The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper)

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 8, 2014 22:28:26 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 8, 2014 22:28:26 GMT -5

Detective Comics #571

"Fear for Sale"

writer: Mike W. Barr
pencils: Alan Davis
inks: Paul Neary
letters: John Workman
colors: Adrienne Roy
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: B-

What an interesting transition, jumping from Miller to Barr depicting the same character in such different ways. I'm sorry that we won't have this version of Batman for much longer (I'm assuming everything changes when Barr starts writing Year Two in only a few more months), and even more sorry that I didn't actually like this story.

For one thing, it's not funny. It has all the camp of the previous issues, especially when Batman gives the ridiculous explanation for how he survived Scarecrow's death trap (by using trapped air in his cape to breathe under water for ten minutes -- yet he was under the influence of Scarecrow's recklessness drug at the time, so it seems especially unlikely that he stopped to intentionally trap air in his cape in the split second before he fell into the surprise pit of water). Still, there's no humor, and that's been the most fun part of these stories so far.

The premise of the story is somewhat intriguing. Instead of inducing fear, Scarecrow is this time removing fear in order to make people careless/reckless, because common sense is based upon instinctive fear (or so Barr argues). My only problem with this premise is that it turns into a story about Batman putting himself in danger by taking excessive risks because he has no fear -- a plot that was already done in Batman #305 ("Death Gamble of a Darknight Detective"). I suppose it's unfair to dislike a story for resembling one from nearly ten years earlier that Barr probably never even read, though. I sometimes forget that readers at the time hadn't read these stories only three fourths of a year earlier like I did.

There are a lot of leaps in logic in this issue, and that always bugs me. Bruce and Jason are at a Nascar(?) race because two notable athletes recently died as a result of taking unusual risks. Of course, Bruce automatically assumes that the next such death will likely occur at this race. First off, can there really be NO other sporting events scheduled for the day? Secondly, why show up as Bruce and Jason if they really think something might go down? Third, their bad for assuming Nascar is a sport (I kid!).

More such problems continue in the story, including Scarecrow capturing Robin, cutting off part of his uniform to send Batman a message, but never even considering the idea of glimpsing his secret identity (if his motivation is money in this issue, how is this NOT valuable knowledge???), and even leading up to that ridiculous explanation for Batman's survival at the end that I mentioned earlier, but you get the point.

Unintended high point of this issue:

Batman (to Robin): Good boy! Hose me down now! That's it, good and WET...

(and later)

Batman: Keep that spray on him..that's right!

Whoa boy...

Interesting that, when Batman goes after Robin, he thinks to himself, "I'll save him...and it'll be too bad for anything that get in my way," with a surprisingly devilish smile. Once again, we get the clear sense that there's an unstable side to Batman that we've seen surface once in each of Barr's three issues thus far. Maybe this depiction of Batman is in sync with what Miller's Batman was in Year One and will one day be in DKR, after all. We definitely see Batman obsessively fear for Jason's death in this issue, easily supporting the idea that Jason's death would result in him retiring from crime fighting as he was said to have done when Jason died in DKR.

Of course, there's still the problem that this Catwoman doesn't match Miller's, and this Jason doesn't match what Collins will be doing in a few more months in the Batman title, but O'Neil apparently didn't know or didn't care to tell Barr these things.

And speaking of O'Neil having no fricking idea what's going on in his own office, check out this excerpt from this issue's letter column in which O'Neil responds to a fan of Batgirl begging to see her make some appearances again:

"Batgirl will be showing up in SECRET ORIGINS #16, and again in the Alan Moore/Brian Bolland JOKER graphic novel."

The man's either totally oblivious or a serious asshole to promise that. For those of you who don't know, Moore and Bolland's "The Killing Joker" cruelly ended Batgirl's career without even allowing Barbara Gordan to suit up or play a serious role in the story.

Incidentally, Jason's imaginary tombstone at the end of the issue reveals that he is currently 12 years old. This confirms my suspicions that he's far younger than Moench's Jason was by the time of Batman #400, and also that he's probably a lot younger than Collins was writing him in Batman #402 and #403.

Loving Davis' art as always, but Barr just wasn't doing it for me this issue.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 8, 2014 22:28:37 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 8, 2014 22:28:37 GMT -5

Processing some information...

Okay, so we've now established that Year One was clearly in the same universe/continuity as Dark Knight Returns.

We've also established that, unlikely as it may seem, Barr and Davis' Batman could have been intended for the same continuity as Year One and DKR since the otherwise playful Batman has a sociopathic streak that pops out once per issue and since he is obsessively concerned about Jason's potential death (which perfectly aligns with the past events of DKR). Obviously Barr's Catwoman is completely different than Miller's, but this could easily be written off as the result of poor communication.

Finally, it seems reasonable to assume that O'Neil wanted Year One to mark the beginning of a new Batman continuity since he admitted that the two prior issues had been filler while waiting for Year One to begin and because he goes on to have Barr and Davis write a Year Two immediately after.

Where I'm going with all this is that it seems possible that the original plan was to actually make DKR the beginning of Batman's rebooted continuity and have the sociopath Batman become the standard default. Assuming this was O'Neil's plan, I wonder what prompted him to change his mind, or if he simply lost track of the idea and stopped caring. I have to admit it's a compelling idea to reboot a continuity by charting where a character begins and where that character ends, leaving writers that will follow to work in between. Of course, it also makes anything Batman does prior to DKR essentially meaningless since Gotham is worse than ever when DKR begins.

Whatever the case, when Jason dies two years from now in Death in the Family and Bruce doesn't retire, we're officially outside of DKR continuity.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 8, 2014 22:28:50 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 8, 2014 22:28:50 GMT -5

The Post-Crisis Reboot Recap (my working theory thus far, for those of you who actually care):

Batman 391 -- The Pre-Crisis continuity effectively ends during the height of the Crisis. Moench ties up all of his storylines and has his characters hint that they know their world is ending.

Batman 392-400 -- Moench initially attempts a soft reboot of Batman into post-Crisis continuity, gradually attempts to sneak old continuity back in, and is eventually overruled, ultimately giving his pre-Crisis Batman a second farewell in Batman #400, hinting that the reboot will begin in the next issue and by another writer.

Batman 401/Detective 568 -- O'Neil's initial attempt to reboot Batman. Two fill-in writers produce remarkably similar stories about a kinder, campier throw-back Batman and (Jason Todd) Robin.

Detective 569-?/Batman 404-407 -- O'Neil's Bat Office is, at the least, completely unorganized in its diverse visions of Batman and, at the best, attempting to use The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel as a template for a rebooted, borderline-sociopath Batman that begins in Year One and continues into the more lighthearted Barr/Davis run.

Batman 408+ -- The plan changes again, and Max Collins portrays a non-sociopath Batman with a far more corruptible Jason Todd that seems to remain consistent for about a year and a half (if I recall correctly).

Batman 429+ -- Jason Todd's death is used as a means for turning the Collins version of Batman into a darker, more obsessive anti-hero who resembles Miller's character even while clearly breaking away from that continuity by not having Bruce retire when Jason dies (again, I'm working from old memories on this one).

Ultimately, we get a sociopath Batman with a better reason for being a sociopath (Jason's death), and Year One gets referenced as a fixed part of the new continuity. Writers that follow seem to go back and forth between seeing Bruce as a hero who took a dark turn or an obsessive sociopath who was always a little bit sick in the head.

It's all subject to lots of revisions, but this is how I see the rebooting of Batman into the post-Crisis universe, thus far.

Whadaya think?

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 8, 2014 22:32:03 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 8, 2014 22:32:03 GMT -5

Batman #405

"Batman: Year One, Chapter Two -- War is Declared"
writer: Frank Miller
art: David Mazzucchelli
colors: Richmond Lewis
letters: Todd Klein
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: A+

This was always my favorite part of Year One. Gordan is the likeable underdog hero, Batman makes his first appearance and screws up, then gets it royally right when it counts, Miller shows us that pregnant married women can be amazing even while Mazzucchelli works hard to make them as unattractive as possible (of course to make Gordan's attraction to Essen understandable -- a tough, composed, non-liability in his harsh world -- this helps us to understand Gordan's doubts about the baby last issue), and I've just somehow never forgotten that creepy schizophrenic with the gun. Somehow, that's always stuck. By the way, check out how Mazzucchelli draws/inks the back of that TV on the top of page 4. It looks so amazingly real, as if you could truly feel the heat radiating off the back of it. That's great art.

So what do we need to take note of in this one?

