Hello and welcome to the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
This week we’ll be looking at the work of another great comic book creator who’s made his mark on Batman that has sadly recently passed, this time the work of Alan Grant. We’ll be reading Detective Comics #604-609, with art by another Batman legend, Norm Breyfogle.
Batman finds himself face-to-face with the dangerous Clayface III…unaware that the Man of Clay is now teamed up with the three other Clayfaces! Also, someone is doing Batman’s job for him. Can the Darknight Detective stop the murderous vigilante Anarky?
I don’t think I knew there was a version of Basil Karlo’s Clayface without powers. All of the theatricality fits the character I know, though.
Grant really nails the tone for Batman across these issues and I found both of these arcs to be page turners, but I probably liked the Anarky story better. It almost seemed like Anarky was being treated as an anti-hero, I definitely didn’t feel he was portrayed as a true villain. There were multiple points where Bruce agreed with him in principle, but not methodology. I didn’t realize until after that this is Anarky’s first appearance.