing, and a cliffhanger ending that teases a possible new beginning for Black Lightning.

The opening story did a good job of keeping the tension high, while the Robin and Batgirl stories were both decent short-form adventures. Black Lightning seemed to be going for a reboot, and did a reasonable job of setting that up.

Rating: 5.5/10

World's Finest Comics #217

Another in a small batch of comics gifted to me by my brother-in-law.

Title: World's Finest Comics
Issue: 217
Date: May, 1973
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Bob Haney
Artist: Dick Dillin, Murphy Anderson

After a sequence of mishaps, Metamorpho ends up with all of the abilities of Superman and Batman, in addition to his own powers. Eager to used his newfound powers for good, Metamorpho ends up upstaging both Superman and Batman, who become jealous of all of the attention that Metamorpho is getting, and decide to defect to one of America's enemy nations where they pledge loyalty to a military dictator. Metamorpho is sent to bring Superman and Batman back to America... by any means necessary.

There is a plot twist, as one might expect, that reveals that Superman and Batman were actually working for the cause of good, but they end up admitting that they really were jealous of Metamorpho, so not all of their obnoxious behavior is quite explained away. The villain, the dictator of the imaginary enemy nation, is basically a walking set of cliches, but really, so are Batman and Superman in this story. Metamorpho, meanwhile comes off as reasonably sympathetic. His actual battles against Batman and Superman are generally goofy, but he does manage to drop a couple of good chemistry facts here and there as he uses his elemental powers.

This was harmless fun, although it relied pretty heavily on Superman and Batman acting in ways that most fans would consider out-of-character for the sake of the plot.

Rating: 4.5/10 

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1

 

Bought at Dollar Tree in Enfield CT USA.

Title: Batman: Gates of Gotham
Issue: 1
Date: June 2026 (reprint from 2011)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins
Artist: Trevor McCarthy
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Mike Marts, Janelle Asselin. Katie Kubert
Cover: Trevor McCarthy

Opening with a flashback to 1881, and then moving foward to an attack on three of Gotham's original bridges, this story focuses on deep connections between prominent families of Gotham. With the Batman in a race against time to find the person responsible for bombing the bridges, the first clues lead to the Penguin.

This is a good classic-feeling Batman story that's in the regular continuity, and rooted in the past history of Gotham City. It's nice to see multiple members of the Bat-Family involved, and Penguin has a nice scene.

Not all of the art was as effective as it could have been, but a lot was good, especially in the flashback to the 19th Century. This was a fun start to what looks to be a satisfying story.

Rating: 7/10

Batman #444

From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: Batman
Issue: #444
Date: February, 1990
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Jim Aparo
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Denny O'Neil

The Batman is on the trail of the mysterious Crimesmith. The only problem is, Crimesmith has rigged his henchpersons to explode if they try to rat him out. So the Batman goes into full-on detective mode, all while providing new associate Tim Drake with some Robin-in-training advice. The Crimesmith turns out to be closer to home than Bruce Wayne might have imagined, and he's holed up in a lair loaded with deathtrap-level security systems.

This was a solid story: Good detective work, some nice scenes with Tim, good action when it came time for that, and villains who felt human. This continues directly from the previous issue, but stands alone well while setting the stage for some future plot developments.

Rating: 7/10

Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Vol. 1: The Devil Nezha

Read this at the Clapp Memorial Library in Belchertown MA USA. Nice selection of graphic novels there, considering it's a small library.

Title: Batman/Superman: World's Finest: The Devil Nezha
Issue: Volume 1
Date: January, 2024
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Editor: Paul Kaminski

Reprinting the first four issues of the latest World's Finest reboot. Poison Ivy attacks the Daily Planet, and finds herself up against the Batman, Robin, and Superman. But before the heroes can defeat her, Metallo shows up, adding a whole new level of threat when he injects Superman with red kryptonite.

As it turns out, this is just the beginning, as an ancient demonic figure named Nezha takes control of villains, and then heroes to set them against Superman and the Batman.

This turned complicated quickly, with a time-travel subplot, and continuously-escalating threats as Nexha takes control of more and more powerful metahumans to try to wipe out all potential resistance to his conquest of Earth and beyond.

The character work and action in this story are solid, especially the little insights into the relationship between Clark and Bruce and how they look out for each other.

The weak point is the villain, who's a mess of inconsistent powers, unclear motivation, and bland generic-villain personality.

There was enough of interest here that I'd be willing to check out more of the series once it moves past Nezha.

