Batman comics. Pictures, back issues and more about Batman

Batman albums, pictures and information

Batman History

Detective Comics #27 hit the stands in In May, 1939. In it we saw the first appearance of Batman. While Superman was pure and clean, Batman was grim and gritty. In this comic, the villain fell into a vat of acid, which killed him. Not showing any remorse for causing the death, Batman observed A fitting end for his kind. Batman was created by Bob Kane and has always remained in print.

During a time when superhero comics were not so popular, Batman survived by focusing on his detective abilities, making his comic stories more of a mystery series than a superhero book.
The reason Batman is so popular is because he is a compromise between the two types of heroes. He didn't have superpowers, but he did have an intellect, a costume, and neat gadgets that would put him on par with the superheroes. Batman has been put on the big and small screen several times in T.V series, movies, and cartoons.

Batman made his first appearance as a comic book superhero in DC Comics �Detective Comics No. 27, May 1939�.

Bob Kane has been credited with the original creation of Batman. Kane was a twenty-two year old comic book artist creating fill-in cartoons about dogs and cats for DC Comics when he was selected to create a hero as powerful and appealing as Superman, DC Comic�s year old phenomenal success. Kane�s inspiration for Batman reportedly came from three sources�a Leonardo da Vinci sketch of a man trying to fly with attached bat-like wings, a 1930�s silent mystery movie titled �The Bat Whisperer� about a bat faced villain, and the masked heroes from �The Shadow and Zorro�.

Although Kane had skills as both a cartoon artist and writer, Kane indicated that he �didn�t have the time to literally write and draw the (Batman) strip at the same time.� As a result, Kane worked with writer Bill Finger, who wrote the scripts from ideas Kane and Finger collaborated on.
Batman has existed as a character since 1939, with his first appearance in Detective Comics #27. Since then the character has been revamped several times, with the most recent changes occurring after the DC universe event known as Crisis on Infinite Earths

Crisis on Infinite Earths (Cover dates 4/85 to 3/86) is generally regarded as _the_ breakpoint in DC continuity.

After Crisis finished, many characters had their histories changed. The most significant change happened to Superman, who got a complete rewrite in the Man of Steel (late 1986) miniseries. New stories followed in his regular titles, with absolutely _no_ links to the pre-Crisis stories.

Batman, however, never got a full rewrite from scratch. The process was slow and gradual, with several additions and alterations over the years. Due to this process, there is no 'official' cutoff point between the 'old' and 'new' continuities. A general rule of thumb is that all stories are part of the new continuity, until contradicted by a later story.

It all started with the limited series Dark Knight (3/86 to 6/86) (aka The Dark Knight Returns), appearing shortly after Crisis finished . Set in the future, it covered the return of Batman following ten years of retirement. The story is now generally regarded as an Elseworlds story (DC's line of stories set outside the normal continuity). It has been considered as the start of a darker or 'Grim `n Gritty' Batman.

The real changes began in 1987, with the Batman: Year One storyline (BATMAN 404-407, 2/87 to 5/87).

This story provided a new, darker, realistic image, and the definitive Batman origin. The basics of the Batman character generally remained intact.

Year One told the story of Batman's first days as a hero. When it starts, Bruce is not in costume, and as it progresses he learns how to instil fear in criminals; for a while, no one knows whether he is human, bat, or demon. While the story did not have an immediate effect on present-day continuity, a few elements like a redefined origin for Catwoman and new love interest for Gordon popped up later. This storyline is still largely in continuity.

While this was running in BATMAN, an issue of DETECTIVE dealt with the gunshot wounding of Jason Todd (DETECTIVE 574, 5/87). This was similar to the incident which led to the leaving of Dick Grayson - the first Robin (BATMAN 408, 6/87). These two issues helped define the relationship between Batman and Robin, as well as that between Bruce and Leslie Thomkins. Leslie was the one who, with Alfred, took care of Bruce after the death of his parents.

This was followed immediately by Batman: Year Two (DETECTIVE 575- 578, 6/87 to 9/87). It featured a new villainous vigilante - the Reaper - and Batman's confrontation with Joe Chill (the guy who murdered his parents). This story also showed the reasons behind Batman's refusal to use firearms. It has now been taken out of continuity, since post-Zero Hour Batman does not know the identity of his parents' murderer.

Did Robin Die Tonight (BATMAN 408, 6/87) also contained the new origin and first meeting with Jason Todd. This differed markedly from the previous origin, as Jason was now a street kid, who stole the tires off the Batmobile. Formerly, Jason was a circus performer, whose family knew the Grayson family.

This previous storyline is now invalidated.