Miller continues to draw parallels between Gordan and Batman (who use VERY similar narrative boxes, only equipped with different handwriting), as they both struggle and work their way up in Gotham toward a similar goal of reform. However, while Batman is nearly impossible to read, Gordan is a reluctant hero who has a family, must fight traffic and his own department, and who tells us "I hate the gun. I hate my job. I keep practicing."

Is the point that Gordan could have been a Batman if he'd taken a different route? Is it that Batman makes his sacrifice so that the Gordans of the world can go home to their families? I think it's more likely that there is no point; it's just fun to have the two work in parallel toward the same goal.

I find it interesting that Miller chose to go back to the classic Batman chest symbol. He's always claimed that his inspiration for his vision of Batman came from those early stories, and it's a lot easier to take Batman seriously without the bright yellow chest symbol. Inevitably, Miller's decision here is the cause of the current day Batman no longer having the yellow symbol that was inseparable with people's idea of Batman for three decades.

A few important characters are introduced and/or reintroduced in this one:

This is Sarah Essen's first appearance.

Boss Falcone (The Roman) may or may not be the post-Crisis version of Boss Falco, the first continuing crime boss in Batman comics that I knew of. Years later, his pre-Crisis counterpart will have an unfortunate run-in with Killer Croc.

Harvey Dent is the assistant D.A. in this storyline. It's both logical and amusing to watch Gordan suspect him of being Batman.

James Gordon Jr. (not born yet) is now Jim Gordon's first (to be) born child. He did not exist in pre-Crisis continuity, though a son named Tony Gordon once did.

The plot synopsis in one long sentence: Gordan risks everything to stops a schizophrenic with a gun, the corrupt police commissioner wants him gone, his wife supports and takes care of him, Batman takes on his first thugs and nearly gets his butt kicked, Flask has become a joke in the department after being taken out by Batman, Gordan wants to take down Batman but the commission does not, Batman raids the mayor's mansion and crashes a party to warn the corrupt leaders of Gotham that they are going down, now the commissioner wants Batman taken down, Gordan tries to set traps for Batman, investigates Dent as a suspect, and Essen suggests that the most likely suspect is Bruce Wayne, Batman saves a homeless woman that Gordan couldn't, Gordan seems to respect Batman, the SWAT team is called on Batman, sends him running into a building, and then fire bombs it.

In the letters column, O'Neil finally announces that Max Collins will be taking over the title after Year One and again admits that his previous two stories were one shot fillers that weren't supposed to go anywhere. More importantly, he describes his own vision of what Batman should be in these titles:

"...brooding, moody storytelling that characterizes the classic Batman...a feel for the grotesque, the eerie, the odd. A sense of justice would help...wonderfully dark, film-noir-ishly stuff..."

All of that is completely in keeping with Miller's vision with, perhaps, the exception of the "sense of justice" bit. This pretty much confirms the idea that O'Neil was trying to build a post-Crisis Batman around Dark Knight Returns. However, from what I remember, that isn't at all what Collins ends up delivering. He'll give us the more traditional Batman and deliver the "brooding, moody storytelling" through a troubled Jason Todd instead.

Anyway, GREAT story, especially since Batman didn't get to do anything sociopathic or particularly in keeping with being a "Bat jerk" or "Goddamn Batman."

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 12, 2014 18:56:32 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 12, 2014 18:56:32 GMT -5

Kind of appropriate that, while in the midst of Batman: Year One, the now relatively definitive origin of Batman, I've finally gotten my hands on The Untold Legend of The Batman, the previous definitive origin of Batman, which I'd been wanting ever since I read Wein's run toward the beginning of this reviews thread.

I have to say that, after reading the first part, I already love Wein's origin story so much more. Miller's writing is more stylized, though I've always loved Wein's way with words, and Mazzi's art is far more expressive, though I adore Aparo and Byrne's visual styles. So, with two great sets of writers and artists, it really comes down to the content.

Miller's Year One is jaded. That's really the only fair attribute I can attach to it. It works to an extent. I still love the idea that someone seeking to become Batman doesn't pull it off successfully on the first night out, but the origin feels a bit shallow beyond that. Everyone's depressed, everything sucks, but at least we have people putting everything on the line to fight back. It's not a bad message, but it's limited.

Wein's Untold Legend, on the other hand, is such a thoughtful and purposeful construction of a complex identity based upon all the years of origin stories and history we've already been fed. I'm no expert on the pre-Wein stuff, but it seems like he incorporated just about all the history we'd ever been given about Bruce's journey toward becoming Batman (the only missing piece I noted was Dr. Dundee) and weaved it into a purposeful narrative that really explained exactly who Bruce Wayne was and why he was Batman. It was dark and moody, light and optimistic, touching, and infuriating. Bruce was a true human, experiencing the full range of human emotion on his way to becoming Batman. All that made him exceptional was the crime that set him on this path, his drive to do something about it, and the loving people around him (his parents, Leslie, his uncle, and Harvey Harris) who nurtured his noble heart along the way.

Wein really did it. He made a noble do-gooder in a Batman costume nearly make sense. In fact, he made more sense than the obsessed sociopath Miller is still trying to make me buy into in Year One. Wein's is the Batman I love and want to get behind. This makes me understand and appreciate the character Conway and Moench were writing under Wein's editorship even more than I did while I was reading/reviewing them. I was only a year old when this story was published, and I was only seven when Miller pissed on this character's ashes, but this is the Batman I've always envisioned and loved. This is the character I hope to find in my monthly titles each month, always a bit disappointed to find something darker and more troubled...even when it's Dick under the cowl.

Anyway, just wanted to share. It honestly amazes me that this isn't considered a more important storyline. I wasn't even aware of it until I saw the ads in those old Batman issues while reviewing them last summer.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 12, 2014 19:00:26 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 12, 2014 19:00:26 GMT -5

Detective Comics #572

"The Doomsday Book"

Writer: Mike W. Barr
pencils: Alan Davis, Terry Beatty, Carmine Infantino, E.R. Cruz, Dick Sprang (centerfold)
inks: Alan Davis, Dick Giordano, Al Vey, E.R. Cruz, Paul Neary, Dick Sprang (centerfold)
colors: Adrienne Roy & Carl Gafford
letters: John Workman, Todd Klein, Romeo Francisco
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: C-

It was a good idea -- celebrate the history of Detective Comics by having Batman team up with two notable detectives who have appeared in the title and tie it all into a mystery featuring the greatest detective of them all (Sherlock Holmes). While you're at it, throw in a variety of artists like was done in Batman #400 and, presto! Instant classic.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

Problem #1 -- The title. I know my English history better than most, so I actually know what the title of this story is referencing, but even then, I know it's a damn misleading title, and it's not even called the Doomsday Book. It's the DOMEsday Book! So the other 99% of readers who don't understand this are disappointed to find out at the very end of the story that the book is just a historic tax index that has nothing to do with prophecies of doom and, worse yet, has no real bearing on the story, and the remaining 1% are pissed off at just how far Barr went to mislead his readers, even changing the book's name.

Problem #2 -- The plot. This could have been ingenious, watching our heroes solve a crime from a hundred years ago that still has bearing on today. But that's not what happened. Instead, they get caught up in investigating an old crime that's entirely unrelated to the present one other than the fact that the new Moriarty has an irrational desire to kill the Queen just like his predecessor -- no other link between the two crimes at all. In fact, why was the new Moriarty searching for that old journal entry that connected our heroes to the old crime? Its knowledge was of no use to anyone other than the fact that the intended target was the same.

Problem #3 -- Sherlock Holmes. Sorry. This wasn't him. Not only was the characterization way off, but so were his skills of deduction. This Holmes made wild leaps in logic, even boldly proclaiming that:

"When a man is told he has been seen in places he knows he has not been, there are two explanations: either he is losing his reason...or it is not he who has been seen, but an imposter."

In the seconds it took me to read that, I'd already formulated at least two other viable possibilities. This is lousy, lousy detective work, and it isn't confined to this one passage.

Problem #4 -- This didn't really feel like a celebration of Detective Comics. Detective #27 is featured prominently on the cover instead of Detective #1, and the two detectives who help Batman (Slam Bradly and Elongated Man) are chosen because of their links to the present (one created by the same guys who made Superman, the other formerly written by the author of this story) rather than for their importance to the title over the years. This could have been a fantastic opportunity to explore the non-Batman sides to Detective, introducing us to great characters prior to Detective #27 and memorable back-story characters who'd been introduced since (classic J'onn Jones, Paul Kirk, etc.) in order to give us a more full sense of what has defined the title in contrast to the Batman title over the years. Instead, the most prominently featured characters are Batman (who we already know is awesome) and Holmes (who was never a character in this magazine).