Rating: 5/10

Detective Comics: The Complete Covers Volume 2

 

Bought at Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China, in December of 2021.

Title: Detective Comics: The Complete Covers
Issue: Volume 2
Publisher: Insight Editions
Date: 2019

Pocket-sized artbook, featuring a selection of Detective Comics covers from issues 301 to 600. This starts things off firmly in the Silver Age and it's over-the-top brightly colored goofiness, and brings up up to the Batman of the modern era. Along the way, we see the introduction of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, some redesigns of the Batman's costumes and milestone events like Batman: Year Two, and Blind Justice.

Unlike volume 3 (reviewed here), a lot of this material was unfamiliar to me. There were some really fun covers here, a few surprises in terms of crossovers (the Batman crosses paths with several of the Flash's adversaries). There is also a fair amount of silly Silver Age absurdities (Batman and Robin held captive in an alien zoo!) including a "Holy tombstone!" from Robin (who previous to the Batman TV show was more likely to go with "Great Scott!" as his exclamation of choice.

Like the rest of this series, the quality of the illustrations suffer a bit from the limitations of the book's size, but this is still a fun collection that delivers a lot of nostalgia in a small package.

Rating: 7/10

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

First comic purchase and first review of 202!
Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
Date: October, 2010
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Andy Kubert, Scott Williams, Simon Bisley, Mark Buckingham, Mike Hoffman, Kevin Nowlan, Bernie Mireault, Matt Wagner, Alex Ross
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, Nansi Hoolahan, Tim McCraw, Joe Matt
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher, John Costanza, Augustin Mas, Todd Klein
Editor: Scott Nybakken, Maggie Howell

The title feature of this trade paperback is the two-part story that spanned Batman #686 and Detective Comics #853, which were the last issues of those series before they were renumbered as part of the New 52. The title is a tribute to the classic Alan Moore two-parter, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, which was published at a similar moment, marking the division between the Pre-Crisis (On Infinite Earths) and Post-Crisis DC Universe.

The story has the Batman attending his own funeral, held in the back room of a Crime Alley bar, where Joe Chill serves as bartender, and all of the Batman's rogues gallery is in attendance as mourners, along with some more respectable members of the supporting cast. All of them are telling stories of the Batman's death while the Batman himself looks on unseen, with a mysterious woman as his guide.

And the stories are all contradictory.

This was an interesting examination of the symbolism of the Batman, and something of a reversal of the typical tale of transition into an afterlife. The fully-realized stories told by Selina Kyle and Alfred Pennyworth read like reasonably decent "What If?" tales, and artist Andy Kubert does a great job of evoking the styles of classic Batman artists. There are also some interesting stories that are just told as fragments from characters like Detective Bullock and Clayface.

The ending is a strange and surreal variant on (of all things), Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, that should never have worked, but which Gaiman somehow manages to just about pull off.

Backup stories in this volume include a miscellany of Gaiman's Batman writing from Batman: Black and White and Secret Origins. The Black and White piece is an amusing bit of fourth-wall breaking. Of the Secret Origins stories, the Riddler story was the best of the bunch, a loving tribute to the Silver Age, and a lament against the turn toward darker fare that followed.

None of this is anywhere Gaiman's best work in terms of writing, but it's a nice look at his relationship with comics in general and the Batman in particular, and it has a decent number of stand-out moments.

Rating: 7/10

Batman: White Knight

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Place Mall, Shanghai, China in March of 2020.

Title: Batman: White Knight
Date: October, 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Sean Murphy
Artist: Sean Murphy
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Scott Nybakken, Maggie Howell
Cover: Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth

The basic idea here is that the Joker is "cured", and, as Jack Napier, embarks on a political and public opinion campaign to turn Gotham City against the Batman. Lots of complications happen, and Gotham's most deadly enemies end up having to work together to save the city.

I found the opening bit problematic to a certain extent, although some of that was the context in which I'm reading it, as opposed to when it was written. Jack Napier is portrayed as "white knighting" to exploit real problems of police brutality against minorities for his cause, but some of the dialogue, particularly Joker's use of "I can't breathe" felt uncomfortably like appropriation on the part of the story itself.

As the story moves away from those themes with the further development of the plot, it becomes a bit more of a traditional (if still alternate-universe) Batman story. The plot twists are great, involving two Harley Quinns, the disappearance of Jason Todd, the Wayne family's connections to Baron Von Fries, and just about every villain in the Batman's rogues gallery. The story also provides a lot of closure and resolution for this universe's version of Gotham City.

