A Batman ranking podcast, hosted by Matt Lazorwitz and Will Nevin.
It’s time to celebrate! Matt’s other show, The ComicsXF Interview Podcast, reached episode 300 this week. And so for that celebration, that show’s co-host, the first ever BatChat guest, Matt’s best friend of over 30 years, ComicsXF Editor-in-Chief Dan Grote, is joining BatChat again. We are talking stories from three creators who have been interviewed…
This week, one of the defining writers of DC Comics in the 80s and early 90s will turn 75 years old. John Ostrander has a storied career over more than 40 years. He created an indy hit with his creator owned mercenary, Grimjack, and wrote some of the best received Star Wars comics ever. His…
It’s been a while, but we’re back reading the three series/runs that we have been following (mostly) in order. In “No Man’s Land,” both Batman and Jim Gordon make some choices that definitely won’t come back to bite them on the butt. In the Morrison run, they investigate ethics in vigilantism and Jason Todd’s hair…
The law of diminishing returns is often true. It’s like that movie with Michael Keaton, Multiplicity (See, already brought it around to Batman!), the more times you tell a story, the more diluted or off it becomes. We have seen this proven wrong a few times: the newest versions of the Monk, the Monster Men,…
Josh Weil is back, and he’s bringing his favorite character with him. It’s time for Batman to team up again with Ollie Queen, Green Arrow. We’re reading the classic Bob Haney/Neal Adams story where Ollie grows his signature facial hair, a team-up that also includes the Question, and some questionable content involving Poison Ivy. And…
Comic books are, by their very nature, a blended medium. They are a synthesis of words and pictures, and the best ones exist in a space where the two are speaking the same language. Podcasting is an aural medium, told entirely through words and sounds. That is all to say that it’s not always easy…
And hey, did you miss the past couple episodes because of the issues here in the site? Well, here are the links: Episode 124: Ice Fetishizaton with three origins of Mr. Freeze Episode 125: Inside Under the Red Hood with three stories featuring Jason Todd, including “Under the Red Hood” In this week’s BatChat column, we…
Of all of Jack Kirby’s creations at DC, the Fourth World is probably the most well known, the most expansive, and the most ill used by other creators over the years. Some really get the wild cosmic and Shakespearean vibe the King of Comics was putting down. Some don’t and just try to make the…
It’s Valentine’s Day week, and I may or may not have forgotten about that when I was scheduling episodes this year. Fortunately, ComicsXF writer and friend of the show Tony Thornley picked some stories that work pretty well for Valentine’s Day. You see, these are all about love: brotherly love, romantic love, and the love…
There are those creators you just come back to, whose work never ceases to amaze. Darwyn Cooke is one of those creators. Passing on too young, Cooke still left an impressive body of work, a lot of which was Batman or Batman adjacent. We’re returning to his work this week with two intertwined tales of…
At 120 episodes, we’ve covered a lot of Batman comics. A lot. But I think few have been more contentious, both in the fandom and on this podcast, as the ones this week. Because this week we’re talking about the Tom King run, the creator with possibly the biggest gaps in his work on The…
Ah, my sweet summer children, let me tell you of a time called the early 90s. It was a time of hope. It was a time of questionable fashion. And it was a time when there were only three monthly Batman family titles, and one of them very rarely interacted with the others. This week,…
Will is so very tried. Three weeks in a row of big superhero stories. Not a single mobster or Year One era, bare bones Batman story to be found. Because this week, Dick Grayson tier Patreon backer Josh Weil is back, and we’re talking Batman getting super powers! We get a Freaky Friday with the…
Last week, we talked about the Justice League International. This week, Dick Grayson Tier Patreon backer John Wickham joins us to talk about the other late 80s DC team that spun out of the Legends event, the Suicide Squad. And while the Justice League was mostly comedy, the Squad is not. We read three very…
The Justice League International era of the mid-to-late 80s was a sea change for the Justice League franchise. While there were still superheroics, the book became grounded in character based humor; the series was basically a workplace sitcom. And early in the run, Batman was a regular member, basically the grouchy boss who couldn’t put…