BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast

Matt & Will approach comics in very different ways. Matt, who has been reading comics regularly since he was 9, loves comics of all varieties, sometimes the weirder the better. Will has more than once proclaimed that he could go on forever with just Year One era, street level Batman comics with no superpowers. Well, Patreon backer John Wickham took up that challenge with three stories that feature the heroes of the DC Universe losing their powers. Two are crossover events, and one is a strangely Christian Elseworlds.

JLA: Act of God # 1-3

Genesis (Genesis # 1-4, Batman V.1 # 547)

Absolute Power (Absolute Power # 1-4, Absolute Power: Ground Zero, Absolute Power FCBD Special)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

We've covered a lot of Elseworlds stories. Those are stories set on a different universe and featuring a different universe's version of Batman. But there are times when the Batman of the main DC Universe, whether that's Earth-0 or Prime Earth or New Earth or whatever you want to call it, travels to some of these other worlds. Patreon backer Matt McThorn is joining us for three of those stories. One is Grant Morrison's first attempt to bring a version of the Multiverse back when DC was dead set against it. The second is a weird sort of utopian Gotham. And finally, during the DC K.O. event, Batman pops through various realities where he has to fight his Robins.

JLA: Earth 2 OGN

Gothtopia (Detective Comics V.2 # 27-29)

DC KO: Knightfight # 1-4

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

He's a figure of vengeance. He wears a long cloak. He strikes fear into the hearts of criminals. He's... The Spectre. God's wrath made manifest, The Spectre is the angel of vengeance bonded to the ghost of a dead New York cop, Jim Corrigan. Unsurprisingly, a spirit of vengeance is a character who has teamed up with Batman on more than one occasion. First, we get some of that joyous Bob Haney madness, followed up by Doug Moench and Kelly Jones and finally we go into the New 52 and we see Corrigan as a member of the GCPD's answer to the X-Files.

In the Grasp of Shahn-Zi (The Brave and the Bold V.1 # 75)

Spirit of Vengeance (Batman V.2 # 540-541)

We Do Not Sleep (Gotham By Midnight # 1-5)

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Aside from Batman himself, and maybe Dick Grayson, no other character from the world of Gotham has appeared more than the Joker. And in his 85 plus years, he has had some weird adventures. And some that are so damn weird that they wind up in their own episode here. The most normal is the one where Joker inherits a bunch of money and retires from crime for, like, five minutes. From there, the Joker makes a deal with the devil who looks like a 70s Elton John. And then it's a series of back-ups that are so bonkers that they made Fox News.

Joker's Millions (Detective Comics V.1 # 180)

99 and 99/100ths Percent Dead (The Joker V.1 # 10)

The Joker Vs. Fox News (The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Who Stopped Laughing # 1-10 Back-Ups)

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Hey, sometimes you go with an easy one. Coming up with episode themes isn't an easy thing, so these episodes where we continue on in runs we've been reading in order allow me to turn off my brain for a week. We're back in Batman Confidential, with three more shorts set in No Man's Land, AzBats has a Christmas season throwdown with a... chilling foe and Catwoman breaks into, out of, and (almost) back into No Man's Land.

Batman Chronicles # 17

Cold Cases (Detective Comics V.1 # 670)

Ms. Direction (Catwoman V.2 # 72-74)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreo

Gotham City is in New Jersey, so most of the stories that we cover take place in Matt's beloved home state. Not many stories take place in Will's home state of Alabama. As a matter of fact, we could really only find one. So we're doing that story, as well as two stories from creators who are native to Alabama. This is not at all because Will really wanted to cover Batman: Off-World from Alabama native son, Jason Aaron. Not at all. Aside from that story, we're also reading a story where Batman and Robin chase Joker across the USA and the mini-series that led up to Grant Morrison's run on JLA from another Alabama native, Mark Waid.

The Cross-Country Crimes (Batman V.1 # 8)

Justice League: A Midsummer's Nightmare # 1-3

Batman: Off-World # 1-6

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Friend of the show and fellow ComicsXF staffer Tony Thornley is back to talk about one of his favorite types of comic: the intercompany crossover. We read the Marvel half of the recent return to co-publication with Batman and Deadpool, the completely non-sensical most recent Batman/Spawn crossover and the second Batman/TMNT mini-series.

The Dead of Knight (Marvel/DC: Deadpool/Batman # 1)

Batman/Spawn # 1

A Knight in New York (Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II # 1-6)

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Patreon backer Jordan Jennings requested that we read the recent Batman/Green Arrow/Question team-up mini-series, Arcadia, so that makes for an easy theme, right? That mini, plus a story where a Bat characters meets Green Arrow, and one where a Bat character meets Question. Simple. But boy, could we not have gotten three more different stories! Arcadia is a recent, deeply involved in social issues story. The Green Arrow story is another Brave and the Bold from Bob Haney, so that one is just plain whacky. And the Question story is a Denny O'Neil story that takes a fascinating look at a classic Bat villain at a time when the character was not what we knew him as before, or have known him as since.

Arcadia (Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia # 1-4)

The Claws of the Emperor Eagle (The Brave and the Bold V.1 # 129-130)

Riddles (The Question V.1 # 26)

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

The release of new DC media properties makes for some easy episode theme selection! This week, we're tying in to the new HBO Max series from BatChat favorite Tom King, Lanterns, with three stories of Batman teaming up with Green Lanterns. It's surprising how , with all these GLs, there aren't more of them who have teamed up with Batman, so we've got two featuring Hal Jordan and one with Simon Baz & Jessica Cruz.

The Tick-Tock Traps of the Time Commander (The Brave and the Bold V.1 #59,69)

Branded (Green Lantern V.4 #9)

Darkest Knights (Green Lanterns #16-17)

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

It's amazing how much Harley Quinn has grown and changed since her first appearance on Batman: The Animated Series. And the biggest and most important change is in her relationship with the Joker. First appearing as a simple henchwoman, then as a regularly abused partner, Harley has grown into an independent characters separate, and possible as popular, as Joker. But that wasn't an easy process. This week, Patreon backer Sam Hopper returns and we investigate three of the stories that took place during the latter part of that relationship in DC comics continuity (or adjacent to it). We read one of their last confrontations in the post-Crisis canon, their first meeting on panel in the New 52, and a weird little possible future.

Hell Hath No Fury (Gotham City Sirens V.1 # 20-21)

Running with the Devil (Suicide Squad V.4 # 14-15)

Crappily Ever After (Harley Quinn Futures End # 1)

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill