|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2014 3:51:23 GMT -5
I am now sampling some of the Golden Age Batman stuff for the first time in a long time. I read a handful of stories in the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told around the time the first Burton film came out, but have started sampling the Batman Chronicles recently. I only own 3 volumes (1, 5, and 8) and our local library has Vol. 2 (which I am reading currently). I am enjoying these quite a bit, but as others have noted, they can be a bit uneven. The sheer power and imagination of the stories is fascinating, but they lack all subtlety in story-telling technique, which might be why some don't groove to them as much. They are raw and powerful, but unpolished, and that roughness is a double edged sword. It attracts some, but it puts of many who are much more used to the polished final product of comics from the late Silver Age onward.
-M
|
|
|
|
Post by gmiller on Nov 25, 2014 4:01:12 GMT -5
I'll probably get reamed for this, but I am partial to the Moench/Dixon/Grant runs, specifically during the Knightfall saga...To me, it made Bruce Wayne mean more than ever...JP just couldn't handle the mantle of the bat, and it showed the restraint Bruce had to use in order to be the Batman that Gotham City deserved...
|
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 25, 2014 4:01:47 GMT -5
Exactly. This is why all of the themes that make the superhero genre great will never be fully realized in live-action movies. (And I say this as a fan of the Marvel Studio films.)
|
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 25, 2014 4:02:17 GMT -5
Exactly. This is why all of the themes that make the superhero genre great will never be fully realized in live-action movies. (And I say this as a fan of the Marvel Studio films.)
|
|
|
|
Post by crazyoldhermit on Nov 25, 2014 4:56:14 GMT -5
I'll probably get reamed for this, but I am partial to the Moench/Dixon/Grant runs, specifically during the Knightfall saga...To me, it made Bruce Wayne mean more than ever...JP just couldn't handle the mantle of the bat, and it showed the restraint Bruce had to use in order to be the Batman that Gotham City deserved... One of my favorite Batman moments ever is at the end of Knightquest (or maybe the beginning of KnightsEnd). Poor Tim Drake has spent the entire arc being increasingly terrified of Jean Paul Valley. He's bricked up the batcave and has threatened Tim's life. When Bruce gets back he hears about this and is not happy. So whats he do?  Busts into the batcave with a sledgehammer. A small moment but one that just feels so reassuring. Dad is back in town and he's not going to put up with Azrael's crap for one second. |
|
|
|
Post by Paste Pot Paul on Nov 25, 2014 6:42:53 GMT -5
When I think of comic book Batman, this is the image that I have permanently burned into my memory.  As a kid, I had a Batman t-shirt with this image of Batman, and during the summer of 1989 I must have worn that shirt at least twice a week for 3-4 months straight. I'm pretty sure I also tried to copy the drawing too, with what I'm sure were less-than-stellar results. So even though he wasn't drawing Batman comics at the time I was getting into comics, and I didn't learn until later who the artist of that image was, I always consider Adams to be the definitive Batman artist simply because that image left such a strong impression upon me at a young age. As for the animated series -- I'm sure I'm not the only one this happens to, but whenever I read any Batman comic, classic or modern, without fail it's Kevin Conroy's voice I hear in my head whenever Batman speaks. One of the greatest pieces by the greatest artist to work on him. As you say THIS is Batman, its whats in my head when I think of him too. Adams has to be up there purely for shaping the look of Bats for the next 30 years. Englehart & Rogers never did enough to justify the vote, as with Miller (as good as DK and Year 1 are), and although I have much love for Gene Colan and Don Newton I see their era as B grade. The animated series kicked ass, and is worthy, as is the sheer insanity of the Sprang years. I cant stand Novicks work, and Infantino is a genius on Flash but the goofy era spoils his batwork for mine. Aparo, now heres a guy I always thought was average, until I started reading some of the love from youse fullas. Its made me look at his work again...BUT...I dont particularly like his Bats. Spectre and Aquaman are nice, but not Bruce. |
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 25, 2014 8:47:16 GMT -5
I love the Neal Adams Batman, but it's interesting, having read his run three times now, that it features little of what we think of in terms of the definitive Batmythos: No Batcave/Wayne Manor as main headquarters, very few gadgets, infrequent use of the Batmobile, sparse use of classic villains, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Nov 25, 2014 10:00:57 GMT -5
I love the Neal Adams Batman, but it's interesting, having read his run three times now, that it features little of what we think of in terms of the definitive Batmythos: No Batcave/Wayne Manor as main headquarters, very few gadgets, infrequent use of the Batmobile, sparse use of classic villains, etc. That's why this is my favorite Bat-era. I f'ing hate the Batmobile and the rest of the fetishistic Batgear. If you're trying to maintain a secret identity and your alter ego is a prominent zillionaire businessman whose parents were murdered with a teenaged ward, don't run around in million-dollar cars, planes and whirlybats! Seriously, how retarded do Gordon and his cops have to be not to have figured out Bruce and Dick were B&R within the first week of their careers? Cei-U! I summon the foolish flatfoots! |