In some sense, the examination of the Batman's relationship with the Joker was the weakest part of this, covering little in the way of new ground, and with some of Joker's dialogue coming off as closer to the version of the Joker from The Lego Batman Movie than the author probably intended.

That being said, the handling of Harley Quinn was awesome, as was the relationship between Bruce, Barbara, Dick, and Alfred. Commissioner Gordon also had a great role, conflicted by the compromises he has made allowing the Batman to operate outside the law, but with unofficial police sanction.

The author's focus on the various Batmobiles was a nice bit of fanservice, and a light touch in a book that did a good job of being serious, but not to the point of excess.

After the shaky start, this won me over in the end with good storytelling.

Rating: 7.5/10

Detective Comics: The Complete Covers Vol. 3

Bought at Boocup at the Kerry Place Mall Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Detective Comics: The Complete Covers
Issue: Volume 3
Publisher: Insight Editions
Date: 2019

Insight Editions makes pocket-sized collectible artbooks. This one collects the covers of Detective Comics, starting with issue #600 in 1989, through the re-numbering with the New 52 in 2011, and up to #17 in the renumbered series.

There is a ton of absolutely gorgeous artwork in this volume, not to mention a nice look at the recent history of the Batman. Included are such classic stories as Knightfall, No Man's Land, the Batwoman run in Detective Comics, Greg Rucka's three-year writing run, and Neil Gaiman's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?". Characters introduced in the issues covered include Bane, Stephanie Brown, Anarky, and the Parliament of Owls.

I've read Batman comics on and off during the time period covered here, so there was plenty of nostalgia looking through these covers, as well as some ideas for issues I should seek out.

As always with something pocket-sized, the size can never truly do the artwork justice, but in terms of presenting a shear number of classic covers, in order and complete, this book was a delightful treat.

Rating: 7.5/10

DC Retroactive Batman: The 1980s #1

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: DC Retroactive Batman: The 1980s
Issue: 1
Date: October, 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Artist: Jerry Bingham, Alan Davis, Paul Neary
Colorist: Carlos Badilla, Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual, Richard Starkings
Editor:Jim Chadwick, Chynna Glugston Flores, Denny O'Neil

This book contains a new story, and a reprint, both written by Mike W. Barr. The reprint is the classic first issue of  Batman Year Two from Detective Comics #575 in 1987. This story introduces the Reaper, a vigilante who once stalked Gotham's criminal element, and who has now come out of retirement and into conflict with the Batman, who is still at the beginning of his own path of vigilante justice, less lethal than that of the Reaper.

This is a good classic Batman story with some excellent character work on Leslie Thompkins, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon, along with the introduction of Rachel Caspian, a love interest of Bruce Wayne with a connection to the Reaper. Rachel Caspian is an intriguing character and the art team of Davis and Neary do a great job with her look. Likewise, the Reaper is a really fun design with his twin sickles, hidden guns, and armor.

The Batman's reaction to the thorough trouncing he receives at the hands (blades) of the Reaper seems a bit odd, but it makes sense in the "Year Two" context of the story.

The new story is a sequel, with a new Reaper stalking Gotham's crime families, and Batman on the case with Robin at his side.  The story was fun, with some good plot twists, but it went for more of an 80s-amusing vibe (with some of the dialogue throwing back to Adam West 1960s Batman), and as such, it lacked the gravitas of the original story. The new Reaper just never rises to the threat level of the original, and the result is what feels like just a regular day at work for the Batman and the Boy Wonder. Not that this is a terrible thing; I enjoyed the story. It just felt a bit out of place as a direct follow-up to something as iconic as Year Two.

Rating: 5.5/10

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #187

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
Issue: 187
Date: March, 2005
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Shane McCarthy
Penciller: Tommy Castillo
Inker: Rodney Ramos
Colorist: Tony Avina
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Bob Schreck, Michael Wright

This is part three of a story arc called "Riddle Me That", with the Batman being manipulated through a complex series of puzzles and traps by the Riddler, while the Riddler's past is explored in flashback sequences.

It hadn't occurred to me until I read this, but I know pretty much nothing about the Riddler's origin story, which is surprising to me considering what a longstanding and iconic character he is. I've even cosplayed him! And I still know nothing about his background.

So for that alone, I found this a really intriguing issue. It's a pretty transitional piece of the overall story arc, so the present-time action doesn't really amount to all that much, but the bits of Riddler backstory were enough to get me interested in reading more.