Problem #5 -- the artist showcase was disappointing. Obviously, we knew we could count on Davis, and Cruz did well (though he was hardly exceptional), but I was very underwhelmed by Terry Beatty, and even Infantino's work was a bit sloppy (especially with Vey's inking). I would have preferred to have given Davis the entire issue.

I will say that I saw two positives to this story. For one thing, it really established a post-Crisis presence for Slam Bradley, both in terms of characterization and chronological placement. For another, I felt Barr did an excellent job of establishing Holmes as a real person in this reality. When we first saw how his Baker Street home had been converted into a museum, I accepted this as fact and didn't really question the idea until a few pages in. The idea of an elderly Homes in the post-Crisis DCU was a nice move as well, if only he had the proper characterization. The kindly old man who has given up smoking and believes in evil genes was someone else entirely.

So yeah. This issue really disappointed me. I hope I'm going to start enjoying Barr and Davis's work again soon and that their amazing Joker 2 parter wasn't just a fluke.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 12, 2014 19:01:27 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 12, 2014 19:01:27 GMT -5

Batman #406

"Batman: Year One, Chapter Three -- Black Dawn"
writer: Frank Miller
pencils: David Mazzucchelli
colors: Richmond Lewis
letters: Todd Klein
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: A, but...

Still loving this story; still hating that it's being done to Batman. We spend most of the issue watching Batman outfox the SWAT team with seeming effortlessness by using nothing more than a basement, a punched out chimney leading to the level above, and a support beam. Yet, we later cut to Batman's perspective and find that he doesn't know what he's doing. I think this is supposed to make us empathize with him but, once again, there's no actual personality there -- just a series of doubts and the belief in an absolute kind of justice in which even cats should be protected.

In my mind, we get an even stronger sense of Miller's Bruce being a sociopath than ever when he is skiing in Switzerland and reflects on how easily he was able to manipulate people into creating an alibi for him. There's no malevolent intent behind it, but a man who effortlessly manipulates people to get what he wants by putting on a pretend exterior and being emotionless beneath the surface is pretty much your textbook example of a sociopath. This character has no character. He is just an emotionless intellect working toward absolute justice who arrives at that goal through any means necessary.

I'm also still so bothered by the extent to which Gordon is flawed (being tempted by Essen, being an ass to his wife, holding the gun by the bedside and doubting everything he is). I get that this is a unique way to tell the story, that it helps to define Gotham as its own poisonous character, and that it makes Batman a stronger Alpha Male in both body and spirit in comparison, but it's just not my Commissioner Gordon. And this just isn't my Batman. I wish this had been done as an out-of-continuity graphic novel (as I still believe it was originally conceived to be).

Some key firsts in this story:

- Jerry Robinson gets a park named after him. Once again, Miller is naming aspects of Gotham after former Batman creators. This is not a new thing to do. For years, the Batcave beneath the Wayne Foundation led out into Finger Alley. But I find it so interesting that he crams so many names into his story, and even moreso that none of them are named Kane. I'm convinced that Kane stole a lot of credit from other people's work (especially Finger and Robinson), and I wonder if Miller felt the same way.

- A few themes established here that form the basis of the later All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder series -- Gotham has a drastically negative effect on all its citizens, and Batman inspires others to shake off that influence and rise up. To an extent, this was also true in DKR, but it seemed to be more because of society itself than of Gotham as its own warped character. Anyway, in Year One, Catwoman follows Batman's example in precisely the same way that Black Canary and Batgirl do in All-Star, and Carrie Kelley did in DKR. Interesting that it's always females who follow...

- Obviously, this storyline formed much of the basis of the film Batman Begins.

The plot in one long sentence: Batman survives being in the apartment building while it's firebombed by sneaking into a hidden basement, Selina Kyle and Hollie go to check it out when they hear the explosions and see it on the news, the SWAT Team goes in with orders to kill since Batman upset all the corrupt politicians at the top of the totem pole, Batman takes a unit down through misdirection and quick reflexes, but he gets shot in the leg and runs out of weapons (other than a sonic device for attracting bats), he gets shot in the arm, the bats arrive and provide an escape, he creates an alibi that he's been skiing in Switzerland, Selina beats up her pimp and becomes Catwoman, Gordon kisses Essen and regrets it, he has a bad fight with his wife, and ends up sitting at the edge of his bed, holding his gun, hating himself, and respecting the Batman.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 12, 2014 19:03:57 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 12, 2014 19:03:57 GMT -5

Detective Comics #573

"The Mad Hatter Flips His Lids!"
writer: Mike W. Barr
pencils: Alan Davis
inks: Paul Neary
letters: Richard Starkings
colors: Adrienne Roy
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: C

The immense credit that Barr bought with me through his two part Joker story is beginning to run out. The last two issues were relatively bland in my opinion, and this one outright felt like a rush job to me. So much of it seemed carelessly planned and paced.

For example, there's the abrupt conversation Batman and Robin have with Tetch (The Mad Hatter) in the car in which Batman honestly seems to believe that telling Tetch he has a second chance and then abruptly ditching him is going to convince him to change his ways. The pacing just didn't work at all here. Another page of story, and it might have been a cool moment, but we're still processing the fun image of Batman and Robin revealing themselves as Tetch's drivers by the time that the conversation is over. What the heck happened?

And forget doing anything to depict Tetch in a meaningful way. Barr spent forever on exploring Joker and Catwoman's personalities and idiosynchroces, which was why I loved that issue, but Tetch instantly goes back to crime without any exploration, characterization, or humanization at all. Worse yet, he mails a clue to Gordon in the generic style of the Riddler or any number of lame stereotype villains from the 1960s TV show. When has this ever been Tetch's m.o.?

The issue is still speeding along carelessly when Batman automatically assumes that the clue:

"I have gone HATLESS, Batman -- but not in the way you want,"

means that Tetch is going to perform a crime at the Liar's club. Later, in a similar lapse of clear logic, Bruce kindly reprimands Jason for cutting out newspaper clippings about hats and clothes because:

"I don't think it's going to be that simple. The Hatter first stole unusual hats, then he used hats for crime...I'm convinced he's still using hats as a theme."

Wasn't that the exact same line of logic that Jason was just following?

Then even later, Alfred uses the word "through" in a sentence, which makes Bruce realize that the Mad Hatter chose the Liar's Club because he'd been "talking through his hat" (nevermind that Bruce already saw this connection and intercepted Tetch there in the first place), which leads him to understand that Tetch is performing crimes that symbolically involve hats, and this leads him to unequivocally know that Tetch will commit a crime at the hockey game that night because of the term "hat trick." Certainly there are absolutely no other figures of speech involving hats that could have been relevant that night. It had to be a hockey game, right?

It gets worse. The stadium where the hockey game is held has an inexplicable museum of sports in it which inexplicably has an enormous pool table, complete with balls and cues, that appears to be at least 15 feet off the ground and over 50 feet long. Why in the world would someone possibly build this and equip it with real oversized pool balls? It's not like visitors to the museum would even be able to see anything other than the legs. This was just a lame excuse to create a visually interesting battle.

Ah, but then the best lapse of logic yet. Bruce's final attempt to get the Hatter involves creating a trap for him. By "throwing his hat into the ring" and running for city council Bruce expects Tetch to show up, and he does. Never mind the fact that Tetch couldn't have possibly heard him use that phrase when contacting the media by phone, nor the fact that (once again) there must be near limitless possibilities for targets of crime involving phrases that use the word hat. I don't see Tetch knocking off a corner pharmacy and stealing its condoms.

And finally, Robin appears seriously injured (or dead) at the end of the issue, but absolutely no clues are left to suggest what happened. We never see him get attacked, struck by a hat, or near Tetch's mechanical hat vehicle when it crashes and explodes. This is one cheap cliffhanger ending that was in no way deserved.

Oh, and why DID Tetch change his methodology? The remote controlled razor hats and levitating hat vehicle prove that he still had abundant resources, and the story made it clear that he was a slave to his compulsion, so why change things up, especially when his mind-control hats were such a promising means of committing crimes?

