80 Years of Batman!

Happy Birthday, Batman! 

80 Stories For 80 Years of The Dark Knight

In honor of Batman’s 80th anniversary, I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the definitive Batman works from Vol. 1 (pre-New 52). These comic book stories, arcs or runs introduce important characters and events that are central to the mythos or explore character motivation the best. Some are very popular and obvious, some more off the beaten path. Every era is represented from Volume 1 (pre-New 52). This was a challenge for me as a Batman fan. I poured over every issue (via reprints and digital) of the two main Bat titles and all of the major series.

1. The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge (Batman #251)

2. Strange Apparitions (Detective Comics #469-479)

3. Daughter of the Demon (Batman #232)

4. The Dark Knight Returns (miniseries)

5. Batman: Year One (Batman #404-407)

6. There is No Hope in Crime Alley (Detective Comics #457)

7. The Long Halloween/Dark Victory

8. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (graphic novel)

9. Mad Love (The Batman Adventures: Mad Love #1)

10. The Killing Joke (one-shot)

11. Night of the Reaper (Batman #237)

12. A Vow From the Grave (Detective Comics #410)

13. Night of the Stalker (Detective Comics #439)

14. The Batman Nobody Knows (Batman #250) 

15. Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker (Batman #321)

16. Shaman (Legends of the Dark Knight #1-5)

17. The Joker/The Joker Returns (Batman #1)

18. A Lonely Place of Dying (Batman #440-442, The New Titans #60-61)

19. Robin the Boy Wonder (Detective Comics #38)

20. Slayride (Detective Comics #826)

21. The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl! (Detective Comics #359)

22. Hush (Batman #608-619)

23. Death Strikes At Midnight and Three (DC Special Series #15)

24. Batman vs. the Vampire (Detective Comics #31-32)

25. The Six Days of The Scarecrow (Detective Comics #503)

26. Death Flies the Haunted Sky (Detective Comics #442)

27. The Man Who Falls (Secret Origins: Batman)

28. Venom (Legends of the Dark Knight #16-20)

29. My Beginning… And My Probable End (Detective Comics #574)

30. Robin Dies At Dawn (Batman #156)

31. The Case of the Chemical Syndicate (Detective Comics #27)

32. This One’ll Kill You, Batman (Batman #260)

33. Shadow Play (Batman #348)

34. The Invader From Hell (Batman Family #1)

35. Blades (Legends of the Dark Knight #32-34)

36. The Player on the Other Side (Batman Special #1)

37. Gothic (Legends of the Dark Knight #6-10)

38. The Case of the Honest Crook (Batman #5)

39. Wanted: Santa Clause — Dead or Alive (DC Special Series #21)

40. The Origin of Jason Todd (post-crisis) (Did Robin Die Tonight? Batman #408, Just Another Kid on Crime Alley Batman #409)

41. No Man’s Land (Batman: No Man’s Land #1, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #83-94, Batman #563-574, Detective Comics #730-741, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #51-61, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #116-126, Robin #67-73, Catwoman #72-77 and Batman Chronicles #16-18)

42. A Hero Reborn (Batman 455-457, Robin 1-5)

43. Riddle of the Human Scarecrow (World’s Finest Comics #3) 

44. Eye of The Beholder (Batman Annual #14)

45. The House That Haunted Batman (Detective Comics #408)

46. Knightfall Part 1: Broken Bat (Batman #491-500, Detective Comics #659-666)

47. Dark Knight, Dark City (Batman #452-454)

48. A Death in the Family (Batman #426-429)

49. The Return of Dr. Phosphorous (Detective Comics #825)

50. Blind Justice (Detective Comics #598-600) * 50th anniversary story

51. Monster, My Sweet (Batman #344)

52. Ticket To Tragedy (Detective Comics #481)

53. The Vampire Saga (Batman #349-351, Detective Comics #517)

54. The Untold Legend of the Batman (the first Batman miniseries)

55. The Scarecrow’s Trail of Fear (Batman #262)

56. Batman: Ego by Darwyn Cooke (miniseries)

57. Batman: The Man Who Laughs (miniseries)

58. Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed? (Batman #290-294) 

