“It bounced back and forth in my head until I realized I couldnāt judge it. It was too big. He was too big.“ā Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns ā…all stories are, more or less, ghost stories.āā Julian Woffrey, Victorian Ghosts Comic books were designed to be inherently disposable. Before collecting exploded into a cottage…
Batman rogues have some seriously strange evolutions. Some, like the Joker, have a path you can easily follow. Others, like Mr. Freeze, have just become completely different over the years. Another like that is Catman, created in the mid-Silver Age as yet another anti-Bat before becoming a joke character, and then evolving into a morally…
It’s October, the spookiest month of the year. So what better time to focus on the villains of the Batman universe? There are five Thursdays, and we’ll be focusing on five villains, all but one we haven’t had a spotlight on before. The first villain is a favorite of Matt’s, one who has appeared in…
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…
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,…
The beauty of a Patreon request is you never know what you’re going to get. And bless Dan Grote, co-host of WMQ&A and BatChat’s first patron and guest, for coming at us with a request nobody expected. This week, we’re reading three stories featuring Joe Potato, a Gotham PI who we read one story with…
While a lot of Batman’s best known rogues date back to his earliest days, the 80s spawned a handful of memorable nemeses, and none moreso than Scarface, the evil dummy, and his henchman, the Ventriloquist. This week, we’re reading three stories featuring Scarface, including his first appearance, his origin and the first appearance of his…
We’ve done episodes before that look at three versions of one story. But of there’s one story that has seemingly been retold more than any other, it’s the first Batman story, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.” This week, we’re reading four versions of that story over three issues, plus some other stories in an…
While Gotham City is an integral part of the Batman mythos, Batman is an international hero, and there are plenty of stories that take Batman out of the grim confines of his home city and out into a wider world. This week, we read three such stories: one a tour of the great cities of…
While there are plenty of stories with Bruce Wayne in them, how many are really about Bruce Wayne? Not Batman, the Dark Knight, but captain of industry, philanthropist and playboy Bruce Wayne? At least three, as this week we look at the story of Bruce’s problematic return to health after Knightfall, a 150 year old…
Hey look, it’s Valentine’s week! And since Grant Morrison once called Batman a, “hairy chested love god,” who are we to argue? That means it’s time for three tales of the Dark Knight and romance! Strange Apparitions (Detective Comics V.1 #471-476) The Return of Scarface (Batman V.1 #475-476, Detective Comics V.1 #642) Perchance… (JLA #90)…
He’s muddy. He’s powerful. He’s… a lot of different people, actually. Because there have been many villains named Clayface, and this episode we look at three stories featuring different permutations of that particular rogue. Also, a brief tribute to the mate, great Kevin Conroy. The Mud Pack (Detective Comics V.1 #604-607) The Great Joker/Clayface Feud…
It’s another Patreon request, as Abigale Heartbalm returns. She wanted to talk about the original Venom story, and after we realized she meant the Legends of the Dark Knight arc about the super steroid and not a DC/Marvel crossover we didn’t remember, it was decided that this week’s theme would be Batman and drugs. Venom…
So, this week, it’s Matt’s birthday recording, and as opposed to Will, who picked stuff based on gut instinct (and who must have had a stomach ache based on what we got), Matt went with three stories from his younger years that he remembers really liking. The results are considerably better. We get some Grant…
Time takes us all. And as the comics we grew up with grow older, so too do the people who made them, and with time, comes other things, sadly. Recently, Alan Grant, legendary co-creator of many of the great Bat villains of the 80s and 90s, passed away, having been preceded a couple of years…