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Post by chadwilliam on Aug 23, 2014 22:02:08 GMT -5
Yeah, there were a slew of these types of stories back then detailing just about everything there was to Batman, most of which were collected in Batman Annual #1. While not the most thrilling of stories they were a lot of fun and were my favorites as I was exploring my Father's collection when I was younger. I never really thought of Superman as having a similar period, which was why I loved the issue of All Star Superman that did a similar exploration of the fortress of solitude, do you have any particular issues for the above mentioned Superman events? Fortress of Solitude debuts (and Superman's Silver Age starts) in Action Comics #241 in 1958. The bottled city of Kandor shows up in the very next issue of Action Comics. Supergirl arrives on Earth in Action Comics #252 in 1959. And with the Bottle City of Kandor in Action 242 you also get Brainiac's first appearance. Other highlights: Superman 123 - Prototype Supergirl Superman 127 - 1st Titano Superman 129 - 1st Lori Lemaris Action 252 - 1st Supergirl (as mentioned) and first Metallo Superboy 68 - 1st Bizarro Adventure Comics 271 - Origin of Luthor Adventure Comics 283 - 1st Phantom Zone |
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Post by chadwilliam on Aug 23, 2014 22:04:55 GMT -5
They're all at the beginning of Superman's first Showcase volume. That makes them very easy to acquire, I see that in just about ever comic book store I go to. Thanks Shaxper - As if you're not busy enough! (seems to have worked this time) He also fixed the picture in my first post, truly he is a wizard. Or a witch. I'm just saying. |
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Aug 23, 2014 22:05:02 GMT -5
 Shhhhhhh! |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 25, 2014 22:12:12 GMT -5
During lunch today I had a thought related to the subject of the bat-light: when did it first show up??
This issues tells the untold tale, but it doesn't really provide an origin or point out the issue where it first debuted, so fellow Bat-fans, do any of you know which issue first featured this iconic light?
I know I sure don't.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2014 22:19:09 GMT -5
During lunch today I had a thought related to the subject of the bat-light: when did it first show up?? This issues tells the untold tale, but it doesn't really provide an origin or point out the issue where it first debuted, so fellow Bat-fans, do any of you know which issue first featured this iconic light? I know I sure don't. My goggle fu tells me it was Detective Comics #60 (February 1942 issue) which looking at the GCD confirms it had an appearance of the Bat-Signal but no mention of it being the first app. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2014 22:21:19 GMT -5
Google fu also tells me this was the panels of its first appearance in that issue...  from this article by Brian Cronin from 2011. -M |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 8, 2014 16:19:53 GMT -5
It was actually 21 years and one month, I messed up the date so you guys got a sneak peak at what will be next month's pick. Batman: 21 Years Ago This MonthBatman Legends of the Dark Knight #54 Published September 1993(Cover Dated November 1993) ,  Written by Mike Mignola and Dan Raspler Penciled and Inked by Mike Mignola Colored by Mark Chiarello Summary: After a series of grizzly murders where the victims were left drained of all their blood, Batman finally tracks Lowther, the suspected murder, to one of the older cemeteries in Gotham where he interrupts Lowther while he is performing some kind of occult ritual named Drood. Batman confronts Drood and in the ensuing conflict Lowther stabs Batman directly in the chest. In the struggle to disengage Lowther from him Batman delivered a kick to Lowther's chest that inadvertently kills Lowther when he flies back and is impaled on a rusted rod-iron fence. Standing over Lowther's body, his chest wound pouring blood, Batman suddenly falls into an ancient crypt. When he awakens he finds himself in a large Victorian mansion where he encounters a man named Osric Drood
who at the turn of the century murdered his own wife so that he could use her blood to gain omniscience enough to see past the veil of this reality. The resultant glimpse drove Drood insane and soon after he apparently committed suicide but with his occult powers he preserved his soul from passing on and so he has lain dormant in his crypt awaiting the blood of a murderer like himself to grant him life once again.
As Drood explains all this Batman finds that he is getting progressively weaker and weaker with each passing moment, and Drood seems to be getting healthier and healthier. Believing that being in the house is somehow the cause of this transference Batman uses what seems like the last of his strength to leap out a window to escape Drood's grasp. Outside the house in a sort of nether world Batman deduces that Drood kept himself "alive" not out of a quest for more knowledge and power as Drood claimed but rather because he was afraid of what he believed he saw on the other side. Answering Batman's taunts Drood leaves him home to confront Batman, but armed with the knowledge of Drood's true motivations Batman gains the upper hand and his strength begins to return as Drood starts to fade in the face of the terror that lurks beyond reality but before he can see what that terror is himself Batman once again passes out. When Batman awakens again he finds himself in a shallow crypt wondering if what had just transpired really happened or if it was a result of his blood loss but he remains haunted by what Drood said and whether or not he was justified in killing Drood.