Rating: 6.5/10

Batman #700

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Batman
Issue: 700
Date: August 2010
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Tony Daniel, Frank Quitely, Scott Kolins, Andy Kubert, David Finch, Richard Friend
Colorist: Ian Hannin, Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, Brad Anderson, Peter Steigerwald
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Mike Marts, Janelle Siegel

I reviewed Batman #699 way back in 2011, in the early days of this blog (it was the first time I missed a day, something that I learned to get a lot less uptight about since then, as this blog has not usually been even close to daily since then).

I'm always a fan of "big round number" milestone issues. This one had two special features. The frist was a Batman pinup gallery by Shane Davis, Juan Doe, Guillem March, Dustin Nguyen, Tim Sale, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Phillip Tan. The other bonus item was a detailed map of the Batcave by Freddie Williams II.

The main story was something of a hot mess, a time-travel piece involving multiple version of the Batman, bunches of classic villains, and too much Damian Wayne. It did feature a lot of great visuals by its rotating cast of artists, some great action, and a ton of nods to past stories (I particularly liked the use of the Mutants gang from The Dark Knight Returns, and a rare appearance by Chief O'Hara). It was not very accessible to the casual fan, which is too bad, as these milestone issues often attract some casual fan interest, and the convoluted plot of this story would probably leave a lot of them wondering what the heck they just read.

I was a bit unsure myself. Very pretty issue, but not enough reward for the effort of parsing all of the time travel threads to try to get it to make sense.

Rating: 5/10

Batman and Robin #1

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Batman and Robin
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Penciller: Patrick Gleason
Inker: Mick Gray
Colorist: John Kalisz
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Cover: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray
Editor: Harvey Richards, Mike Marts

The opening teaser has one of the Batman's "Allies of the Bat" in Moscow attacked by an unknown ("I'm Nobody!") villain in an armored invisibility suit.

From there it's back to Gotham and the Batman's first official patrol with Damian Wayne as Robin. If you read my reviews, you may know that I am not a Damian Wayne fan. This story didn't help his cause. He was the same insufferable jerk that he always seems to be, and furthermore, he just isn't particularly entertaining.

He griped his way through Bruce taking him to Crime Alley to pay tribute to Bruce's parents, and then he proceeded to go all Jason Todd loose-cannon during a fight with some generic terrorists.

The action was solid, but there just wasn't anything particularly appealing about where the story is heading, and I don't have the patience to wait around for some moment when Damien Wayne stops being the most annoying character in the DC Universe.

Edit: Apparently, I had forgotten that I reviewed this one previously. It was that memorable. And gave it the same rating, so at least it shows I have some consistency. The previous review is here.

Rating: 4/10

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Red Hood vs. Anarky #1

Another summer purchase. I don't recall which store I got this one at.

Title: Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Red Hood vs. Anarky
Issue: 1
Date: August 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Javier Fernandez, Hugo Petris, Otto Schmidt
Colorist: John Kalisz
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Rafeal Albuquerque, Dave McCaig
Editor: Dave Wielgosz

This is part of the lead-up to the big Batman/Catwoman wedding event. This issue features the Red Hood on security duty for Selina's bachelorette party, with Anarky as the would-be party crasher.

Anarky is pretty badly outmatched from the start, even with Hood's restriction that he needs to do all of his work secretly. Still, his tactics make for an amusing approach to resolving the situation.

The story suffers from the problem of trying to name-drop some controversial political issues while still attempting to remain neutral, and as a result, the dialogue between Hood and Anarky is not as sharp as it could be. Still, this was a fun and fast-paced story with some small but interesting insights into Selina's background and as well as decent character work on Red Hood, a character who usually doesn't impress me all that much.

Rating: 6/10

Batman '66 Meets Steed & Mrs. Peel #1

Bought this one last summer at New England Comics, Quincy MA.

Title: Batman '66 Meets Steed & Mrs. Peel
Issue: 1
Date: September 2016
Publisher: DC Comics / Boom! Studios
Writer: Ian Edginton
Artist: Matthew Dow Smith
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Cover: Michael Allred, Laura Allred
Editor: Kristy Quinn, Jessica Chen, Chris Rosa

This was a must-buy for me, as it features a mashup of my two favorite vintage TV shows. That being said, movie/TV adaptations are hard, and most of this felt like a good attempt, but just a bit off.

