Happy holidays to all! As is our tradition, and as we aren’t going to run out any time soon, the week of Christmas we read three stories of the holidays in Gotham. One is a little holiday kinda-noir from Bat legends Denny O’Neil and Frank Miller, one is a perplexing animated series style Brave and…
Jim Gordon made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27. You know, the same comic that Batman made his first appearance. So, you can imagine the number of stories that Gordon has been featured in. But especially since Frank Miller made “Batman: Year One” as much about Gordon as it is about Batman, that number…
Time moves ever forward. I can’t believe that Batman Begins is 20 years old this year. As I question my mortality and life choices, this week we read three stories from the Batman Begins trade, including the movie adaptation, a retelling of Batman’s origin by Denny O’Neil and a one off by Greg Rucka. This…
The birth of the new DC Cinematic Universe… DC Extended Universe… DC… ah whatever the hell they’re calling it, kicks off on the big screen this week with the debut of James Gunn’s Superman film, so we’re obviously tying in because SEO is a powerful thing. We have three more stories of the World’s Finest…
I usually try to put something witty or informative here. But this week, Patreon backer Matt McThorn is back, and he asked us to read Neal Adams’s mad dream, Batman: Odyssey. He didn’t know what he was getting himself or us into, so we have forgiven him, but this one feels like an all-timer. We…
Over the past 169 episodes, we have covered work from a lot of creators. And I can’t think of one that we have unanimously and consistently lauded than the late Darwyn Cooke. A writer artist like few others, Cooke passed away at a tragically young age, leaving a body of work that would have only…
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…
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,…
Over his 85+ years, Batman has been a member of lots of different teams. This week, fellow ComicsXF writer Austin Gorton stops by to talk about three different teams Batman has been a member of. We fill in another gap in Will’s knowledge of the roots of the Morrison run, Snapper Carr is kind of…
BatChat religion correspondent Robert “Bobby TwoBucks” Secundus is back this week, and he’s brining with him Jean-Paul Valley, the vigilante and sometimes fanatic known as Azrael. We chart the journey of Azrael from the beginning of his ongoing to his most recent mini-series, with a stop off in an alternate world that is… something. We…
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…
Batman’s allies are known for many things. Their brains. Their fighting skills. Their dedication. And while Dr. Leslie Thompkins, the woman who comforted Bruce Wayne the night his parents were killed is lacking in the second of those three attributes, she more than makes up for it in the first and third. Leslie is a…
A sinister laugh over the airwaves. A threat. And death with a rictus grin. Those are aspects that each version of Batman’s first encounter with his greatest foe, the Joker, have in common. But as with many tales from the Golden Age of comics, this is a story that he been told and retold numerous…
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…
He’s a billionaire who fights crime with nothing but his wits and his training. He has a family of sidekicks. He is known for having all sorts of emotional baggage and issues. He is… Green Arrow. This week, we sit down with Patreon backer Josh Weil to talk about three stories where Batman meets an…