In 1994, DC celebrated the (almost) 10th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths with another universe revamp, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. Following Zero Hour, several changes have been made to the Batman mythos. These include:
Batman has never caught his parents' killer. [This invalidates Year Two]
Batman never slept with Talia (the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul. [This invalidates the BRIDE/SON OF THE DEMON storylines to some extent.]
Batman was never in the Justice League. [This invalidates most of the early issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA, and is currently the subject of some controversy].
Dick Grayson was officially adopted by Bruce Wayne
Dick failed to save someone from being killed by Two Face in an early encounter. This has caused him to be more uncertain and unsure of himself - especially in dealings with Two Face. [This was addressed in the Prodigal storyline].
Catwoman's origin was heavily altered in Catwoman #0.

Batman latest reviews

Comic Reviews: Batman: Long Shadows hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)
9 Aug 2010 at 3:02pm
Judd Winick's Batman: Long Shadows is an interesting little Batman (or "Batman Reborn") story. I say "little" because Long Shadows has none of the meta-textual flash and bang of Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin -- but neither is it, as I feared, a cookie cutter repeat of the similar Batman: Prodigal storyline. Instead, whereas Long Shadows is a rather straightforward story about what it would be like if Dick Grayson took over the cowl from a dead Bruce Wayne, it wins points from me for being a rather convincing take on the situation, at that.

[Contains spoilers]

How ever much things in Gotham City return to normal after the return of Bruce Wayne, I'm finding the value of "Batman Reborn" is in the thought experiment of "how would [enter character] do things if Bruce wasn't around?" This is reflected well in the new Batman/Robin relationship and in elements like moving the Batcave (back) into a Gotham City highrise in Morrison's work, and in how Batwoman: Elegy reimagines a Bat-character for the twenty-first century.

This is also reflected in how Winick, moreso than Morrison, examines how Dick Grayson would be a different Batman than Bruce Wayne. Winick fortunately dispenses with much of the "am I worthy of the cowl" angst right at the beginning, and quickly moves to how Dick makes the Batman persona his own -- incorporating more gymnastics into his fighting style, filming his villain take-downs so the police have evidence for court, and assessing the size and weight of his cape so as to make the costume closer to Nightwing's.

This isn't the stuff of superhero action battles (though Long Shadows has that, too). Rather, it's nitty-gritty detailed stuff that probably never even needed to be mentioned, but that I found interesting to learn about nonetheless.

Winick also puts strong focus here on the relationship between Batman Dick Grayson and his faithful butler Alfred. Again, there's fascinating detail here, like Alfred discovering Bruce's childhood drawings because, of course, the family naturally begins gathering up a deceased loved one's possessions once they're gone. I also enjoyed Dick and Alfred's discussion about how their working partnership is different -- Dick is more inclined to take Alfred's advice than Bruce was, and Dick worries and seeks approval from Alfred far more than Bruce did.

And of course, with the apparent death of Bruce Wayne, there's some tears and emotion to be expected, which Winick takes on well with the first chapter's epilogue to Battle for the Cowl; I especially liked the rationale for not holding a funeral for Batman. Later on in the book -- pursuant to Winick's reputation for sometimes being a "soap opera" writer -- Alfred and Dick's mutual appreciation meetings become mildly heavy-handed, but enjoy it while it's there -- no doubt Bruce will be back to his clammed-up self not too long after he returns.

Winick gives every character in the book a talking partner -- Dick has Alfred, Penguin has Black Mask, Two-Face has an anonymous henchman; even Commissioner Gordon alludes to wanting to have a sidekick with him when meeting the new Batman. There's a way in which Long Shadows is something like a play, where every character has a sounding board with which to express themselves with. If intentional, it's a unique way for Winick to structure this story, and goes to the general theme of Long Shadows, how everyone -- Dick, Alfred, Gordon, even Two-Face -- look for surrogates to fill the void left by the death of Batman.

We find in the end that even as Dick does a fair job as a stand-in Batman, Winick leaves no question that the former Robin is not there yet. In the book's ultimate battle between Dick and Two-Face (who, let's not forget, Nightwing handily beat in Peter Tomasi's Nightwing: The Great Leap), Two-Face nearly murders Dick before he's saved by Alfred, dressed up as Batman. Ultimately the Batman hero in Long Shadows is Alfred, or else it takes Alfred and Dick together to equal Bruce Wayne on his own.

This is dangerous ground -- Winick, Tony Daniel, and the rest of the Bat-team only have so long to have Dick find his feet before Batman returns, else Dick comes out of this Bat-era seeming ineffectual (which, for Bat-purists, might be OK). All of it -- from artist Mark Bagley's wonderfully youthful Dick Grayson to the banter with Alfred -- just makes me all the more eager to see some writer's revitalized take on Nightwing, frankly, but there's a bunch of books between here and when that happens.

[Contains full covers]

Ultimately, I didn't find Batman: Long Shadows as lackluster as I had heard it was. This is not required reading for the "Batman Reborn" saga, to be sure, but if you're curious about the tinier "what if"s that go into the loss of Batman, Long Shadows does a nice job filling in the gaps.
---
This post was syndicated from Collected Editions, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit collectededitions.blogspot.com.