Norm Breyfogle - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com The comics criticism you crave Sun, 09 Feb 2025 12:28:26 +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 Norm Breyfogle - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com 32 32 107498702 ‘Torn Comics’: Detective Comics #613 and the Batman’s Nights Off https://comicsxf.com/2025/02/09/detective-comics-613/ Sun, 09 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=51576 “It bounced back and forth in my head until I realized I couldn’t judge it. It was too big. He was too big.“– Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns “…all stories are, more or less, ghost stories.”– Julian Woffrey, Victorian Ghosts Comic books were designed to be inherently disposable. Before collecting exploded into a cottage...

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]]> 51576 BatChat With Matt & Will: Catman, Catman, Burning Bright (w/ Matt McThorn) https://comicsxf.com/2024/11/21/batchat-with-matt-will-catman-catman-burning-bright-w-matt-mcthorn/ Thu, 21 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=50877 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...

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]]> 50877 BatChat With Matt & Will: THE RE-RANKENING! https://comicsxf.com/2024/09/05/batchat-with-matt-will-the-re-rankening/ Thu, 05 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 https://comicsxf.com/?p=50047 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...

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]]> 50047 BatChat With Matt & Will: Rowing the Amazon in a Cadillac https://comicsxf.com/2024/01/25/batchat-with-matt-will-rowing-the-amazon-in-a-cadillac/ Thu, 25 Jan 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47768 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,...

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]]> 47768 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: The Melty Eye https://comicsxf.com/2023/09/07/batchat-with-matt-will-the-melty-eye/ Thu, 07 Sep 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46497 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...

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]]> 46497 BatChat With Matt & Will: For the Love of Laughing Fish https://comicsxf.com/2023/02/16/batchat-with-matt-will-for-the-love-of-laughing-fish/ Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=44756 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)...

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]]> 44756 BatChat With Matt & Will: My Scottish Accent Broke Will https://comicsxf.com/2022/11/17/batchat-with-matt-will-my-scottish-accent-broke-will/ Thu, 17 Nov 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=43885 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...

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]]> 43885 BatChat With Matt & Will: Bat Hound Turns Into the Batmobile https://comicsxf.com/2022/11/03/batchat-with-matt-will-bat-hound-turns-into-the-batmobile/ Thu, 03 Nov 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=43678 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...

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]]> 43678 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 49: Remembering Grant & Breyfogle https://comicsxf.com/2022/08/25/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-49-remembering-grant-breyfogle/ Thu, 25 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=42613 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...

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]]> 42613 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 30: The Demon’s Head-Line https://comicsxf.com/2022/04/14/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-30-the-demons-head-line/ Thu, 14 Apr 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=40061 Among Batman’s many foes are serial killers, madmen and monsters. But few are the type of villain who seeks to dominate or control the world. The one who is, possibly the foe that Batman respects and fears the most, is Ra’s al Ghul, the Demon’s Head. Seemingly immortal, Ra’s wants to return the world to...

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]]> 40061 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 22: Three Robins https://comicsxf.com/2022/02/17/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-22-three-robins/ Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=37991 We’ve already had one episode dedicated entirely to the origin of Dick Grayson, the first Robin. Now it’s time to move on to stories featuring the early days of three of the next Robins (no, we’re not taking part in Stephanie Brown erasure; she’ll just get a focus in a Batgirls episode, we promise). See...

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]]> 37991 BatChat With Matt & Will Ep.7: The Clown Prince of Carnage https://comicsxf.com/2021/11/04/batchat-with-matt-will-ep-7-the-clown-prince-of-carnage/ Thu, 04 Nov 2021 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=35015 He’s Batman’s greatest nemesis. He is as mutable as his foe, appearing sometimes as a whacky criminal clown, sometimes as a terrifying homicidal maniac, and sometimes as an urban terrorist. He is the Joker. And this week, Matt and Will look at three single issue Joker stories in their first villain spotlight episode. The Joker’s...

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]]> 35015 BatChat With Matt & Will Episode 3: A Batman By Any Other Name https://comicsxf.com/2021/10/07/batchat-with-matt-will-episode-3-a-batman-by-any-other-name/ Thu, 07 Oct 2021 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=34382 There are more comics about alternate versions of Batman than of any other hero in the DC Universe, if not all of comics. And so, this week, Matt and Will are going to take a trip through three tales of Dark Knights of different eras and origins. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight Batman: Holy Terror Superman:...

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