There are plenty of legacy characters in the Bat universe; how many Robins are there now? But there are far fewer legacy villains than there are heroes. But before Flashpoint and the New 52 scrambled things, or repositioned them anyway, one of Batman's solid B-tier villains was replaced. Black Mask, a character introduced in the mid-80s, was replaced in the mid-00s. Sam Hopper, Patreon backer and friend of the show, returns this week to talk about the death of the original Black Mask and the rise of his replacement. Expect lots of talk and pondering of how much editorial interference is involved in all of these stories...

Backward Masking (Catwoman V.3 # 50-52)

Life After Death (Batman V.1 # 692-697)

Arkham Reborn # 1-3

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The last time we were joined by Patreon backer John Wickham, he played a little game with Will, channeling his inner Edward Nygma, and got Will to select the theme for this episode. The theme we wound up getting were three stories with art by Irish born artist Liam Sharp. And so we have a mini-series written and drawn by Sharp teaming up Batman and Wonder Woman, a Catwoman anthology that has all of four pages of Sharp in it, but a ton of great work from other creators, and a mini-series drawn by Sharp and written by Garth Ennis. Oh, Garth Ennis, comics' greatest superhero hater. We have a lot to say there

The Brave and the Bold: Batman & Wonder Woman # 1-6

Catwoman 80th Anniversary 100 Page Giant

Batman: Reptilian # 1-6

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When a writer works on a character for an extended period of time, it's fascinating to watch how their interpretation of that character evolves. When Patreon backer Josh Weil came to us and wanted to cover the Robins mini-series that won DC's fan voted Round Robin competition, the natural stories to pair with it were other stories written by Tim Seeley that featured Dick Grayson; Seeley had quite a history with him after all, from Grayson through his ongoing to that mini-series and beyond. So here we have the first arc of the Rebirth era Nightwing, the Robins mini-series, and a team up of carnies, with Dick working with Deadman.

Better Than Batman (Nightwing: Rebirth, Nightwing V.4 #1-4)

Being Robin (Robins #1-6)

Down the Road (Batman: The Brave and the Bold V.1 #13-16)

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Not long ago, we did an episode entirely dedicated to Batman stories that originated in Japan. Amongst those stories was a collection of creator Jiro Kuwata's 60s Batman manga, that were adaptations of earlier American Batman stories. This week, we dive into those stories, reading three of them and seeing not just how they rank, but how the compare to Kuwata's versions.

The Man Who Quit the Human Race!( Batman V.1 # 165)

Batman Battles the Living Beast-Bomb! (Detective Comics V.1 # 339)

The Weather Wizard’s Triple Treasure Thefts! (Detective Comics V.1 # 353)

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Event comics are a weird thing. And those events that slip in and take over the monthly slots of other comics are even weirder. Could you imagine if Law & Order was cancelled for two weeks to be replaced by Anarchy & Chaos? People wouldn't know what to do with it. But we comics fans are made of sterner stuff. This week, Matt McThorn joins us to talk about three mini-series from DC's Future State event, an event that led into one of the most important initiatives in DC history: 5G. Wait, what? 5G never happened, and so this was just sort of like an Elseworlds that some reverberations in continuity but mostly was quickly forgotten? Well, crap. But at least a couple of these were really fun!

Future State: Dark Detective # 1-4

Future State: Catwoman # 1-2

Future State: The Next Batman # 1-4

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When I, Matt, came to Will in the waning days of pandemic lockdown with the idea to this podcast, legally completely unrelated to Battle of the Atom, a podcast I may or may not have mainlined 300-ish episodes of during the pandemic, I figured we'd goof around for a bit, and maybe get in about 50 episodes. That's a decent run, right? Well, looks like it got out of hand, because this week we're at episode 234 and ranking our 700th story. Thanks to everyone who is listening, and we're celebrating with an episode where we talk about more individual stories than we ever have before. We're covering three anthologies: the last volume of Batman: Black and White we haven't, an issue of the grey lady of Batman anthology series, Legends of the Dark Knight and one of those big anniversary anthologies.