But there were some high points to this issue. Really, there were. There's Davis' art, for one, which never disappoints. There was also the moment when Gordon makes a comment about Bruce's father, once again allowing Barr to remind us that there's a serious, angry Bruce deep beneath the exterior (we've gotten one such reminder each issue thus far, with the exception of the anniversary story last issue), and finally there's the downright clever moment where Batman is cornered, grabs a shotgun, and unexpectedly uses it to deflect Tetch's razor hats, once again reminding us that Bruce will never...ever use guns as weapons. Darn clever.

Certainly, though, the most memorable part of this issue had nothing to do with the story itself; it was the solicit for the next issue, advertising "The Way it Began -- The NEW origin of Batman!"

Uhhhh... aren't we 3/4th through Miller's Year One in the other core Batman title right now? And it's not like Barr can use the near-death of Jason as an opportunity for Bruce to explore the origin of their teamup either; Collins' is tackling that in two more months. What the heck is the deal with this solicit? Now I REALLY need to read the next issue...

The plot summary in one ridiculously long sentence: Jarvis Tetch (the Mad Hatter) is paroled by Arkham, the warden isn't the least bit troubled by the fact that Tetch desperately asks him for a hat, Batman and Jason temporarily kidnap Tetch to try to put him on the straight and narrow, Tetch asks for Robin's policeman hat, they ditch him, Batman reflects on how he wants to help a criminal to reform, Tetch gets a newspaper and makes himself a paper hat with a menacing grin, he sends a clue to Batman, Batman and Robin try to stop him and fail, they figure out his next target (this time with no clue) and fail to get him again, but this time on a giant pool table, Bruce sets a trap for him by running for city council, Tetch shows up, Batman stops him, and Jason randomly appears to be dead.

Yeah. Not great storytelling at all. Without Davis' contributions and the amusing shotgun moment, this would have been a real stinker of an issue.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 10:58:20 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 10:58:20 GMT -5

Batman #407

"Batman: Year One -- Chapter Four, Friend in Need"
writer: Frank Miller
art: David Mazzucchelli
colors: Richmond Lewis
letters: Todd Klein
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: A+, but...

Finally, we get a sense for what Batman's early career would have been like in a Miller-controlled universe. I've no doubt that this fun, intense, and well-plotted story was a major reason behind the creation of Legends of the Dark Night.

It's interesting how Miller seems to be employing the same idea of Bruce as a carefree womanizer that O'Neil appeared to be pushing for in his first month at the Bat Office. I wonder whether Miller is following O'Neil's directive or whether O'Neil's directive was based on conversations he'd had with Miller.

I wonder if this is the first time that Gordon has an opportunity to discover Batman's identity and purposefully claims ignorance (or, in this case, blindness), especially since Bruce was already Gordon's prime suspect, and a detective of his caliber almost certainly would have recognized him here. I'm sure this situation between them has been emulated many times since. Great way to show mutual respect and trust between the characters. Of course, in this case, it shows Gordon's respect and trust for the silent blank-slate sociopath standing before him. No thought box for Bruce, nor expressive close-up here; just an organic robot waiting for his next directive.

Page 9, fifth panel -- is Bruce beginning to crack a smile?? The close-up, the light colors, Alfred's playful banter; this is the only time in the entire story that we see any hint of a personality in Bruce. Maybe Miller's and Barr's visions really do align, and he envisions Batman gaining more humor and more of a carefree disposition as he grows and starts letting others like Alfred, Dick, and Jason in. But then I think of All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder...

Fantastic story over all, and this newly fallible Gordon seems somewhat redeemed by the end. An excellent conclusion to a pretty amazing story. If only I liked its protagonist...

The plot in one ridiculously long sentence: Gordon and Essen are still carrying on a reluctant romance (though we never find out how far it goes), Essen requests a transfer in order to put a stop to it, Dent and Batman create a setup to catch a snitch who can take down the corrupt police commissioner, Gordon catches on and plays along, the commissioner blackmails Gordon with pictures of him kissing Essen, Gordon and his wife investigate Bruce to see if he's Batman, Bruce puts on the playboy act, Gordon tells his wife about Essen on the way back, Gordon's baby boy is born, Catwoman starts robbing and attacking the corrupt officials and mafia in the city, Batman and Catwoman try to take down The Roman at the same time, The Roman puts a hit on Gordon's wife and baby, Bruce tries to stop them undercover, Gordon arrives a moment late and tries to stop them too, Bruce saves the baby from a drop off the bridge, Gordon pretends not to recognize him as he returns the baby, the commissioner retires, Gordon and his wife go into marriage therapy, a new corrupt commissioner comes in, Gordon gets promoted to captain and is now working with Batman, and the Joker is referenced as a new criminal threat.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 11:02:32 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 11:02:32 GMT -5

Detective Comics #574

"My Beginning...and My Probable End."
writer: Mike W. Barr
pencils: Alan Davis
inks: Paul Neary
letters: Starkings
colors: Adrienne Roy
editor Denny O'Neil

Grade: A-

Fascinating. Year One is still finishing this month, and it's already being contradicted by this origin story. The scope of this one is different. It begins with the Waynes' murder but focuses predominantly on Bruce's youth and studying in college. Fact-wise, it functions more as a companion to Year One than as an alternate telling. Yet it does contradict Year One.

In terms of facts, the contradictions are slight. In this telling, Bruce attacks Joe Chill, is almost immediately taken in by Leslie Thompkins, and appears to spend some length of time under her care. Year One implies that Bruce spent his youth alone with Alfred. In this story, Barr is either sticking to the pre-Crisis idea that Alfred didn't enter the picture until later on or is having Alfred mine the manor while Bruce is cared for by Leslie.

However, the biggest contradiction between this story and Year One doesn't lie in the facts -- it lies in the characterization.

This is the point I've been making about Year One all along. The facts survive throughout the Post-Crisis, but the characterization softens. We rarely see Bruce as detached, obsessively driven, and (I'll say it again) sociopathic as we did in Year One. In fact, Barr's early Bruce, who I'd feared might line up perfectly with Miller's, is actually a complete opposite.

This Bruce is constantly full of exploding emotions, whether it be rage in attacking Joe Chill, resentment as he listens to cops talk about who brought the coffee at the crime scene, or fear of abandonment as they cart off his parents. Miller's Bruce went numb the second his parents died. Barr's Batman is still striving to find numbness as he sits in the waiting room to find out if Jason Todd will live. In fact, this Bruce has a rational reason for maintaining a 12 year old assistant -- to give him the outlet for his anger and thirst for justice that Bruce so desperately needed as a child.

I must say that I particularly enjoyed Barr's take on Bruce's college years. Just a few weeks ago, when I was reading The Untold Legend of the Batman (still the best Batman origin story ever written), I was bothered by Bruce being this excelling student of criminology in college. How would that not be a dead giveaway to what he was doing? But Barr's Bruce first cultivates the bored playboy facade in college, going to amazing lengths to secretly learn in spite of this. Best yet, his characterization is so rich here -- having tremendous fun learning how to sneak into professors' offices without getting caught but still being in denial over how alone and cut-off he felt in those years. A fantastic balance of emotions for an intriguing Batman.

Barr's Batman is still a little too extreme in his raw anger for me, but he's at least a complex and compelling character, which is more than Miller's offering, and this complexity does allow him to be a solitary and dark figure as well as half of the fun-loving dynamic duo, all at the same time.

But, why I enjoyed the story and how it compared to Year One aside, the most important contribution it makes to the Batman franchise is in establishing a post-Crisis Leslie Thompkins. Untold Legends of Batman aside, Leslie hasn't been mentioned in almost ten years, and Barr resurrects her with a new purpose. She is now a medic for Batman (replacing the sparsely used Dr. Dundee), sharing the secret of his identity (is this new for her?), healing him and Robin when necessary, and most importantly challenging his conscience when he is there by questioning the legitimacy of his mission even while being his accomplice. It's a great idea that will get used several notable times in post-Crisis Batman continuity (War Games comes to mind immediately). Of course, Miller is setting Alfred up to perform the exact same role, having taken care of Bruce as a child, having experience as a combat medic, andregularly questioning his motives and actions. One could argue that this post-Crisis Dr. Thompkins is therefore superfluous to the Batman mythos.

The plot summary in one ridiculously long sentence: Batman brings an injured Robin to Leslie's clinic (apparently, he was repeatedly shot last issue while fighting the Mad Hatter, though I never saw it happen), Bruce reflects on his parents' murder and how Leslie took care of him after, Leslie questions his mission and his choice to involve Jason in it, they both reflect on Bruce's youth and college years, they discuss Bruce's choice to be Batman, Leslie ultimately sanctions his decision to be Batman, and Jason recovers.

