A Batman ranking podcast, hosted by Matt Lazorwitz and Will Nevin.
Our very first Dick Grayson backer, Josh Weil, makes his return to the podcast this week, but he’s not picking the stories. Instead, he has gifted his picks this month to our youngest backers, his sons, David and Alexander. They give us stories that show they love sidekicks, young butlers, and giant monsters. In this week’s BatChat…
Batman is a loner. Except for Alfred, the Robins, the Batgirls, Signal, Batwoman and the Justice League. But before many of those characters, there was Ace the Bathound, the first of numerous Bat pets, mostly brought into the cave by Damian, another noted loner , and that club now includes Titus, Alfred the tuxedo cat…
We’ve talked about it for a while, and here it is. This week, Matt and Will each picked three stories that they felt were too low on the Big Board, and they discussed them again and moved them to spots they felt more appropriate. It’s a lot of the creators we talk about regularly, and…
It’s a celebration over here as we hit episode 150! We started out with a theme of anniversary issues, ones that were numbers leading up to 150, so a 50, a 100 and a 150. And we did do that. But somehow, we wound up with a second theme: stories where Batman trips balls. Sometimes…
Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Like, way tomorrow. Matt McThorn is back, and we are talking about the 853rd century and Grant Morrison’s first DC crossover, DC One Million. It’s a wild, sci-fi epic, which we all know if completely Will’s jam. But you might be surprised as we talk about the core mini-series,…
I have heard it said that every writer has a Batman story they want to tell. Only a few get to tell them. And sadly not all of them are great. This week we’re reading three stories from writers not usually associated with Batman, Harlan Ellison, Eddie Campbell and David Lapham. And, well, none of…
For the first time in a very long time, this week was supposed to see the publication of a collection of Marvel and DC collaborations, so Will and I decided this would be a good time to read some of that. But these are big omnibuses, so as is often the case, they have been…
Gotham is a city of shadows. A city where good and evil blend together. It’s a city made for Noir storytelling. And while some Batman stories have some elements of a Noir, most are very much superhero stories. But to tie-in with the 40s themed animated series, Batman: The Caped Crusader, debuting this week, and…
Over his thirty plus year career in comics, Archie Goodwin racked up a lot of accomplishments. He wrote horror stories for lots of Warren Publishing’s anthologies. At DC, he wrote Detective Comics, “Manhunter” (more on both of those later), and was the editor behind Batman: Black and White, the early issues of Legends of the…
Generally speaking, the episodes we do here are carefully curated. We try to take a theme, a character, and thoroughly dig through the 85 years of Batman stories to find the ones that best fit that theme. But then there are the weeks where Will just picks three random books off his bookshelf and wants…
We’ve all seen the memes and the jokes: Batman’s real super power is his wallet. Batman has, historically, been from the moneyed class, and that’s how he gets all those wonderful toys. But what happens when Batman doesn’t have all that cash? That’s what friend of the show, Patreon backer, and financial adviser Abigale Heartbalm…
Batman works outside the law pretty much all the time. And while he often runs afoul of civic authorities in Gotham City, it’s surprising how rarely he winds up in the crosshairs of the feds (well, we’re just starting Absolute Power in the main line, but again, exception that proves the rule). But it has…
There are some stories that read a very different ways after certain events. Who would have thought that these innocent little stories about Batman involved with plagues would read so differently after a global pandemic. Patreon backer and friend of the show John Wickham joins us to talk about the 90s crossover “Contagion,” a fun…
Friend of the show and Patreon backer Josh Weil decided to take up a challenge: come up with three stories that he thought could make the top 50 of the Big Board. And gotta say, with no spoilers, he did a pretty good job. We see Bruce Wayne mourning his son, Batman and Catwoman taking…
We’re in the heart of June, which is Pride Month, so BatChat is joined by the hosts of the Gotham Outsiders podcast to talk about three stories featuring the queer residents of Gotham. Kate Kane’s origin is revealed, Tim Drake comes out, and animated Harley and Ivy go on a road trip. Oh, and towards…