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 25, 2014 10:43:28 GMT -5
I love the Neal Adams Batman, but it's interesting, having read his run three times now, that it features little of what we think of in terms of the definitive Batmythos: No Batcave/Wayne Manor as main headquarters, very few gadgets, infrequent use of the Batmobile, sparse use of classic villains, etc. That's why this is my favorite Bat-era. I f'ing hate the Batmobile and the rest of the fetishistic Batgear. If you're trying to maintain a secret identity and your alter ego is a prominent zillionaire businessman whose parents were murdered with a teenaged ward, don't run around in million-dollar cars, planes and whirlybats! Seriously, how retarded do Gordon and his cops have to be not to have figured out Bruce and Dick were B&R within the first week of their careers? Cei-U! I summon the foolish flatfoots! Yet you're STILL okay with Robin's strip of a mask being a good enough of disguise, or even Batman's?  |
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Nov 25, 2014 11:38:45 GMT -5
That's why this is my favorite Bat-era. I f'ing hate the Batmobile and the rest of the fetishistic Batgear. If you're trying to maintain a secret identity and your alter ego is a prominent zillionaire businessman whose parents were murdered with a teenaged ward, don't run around in million-dollar cars, planes and whirlybats! Seriously, how retarded do Gordon and his cops have to be not to have figured out Bruce and Dick were B&R within the first week of their careers? Cei-U! I summon the foolish flatfoots! Yet you're STILL okay with Robin's strip of a mask being a good enough of disguise, or even Batman's? Hardly. As Shaxper can attest, I thoroughly loathe costumed kid sidekicks in general and Robin in particular. Yet another reason the '70s are my favorite Batman era: no Boy Blunder. Cei-U! I summon the pixie-booted pain-in-the-ass! |
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Nov 25, 2014 11:53:59 GMT -5
The only problem I have with Robin is that the Neal Adams redesign was about 20 years too late.
|
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Nov 25, 2014 12:09:12 GMT -5
Even though I've read more of other people's run, it's Neal Adams' or Jim Aparo's Batman that is my "default," I guess because those were the ones I saw a lot as a kid.
|
|
|
|
Post by MDG on Nov 25, 2014 12:34:13 GMT -5
I love the Neal Adams Batman, but it's interesting, having read his run three times now, that it features little of what we think of in terms of the definitive Batmythos: No Batcave/Wayne Manor as main headquarters, very few gadgets, infrequent use of the Batmobile, sparse use of classic villains, etc. That's why this is my favorite Bat-era. I f'ing hate the Batmobile and the rest of the fetishistic Batgear. If you're trying to maintain a secret identity and your alter ego is a prominent zillionaire businessman whose parents were murdered with a teenaged ward, don't run around in million-dollar cars, planes and whirlybats! Seriously, how retarded do Gordon and his cops have to be not to have figured out Bruce and Dick were B&R within the first week of their careers? Cei-U! I summon the foolish flatfoots! I agree to a point, but think of it more as the Robbins/Novick era. I went w/ Englehart and Rogers (probably no surprise). But they were never really a regular Batman team. Probably the shortest tenure of anyone on the list except Miller and Mazzuchelli. |
|
|
|
Post by adamwarlock2099 on Nov 25, 2014 13:39:34 GMT -5
I don't have every single issue, but I have a heavy amount of Batman #400 up to Morrison's (around the highly promoted #666) and Detective from just before Knightsend (640ish) through No Man's Land (730's) and a speckling of a lot of other creative teams, through either single issues purchased or TPB, especially The Greatest ____ Ever Told collections for golden age Batman. Growing up before I started reading comics, I watched Batman: TAS every afternoon after school. When I did start reading comics, I dove into The Batman Adventures collections, since they looked familiar from the cartoon. I've liked a lot of these creative team's take on Batman and his supporting characters and villains, and in particular really like Aparo and Rogers art the most. But if I were to pick the best creative team, I would have to say "other", in that the best creative team for Batman has been a rotating creative team, as in Legend of the Dark Knight. I think everyone has a great Batman story to tell, because Batman is universally apt to any human. I think that's why I enjoy his adventures when any setting, character, timeline, or antagonist can be up next, and it's always changing. I never do good keeping in buying with one title as, even for the spans that some of these creative teams have been on either title, it gets repetitive, not because the creative team is inept, but because the reader gets what the writer and artist are doing and before you know it, it's like eating pepperoni pizza for lunch everyday. It's good, but you don't know how good, fresh and new it could be, if you don't rotate toppings. And that's what LOTDK did, it was fresh and new every 1-5 issues or so. Some of the best stories were in one issue. Some of the best artists and writers to draw and write him, I've never seen on a regular Batman title.
|
|
|
|
Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Nov 25, 2014 17:08:36 GMT -5
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale get my vote. I dont know why, other than I really enjoyed the pop art feel and lengthy tales they wove in both Long Halloween and Dark Victory. They also did solid work with Catwoman IMO....not technically Batman, I know, but still. Is there any more work they have done on Batman other than those two story arcs?
|
|