A few minor details:

This is the first time Bruce outright says that Batman is who he truly is, even though it's been implied since Batman #401 that the post-Crisis Bruce Wayne is nothing more than a facade.

On page 14, young Bruce grabs Joe Chill's gun, and we never see what he does with it. I wonder if this will factor into Year Two (coming next month in this title).

I love Davis' visual contrast between the caring Leslie Thompkins of Bruce's past and the hardened warrior against Gotham's crime that she's since become.

I have no idea what that Whitman quote was doing at the end of this story.

Finally, in the letter column, O'Neil outright states that DKR takes place "sometime in an indefinite future." This confirms my belief that he designed this post-Crisis Batman continuity to exist in the same one as DKR. While DKR is only one possible "indefinite" future for Batman (obviously, calling it the definite future for Batman would kill any surprise or suspense in Batman storytelling for years to come), it is, nevertheless, a possible future in this new continuity. The Batman that O'Neil is trying to get from his writers is absolutely the character who could become the DKR Batman.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 11:03:37 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 11:03:37 GMT -5

Batman #408

"Did Robin Die Tonight?"
writer: Max Allan Collins
pencils: Chris Warner
inks: Mike DeCarlo
letters: Todd Klein
colors: Adrienne Roy
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: B

Well, regardless of your interpretation of where Post-Crisis Batman's universe begins, we're now irrefutably in it, and O'Neil seems to be commemorating that fact by retitling the series "Batman: The New Adventures" as of this issue (it will only last until #416).

And, in my final effort to put the whole "where did Batman's post-Crisis continuity begin?" issue to bed, here's my last word in the matter:

Batman #401 was O'Neil's first issue as editor, and it laid some important foundation for the character O'Neil is trying to build, here, but the tone was far far too campy, and nothing of importance happened in those issues. Since we do still see that O'Neil likes his Batman dark at the core, but campy on the outside, these issues could be in continuity, and they are the first to introduce Bruce Wayne as the shallow, womanizing facade, and Batman as the reality. In these respects, I can begin to see Captain Jim's point that the post-Crisis begins here, but then there's the problems of Jason Todd and Catwoman (who appears in a pre-retconned state in Detective only a month later), both of whom get retconned after this point.

Batman #404 provides Batman's new origin (Year One), and the facts of that storyline have held up since, but the characterization belongs far more to DKR than to what O'Neil, Barr, and Collins are trying to do with Batman, and Jason Todd is still not fully retconned until after this storyline.

Batman #408 (this issue) finally has everything in place where it needs to be. Granted, it draws upon what was done in #401 and establishes a universe that will line up with the facts and events of #404-#407, but this is the first fully and completely post-Crisis Batman story.

Okay, that's out of the way. Let's talk Jason now. Jason was introduced in Batman #357, got his first lines in Detective #525, lost his parents and jumped into crime fighting in #526, got his first solo adventure in Batman #364, and officially became Robin in Batman #368. Moench slowly developed his personality after that, especially in Jason's relationship to Nocturna, to Batman once Nocturna separated them, and (less successfully) to Bullock.

Skip ahead to Batman #392, where Moench attempts to soft reboot the Bat Universe, and Jason is suspiciously absent for several issues, only to later emerge as an older, moodier, and far more troubled teen. This depiction carries us through Batman #400.

Detective #569 retcons Jason for a second time, this time making him only 12 years old and far more simple/fun-loving/impressionable than even Conway and Moench had ever depicted him. This lasted through Detective #574 last month.

Batman #408 is now Jason's third retcon, this time portraying him as a troubled street punk and completely altering his back story for the first time. What people seem to remember most about this retcon was that it made Jason more troubled (this is true, but he was pretty damned troubled after Moench's first retcon), and that his hair is now actually brown/black (of course, his natural red hair hadn't been shown or mentioned since Batman #366).

So, onto the story itself, then?

For one thing, it's odd that this issue never makes it clear that we're in the past. I had to do a double take when we flashed forward to see Dick as Nightwing. Somehow, even though Bruce had been saying "Dick" all along, I'd been reading this as Jason nearly getting killed and assumed Bruce would then flashback to when they first met. It's been years since I last read this issue. That's my only excuse for getting so confused.

This issue may be considered the first appearance of the post-Crisis Batman. In this issue, Collins seems to be following Barr more than Miller, portraying Batman as caring, frequently referring to Dick as "son" and worrying for his safety more than he worries about stopping the Joker or making the public think kindly of him (this aspect reminded me a lot of The Dark Knight, in which Batman must make the public think he's a monster in order to do what is right). Even the flashback to the murder of his parents , though outright stealing Mazzucchelli's visuals from Year One, adds tears and a look of rage on young Bruce's face, whereas Miller's young Bruce just stared out into the distance with determination but no emotion as the narration explained that "all sense left my life." In my mind, this is the definitive divide between what Miller was doing and what O'Neil, Barr, and Collins are doing. They see a dark, obsessive human who can still feel a range of other emotions. Miller sees an unfeeling, single-minded sociopath. I am VERY glad that Collins and Warner added this one frame.

And, considering all of this, is the Batman that O'Neil, Collins, and Warner are creating really all that different from the character that Wein, Conway, and Moench were writing? If anything, their Batman was a tad bit darker than this guy. Miller is the only one really changing things up for Batman, and his treatment is largely being ignored and contradicted by the others (though it will garner more attention and wield more influence over time). Really, the only major difference I see between pre-Crisis and post-Crisis Batman at this point is the issue of whether Bruce Wayne is one half of the man behind the mask or just a shallow facade.

Since I've never understood when the New Titans shifted from the pre-Crisis to the post-Crisis universe, this issue might also be considered the first post-crisis appearance of Dick Grayson. Interestingly enough, his being fired by Batman in this issue seems to contradict Secret Origins Annual #3 (written two years from now) in which he renounces his affiliation with Batman at what appears to be an older age.

It's funny how writers, editors, and even some fan complain about people like me being sticklers for continuity, but just look at what DC was doing at this point to invite this -- universe reboots, Who's Who? resources, definitive Secret Origins retellings, Batman's Year One and Superman's Man of Steel -- they were inviting us to pour over the details in the same way that Gary Hart once dared the media to follow him. Sorry for the outdated reference. All this re-reading has my brain stuck in the mid '80s.

On a different note, I wonder if this is the first time Batman is said to return to Crime Alley once per year on the anniversary of his parents' death. However, it seems silly to use that day to clean up crime in crime alley, specifically when the thugs know you're coming on that day. Even this issue seems to point out the silliness of that idea, but it doesn't take its criticism to its logical conclusion. If petty criminals know what day the Batman comes to Crime Alley each year, how has no one made the connection that Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered in Crime Alley on that day, particularly when Collins has made it clear that their deaths were a significant turning point for the entire neighborhood that most people would probably remember? It would be pretty darned easy to surmise Batman's identity from this.

I similarly find interesting Collins' idea that Batman's mission is too big to be spending much time on street thugs. I wonder if he was thinking more of crime bosses or intergalactic Justice League-level threats. Whatever the case, I always like Batman best when he is taking down the street level thugs, and I hope Collins won't portray that as being beneath him.

Ma Gunn -- what a terrible name. With a name like that, who couldn't predict that she'd turn out to be a bad guy?

No real read on Jason's character yet. He's a tough, angry kid who smokes and steals tires. That's not a personality. I don't recall him getting one until Batman #424, but let's hope I'm wrong about that.

And speaking of Jason, it seems like his death is getting foreshadowed a whole lot lately. DKR, the cover to Detective #574 last month, the title of this issue and the solicitation for it (which, weirdly enough, appeared in this issue!). I guess there's always been a lot of covers and stories suggesting that Robin is going to die because it sells books. Certainly, I can't imagine O'Neil was thinking about offing Jason just yet.

Looks like I read Batman Annual #11 too soon. It hits stands next month. The cover date threw me off. It's dated "January," so I assumed it hit stands in the same month as other comics dated "January." This issue of Batman is dated "June." That's quite a discrepancy.

