Hello and welcome to the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
For our next bit of reading, we’re continuing our look at major Batman events – or Batman in major DC events – by casting our eyes at the event Underworld Unleashed!
The demon Neron offers heroes and villains alike their greatest desires in exchange for their souls. Who will accept his offer?
So for the next two weeks, there are two tracks that you guys can look at. The first is the main event itself, a three-issue miniseries written by Mark Waid and drawn by Howard Porter. There isn’t a LOT of Batman material, from what I’ve read, but it might help understand the context of what is happening in the next track.
That second track is the tie-ins to the event in the Batman line, hitting books like Batman, Detective Comics, Robin, Azrael, and Catwoman, as well as two tie-in one shots: Batman: Devil’s Asylum, and Underworld Unleashed: Patterns of Fear.
So with that in mind, here are the issues!
Reading will run from 2023-07-15T05:00:00Z→2023-07-28T05:00:00Z, but you’re always welcome to share your thoughts about these issues later!
Looking forward to talking these comics with you all!
I’m probably a bit more than halfway through the reading and I’m enjoying the tie-ins a good bit. I still have one issue of Underworld Unleashed left (I’m planning on saving it for last), but, so far, I’ve found the tie-ins more enjoyable than the main event.
I wanted to shout out the Catwoman issue in particular. It’s a lot of fun. The Mr. Freeze story, too, felt like a fun little Batman adventure
First off, bumping this up to remind folks we still have one week to read through these issues! Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.
Glad to hear it! One thing to note – according to the full reading order that I got from DCUI, Robin #24 actually takes place after Underworld Unleashed #3 so I wonder if it’s meant to be an aftermath issue? Oh well, I’m sure it’ll read well either way. If anyone’s curious, here’s the complete reading order for Underworld Unleashed:
Makes sense – according to comics legend Carmine Infantino, any comic with a gorilla is instantly better:
Can you imagine dinosaurs and gorillas on motorcycles in front of a city in flames? That must be the greatest comic ever written. If it exists
Seriously, though, that’s a good list Infantino put together. It’s pretty clear he understood his business.
Reading the Robin issues before the finale of Underworld Unleashed didn’t really seem to make any difference. Though one thing I’m unclear on is which baddies kept their new powers. Clearly some of them did, but I don’t recall Charaxes being a player later on
It’s a good read, though, and I think Neron is a compelling antagonist that feels like a real threat. I won’t spoil anything, but I also thought the way they resolved everything was quite clever