Review: Those of you who know me know of my unending love of Mike Mignola and this is one of my favorite pieces by him, on top of that this is also one of my favorite Batman stories as well. Instead of the normal crime or superhero capers that Batman usually tackles we get a story in "Sanctum" that pits Batman against his own mortality and the powers of the occult which stands out in stark relief to just about every other Batman story written before or since. There's very little in the way of punching or traditional comic action but the suspense of the confrontation is sill palpable. It's a story told in shadows and the nuances of the body language of Batman and Drood speaks far more volume than anything that could be ever be written in words, it was primal and instinctive. It's like poetry, watching Batman fade and Drood return changed visual story telling forever in my mind, the words were totally unneeded.
And I know I'm gushing now making this out to be the best comic of all time, that its a flawless piece of art, but that's not true for all its wonder the meat of the confrontation between Batman and Drood was philosophically sophomoric and the exchange about Batman being just as evil as Drood for murdering in self defense feels tired and cliche. Despite those short comings it still stands as one of the most interesting Batman comics I've ever read.
Rating: A- |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 8, 2014 19:35:29 GMT -5
This one's been on my radar for a long while now, not just because you've pointed out the cover to me before, but also because...seriously...Dan Raspler actually got to WRITE a Batman comic?? I've always been iffy on what those late '80s assistant editors actually did, and few if any ever seemed to achieve anything notable afterward, so seeing the assistant editor who was on the job at the absolute height of Bat Mania actually write a Batman story after he'd "graduated" out of the office intrigues me.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 8, 2014 21:12:51 GMT -5
I wish I knew the story with that, as Dan Raspler was credited with "Story and words" while Mignola was officially credited as "Story and Pictures" so I don't know if Raspler just scripted the story or if the collaboration went further than that. It's something I've wanted to ask Mignola for some time but each time I've met him that question has always slips my mind.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 2, 2014 16:03:30 GMT -5
Some of you may have seen this when I mistakenly posted this last month, but here it is restored and in the correct month! Batman: 21 Years Ago This Month!
Batman Adventures #15 October 1993 
Written by Kelly Puckett
Penciled by Mike Parobeck Colored by Rick Taylor
Inked by Rick Burchette
Summary: Jim Gordon is sitting alone in his apartment one night when a trio of Rupert Thorne's goons pay him a social call. At gunpoint they inform Gordon that Thorne has foiled a plot by the GCPD to infiltrate his organization and is now holding the undercover cop(Anton Miller) hostage in exchange for all the information that he gathered. Thorne's men inform Gordon that he has twenty four hours to hand over the files or it's lights out for Miller, in responce to this Gordon thrashes the lead thug and then throws them all out of his apartment, shouting after them, "Tell Thorne we have a deal!". Later, in an attempt to free Miller himself Gordon is captured by Thorne and is facing sure death when one of the men doing business with Thorne(who has an uncanny resemblance to Matches Malone and is Batman in disguise) tackles a group of Thorne's men allowing Gordon to gain his freedom and force Thorne to surrender. Review: Picking this up today was a whole lot of fun for me as Batman Adventures was the first book I followed on a monthly basis and it's one of the few titles I own for the entirety of its run. As a fan of Batman, I truly grew up at the right time as Batman was everywhere you turned in the early 90's with the success of Burton's films came Batman: The Animated series(which I loved) and not long after this comic which provided an even deeper look into Batman's world to my eager young mind. And while I can't remember my reaction to this issue the first time I read it I imagine I enjoyed it a great deal as it focuses on my favorite Batman character, Jim Gordon and features my favorite villain from the animated series: Rupert Thorne. I know, that probably sounds unbelievable, what 7 year old would prefer Rupert Thorne(a fat old man) over such colorful characters like the Joker, Riddler and Two-Face? But you have to understand, growing up my Grandfather used to watch me while my parents worked and we would watch old noir movies like the Maltese Falcon, The Mask of Dimitrios and Casablanca all the time and I thought they were the greatest! Naturally then a character like Thorne with his civil exterior and toxic underbelly would instantly appeal to me as he was practically a copy of characters like Kasper Gutman. And while we don't get to see a whole lot of that here in this issue as Thorne remains off page until the final confrontation, the reveal of his actual cowardly nature that exists under his cold demeanor that we briefly see in his stand off with Gordon plays into that noir villain mold that I have always loved. On the subject of noir, I'm going to say that I'm not the only fan here as Kelly Puckett's whole plot structure in this issue feels like something out of those old Hollywood crime movies of yore. The detective in his threadbare apartment alone at night, tossing the three thugs out on the street and the whole bungled rescue just barely turning out right in the end creates a story that Bogie certainly would have felt at home in. And while the pacing feels a bit rushed in order to fit the story into a single issue and the deus ex machina like appearance of Batman disguised as Matches Malone does spoil the tension with its too easy out for Gordon, it remains an enjoyable read none the less especially considering it was a story created for a much younger reader than I am now. Grade: B |
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Post by Action Ace on Oct 2, 2014 16:58:15 GMT -5
I absolutely adored all the Batman Adventures comics and reread all of them a few months ago.