I really really hate the new Batmobile shown in this issue, though it's at least less ridiculous than the completely different Bat Lamborghini depicted on the cover.

the plot summary in one long sentence: Batman and Robin (Dick) are fighting Joker at some point in the past, Dick gets shot and makes Batman think he might die, Batman decides to retire Dick for his own safety and make the world think Robin died, Dick reluctantly accepts, Vicki Vale goes on the rampage against Batman for the "death" of Robin, Bruce takes down some muggers in broad daylight, stupidly realizes way too late that it looks suspicious that he's able to take down three muggers at once, and allows himself to lose but sneaks the wallet back, he learns about Ma Gunn's school for troubled youth in Crime Alley, gets in costume and relives his own tragedy as he takes his yearly visit to Crime Alley to clean up the place out of memory for his parents, meets Ma Gunn, discovers that his tires have been stolen off the Batmobile, meets Jason Todd, the troubled kid who did it, and turns Jason over to Ma Gunn's school, where Jason quickly discovers they're a criminal front and they think Jason is a spy for Batman.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 11:04:50 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 11:04:50 GMT -5

Detective Comics #575

"Batman: Year Two, Chapter One -- Fear the Reaper"
writer: Mike W. Barr
pencils: Alan Davis
inks: Paul Neary
colors: Adrienne Roy
letters: Richard Starkings
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: B+

Well I can see why this story was doomed to fail before it even began. O'Neil sells it as the second part of Batman's definitive origin (beginning in Year One and continuing in Batman #408, which he considers an unofficial "Year Three"), yet it has none of the tone, characterization, themes, or visuals of Year One. Don't get me wrong. I like this Batman better, but any newcomer to Batman beginning with Miller's Year One and accepting what they read there as definitive Batman is going to be sorely disappointed moving to this story next. Come to think of it, this is probably exactly why many fans hated the post-Crisis Jason Todd too. Had Year One been a stand alone, out of continuity story like DKR, that would have been one thing, but calling it part one of Batman's new origin sets an expectation that everything that follows should be similar, or at least on the same playing field. Neither Year Two nor Collins' run on Batman is. Thus, Year Two gets retconned, Jason Todd gets killed off, and we got stuck with decades worth of stories featuring Bat Jerk all because fans began with Year One and therefore assumed that was what a Post-Crisis Batman story should look like.

Oh, and I'm assuming O'Neil's comment about Batman #408 being a sort of Year Three was referring to the part of the story that shows why Dick Grayson stopped being Robin, Even still, that doesn't make sense unless Dick started being Robin just after the Year Two storyline and only worked with Bruce for less than a year. Even still, shouldn't THAT story be called Year Three? (and it later will be). Once again, I'm just not sure O'Neil has any idea what he's talking about.

This storyline introduces The Reaper, a more extreme vigilante who was active approximately twenty years before Batman and has now returned. This character and his daughter, Rachel, form the basis for The Phantasm character in the classic animated film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, though many of the details changed. For one thing, I like the animated Phantasm's look a lot better.

Speaking of his look, while I'm sad to see Davis leaving the title after this issue (attributed to "a sudden shift of priorities" by O'Neil in the letter column to #577), his style just isn't matching the more serious tone Barr is now striving for in the title. His art is adequate (other than when depicting The Reaper...sheesh), but it doesn't soar the way it did when this was a lighthearted comic for all of three issues. Maybe that's why Davis left at this point, now that it was clear Barr was intending to go darker still with this storyline?

Okay Adrienne Roy or whoever is responsible -- a blank orange background DOES NOT look good on a cover. WHY WHY WHY are you planning to use it for all four issues of this storyline? A muted gray would have made this art look so much better.

So Gordon has just been promoted to Commissioner. At the end of Year One, we were told that a new corrupt commissioner was replacing Loeb. Apparently, he didn't last long, either. By this point, the organized crime influences appear to be gone, and Batman is now focusing on cleaning up petty thefts on the street level. I particularly liked his statement that no crime is too little for him to bother with...a direct contrast to what we were told by Collins in Batman this month.

Anyway, it's stated that Gotham was actually a much cleaner town when The Reaper was still active, and it's suggested that The Reaper quit and left town because he'd believed he'd cleaned up Gotham. Assuming Bruce began fighting crime in his early twenties, and assuming he was between 8 and 12 when his parents died, the Reaper had already been inactive for between 5 and 10 years by the time Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed.

I certainly hope that, as Batman and The Reaper continue to confront each other, the point is made that, had there been a Reaper in Gotham at the time, Bruce's parents never would have died. I would like to see Bruce have to deal with that knowledge in walking the ethical line between hero and vigilante.

We see Wayne Enterprises' headquarters being built in this issue (still looks just like it did Pre-Crisis), and we see Leslie Thompkins continue to play a major role in Bruce's life, while Alfred is relegated to being little more than a butler and accomplice.

We see Batman be the one to give Gordon his trade-mark pipe. Prior to this, he'd been trying to quit cigarettes. Perhaps more interesting, though, is how Davis draws Gordon as such a simple and relatively happy looking guy. This does not feel at all like the Gordon from Year One, who might have reflected with amusement upon receiving a pipe from The Batman but would not have outright smiled at it.

So we do find out what happened to Joe Chill's gun, which a young Bruce found in the flashback last issue. And, while I truly like the idea of Batman feeling the need to use a gun for once, I don't feel the moment was earned here. Getting his butt kicked shouldn't automatically lead to his believing he needs a gun in order to fight back. I would expect Bruce to go back, train harder, and fight smarter, not put his trust in a clumsy pistol that represents all that he hates about crime and violence. Certainly, Miller's Batman would have known six different ways to take The Reaper down without a gun. Once again, at least this isn't the same Batman that Miller was writing.

This storyline seems to suggest that the Reaper is the first costumed super villain Batman ever faces. That would certainly explain how he gets his butt kicked so easily, and why he might be desperate to turn to a gun as a result.

The Bat Signal is (re)introduced in this issue.

Oh, Batman has already adopted the new yellow chest symbol by the time of this story. I guess that's one reason why this story had to be booted out of continuity later on. All those Legends of the Dark Knight stories with the original chest symbol couldn't have taken place over the course of one year.

The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:

Gordon is on a talk show discussing Batman, the host conveniently offers entirely too much information about an old vigilante named the Reaper who (coincidentally enough) is returning to Gotham after 20 years in this same story, Batman takes down some thugs with little effort, "Mr. Caspian" has returned to Gotham after twenty years, sees his daughter Rachel, avoids discussing what happened to her mother (obviously the victim of a crime which led him to become The Reaper), and now knows Leslie Thompkins through Rachel, Bruce oversees the construction of the Wayne Enterprises headquarters and wants Leslie to live there (she declines), he meets Rachel and is drawn to her fascination with good and evil and tries to ask her out, but she is becoming a nun, Mr. Caspian is disgusted by the crimes he sees and returns to his role as The Reaper, Leslie tries to talk Bruce out of pursuing Rachel, but Bruce suggests that he senses a darkness about her, Batman takes on the Reaper when he sees the Reaper attempting to kill two bit criminals, the Reaper easily takes down Batman, Batman gets home and barely survives, deciding to use Joe Chill's gun to take down a villain as difficult as The Reaper.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 11:05:06 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 11:05:06 GMT -5

Batman #409

"Just Another Kid on Crime Alley!"
writer: Max Allan Collins
pencils: Ross Andru
inks: Dick Giordano
colors: Adrienne Roy
letters: John Costanza
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: C

Wow. This issue sucked.

First off, Andru's art is downright terrible. It first struck me as odd, on page 5, when Collins' narration promises "Even the sunlight doesn't take the darkness out of these streets" and Andru delivers a scene with a really happy looking beautiful girl in the foreground (maybe she's a prostitute, though she doesn't look it), a guy in a hat behind her who seems perfectly ordinary, and a few slightly shady looking people around them. I don't think Andru has ever walked in a bad neighborhood before.

Of course, his art gets worse. Whether it's the bad close-ups of Vicki and Jason (whose age seems to keep changing drastically), that odd image of Batman reclining on Gordon's couch with his legs crossed, or the weird energy clouds that surround people's heads for no apparent reason on pages 12 and 13, especially Batman's when he is neither injured nor surprised. Just lousy, lousy work.

Then there's Collins' writing, which honestly isn't much better. I really loved his work on Batman #402 and 403, and I liked last issue, so I was surprised to have issues with this one. Beyond the pure absurdity of Ma Gun (who instructs her students to drink alcohol instead of smoking weed...or was it dope? Does Collins even know the difference??) and Bruce's total blindness to her true nature (world's greatest detective my ass), the fact that the Joker is paying Ma Gun to get back the diamonds he lost last issue (since when has the Joker ever been that single-minded about a crime?), Jason's complete and utter lack of comprehensible motivation (why DOES he show up to help Batman take down Ma Gun's kids), or Batman's entirely arbitrary decision to make Jason be his next Robin at the end, all made this issue a sincere disappointment. Somehow, I still enjoyed it -- I don't know, there's a certain excitement to what's happening in O'Neil's office that allows me to excuse some of the bad -- but the plotting and art for this story were still truly disappointing.

