THE LONG RUNWell, I'm up to Batman #345 and Detective Comics #512 in my "long run" quest to read every issue of Detective Comics from #244 to the present. I did not start including the Batman title until recently. My Batman collection is not nearly as big as my Detective collection. I have every issue of Batman from #251 to #400 (and a few more here and there). This project is taking a while as it is (I started in early 2023) and I didn't want to add the Batman title until I had to. But in the early 1980s, the two titles were being edited and written in a manner that tied up the continuity a little more closely. I start with Batman #339 because it's the first issue of a Poison Ivy arc that gets mentioned in both titles a lot until it's resolved in Batman #344. There's also an ongoing election campaign for mayor. And some Catwoman appearances. There's a Robin back-up feature that eventually leads into a major storyline.
But as of Batman #345, there was a change. The continuity between Batman and Detective became even tighter! Up to this point, complications in the life of Batman and Bruce Wayne were being mentioned in both titles, but major story arcs with cliffhangers were still staying in the same title. For example, there's a Man-Bat storyline that begins in Batman #341 and flows into #342 (but doesn't quite conclude for a few more issues). But Batman #345 features the first part of a Dr. Death storyline, ends with a cliffhanger and concludes in Detective Comics #512! Then there's a Two-Face story that begins in Batman #346 and concludes in Detective #513. And this, more or less, is how it's going to be for the next five years.
Batman #345 is important (to me anyway) for another reason. This is the first issue of Batman where I started reading the title on a regular basis (or sometimes on a semi-regular basis). I had picked up Batman on and off for a while, usually because I liked Batman's villains so much. So I had bought Batman #279 because it had the Riddler. The next issue I bought was #287 because it featured the Penguin. And #297 because of the Mad Hatter. And a few back issues and a few scattered issues of Detective as well. And so on.
(I should add that it's a coincidence that my first issue as a regular customer was the very first issue with a cliffhanger from Batman into Detective. I just assumed it had been like that. It wasn't until years later (about 2012) when I started working on a Detective Comics collection that I got Batman #511 and Batman #344 and discovered that the issue-to-issue continuity didn't start until Batman #345.)
I don't remember exactly why I picked up Batman #345. I was in my late teens and still collecting comics, but I was kind of bored with some of the Marvel comics I had been reading for the previous five or six years. So around this time, I quit buying books like Marvel Team-Up that I didn't like as much as I used to and I started getting a few DC comics. I looked at Mike's Amazing World for comics on sale at the same time as Batman #345 and, sure enough, I discovered that I started buying several DC comics at this time that I had not read that much. Titles that I started buying then that I read for quite a few years afterward include All-Star Squadron, Legion of Super-Heroes and Green Lantern. And, after a long hiatus, I started buying The Brave and the Bold again the same month I got Batman #345. So I guess I decided to check out Batman too.
And there's also the Gene Colan art! That's probably another reason I started buying Batman regularly.
Or semi-regularly, like I mentioned earlier. You see, for a while, I didn't really feel like reading Batman twice a month, every single month. I would read the storylines I liked, but I would miss a few issues here and there and I wouldn't make much of an effort to get the issues I missed. From comics dated March 1982 (Batman #345 and Detective #512) to comics dated February 1985 (Batman #380 and Detective #547), I bought about 70% of the issues. But from then on, I bought all the other issues from the era of issue-to-issue continuity, up to Batman #400 and Detective Comics #567 (1986).
I have a hard time picking a favorite era from Batman's long history. I mean, I really love some of that crazy stuff in the first few years, 1939 to 1941. And then there's the lunacy of the late Jack Schiff era, from 1958 or so to 1964. Sure, some of it is pretty dire, but a lot of it highly entertaining.
But Batman and Detective from 1982 to 1986 is definitely a contender! Gerry Conway, Doug Moench, Gene Colan, Don Newton, Pat Broderick, Tom Mandrake, Klaus Janson, so many more great names!
Anyway, it's a great place to be, in this long run from 1957 to the present! This is where I came in the first time!
I'll be going into more detail as we go along. But I had to comment on thing that strikes me ... I didn't really like most of the early stories at first. The Dr. Death story has great art. but it always felt a little blah to me. The next arc is Two-Face! That's great! Then there's a guy with a dirigible, and that's not such a great arc. And then the whole vampire storyline that went on and on!
But I think the art kept me coming back. But it didn't keep me from skipping issues here and there. But it got pretty good after that. The Squid and Killer Croc and eventually ... NOCTURNA! (I love Nocturna.)
I may not have liked some of them so much at the time, but I love all of it now. (Well, maybe not quite ALL of it!) I really got a kick of the Dr. Death story arc this time around. Dr. Death's scheme is hideous! The new mayor Hamilton Hill is a total jerk! The Gene Colan art! Also, Vicki Vale returns after going missing since Detective Comics #320 in the early 1960s.
I was just about to sign off without mentioning the back-ups! Catwoman in the back of Batman and Batgirl in Detective Comics. They both ended with cliffhangers! They are great cliffhangers! I can't wait to read them before I go to bed to find out what happened!
