Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Batman

Once more to that squeaky twirling edifice known as Dave-El’s Spinner Rack.

 

Today’s post is about not ONE not TWO but THREE Batman books!

 

Batman #153  by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiminez 

“The Dying City” is the latest and last story arc by Zdarsky & Jiminez before Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee return to the book next year.

Bruce Wayne is now a billionaire with a capital B once more and is putting some of that newly recovered fortune to good use by spearheading public projects to improve life in Gotham City.  Well, good for Bruce Wayne.

 

OK, not so fast now.  There are protesters outside Wayne Enterprises who are against Wayne’s public service initiatives that seem a little too much like communism or something.

 

Really? Yep, Bruce is spending his wealth to help people (instead of investing in new Bat-gear to beat up bad guys) and he’s being crucified in the media. 

 

Speaking of the Bat, Batman is still personal non grata per Gotham mayor Nakano who is dealing with family drama (his wife is taking their child and moving out), pressure from the mother fucking Court of Owls and trying reign in Police Commissioner Vandal Savage (really!) and there’s a new costumed vigilante on the streets who is not adverse to using guns, the patriotically themed Commander Star. 

 

And whatever the Riddler is up to.

 

Released from Arkham on a technicality, Edward Nygma is working hard on his seemingly legit new business NygmaTech. Ed tells Batman he’s tired of the Riddler and wants to just get a business going and make an honest dollar.  Batman makes clear he’s watching Edward Nygma. (Always watching!)  

 

Nygma’s watching too. He’s got a highly placed mole on the inside of Wayne Enterprises. 

 

Once more, Zdarsky has got a great street level tale underway here. I just open it doesn’t devolve into something with Justice League level threats with killer androids or something.

 

Batman & Robin: Year One 

Writer Mark Waid and artist Chris Samnee team up to produce this series about Dick Grayson’s early adventures as Robin as he joins Batman’s war on crime.  

Issue #1 picks up with Robin's first official outing with Batman. 

Commissioner Gordon is all "you gotta be kidding me" bringing a kid out here.  

There are some missteps on the first night out as Batman & Robin. Some owe to Robin's over eagerness.

"Halt, yon evildoer!" 

But a lot of it is on Batman who is not use to being out in Gotham's streets with a partner. Batman admits they both have a lot to learn.

Robin's first night out gets him an encounter with his first super villain (Two Face) and his first death trap. (Of course they escape!!)  

Meanwhile a big deadly threat is coming to Gotham that has even Two-Face running scared.  

A word about the art by Chris Samnee.  He has a cartoonist style that reminds one of the late Darwyn Cooke but has a dark grittiness that evokes the style of David Mazzucchelli who drew Frank Miller's Batman: Year One.   

 Next on my list of Batman books that week was a facsimile edition of Batman Vol 1 #237,  "Night of the Reaper".

The issue opens with a dark and moody image from Neal Adams of what appears to be Batman impaled on a tree?

The credits note writer Denny O'Neil had assistance from Berni Wrightson and Harlan Ellison.  

The famous Rutland Vt Halloween Parade is Berni's inspiration.  As I wrote about here,  Rutland was the site of Tom Fagan's amazing super hero themed Halloween celebration and Berni who had visited the event with Gerry Conway and Alan Weiss suggested Denny write a Batman murder mystery centered around Halloween in Rutland.   

The friends accompany Dick Grayson to Rutland are expys of Berni, Gerry and Alan.  The dude is so high and obsessed by the concept of floats is based on Alan.   

Denny and Neal give Tom Fagan a thrill when he meets the actual Batman.  The dude talking to the guy dressed as Thor is supposed to be Harlan Ellison and the guy who looks like Cain from DC's House of Mystery is Len Wein.  

A lot of fans still ponder after all these years Denny's choice to have Batman get all snippy with Robin.  Denny was at the forefront of writers in the early 1970's looking to bring relevance and humanity to comic book super heroes and Batman is right to question all the death that has occurred although it's not healthy to take it all on his shoulders.  But that's what humans do.  

Harlan Ellison's contribution to the story was a suggestion to Denny to craft a story around Nazi war criminals.  The impetus for the murders is such a Nazi war criminal who is hiding in Rutland and a Nazi death camp survivor who is prepared to kill in his quest for revenge against that Nazi.   

"Night of the Reaper" is an excellent Batman collaboration from Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams.  

Back in 1971, DC has expanded the page count of their books to 48 pages which included classic reprints. This particular issue had a 12-pager from Detective Comics #37 (Mar., 1940), written and drawn by the hero’s two co-creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane (with assistance from Jerry Robinson), which has the historical distinction of being Batman’s last solo adventure prior to the introduction of Robin in Detective #38.

Batman was still new and Bill Finger was still figuring out how the character should sound and what he can do. The story itself is standard issue "foreign spies on the homefront" stuff that was the source of many a comic book tale back in the day.

Bob Kane was notorious for not doing much if any of the work his name appeared on but this is still early on and Kane may have actually pencilled most of this story although I would dare say inker Jerry Robinson probably still did a lot of the heavy lifting. 

As always with these facsimilie editions, they come complete at they originally appeared (except for the price tag) including ads (SEA MONKEYS! YEAH!) and the letter column (I miss letter columns.)   There's only one house ad, a half page blurb for the first appearance of future DC western star Jonah Hex.   

I really enjoyed these 3 different versions of Batman.  These 3 distinct issues of Batman remind of the joy I got from comic books and why I started reading them in the first place.