2019 marks 80 years since Batman made his debut. So today, I am counting down my 5 favorite Batman stories. Enjoy!
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Greetings, Charlie,
I’m sorry I haven’t sent in feedback for a long time, but, to be honest, I’m not much of a Transformers fan, so I haven’t had anything interesting or constructive to say about those episodes.
I’m certainly more a fan of Batman, but, since my “sweet spot” is the Silver Age, I have to admit that there aren’t a lot of stories from those days that most people, even me, would consider especially noteworthy. I do have one story from even before the Silver Age, though. It comes from Detective Comics #168, cover dated February, 1951, called “The Man Behind the Red Hood”, which features the original Red Hood, as well as what was, for several decades, the definitive origin of the Joker. I know there are many who don’t especially like this particular story, but, as a kid, reading this one probably in reprint in the 80 Page Giant Batman #213, (July/August, 1969), I loved the idea of a criminology class taught by “Professor Batman”, with the World’s Greatest Detective and his students solving an old, unsolved case, and discovering the (overused phrase, but perfectly valid in this case) “secret origin of the Joker, was fascinating to me.
Another favorite Batman story, this one from after the Silver Age, was the book-length story, “The Doomsday Book”, in Detective Comics #572, cover dated March, 1987, billed as the “Fifty Year Anniversary” of Detective Comics (although not of the character of Batman, since he did not appear until 1939). In this story, several long-time DC detectives, including the Elongated Man, Slam Bradley, and Batman, as well as the Greatest Detective of All Time, Sherlock Holmes (well over 100 years old), solve a mystery over the course of several individual stories tied up at the end by Batman and the aged Holmes. I’m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, and the team-up of Batman and Holmes was great fun for me.
I cannot claim that either of these is necessarily a great Batman story, but you asked about favorites, and these are probably my most favorite ones.
Live long and prosper,
Dave McElvenney