You can start out as a Robin, but eventually you have to grow up, right? Well, maybe not Tim Drake, who’s Robin again, but there was a period where he wasn’t. And Dick Grayson and Jason Todd have left the Robin identity behind long ago. This week, Sam Hopper joins us again to talk about…
Somehow, as we near 200 episodes, we still stumble across holes in our coverage. He’s appeared in a lot of stories we’ve covered, but we have never done an episode purely focused on Penguin stories. So this week, we remedy that. We’re reading Penguin’s first appearance, the story that changed him from supervillain to mobster…
Y’know, sometimes you get an episode request, and you wind up with stories better than you could have expected. Patreon backer and friend of the show Matt McThorn specifically wanted to talk about the Batman annual with the origin of Clownhunter and art by James Stokoe. So we decided, what better theme than more annuals….
The Bat family has grown considerably over the years. What started out as Batman and Robin now contains what seems to be a dozen or more characters. And recent years have seen many attempts to add characters who would be big hits and draw massive popularity. And while this has created some good characters, none…
Gotham villains seem to spend so much time fighting each other, it’s a wonder they have any time to fight Batman. Friend of the show and Patreon backer John Wickham returns for three instances of villain on villain violence, with Blackgate Vs. Arkham during the Forever Evil crossover, Hush Vs. Talia in the run up…
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…
Archie. Finally. Decides. At long last, the answer to the question generations of fans have asked will be answered. Who will Archie choose? Betty or Veronica? Archie: The Decision #1 is written by Tom King, drawn by Dan Parent, inked by Bob Smith, colored by Rosario “Tito” Peña and lettered by Jack Morelli. WARNING: It’s…
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…
I was going to try to come up with something funny and misleading to make it seem like we were talking about the Marvel character Venom for this intro, but my brain isn’t coming up with anything. This week’s episode is about Bane, the man who broke the Bat, and does indeed spend a lot…
At 120 episodes, we’ve covered a lot of Batman comics. A lot. But I think few have been more contentious, both in the fandom and on this podcast, as the ones this week. Because this week we’re talking about the Tom King run, the creator with possibly the biggest gaps in his work on The…
The final act of “Gotham Nocturne” begins here. Stranded alone on the desert that is the apotheosis of all deserts, Batman must fight the Azmer demon inside him as Simon Hurt and his master Barbatos circle. Meanwhile, Renee Montoya continues her investigation into the death of GCPD members as the Question leads her down a…
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…
It’s taken three episodes, but we’ve finally covered every story in the original Batman #1. That means this week, we’re covering the first appearance of Catwoman, and so we’re also covering a couple other Catwoman stories, one a story that’s place in continuity is weird even by DC Comics standards, and one that started off…
In the ruins of the Orgham Tower, Batman faces down the Orgham prince, and on the surface, the next domino of the Orgham plan to conquer Gotham falls. The lead story in Detective Comics #1,073 is written by Ram V, penciled by Ivan Reis and Goran Sudzuka, inked by Danny Miki and Sudzuka, colored by…
A new anthology series debuts in this first issue of Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The robots are revolting! And they’re killing all humans, too … but seriously. As Batman and Superman face Ultra-Morpho, all the robotic heroes and villains of the DCU begin to attack. And by issue’s end the true mastermind is…