Hello Gothamites to the latest installment of the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
This is the start of a new little theme that I like to call DETECTIVE DECEMBER, dealing with stories within the titular title of Detective Comics! This week we’ll be reading, as you saw from the title, Detective Comics #569-574, by Mike W. Barr, and featuring some of the first US work by comics legend Alan Davis!
The Joker comes back to Gotham City with a plot to kidnap Selina Kyle—Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend—and restore her to her true self…Catwoman! The revitalized femme fatale is just the beginning of the rogues returning to plague Batman and Robin; on her heels follow the Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter and more!
Here are the links to the issues!
Detective Comics #569
Detective Comics #570
Detective Comics #571
Detective Comics #572
Detective Comics #573
Detective Comics #574
This will be the current reading from 2021-12-04T06:00:00Z → 2021-12-10T06:00:00Z, but if you’ve been kidnapped and brainwashed by a mad scientist and an even madder clown, you can always come back and share your thoughts.
Looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts about this short but memorable run!
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What’s funny is that when looking online to double check some facts on this run, I found a great article about these six issues that was written for DC Universe back in May of last year! So give that a look if you’re curious as to what this run is about:
https://www.dcuniverseinfinite.com/news/binge-barr-davis-detective-comics-mixed-60s-kitsch-80s-punk/
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Aw, the greatest WoB gift I could hope for: my favorite Batman run of all time.
A little side note: apparently, Denny had given Mike the impression that Gordon was going to be reduced back down to police captain. I think it was a bit of miscommunication related to the upcoming Year One story arc, but it led to a curious error in the first issue here.
A second side note: aw, little Jason is so cute!
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Oh, and here are a couple of brief snippets from the Barr/Davis interview in Back Issue #73:
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These were a fun bunch of issues. Nice to see Jason in happier times. Poor Bruce and Selina can never catch a break. I enjoyed the less murderous Joker. The cover of that last issue definitely made me think of Jason’s future fate. All in all, I enjoyed seeing a less grim and gritty Batman.
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These were great. It was a strange brew of silly Batman and serious modern Batman. Jason bringing the jokes was fun. Leslie was a welcome addition and I actually thought the bit about Batman in college was great. Sometimes the origin story is boring because it’s been done so many times, but this one felt different
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Yeah, that’s kind of why I named this collection of issues “The Last Laugh” even though it’s not really all connected – because it feels like the last of the campier, funnier Batman. After this point, we start getting stuff like Batman: Year One, Year Two, The Cult, Five Nights of the Beast, and A Death In The Family…
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One thing I forgot to mention that I really enjoyed was Batman meeting Sherlock Holmes. I was thinking last night about how Batman (really any detective fiction) is an iteration or a tweak to the archetype that was established by Holmes. Batman, at his core, is Sherlock Holmes for the modern day
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