The story involves a series of jewel thefts that have spread from England to the US. Bruce Wayne is showing corporate executive Michaela Gough around Gotham's rare gemstone exhibition when the Catwoman shows up with a group of henchmen intent on looting the place. Bruce Wayne signals to Robin and Alfred to make the save, but before they can arrive, John Steed and Emma Peel make short work of the bad guys in their own distinct style.

It's not long before the Dynamic Duo are teaming up with the We-Can't-Use-The-A-Word, and a group of Cybernauts have arrived to take out Catwoman.

This set a pretty impossible set of high expectations for me, and it tried really hard to make them. There were some places where it worked great. Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara were spot-on. Robin had his moments, and Catwoman and Mrs. Peel admiring each other's choice of outfits was perfect (sorry, purrrrfect!).

The banter between Steed and Peel wasn't really there, Mrs. Peel's fight scene felt a lot more like a generic comic fight than Emma Peel, and the Adam West Batman's lines felt forced (and unfortunately, not in the way that Adam West Batman's lines are supposed to feel forced).

There was enough here that I would like to keep reading to see how it plays out, and I totally appreciate the absolute brilliance of the concept. I'm hoping this will get better as it hits its stride.

Rating: 6/10

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1

Fourth comic out of five somewhat random recent releases that I got at Newbury Comics in Braintree MA during my short trip back to the US recently.

Title: Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures
Issue: #1
Date: 2016
Publisher: DC Comics / IDW
Writer: Matthew K. Manning
Artist: Jon Sommariva
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colorist: Leonardo Ito
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
Cover: Hilary Barta, Jason Millet


This is the "Incentive Cover" variant.


All-ages (animated series versions, basically) crossover featuring Batman and TMNT. The problem with these crossovers is the amount of setup involved in introducing the characters to each others worlds (and to each other). This comic suffers from that problem a bit, but at least makes a concerted effort to tackle it in an efficient way.


The story builds a bit slowly. The Turtles and the Batman do not actually meet face-to-face in this issue.

The basic scenario has a bunch of the Batman rogues gallery dumped into the Tuirtles' version of New York by way of an alien portal. Batman has an encounter with Two-Face that gives him his first clue that something is amiss. Meanwhile, the Turtles, who are familiar with the portal technology, battle Clayface in the New York sewers.


There's an attempt a a "shocking" ending bit, although it somewhat fails because it's actually badly out of character for the villains involved.

 There was nothing really awful about this story so far, but not much to get excited about either.

Rating: 5/10

Batman: Rebirth #1

Look! An actual NEW comic! That's the result of being back in the USA with east access to comic stores for the next few weeks.

Since returning, I have...

1) Picked up a small haul of items purchased via crowdfunding sites in the past year (and shipped to a US address), A couple of graphic novels are among those items, and I'll be taking those back with me to Vietnam to read and review over the next year.

2) Visited Newbury Comics in Hyannis. Newbury Comics has a 50%-off sale on all standard-format DC comics right now, so I bought a few of the new Rebirth books to see what all the hype was about. Included in the purchase was the Rebirth special itself, but I ended up starting with the Batman tie-in (see below).

3) Retrieved a big stack of random unread comics from my storage unit. Lots of indie and minicomic titles in this batch. These will also be heading back to Vietnam with me to provide some reading/reviewing fodder. I also managed to get the whole batch bagged and boarded for travel.

I still have two conventions and lots of comic shop visits coming up on this trip, so I'm looking to add some more good reading material to the stack I take back to Vietnam with me. In the meantime, here's my review of an actual recent release!

Title: Batman: Rebirth
Issue: 1
Date: August, 2016
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder, Tom King
Artist: Mikel Janin
Colorist: June Chung
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Editor: Mark Doyle, Rebecca Taylor
Cover: Mikel Janin

So... Calendar Man.

Not exactly the most exciting villain to start off my Rebirth reading. That being said, the interpretation of Calendar Man here is what I would consider a valiant attempt at making the character interesting. He's found a way to accelerate the changing of the seasons in Gotham, and is attempting to unleash deadly spores on the city as soon as Spring rolls around. In four days.

There's also a fun scene with Lucius Fox including some insight into Thomas Wayne, plus the beginning of the career of the Batman's latest partner. Not a new Robin, but a new costumed identity entirely. I wasn't familiar with the character who will be under the mask, but he seemed interesting enough that I'd like to see more.

Not a bad start for Rebirth. But really, guys... Calendar Man?

Rating: 6/10

Detective Comics #575

Kiddo picked this one out for me to read today. This is probably the most valuable (not that that is saying much) and most historically important book in the stack of random unread comics. I think it's the oldest as well.

