Comic Related - Life in Four Colors

Life In Four Colors: #4: Shadow of the Bat
My Favorite Tales of the Dark Knight

Somewhere in the steel and concrete canyons of Gotham City sirens slice through the sweaty darkness like a rusty knife. In a burned out apartment just a block or two south of Crime Alley a man sits in a chair that threatens to collapse under his weight at any given moment. A coin is flipped high into the cobwebbed laced shadows, turning over and over in the partial glow of streetlights that manage to force their way between the boards tacked across the shattered windows.

The coin lands on the back of a waiting hand and is instantly cupped the by another…slowly the second hand is lifted to reveal which side of the coin faces up.

Even as this scene unfolds….not far away the sounds of a madman laughing in the night echo on the wind that blows yesterday’s paper through the streets. Crumpled black and white headlines and wrinkled photographs dance to the tune of the unseen clown’s cackling. A green mist starts to snake it’s way up from a nearby sewer grating.

The moon itself seems to almost conceal it’s face with a mask of sorts. A beacon in the cloudy sky for all to see.

Miles away a finely tuned motor roars to live and reverberates through the winding, damp caverns beneath the southwest corner of stately Wayne Manor. Creatures of the Night take flight….and yet another leaves the fading trace of scorched rubber and the faint lingering odor of high octane synthetic fuel in his wake….

……welcome to the weekend of July 18th, 2008. The Dark Knight has arrived and all the nation...if not the very world is caught up in the latest wave of Batmania. In honor of the release of the second film in the new Batman franchise I wanted to do a special All-Star Batman version of Life In Four Colors. My favorite ten Batman stories of all time. I’ll tell you right now you’re not going to find many surprises on the list from any list in the same vein as this one….other than the order may be off a little more than some of the lists you may have seen in the past…and the reasoning for being placed on the list a little more personal and therefore unique.

So I hope you enjoy this countdown….crammed full with more pure Comic Related talent and excitement than you can throw a batarang at.

Let’s get the ball rolling and dance with the devil in the pale moonlight, shall we?

#10. Batman: The Killing Joke.
Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, and John Higgins.

This book is bound to be on everybody’s “Best of Batman” list, of this I’m fairly certain. But I’m sure there’s more than a few of you out there shocked to see it placed so high on my list (or low…depending how you want to look at it)…the reason being …I hated the ending of the book. I might be the only person in the world that has said that, or at least admitted to it. I find the last two pages of the book….unbelievable. First off the joke is stupid….Alan Moore’s take on an old “hillbilly” joke. Second…I think Batman is way out of character here. I find it very difficult to believe that he would find the joke amusing…..or even allow the Joker the opportunity to tell it considering the terrible things he had just put the Gordon family through. Commissioner Gordon (one of the Batman’s oldest and closest friends) driven to the brink of insanity and Barbara Gordon (literally a part of the Batman Family) shot and paralyzed for life.

I always felt the ending should have been two pages before….with the Joker silently standing in the rain, but hey…that’s just me. I know Batman wanted to “do this one by the book”, and Alan was going for an ending that nobody expected, but I seriously doubt he would be in the mood to share a joke and a chuckle with this guy.

But…you can’t deny the book it’s strengths….brilliantly illustrated by Brian Bolland (of Judge Dredd fame) it has some of the most memorable panels in comic history as far as the Joker is concerned (last panel of page #25 and page #32 not to mention the cover). The story itself…masterfully crafted by a true master of story telling, Mr. Alan Moore (Chuck’s uncle from across the pond)…will forever be a pillar in the history of D.C Comics due to the best version of the Joker’s origin and back story ever told and the fate of Barbara Gordon.

# 9. Batman # 426-429 “A Death in the Family”

Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, and Mike DeCarlo. Edited by yet

another Batman legend, Dennis O’Neil and with covers

by Mike (Hellboy Creator) Mignola.

Once again….no shocker here. A no-brainer for me considering how much I love the “Double Jim’s” on the book (Starlin and Aparo). Comic history in the making in a different manner than what you are thinking as this series of books feature the first ever published artwork by Mike Mignola on the four covers. Of course it also made history with the fact that Robin died in between parts two and three of the story. The Jason Todd version that is…after he finds his long lost mother…who sells him down the river to the Joker who’s waiting for him there with a crowbar and a few pounds of explosives.

Ultimately it wasn’t the Clown Prince of Crime that killed the Boy Wonder…but the voice…or actually the telephone voice…of the D.C fans who voted that Robin should die via a special telephone hotline. I believe the voting margin in favor of his death was seventy-two.

This one is also more than likely nowhere on the list where you thought it would be. Mostly due to the silly plot twist where the Joker actually becomes the U.S. Ambassador to Iran….after killing Robin and his mom…..but I love Batman’s reaction when Superman tells him the news. Classic….as is the few panels that follow.

# 8. Detective Comics # 575-578 “Batman: Year Two”

by Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis, Paul Neary, Todd McFarlane,
Alfredo Alcala….also edited by Denny O’Neil.