Is the Crime Alley clinic that Bruce funds the same one that Leslie Thompkins works at in Detective? O'Neil really needs to coordinate these two titles better.

Once again, empty spaces in the background of the cover. Is this a new style that O'Neil is pushing, or is it just laziness?

Nothing else particularly significant that I've noticed about this issue.

The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Batman is self-satisfied about delivering Jason to Ma Gun's school, Ma Gun has her kids attack Jason but then arbitrarily decides that the fact that he's tough must make him okay, Bruce starts investigating who Jason's parents are and discovers that Catherine Todd died of an overdose and Willie Todd was believed to be killed by his boss, Two Face, Vicki bugs Bruce some more, they both visit Ma Gun and decide, once again, that they approve of her school, Jason arbitrarily decides that he wants no part in Ma Gun's crimes and escapes (seriously? This has NEVER been a problem for Ma Gun until now??), Batman takes down some thugs attacking some college kids, he discovers Jason is back on the streets, Jason tells him about Ma Gun, Batman busts Ma Gun's museum heist (trying to steal back the jewels for The Joker), Jason shows up and assists for no apparent reason, and Batman decides to make him Robin.

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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 11:15:57 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 11:15:57 GMT -5

Detective Comics #576

"Batman: Year Two, Chapter Two -- Deal with the Devil"
writer: Mike W. Barr
pencils: Todd McFarlane
inks: Alfredo Alcala
letters: Agustin Mas
colors: Adrienne Roy
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: C+

Ah, a young Todd McFarlane, who will one day go on to single handedly devastate the comic book industry far more than Fredric Wertham ever could, but that's a rant for another thread on another day. In this issue you can see early hints of the kind of artist he'll later become, though -- some particularly cool and dynamic poses, but very little consistency across panels. In fact, on page 11, I'm pretty sure his jacket turned into a sports jacket. He's definitely not wearing a sports jacket under the jacket at the top of the page. Little inconsistencies like this one are sprinkled across the story, and they get particularly obnoxious during the big battle with The Reaper, in which it's very hard to figure out what the heck is going on. Also, what the heck is with Bruce's face at the bottom of page 7? Some how, I can't see Bruce being this carefree and fancy free just by thinking of a girl he likes while a villain like The Reaper has such a hold over him as to force him to use Joe Chill's gun against him. At least Todd draws a better Reaper than Davis did, and Alcala's expressive inking helps at times (it's great to see him back!).

As for the story, itself, there isn't all that much to say. The Reaper is pretty cool (his assassination attempt on the mob boss is pretty brilliant; clearly this guy's skills are superior to Bruce's at this point and, by defeating The Reaper, it will be a way of passing the torch to Batman), but his back story is painfully predictable and incredibly similar to Bruce's in a way that reeks more of laziness than destiny. Rachel still strikes me as uninteresting, and she's far too quick to drop her guard and kiss Bruce when she's on the cusp of fulfilling her lifelong dream to become a nun (would Bruce drop his lifelong dream of becoming Batman for her this quickly?). Batman's crossing Gordon was dramatic and interesting, but the reasoning had better make damn good sense. I'm afraid this will be another "wouldn't it be cool if..,?" decisions that isn't backed by any sound rationale, just like Bruce taking up Joe Chill's gun in this storyline.

And speaking of "wouldn't it be cool if...?" decisions governing this storyline, there's Joe Chill at the end of this story. I mean...it could have been done well, and maybe it was just McFarlane's art that messed up the mood, but this cliffhanger just felt obligatory and silly. If you're going to erase one of the more memorable Batman stories of all time from continuity (the death of Joe Chill in Batman #47), then you'd better make it count. Barr and McFarlane really didn't, thus far.

I still like the Reaper, but even the fact that he was never even mentioned until a reporter randomly and conveniently referenced him at the beginning of this story makes the whole thing feel contrived. This entire storyline feels like it was fueled by "Wouldn't it be cool if...?" decisions rather than a sincere need to tell an essential Batman story.

The plot synopsis in one long sentence: the police are trying to safely move a crime boss to jail when The Reaper makes a brilliant attempt on his life and succeeds, Gordon is annoyed by the mayor, Bruce is training with Joe Chill's gun, Leslie reprimands him for what he is doing, we get the backstory on Mr. Caspian (The Reaper) and see how he and his wife were attacked by a mugger while returning from the circus with their daughter one night, but his wife died, he resolved to become The Reaper, and Rachel was comforted by a nun (inspiring her decision to later become one), Bruce takes Rachel out, they discuss the darkness within him, and they kiss, Batman tells Gordon that he will appear to cross him soon but will still be his friend, The Reaper makes an attempt on another crime boss, Batman intervenes and fires a bullet to knock Gordon's gun out of his hand, telling him and the police to leave, Gordon is furious, Batman saves the crime boss and escapes, The Reaper escapes the pursuing police, Batman proposes a team-up with the criminal underworld against The Reaper, and the crime lords decide that Batman will have to work with their own man...Joe Chill.

And why, oh why, would the criminal underworld feel that an aging thug would be a useful aid to Batman, even to the point that they demand Batman work with him? If I were a crime boss, I'd be like "Hey, go ahead. You take the dude on, and we'll give you anything you want. Just leave us all out of it"

Really not shaping up to be a great story. Wish I could keep The Reaper and lose the rest.

shaxper
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The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper) May 15, 2014 11:42:32 GMT -5

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Post by shaxper on May 15, 2014 11:42:32 GMT -5

Batman #410

"Two of a Kind"
writer: Max Collins
pencils: Dave Cockrum
inks: Mike DeCarlo
letters: Todd Klein & John Costanza
colors: Adrienne Roy
editor: Denny O'Neil

Grade: C+

Well, I haven't been at this point in a long, long time. It's that point where you have absolutely no positive expectations for the rest of a creator's run and are just reading to get to the next guy -- in this case, Jim Starlin. I don't remember Starlin's issues well, except that Batman #424 made me drop my jaw, and Death in the Family will always be my most cherished reading experience as an adolescent (gimmicky stunt or not). Plus, Batman: The Cult is in that stretch, and I've heard nothing but good things about that storyline. But, in the meantime Collins has lost the little magic he seemed to have at the start, the ongoing procession of temp artists turning in uninspired work shows that Denny O'Neil does not have the same commitment to getting great artists on the book that Wein did, and over at Detective, Alan Davis is gone, and Barr stopped impressing me after those first two issues.

sigh.

All right, enough whining. Time to suck it up and review this one...

First off, I'm still finding the time progression weird. This is an origin story, and yet it's not told in the past tense. Collins begins with, "For six months now..." as if this was the present and he was just magically hitting the fast forward button, but this is not the present tense of Detective Comics, nor of any other title Batman might be appearing in at this point. Certainly, The Crisis attempted to show us that the entire DC Universe was closely interconnected, yet here we have a post-Crisis origin story that is occurring in its own time frame. Odd.

So more on Collins' Post Crisis Batman. We already saw that he is caring and compassionate, much like the Pre-Crisis Batman (in fact, arguably moreso than the guy Moench and Conway were writing). In this issue, though, we see that he is practiced in martial arts, something that lines up well with Miller's Batman, but I'm not sure we ever saw Batman do anything to train for physical combat beyond box in Pre-Crisis history (you guys can help me out on this one). Still, Jason takes him down after only six months of practice, so he's either letting Jason win (not suggested by Collins nor Cockrum), or he's hardly the guy who knows six ways to take an opponent down that Miller was depicting in DKR and Year One.

Cockrum is a welcome change as penciler in this issue (he'll only hang around for two more), but his work here is merely adequate. Having seen the stuff he did with Claremont's X-Men in the previous decade, I know what he's capable of, but his layout here could not be less inspired, he's light on the lines and shadowing, and there's at least one action scene that is particularly difficult to follow in this story. Clearly, his heart isn't in the game on this one.

Bruce explains in this issue that the giant penny in the Batcave is a memento from a battle with Two Face. That doesn't sound right to me. I don't remember the real story, but I don't recall it having been Two Face. Is that a post-Crisis change that Collins made?