Title: Detective Comics
Issue: 575
Date: June, 1987
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciler: Alan Davis
Inker: Paul Neary
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Denny O'Neil

This is the first installment of the Batman Year 2 storyline, which followed up on the historical reimagining of the Batman's origin in Batman Year 1.

With James Gordon now Commissioner of Police in Gotham, the Batman has the official sanction of the police department, and the newly-installed Bat Signal shines from the roof of police headquarters.

But the Batman was not the first vigilante to stalk Gotham's streets, and it appears that after a twenty-year hiatus, the Reaper has returned to Gotham, handing out death to any criminals who have the misfortune to encounter him.

And when the still-inexperienced Batman confronts the Reaper, he barely survives the encounter.

Now, the Batman is forced to consider how far he is willing to go in escalating the violence of his own campaign against crime.

The Reaper is a great villain, older and more skilled than the young Bruce Wayne of this series, and completely ruthless in his crusade against crime.

Wayne's thoughts of using a gun do seem a bit silly, as it seems unlikely that a pistol is going to make that much of a difference against the Reaper, but the gun, of course, is really just symbolic. And it does make for an awesome image on the cover.

Jim Gordon and Doctor Leslie Tompkins are solid in their supporting roles here, and the newly-introduced Rachel Caspian is an intriguing addition to the story.

This doesn't have the initial kind of impact that Batman Year 1 did, but it's still a very good Batman story.

Rating: 7/10

Batman #570

Last summer, I packed some comics from a box in my storage unit that was labeled as "unread". I have a bad habit of buying comics at a faster rate than I read them, so I've got a fair amount of random comics in those unread comics boxes. I was in a hurry, so the comics I ended up taking with me to Saigon from that box really were pretty random and scattered. Within those, the biggest grouping was a run of Batman from 1998's Cataclysm and Aftershock storylines, and a couple from the epic that followed up on those, No Man's Land. This issue is the last of that batch. These have been enough fun that I may seek out some more from these crossovers when I get back to the US in June.

Title: Batman
Issue: 570
Date: October, 1999
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Bronwyn Carlton
Penciler: Mike Deodato
Inker: David Roach
Colorist: Pam Rambo
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Frank Berrios, Joseph Illidge, Dennis O'Neil

This takes place during the massive No Man's Land crossover, in which a disaster-stricken Gotham has been abandoned by the US government and left is a state of anarchy (as opposed to Anarky, who was at least mentioned in one of the Cataclysm issues that preceded this; so he'll probably show up sooner or later).

Cataclysm and Aftershock, at least in the issues that I've looked at so far, stayed away from using the heavy-hitters among the Batman's rogues gallery. Not the case here, as Joker and Harley Quinn are front-and-center, in a story where the Batman only appears in one panel. It's really Harley who's the star here. While looting the upper floors of a luxury apartment tower, she finds a self-help book called "The Code: Laws of L'Amour That Will Make Your Man Marry You". The book is subversively feminist and Harley's hands she begins to make changes in the whole dynamic of her relationship with her "Puddin".

The Joker, meanwhile, waffles between puzzlement and obliviousness as he trains a new henchman, a young intellectual named Josh, and makes plans to hold an election for leadership of Gotham, with himself as the lead candidate.

All of this is set against the block-by-block territorial battles raging in the No Man's Land, with various factions vying for control of scarce resources.

This was some fun character development for Harley Quinn, and a nice setup for coming conflicts between her and Mr. J.

Rating: 7/10

Batman #567

Skipping a few issues, and here we are in the midst of the No Man's Land mega-story.

Title: Batman
Issue: 567
Date: July, 1999
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Kelley Puckett
Penciler: Damion Scott
Inker: John Floyd
Colorist: Greg Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Joseph Illidge, Darren Vincenzo
Cover: Damion Scott, Robert Campanella, Patrick Martin

This issue focuses on Cassandra Cain, and her father David Cain. David Cain is trying to kill Commissioner Gordon, while Cassandra is determined to prevent that from happening.

Meanwhile, the Batman is trying to decide what to do with a captive Harvey Dent in a world where there is no longer any "justice" for criminals to be brought before. 

I'm not really a Cassandra Cain fan, and I found the action to be choppy and not always all that coherent. I did like that they filled in a bit of Cassandra's backstory, although more questions were raised than answered.

GCPD officers getting killed off like Star Trek redshirts is a severely overused trope, and it gets thrown into this issue entirely unnecessarily.

Rating: 4/10