Mike W. Barr (the writer responsible for the early issues of the first Batman and the Outsiders series along with the late, great Jim Aparo doing the art chores on that same book)…..would craft an incredible story about the Reaper…the vigilante that prowled to streets of Gotham BEFORE there was a Batman. The classic art team of Alan (can’t wait to meet him at Mid-Ohio Con) Davis and Paul Neary (Captain Britain/Excalibur team supreme) would handle the artwork for only the first issue of this four part story before turning it over to a very young Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man/Spawn) who did some of his earliest panel work for the last three chapters of the story.

A story that would team Batman up with none other than Joe Chill….the man who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents…as the two of them attempted to stop the Reaper from running wild in the streets. This story takes place before the first of many D.C Comics history re-writes, so unfortunately aspects of the tale are in question (Holy One More Day, Batman!)….in today’s DCU, in which Joe Chill was never identified as the murderer of Thomas and Martha Wayne and is (I presume) still very much alive and at large. He is neither by the end of this story…thanks to the Reaper.

This tale also features a very early romance in Bruce Wayne’s life with the daughter of the Reaper…..a young girl named Rachel. (interesting…..perhaps the inspiration for the Rachel Dawes character from the Batman films?)

# 7. Batman # 608-619.
Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams.

“Hush”

Until the summer of 2002 “Hush” was just the name of a really cool Deep Purple tune. Enter writer Jeph Loeb, a man who had already written one or two really cool Batman stories …which we MIGHT see pop up later and who would later launch the new ongoing Superman/Batman series. A new villain who turns out to be an old friend…gives the Batman a run for his money in a multipart saga that literally featured every good villain in Batman’s history.

Art by fan favorite Jim Lee…who was on fire for this series and inks by Scott Williams. I going to say this right here and now. I don’t like Jim Lee’s pencils UNLESS Scott Williams’s inks are on them. Like John Byrne and Terry Austin before them…together amazing. Lee without Williams, like Byrne without Austin, not so amazing.

A lot of “die hard “ fans didn’t care for this story line, and I never understood why. To me it had everything a great Batman story should have. A mystery to be solved, lots of action, mandatory attention to detail….and other unbelievable elements. I mean we get to see the Riddler handled better than he ever had been before (Loeb seems to like writing the Riddler), a new villain that knows all of Batman secrets, romance between Batman and Catwoman….(she even learns Batman’s secret identity), the best Batman Ra’s Al Ghul throw down ever, the Batman/Joker conflict we thought we were going to see at the end of Killing Joke, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy….Batman versus Superman….Catwoman threatening to claw Talia Al Ghul’s eyes out, Two-Face healed and Harvey Dent completely sane once more, Clayface, Scarecrow, Jason Todd’s grave turns up empty….and Catwoman throws Lois Lane out of a window about forty stories up from the ground.

Now that I look back on it…I guess those “comic book experts” were right. There’s not a whole lot to like about this story line.

As you take the time to reread this story make sure you get your hands on the “bonus segment” that ran exclusively in Wizard Zero (not sure if it ran in the collected version of the story).

# 6. Batman: Dark Victory #1-13

(limited series and later trade paperback)

by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.

The names Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale go together almost as well as Batman and Robin. Together these two gentlemen would not only craft some of the best Batman stories ever told but would also turn out Superman: Man of All Seasons and Marvel’s “Color Scheme” Series….(Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue…..not to be confused with Spider-Man Blew a.k.a One More Day….Hulk :Gray and Captain America: White….still waiting on Impossible Man : Plaid……or seriously …Fantastic Four: Silver……Alicia/Silver Surfer? )

Dark Victory was the sequel to the highly successful Batman: Long Halloween and featured a tale of twisted revenge and the mysterious villain known only as the Hangman. Other highlights include Loeb and Sale’s take on the origin of Robin and great use of the characters Two-Face and Catwoman.

This story would continue without Batman in the Catwoman: When In Rome limited series (also by Loeb and Sale) and later collected hard back in which Catwoman learns some startling secrets about her past…..and the Riddler tries to get his swerve on.

This trade paperback (Dark Victory) has extra special meaning to me because it was a Christmas gift to me from my niece, Madison.

# 5. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

(limited series and later trade paperback)

by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson,

and Lynn Varley.

Okay….everybody had to know this thing was on the list somewhere but probably didn’t think it would be at number five.

Surprise. At one time this book would have been number one on my list. Hands down. But maybe because I’ve read it so many times in the past ( and somehow feel I’ll be reading it again sometime very soon) or maybe because so much good Batman stuff has been released since Dark Knight…it has slid up the countdown a little these last few years.

Frank Miller’s dark tale of an aging Batman trying to make the world right in his own eyes one final time is a classic without peer in many ways. It’s political and social message hits the reader in the face almost as hard as a black leather draped fist.

Miller’s Batman sees things one way…his way… and nothing is going to stop him from getting things done the way he thinks things should be done. That includes the U.S government and President Ronald Reagan, The Joker, Dr.Ruth, Bald muscle bound henchmen with filed down teeth, …..or Superman.

Frank gives us all the final Batman/Joker fight, a younger…female Robin…and a Batman/Superman confrontation that rocked the comic world to it’s very foundations. And if that wasn’t enough…..how about a little Green Arrow?