This issue includes art by Mike Parobeck, a great comic book artist we lost far too soon.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 2, 2014 17:46:19 GMT -5
Batman Adventures really was an awesome title, I loved reading it as a kid as it was coming out and I love reading it today. Not every issue is as good as this one but the quality is pretty high over all.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 9, 2014 19:08:00 GMT -5
Batman: 28 Years Ago This Month
Batman #403
Published November 1986(cover dated January 1987)
Summary: The issue opens with Tommy Carma, a deranged former cop who thought that he was Batman, escaping Arkham asylum; killing two guards who he thought was Joker and Two-Face in the process. In his flight from justice Carma seeks out the one man he thinks is his friend, Bruce Wayne, but before he can reach the manor a rain storm forces him to seek cover and so he hides out in a cave only to uncover the actual Batcave! Entering the cave he outfits himself in a batsuit and hops in the batmobile to go out to bring justice to the gangster who killed his family. After a date with Vikki Vale Bruce returns back to the cave to find his ride has been highjacked and he sets out to find the perpetrator and ends up defeating Tommy with a few short punches.
Review: For me, even though this issue predates Year One, this is the start of the post-crisis Batman. In this issue, and the one proceeding it as well, we get a Batman who acts tough but is actually very compassionate and the idea that Bruce Wayne as a womanizer is just another disguise and not his actual personality. I've always liked the idea that neither the Bruce Wayne persona nor the Batman persona were "real" and that Bruce Wayne's true personality, though seldom actually expressed, was some where in between those two extreemes and perhaps only existed late at night in front of the glow of the batcomputer while Alfred stitched him up and this is the story where that idea kind of begins. On top of that we get a great new depiction of Vikki Vale as an intelligent news editor with skeptical views of Batman. As much as I love Moench his characterization of Vikki was a total turn off for me so after being turned into some kind of obsessed groupie this new vision presented by Collins is all that much better.
Don't get me wrong, there are still some almost camp elements present that make the story feel a little bronze age but over all there's more here that feels post crisis than pre-crisis and further I think it's a much stronger than many of the issues Collins would produce after Year One.
Grade: A |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2014 19:31:21 GMT -5
I remember buying that issue of Batman off the stands, just before Year One would hit. I had only been buying Batman regularly off the rack for less than a year and it seemed every issue was a massive shift in tone and plot at that time, the tale end of the Moench run, the first few Collins issues, Starlin art, Cowwan art, Legends cross-overs, etc. and then Miller's 4 parter hit the month afterwards. It was an interesting, if unsettling time to be a Bat-reader.
-M
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 9, 2014 19:53:11 GMT -5
I remember buying that issue of Batman off the stands, just before Year One would hit. I had only been buying Batman regularly off the rack for less than a year and it seemed every issue was a massive shift in tone and plot at that time, the tale end of the Moench run, the first few Collins issues, Starlin art, Cowwan art, Legends cross-overs, etc. and then Miller's 4 parter hit the month afterwards. It was an interesting, if unsettling time to be a Bat-reader. -M It's definitely a very schizophrenic period for Batman, there are just so many people with very different ideas of who Batman should be that it all just reads like a muddled mess. There are some decent issues here and there but overall it's a low point for Batman books in my mind. Looking back on it though really puts the changes that were criticized about the nu52 into perspective; as much as the shortened time line has been maligned for the way it's messed with Bruce's relationships with the various Robins the over all tone has been consistent. I wish I could say the stories post flashpoint had been consistently better than the stories post crisis but sadly it seems inconsistent quality seems to be a common denominator for reboots, though just as the stories post crisis eventually got better it seems like the nu52 is going in that direction as well. |
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