59. Fear for Sale (Detective Comics #571) 

60. The Secret of the Waiting Graves (Detective Comics #395)

61. Batman: War On Crime (oversized graphic novel)

62. Have Yourself A Deadly Little Christmas (Batman #309)

63. The Joker: Devil’s Advocate (one-shot)

64. Victims (Batman #414)

65. White Gold and Truth (Batman #416)

66. Death Has the Last Laugh (Brave and the Bold #111)

67. Batman: The Cult (miniseries)

68. The Last Arkham (Shadow of the Bat #1-4)

69. Broken City (Batman #620-625)

70. Fears (Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1) (one-shot)

71. The Black Mask Saga (Batman #386-387)

72. One Batman Too Many (Batman #403)

73. Prey (Legends of the Dark Knight #11-15)

74. Terror (Legends of the Dark Knight #137-141)

75. Images (Legends Of The Dark Knight #50)

76. To Kill A Legend (Detective Comics #500)

77. Madness – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special (one-shot)

78. Batman: Ghosts – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special (one-shot)

79. Masks (Legends Of The Dark Knight #39-40)

80. A Bullet For Bullock (Detective Comics #651)

Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000)

* As I did with the FleischerSuperman cartoons and Batman: The Animated Series, I want to take a serious and analytical look at the Superman cartoon of the 1990’s.

       Superman: The Animated Series began life as a tie-in idea for the planned but never produced Tim Burton/Nicholas Cage Superman movie reboot. Once that film project started languishing, Warner Bros. handed the reigns of the cartoon series over to the producers and creative team from Batman. And why not? Batman: TAS remains the most successful superhero show of all time.

       Initially, Bruce Timm and company, while being excited at the prospect of working on the biggest superhero of all time, didn’t really know how to handle Superman. They weren’t sure if they wanted to go retro with Superman, ala Fleischer, or just follow the BTAS example. Ultimately, after many discussions and character sketches, the team decided on a retro-futuristic style for Superman. 

       The designs for the characters and their world were streamlined and more cartoony than even BTAS had been. The look was bright and optimistic, while certain episodes still harkened back to the pulp action/sci-fi tone of the best Superman comics.

       This series leaned heavily on the New Gods/Fourth World comics of Jack Kirby, introducing Darkseid and his planet Apokolips as major players. This was done because Bruce Timm believed that most of Superman’s enemies weren’t powerful enough to be any credible threat. Also as a result of this, as John Byrne had done in his comics, the producers felt it would be best to depower Superman from his all powerful Silver Age levels. This was a wise decision indeed. It’s much easier to appreciate and relate to a Superman who is less powerful than one who can blow out a star like a birthday candle.

       The other thing that this show also pulled from the Byrne comics was keeping the Kents alive. John Byrne had recognized the source of drama and the emotional anchorage that Jonathon and Martha Kent would add to Superman stories. This was an ingenious insight that the producers also accepted. It helped to make Clark more human and provide more of a background for him in Smallville.

       The score, once again the brainchild of Shirley Walker, is wonderful. The main theme is very heroic and optimistic. It feels like a Superman theme. Overall, this is a more modern soundtrack than the BTAS score. It’s less operatic, less sprawling and perhaps simpler. It helps the show feel much more like a science-fiction/fantasy cartoon than a dramatic superhero series. It would be impossible to hold this score up to the John Williams Superman theme. The two are incomparable, but both are brilliant.

       Many fans hold up this animated version of Superman as the best animated adaptation. While I agree that it's a fun show, I would have to give that honor to the Fleischer cartoons. While the animation for this series is technically near perfect for the clean, cartoony style that they went with, the stories themselves are hit and miss for me. Of the fifty-four episodes produced over three seasons, I would argue only about thirty-five of them, give or take a few, hit their mark. That said, this show still offers some of the best Superman media, outside of the comics.

       I realize there’s no such thing as a perfect show, and while some of the earliest episodes are truly brilliant, there are quite a few duds. This series simply lacks the pathos and more mature nature of the early BTAS episodes. The creators of this show also didn’t seem to take Superman as sincerely as they did Batman either. 

       There’s something about this show that just screams: missed opportunity. I can’t really put my finger on why, as much as I love this series, it feels like something’s lacking. Maybe it’s the fact that BTAS set such a high bar. Maybe, and this is just speculation, the producers ultimately didn’t know what to do with a Superman cartoon? Maybe it would have been better if the character designs and animation style were less cartoony? I don’t know. Even though I don't think this Superman show offers everything it could have, relying too much on either humor or Jack Kirby's 4th World, it still is a must for Superman fans.

       I still like a lot of what they did. Highlights for me include:

SEASON ONE

Episodes 1–3: The Last Son of Krypton (the pilot)

Episode 7: The Way of All Flesh

Episode 13: Two’s A Crowd

SEASON TWO

Episode 3: The Prometheon

Episode 4: Speed Demons

Episode 6: Target

Episode 9: Action Figures

Episode 12: Brave New Metropolis

Episode 16-18: World’s Finest (3 part Batman crossover)

Episode 22: The Late Mr. Kent

SEASON THREE

Episode 2: Knight Time

Episode 8: Superman’s Pal

Episode 9: A Fish Story

Episode 10: Unity

The Finale: LEGACY