BatChat - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com The comics criticism you crave Mon, 28 Oct 2024 19:53:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://i0.wp.com/comicsxf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cropped-orange-favicon-2.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 BatChat - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com 32 32 107498702 BatChat With Matt & Will: Happy Birthday, John Ostrander https://comicsxf.com/2024/04/18/batchat-with-matt-will-happy-birthday-john-ostrander/ Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=48626 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...

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]]> 48626 BatChat With Matt & Will: Grayson & Friends (w/ Tony Thornley) https://comicsxf.com/2024/02/15/batchat-with-matt-will-grayson-friends-w-tony-thornley/ Thu, 15 Feb 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47951 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...

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]]> 47951 BatChat With Matt & Will: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Batman https://comicsxf.com/2023/12/21/batchat-with-matt-will-its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-batman/ Thu, 21 Dec 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47477 Merry Bats-Mas to one and all! We’re getting near Christmas, and so it’s time to go back to the holiday stories in Gotham well (and if you think we might run out any time soon, have no fears, we’ve got stories for years). This year, we’re reading the first Batman Christmas story, which features some...

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]]> 47477 BatChat With Matt & Will: Spud’s All, Folks! https://comicsxf.com/2023/11/30/batchat-with-matt-will-spuds-all-folks/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47276 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...

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]]> 47276 BatChat With Matt & Will: Gatman Vs. Scarface, Ya Gums! https://comicsxf.com/2023/11/09/batchat-with-matt-will-gatman-vs-scarface-ya-gums/ Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:01:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47103 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...

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]]> 47103 BatChat With Matt & Will: Kevin Smith’s On His Best Behavior https://comicsxf.com/2023/11/02/batchat-with-matt-will-kevin-smiths-on-his-best-behavior/ Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47027 Spooky season is over, and so now it’s time for some wholesome fun! We covered three of the six mini-series where Batman ’66 teams up with other properties a ways back, and now we’re returning to cover the other three. We have Kevin Smith writing about the team-up of Batman and the Green Hornet is...

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]]> 47027 BatChat With Matt & Will: All Rhyming! (Not Really) https://comicsxf.com/2023/10/26/batchat-with-matt-will-all-rhyming-not-really/ Thu, 26 Oct 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46978 It’s spooky season, and so this week we’re covering three stories where Batman teams up with his most diabolical frenemy, the Demon Etrigan. There’s lots of rhyming, most of it not very good. Be grateful I didn’t try to do it in this introduction; I am many things, but a poet is not one of...

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]]> 46978 BatChat With Matt & Will: The Two Faces of James Robinson (w/ Josh Weil) https://comicsxf.com/2023/09/21/batchat-with-matt-will-the-two-faces-of-james-robinson-w-josh-weil/ Thu, 21 Sep 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46610 James Robinson might be best known for writing the 90s classic, Starman, but he’s written a bunch of Batman too. And this week, Josh Weil stops by to talk about three of Robinson’s stories. We have a Pulp Heroes annual, and two tales of Two-Face. There are some unfortunate sexy corpses, questionable editing and the...

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]]> 46610 BatChat With Matt & Will: The Law of Contrivance https://comicsxf.com/2023/07/13/batchat-with-matt-will-the-law-of-contrivance/ Thu, 13 Jul 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45989 There are plenty of superheroes you could talk about where the issues of copaganda in 2023 don’t come up. I’m sure there are. But Batman isn’t one of them. We’ve had episodes talking about Jim Gordon and the main detectives of the GCPD before and had to look at those questions, and this week, we’re...

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]]> 45989 BatChat With Matt & Will: He’s a Freakin’ Pterodactyl (w/Josh Weil) https://comicsxf.com/2023/06/22/batchat-with-matt-will-hes-a-freakin-pterodactyl-w-josh-weil/ Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:05:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45794 The Mad Hatter is one of Batman’s oddest major foes. While all of the rogues who have existed since the Golden Age have gone through various permutations, few are as wildly different. Sometimes he is obsessed with hats. Sometimes he is a mind control scientist. Sometimes he is obsessed with Alice In Wonderland and has...

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]]> 45794 BatChat With Matt & Will: Elseworlds of Horror https://comicsxf.com/2023/06/01/batchat-with-matt-will-elseworlds-of-horror/ Thu, 01 Jun 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45597 The beauty of DC’s Elseworlds concept, rather than a more traditional What If? or imaginary story, is the variety it opened up. This wasn’t a simple small recasting of one event, butterfly effect style, but creators imaginations could go wild and choose different times, places, and even twist the most basic concepts of the character...

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]]> 45597 BatChat With Matt & Will: BatChat Goes to School (w/ Abigale Heartbalm) https://comicsxf.com/2023/05/04/batchat-with-matt-will-batchat-goes-to-school-w-abigale-heartbalm/ Thu, 04 May 2023 12:55:57 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45377 Wouldn’t it be great to go to school in Gotham City? Well, it probably wouldn’t be scarier than anywhere else. This week, Mrs. Abigale Heartbalm, Esq. stops by, and we talk Gotham Academy and two other school centric Batman related stories. We talk about how Gotham Academy successfully brings manga tropes to Gotham, question how...

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]]> 45377 BatChat With Matt & Will: From Batgirl to Oracle https://comicsxf.com/2023/04/20/batchat-with-matt-will-from-batgirl-to-oracle/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45259 From her first appearance, Barbara Gordon was a dynamic and exciting addition to the Batman family. Brilliant, tough and strong willed, Barbara has faced more adversity than most superheroes, dealing with trauma and coming out stronger for it. This episode, we read three stories that trace her evolution from the dominoed dare doll, Batgirl, to...