I do mean a little….he seems to have lost a few body parts in this tale thanks to his old pal, Superman.

Miller would later follow up the Dark Knight with the much anticipated but not so much acclaimed DK2: The Dark Knight Strikes Again several years later.

#4 . Batman: Dark Detective

(limited series and later trade paperback)
by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers,
and Terry Austin.

One of the best all-time Batman creative teams ever to work with the character re-united for this critically acclaimed and well received limited series a few years ago.

My wife saw this trade paperback at the public library and thought I might like it and brought it home for me to check it out. I loved it. One of the best Joker stories ever…..and Two-Face as well as the Scarecrow are handled very well by Englehart. I talked about this book so much a friend of mine would later buy it for me for a Christmas present just to shut me up.

Englehart, Rogers, and Austin don’t miss a beat as they pick up exactly where they left the Caped Crusader all those many years ago, including bringing back love interest Silver St. Cloud.

The Joker learns that there’s a connection between St.Cloud and Batman(wrongly believing that she may be his sister….seeing how she was involved in a very public relationship with one of Gotham City’s leading politicians) and later displays a morbid sense of curiosity that fits his twisted personality perfectly as he stops to watch his own flesh burn while looking into a mirror, the result of being accidentally set aflame by Batman during the rescue of the damsel in distress. (shades of Captain America annual # 5 by the great David Michelinie and the legendary Gene Colan…one of those power house annuals I was talking about in my last Life In Four Colors column)

Batman and Silver part ways again and perhaps for the final time at the end of the story as Batman lives up to his own cold and analytical personality quirks…..demanding Silver return to her former lover for reason you’ll just have to see for yourself when you read the story.

As a sad side note….this would be the last time that Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin would collaborate on a project and I believe it was that last project that Marshall Rogers completed. He died a short time after the story was collected in trade paperback.

#3. Batman #404-407 “Year One”
(later collected in hard back)

by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli,

and Richmond Lewis.

Frank Miller Returns to the Dark Knight. Having already written what was the last Batman story with the Dark Knight Returns (at least until the release of DK2) Miller was enlisted by D.C to write the first Batman story. Originally running as a four part story in the regular Batman book , “Year One” would later be collected in a prestige hard back volume containing all four parts.

Like Dark Knight before it, Miller brought fellow Daredevil collaborator and artist David Mazzucchelli with this time around. (He brought partner in crime and Daredevil cohort Klaus Janson with him on the Dark Knight).

Miller and Mazzucchelli had just completed the red hot Daredevil: Born Again storyline over at the House of Ideas and they scarcely stopped to take a deep breath before diving head first into this Batman run.

Instrumental to the back story of how Bruce Wayne became the urban legend known as the Batman, “Year One” would prove to be just as hard hitting and as successful as Miller’s Dark Knight.

Amazing insight on the early years of James Gordon, a pre-Catwoman Selina Kyle, Carmine “The Roman” Falcone, and even a mention of some young legal eagle type, a kid by the name of Dent.. The story would introduce characters and elements that director Chris Nolan would borrow to a certain degree in his Batman Begins film. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale would also be influenced by this story as they started to work on the story that takes place pretty much at the conclusion of this one…..and the next book on our list.

#2. Batman: The Long Halloween #1-13

(limited series and later trade paperback)

by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.

The first of three inter connected books by the Bat-Team Supreme of Loeb and Sale (the other two being Dark Victory and When In Rome) this story takes off not long after “Year One” concludes. Loeb and Sale would pull out all the stops and leave no stone un-turned as they run the gauntlet of Bat-Foes that includes the likes of the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and even Calendar Man and Solomon Grundy in their epic Two-Face origin story.

This book was also the first of a long list of awesome Christmas gifts from my niece. That kid has a secret connection with good ol Saint Nick, I’m telling you.

At the time I’m typing this , Chris Nolan’s second Bat-Film….Dark Knight is still a little more than a week away from nation wide theatrical release….but many inside sources claim there’s several elements from Long Halloween that make it onto the screen in Nolan’s sophomore effort.

One thing that didn’t make it to the silver screen. Harvey Dent’s wife, Gilda. Dent…in the Dark Knight film seems to be very much the bachelor type and also seems to have his eyes set on a certain ex-flame of Bruce Wayne’s…Rachel Dawes.

The classic Hollywood love triangle…(Holy Pirates of the Caribbean , Batman!)

#1. Detective Comics #27
“The Case of the Chemical Syndicate”
by Bob Kane.

The story that started it all…almost SEVENTY YEARS AGO!!!!!. It goes without saying without this story which also introduces James Gordon and ends with the bad guy falling into a pit of green acid……no not that bad guy…..there wouldn’t be number ten down to number two on this list.

Now …..the better part of a century later. After two of the longest running comic books in the history, a television series, several cartoons, animated shorts and movie serials, seven major films, and five Robins…Batman seems to be showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

As long as criminals remain a “cowardly and suppositious lot” and there’s a child crying over the loss of his parents, gunned down in the back alleys of a once proud but now corrupt city…I suppose there will always be a need for the Batman.

Until next time….see you in the funny papers!