Batman: Black & White V.4 Trade (Batman: Black & White V.2 # 1-6)

Stories (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 94)

Detective Comics V.3 # 1,027

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Bat-Mite is a silly character. He is this hopeless fanboy who just doesn't get what a pain in the tuchus he is. But he's not the only mite in the DC Universe, and the others aren't quite as benevolent, if hopelessly backwards. The most notable imp (sorry, Bat-Mite) is Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman's nemesis who is just kind of an asshole who trolls Superman for LOLZ (The kids still say that, right?). This week, we're seeing time the Bat family ran into Mxy. Yes, two of those stories involve Bat-Mite, but the third is a bit on the darker side, because what is darker than the Joker becoming a god?

Bat-Mite Meets Mr. Mxyzptlk (World's Finest Comics # 113)

Superman and Batman: World's Funnest # 1

Emperor Joker (Superman V.2 # 160-161, Adventures of Superman V.1 # 582-583, Superman: The Man of Steel # 104-105, Action Comics V.1 # 769-770, Emperor Joker # 1)

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OK, so normally I would have something pithy to say about suffering through Will just picking random stuff of dubious quality that isn't available on-line and Batman '66 trades, which I just did. But what I really want to focus on are the vagaries of fate and coincidence.

As you'll hear if you just start this episode, we recorded this on March 18th. And three days later, on March 21st, the news of the passing of Sam Kieth broke on-line. We have had Kieth stories in some anthologies, but Through the Lookingglass is the first story we've done that Keith was the writer of the entire thing. And sadly, none of his other Bat work is available easily on-line, so a Sam Kieth-centric episode is not in the offing currently. But I just want to say, his work will be missed by me. Whether it's his thick, hairy Wolverine, the surreality of The Maxx or his often forgotten contribution as the first artist on The Sandman, Kieth left a footprint as big as The Maxx's. RIP Sam Kieth.

Batman '66 V.4 (Batman '66 # 17-22)

Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice # 1-2

Batman: Through the Lookingglass OGN

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I know there are a lot of superheroes who are orphans and would do anything to have their parents back. Maybe they should talk to Cassandra Cain. That particular Batgirl has a much more trying set of parental relationships. We've read a bunch of stories about her and her dad, the mast assassin David Cain. And while we have read only a couple stories about it, the more interesting relationship is between Cass and her mother, one of the DC Universe's greatest martial artists, Lady Shiva. Abigale Heartbalm joins us to talk about three stories featuring Cass and Shiva. The first is their battle to the death, the second involves some Freaky Friday stuff (although not a mother/daughter swap, which I now want to see) and the first arc of Cassandra's current ongoing series, where things between them reach a much more final conclusion.

I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds (Batgirl V.1 #25)

Vice Versa (Batgirls Annual 2022, #13)

Mother (Batgirl V.6 #1-6)

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When she was created for Batman: The Animated Series, I can't imagine the series creators realized what a life Renee Montoya would have in the comics. Technically appearing in comics before B:TAS premiered because of the much longer lead time for animation, Montoya has gone from beat cop to detective to vigilante to police commissioner and back to vigilante. And most of these changes are thanks to one writer: master of crime and superhero comics Greg Rucka. Ross Holmes's newest Patreon request was to talk about some stories featuring her time as a vigilante, as the second hero to use the name of The Question. And what better week to read three stories written by Greg Rucka then the week he returns to the Bat titles with the new volume of a character he created (and Montoya's on again/off again love interest), Batwoman? We trace Montoya's time from right after DC's first event weekly, 52, through the events of Final Crisis and to her solo back-ups in Detective Comics.

52 Aftermath: Crime Bible- Five Lessons of Blood # 1-5

Final Crisis: Revelations # 1-5

Pipeline (Detective Comics V.1 # 854-865 Back-Ups)

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