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]]> 45259 BatChat With Matt & Will: They Mite Be Giants https://comicsxf.com/2023/04/06/batchat-with-matt-will-they-mite-be-giants/ Thu, 06 Apr 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45152 There are many great supporting characters in the Batman mythos. Alfred. The myriad Robins and Batgirls. Jim Gordon. Leslie Thompkins. And then, there is Bat-Mite, the 5th Dimensional imp who claims to be Batman’s biggest fan. And he is, in the same way that Annie Wilkes is to Paul Sheldon (that’s a Misery reference for...

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]]> 45152 BatChat With Matt & Will: 40 Years of Jason Todd https://comicsxf.com/2023/03/23/batchat-with-matt-will-40-years-of-jason-todd/ Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45096 I have been having a hard time saying that this month marks the 40th anniversary of the first appearance of Jason Todd. It just doesn’t seem like to could be that long ago, but it absolutely is. And so, to celebrate the anniversary of the angriest Robin (well, Damian does give him some competition), we’re...

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]]> 45096 BatChat With Matt & Will: It Only FELT Eternal https://comicsxf.com/2023/03/16/batchat-with-matt-will-it-only-felt-eternal/ Thu, 16 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45048 It’s over! We have made it through the entirety of our giant sized, three part 75th episode, which means we have reached the end of the 52 issues of Batman Eternal. We discuss the ending, which Will admits to misremembering, how the preview issue of Batman fit in, and how the series worked as a...

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]]> 45048 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 44: A Master Craftsman https://comicsxf.com/2022/07/21/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-44-a-master-craftsman/ Thu, 21 Jul 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=42121 One of the artists most represented on the big board, and probably, if we arrogated based on number of stories and story placement (and that would be higher if Matt got his way with “Blades”), one of the favorite artists we have, comics lost a major talent with the passing of Tim Sale last month....

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]]> 42121 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 40: The Breaking of the Bat https://comicsxf.com/2022/06/23/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-40-the-breaking-of-the-bat/ Thu, 23 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=41607 Jason Todd tier Patreon backer Kyle Still asked us to cover Knightfall, and so we decided to do it (and by decided, I mean that we live up to our word). But Knightfall has a nice clean point where we can divide it. Back in the day, when trades were still a rarity, Knightfall was...

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]]> 41607 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 39: The Never-Ending War Game (w/ Josh Weil) https://comicsxf.com/2022/06/16/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-39-the-never-ending-war-game-w-josh-weil/ Thu, 16 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=41485 Dick Grayson-tier Patreon backer Josh Weil is back this week, and he brings with him a heck of a story. War Games was the early 00s crossover where a huge gang war breaks out in Gotham, and so, we get a 25 park crossover! That’s the longest single story we’ve covered in here. Can we...

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]]> 41485 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 38: Batman Villains as Burlesque (w/ Veronica Biatrise) https://comicsxf.com/2022/06/09/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-38-batman-villains-as-burlesque-w-veronica-biatrise/ Thu, 09 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=41342 This week, Matt and Will are joined by the Carrie Kelly to Matt’s grumpy old Bruce Wayne, singer/storyteller/myth scholar and previous guest on WMQ&A, Veronica Biatrise (@joanofarchetype), to talk about one of her favorite characters, Poison Ivy, just in time for Ivy’s new mini-series to debut this week. We have classic Ivy, modern Ivy and...

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]]> 41342 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 33: The Feline Fatale https://comicsxf.com/2022/05/05/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-33-the-feline-fatale-catwoman/ Thu, 05 May 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=40494 Batman’s most significant female nemesis. His true love on many Earths. The best thief in Gotham. A star of screens, both small and big, with numerous famous actors having portrayed her. An icon. All of these describe one character: Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. This week, we’re looking at three stories starring Catwoman. Your Face is...

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]]> 40494 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 27: A Weird Puppet Noir https://comicsxf.com/2022/03/24/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-27-a-weird-puppet-noir/ Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:28:19 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=39173 Starting out as one of the main writers on Batman: The Animated Series, the platonic ideal of Batman, Paul Dini has gone on to write Batman in nearly every medium: TV, movies, video games, and, of course, comics. And since we’re a podcast that focuses on Batman comics, well, we’re going to look at some...

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]]> 39173 BatChat With Matt & Will Ep. 26: Super Comics and Bat Cassettes (w/Cori McCreery) https://comicsxf.com/2022/03/17/batchat-with-matt-will-ep-26-super-comics-and-bat-cassettes-w-cori-mccreery/ Thu, 17 Mar 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=38995 DThey’re darkness and light. One is the champion of the city of tomorrow, one is the hero a corrupt and fallen city needs. They have been rivals, allies and sometimes friends. They are Batman and Superman. This week, a new volume of World’s Finest, the classic Batman/Superman team-up book, launches so Matt and Will are...

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]]> 38995 BatChat With Matt & Wil Episode 25: The Young Bruce Wayne Chronicles (w/ Josh Weil) https://comicsxf.com/2022/03/10/batchat-with-matt-wil-episode-25-the-young-bruce-wayne-chronicles-w-josh-weil/ Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=38335 Did you know, if you back us on Patreon, you can come on the show? Yes indeed, if you are a Dick Grayson tier backer you can. And our first Grayson backer is here with us today! Josh Weil, podcaster at X is for Podcast, stops by to talk about a couple stories he picked,...

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]]> 38335 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 23: Do I Look Like Batman? (w/ Lex Smith) https://comicsxf.com/2022/02/24/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-23-do-i-look-like-batman-w-corey-smith/ Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=38098 Look, anyone with any knowledge of comics history knows that comics creators in mainstream American comics are, well, pretty darn white. And Batman is no exception; there are no truly long runs by creators of color on any of the flagship Batman titles. But there are some good stories by Black writers on Batman, and...

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