Though a time frame is never given, it's suggested that Bruce and Dick spent a lot of time fighting members of the rogues gallery on numerous occasions. No specific time frame is given for when anything occurs in this story (other than the "six months later..." that begins this one), but at least we can now assume that O'Neil was wrong in calling this a kind of "Year Three" and that Dick was active as Robin for quite some time.

Here's what we can guess thus far:

Year 1 -- The Year One storyline
Year 1 -- The replacement commissioner at the end of "Year One" is fired or forced to retire
Year 1 -- Batman switches to the yellow chest symbol

Year 2 -- The Year Two storyline

Year 2 or later -- Dick becomes Robin

? -- Most of Batman's rogues gallery is active for some time prior to Dick's retirement, but presumably not until after the events of Year Two (since it's implied that Reaper is Batman's first supervillain), including Two Face, Penguin, and Joker.

Year 4 or later -- The first Robin is retired and presumed dead by the general public, after an implied long history of repeated confrontations with members of the rogues gallery. I'm assuming this took more than a year. Considering how old Dick looks in this story (at least 15?) there's a good chance this was more like Year 7.
Year 4 or later -- Bruce takes in Jason (this did not necessarily occur in the same year that Dick was retired)
Year 4 or later -- Jason becomes Robin six months after.

One thing I did like about this story -- We're finally given a rationale for why Bruce took in Jason, as well as why Collins (and possibly O'Neil?) changed Jason into a street punk:

Alfred: ...you plan to make him your new partner, after you swore you would not endanger another child.

Bruce: Alfred, this "child" is ALREADY a streetwise adventurer--who left to his own devices would undoubtedly go down the same criminal road that took his father to an early death.

And later, we get more of the same:

Gordon: You swore you'd never pair up with a CHILD again.

Batman: This child is older than both of us--not to mention tougher.

Gordon: Welcome, Robin. Good luck to you, son.

So, reason #1: the kid was likely to get himself killed anyway, so there's really no risk. Reason #2: becoming Robin is a new way for Bruce to fight crime, by stopping a criminal before he becomes one. I'm sure that would be a massive symbolic victory for Bruce. Reason #3: He's naturally tough and mature and is likely to be able to handle it (not sure I buy the "older than the both of us" bit though. Jason does not strike me as particularly wise nor mature).

Still, this is the most sense Batman having a kid sidekick has ever made at this point. If you think about it, while it initially seemed like the Pre-Crisis Jason had nowhere else to go, Moench showed us early on that he still had a life at the circus, and even an adoption agency wanted to care for him; Bruce had to fight for the right to keep him and to keep endangering his life as Robin. But the street punk Jason has nowhere else to go. A semi-hardened criminal like him had no hope outside of Ma Gunn, and that clearly didn't work. Granted, Bruce's thought process in doing all of this really should have been shown (and I really would have liked to have seen the moment where Bruce decided to trust Jason with his secret identity rather than just depicting the revelation as a given), but that's really just a byproduct of Collins' biggest weakness in this run (aside from the bad plotting) -- the breakneck speed at which all this backstory is moving. Dick's Post-Crisis career as Robin deserved more than a few pages at the beginning of Jason's origin. It should, at least, have been given a full issue. And Jason's story is moving similarly fast without enough of the logical steps from point A to point B being shown. He's a street punk, and then he's Bruce's trusted ward. Had Collins taken the time to show all of this a bit more carefully, more fans might have accepted this new Jason Todd. And, as a side note, there's really no unifying theme behind any of this either, other than the issue of whether or not Batman should have a kid sidekick. But still, based upon the explanations given in this issue, I now officially approve of the Jason Todd retcon and feel that this Robin makes far more logical sense then the last two. The idea is strong, even if Collins' execution is a bloody mess.

Another particularly important point in this issue is a subtle one. While Alfred and Bruce are discussing Dick, Bruce says:

He's in New York. Maybe we'll talk...after things have cooled off.

Even though Dick wasn't happy about the idea of retiring in #408, he ultimately accepted the decision (in fact, Warner even had him smiling in that last panel), so I'm a bit confused as to what needs cooling down.
In the pre-Crisis continuity, Bruce and Dick had some massive disagreements, beginning with Dick dropping out of college, but they'd worked everything out by the time that Jason became Robin. In fact, it was Dick's idea to pass the Robin costume on to him. So this would appear to be a significant change in the post-Crisis Batman continuity. Dick is not at all involved in the emergence of Jason Todd as the second Robin.

And now I'm just gonna nitpick the heck out of this issue:

- Wow. They just happened to be discussing Two Face on the same night that he ends up being at large. And the villain that killed Jason's dad just happens to be the first one he faces.

- Gordon receives an anonymous envelope with playing cards in it. Sure, it was two pairs and a deuce, and sure Gordon'd already found other clues to suggest Two Face was at large, but how did no-one think "Joker" for even a second, here? Batman and Robin weren't privvy to the facts Gordon already had that were pointing to Two Face.

- They spend all this time discussing Two Face's predictable compulsion centered on the number two, and yet they NEVER explain why he chose "The Lucky Dollar" casino as his target. My guess is it's because he flips a lucky silver dollar, but that's not the m.o. they just explained. The name needs to tie into the number two, not Two Face's coin. This just felt sloppy.

- As did the name "Casino City."

- As did Two Face's expressing surprise that Batman has found him here since "you don't prowl THIS turf." Umm, maybe the clue you MAILED to commissioner Gordon had something to do with it?

- As did the setup for the crime. I've never been to a casino, but I'm relatively sure the guards don't just parade piles of money through the floor of the casino with all those people around. Don't they have a back entrance and loading dock?

- As did the fact that Two Face first flips to see if he'll do the crime when they're already there. He's got two henchmen with him and two more on the way with a dummy armored car. How long could he possibly maintain a criminal operation if he kept flipping his coin and flaking out on a crime when they're already at the scene?

- As did Two Face's logic that the armed guards wouldn't fire for fear of hitting an innocent bystander. He shoots an armed guard dead in front of at least five other guards who are all pointing their guns at him from less than ten feet away, and he correctly surmises that not a single one will fire back for fear of hitting people that are nowhere near Two Face. Granted, a bad miss could injure someone, but they're likely to hit him, and, more importantly, he just SHOT one of them dead.

I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the way Jason handled himself against Two Face in this issue -- fearless, playful, and full of ingenuity. He felt like a template for Damian Wayne here, and definitely couldn't be confused for Dick Grayson. Jason Todd, out of costume, still feels a little too wide eyed and innocent, considering how tough he was in the last two issues (though maybe that's all Cockrum's art doing that, or Collins' breakneck speed just failed to show his emotional progression under Bruce's care), but I love him as Robin here. If only the rest of the issue delivered...

On page 11, the marquis for The Lucky Dollar advertises "Exclusive Engagement: Moo Goo Gai Schwartz and his Fortune Cookies." I'm assuming this is some sort of in-joke honoring Julie Schwartz? Otherwise, If this were just fun for its own sake, it would come off as pretty damn racist.

We learn in this issue that Jason's Robin costume has soft body armor in it. Dick's did not.

Sigh. The plot synopsis in one long sentence:

Bruce has been training Jason for six months, and while he's prepared Jason for everything else imaginable, he has not talked to Jason about Two Face for fear of Jason discovering that Two Face killed his dad, Jason notices that Bruce hasn't talked about Two Face, so Bruce finally preps him on Two Face, we're given Harvey Dent's origin (odd to get an origin story within an origin story that isn't written like its an origin story), Alfred questions Bruce's decision to take on another child assistant (why didn't he mention this six months earlier???) and points out that Bruce compares Jason to Dick too much, Bruce makes up for it by making Jason Robin, Gordon summons them because Two Face is conveniently in town and sending clues to him, Gordon questions Batman's decision to take on a second Robin but quickly accepts it, Two Face and his men rob a casino, Batman and Robin try to stop them but randomly give Two Face time to get up, back away, and grab a hostage (Batman had him down, and Robin took on his cronies by himself, so there was nothing to distract Batman and allow Two Face to escape) Robin convinces Two face to trade him for the hostage, Robin manages to escape, Batman lectures Robin for taking such a risk but ultimately praises him, and Jason does some more investigating in the Bat Computer and discovers that Two Face killed his dad.

All told, this was an odd mix of an issue. The story was terrible, and the art was uninteresting, but this issue just sold me on the post-Crisis Jason Todd at the same time. Even I'm not sure how to reconcile that.

Last Edit: May 15, 2014 11:42:57 GMT -5 by shaxper

The Complete Batman: 1979-2011 (reviews by shaxper)

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