BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast

We've talked about it for a while, and here it is. This week, Matt and Will each picked three stories that they felt were too low on the Big Board, and they discussed them again and moved them to spots they felt more appropriate. It's a lot of the creators we talk about regularly, and a lot of the stories that have served as benchmarks for lower on the board, now moved into some more prime real estate

Batman: Holy Terror

Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgment in Gotham

Blades (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #32-34)

The Clown at Midnight (Batman V.1 #663)

A Clash of Symbols (Detective Comics V.1 #617)

Batman in Bethlehem (Batman V.1 #666)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

It's a celebration over here as we hit episode 150! We started out with a theme of anniversary issues, ones that were numbers leading up to 150, so a 50, a 100 and a 150. And we did do that. But somehow, we wound up with a second theme: stories where Batman trips balls. Sometimes you find the theme. Sometimes the theme finds you. We have a Shadow of the Bat arc where a new villain poisons some milk, The Joker War (which we both liked more than we thought we would) and a story where a little old lady tries to tempt Dick Grayson to the dark side.

Nightmare in Gotham (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #50-52)

The Joker War (Batman V.3 #95-100, Batman: The Joker War Zone)

Grimm (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #149-153)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Like, way tomorrow. Matt McThorn is back, and we are talking about the 853rd century and Grant Morrison's first DC crossover, DC One Million. It's a wild, sci-fi epic, which we all know if completely Will's jam. But you might be surprised as we talk about the core mini-series, as well as the arc of Bruce Wayne in the future and the Batman of the future in Gotham right after the cataclysm.

DC One Million (DC One Million #1-4, JLA #1M)

Dark Planet (Batman #1M, Catwoman #1M, Robin #1M)

The Bat of the Future- Today! (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1M, Nightwing #1M, Detective Comics #1M)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

I have heard it said that every writer has a Batman story they want to tell. Only a few get to tell them. And sadly not all of them are great. This week we're reading three stories from writers not usually associated with Batman, Harlan Ellison, Eddie Campbell and David Lapham. And, well, none of these really are going down as central to the canon.

The Night of Thanks, But No Thanks (Detective Comics V.1 # 567)

Gotham Emergency (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 200)

City of Crime (Detective Comics V.1 # 800-808,811-814)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

For the first time in a very long time, this week was supposed to see the publication of a collection of Marvel and DC collaborations, so Will and I decided that this would be a good time to read some of that. But these are big omnibuses, so as is often the case, they have been delayed. But we here at BatChat aren't following suit. We planned this weird episode, and we're doing it. This week, it's three Amalgam comics, stories where DC and Marvel characters are smooshed together to make one strange hybrid character. Batman and Wolverine become Dark Claw. Jubilee and Robin become Sparrow. And Bruce Wayne and sort of Nick Fury become Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Legends of the Dark Claw # 1

Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. # 1

Dark Claw Adventures # 1

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Gotham is a city of shadows. A city where good and evil blend together. It's a city made for Noir storytelling. And while some Batman stories have some elements of a Noir, most are very much superhero stories. But to tie-in with the 40s themed animated series, Batman: The Caped Crusader, debuting this week, and because Will has wanted to do this episode since somewhere around episode 3, we're reading three Batman Elseworlds that absolutely embrace Noir and crime storytelling. We read Batman meets the Untouchables, the grimmest Jim Gordon you will ever see, and Dick Grayson, the gumshoe. It's a damn fine week.

Batman: Scar of the Bat

Batman: Gotham Noir

Batman: Nine Lives

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Over his thirty plus year career in comics, Archie Goodwin racked up a lot of accomplishments. He wrote horror stories for lots of Warren Publishing's anthologies. At DC, he wrote Detective Comics, Manhunter (more on both of those later), and was the editor behind Batman: Black and White, the early issues of Legends of the Dark Knight and James Robinson's Starman. At Marvel, he co-created The New Universe (they can't all be winners...). But possibly the biggest accomplishment, before his untimely passing in 1998, was that he was regarded as the nicest guy in comics. Everyone loved Archie. So this week, we're reading his first story on Detective, the Manhunter backups he wrote for that same series and a loving, tongue in cheek tribute done in the animated series style.

Deathmask! (Detective Comics V.1 # 437)

Manhunter (Detective Comics V.1 # 437-443, Manhunter Special Edition)

The Threatening Three! (Batman Adventures Vol. 1 # 10,20, 30, Batman: Gotham Adventures # 13)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Generally speaking, the episodes we do here are carefully curated. We try to take a theme, a character, and thoroughly dig through the 85 years of Batman stories to find the ones that best fit that theme. But then there are the weeks where Will just picks three random books off his bookshelf and wants to cover them, and Matt just says sure.

Batman '66 V.1 (Batman '66 # 1-5)

A New Dawn/King Tut's Tomb (Batman Confidential # 26-28)

Golden Dawn (Batman: The Dark Knight V.1 # 1-5)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

We've all seen the memes and the jokes: Batman's real super power is his wallet. Batman has, historically, been from the moneyed class, and that's how he gets all those wonderful toys. But what happens when Batman doesn't have all that cash? That's what friend of the show, Patreon backer, and financial adviser Abigale Heartbalm wanted to look into in this week's episode. We have a charming Golden Age tale of Batman having to pawn his diamonds, a story where Ra's al Ghul tanks Wayne stock and on of the few stories featuring broke AND amnesiac Bruce from that period at the end of the New 52 we haven't covered.

The Batman Goes Broke (Detective Comics V.1 # 105)

Return of the Batman (Legends of the Dark Knight V.1 # 13 [Digital # 34-37])

Madhouse (Batman V.2 Annual # 4)

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Batman works outside the law pretty much all the time. And while he often runs afoul of civic authorities in Gotham City, it's surprising how rarely he winds up in the crosshairs of the feds (well, we're just starting Absolute Power in the main line, but again, exception that proves the rule). But it has happened a few times, and since this episode is going to drop to on July 4th, we thought this week we'd look at some times Batman has had run ins with the federal government. First, one Earth-2, the diary of Batman might bring down the JSA. In 1984, the Outsiders meet the Force of July (in 1984. Get it. 1984). And finally, the Bat-fam has to deal with an anti-vigilante government task force.

America Vs. the Justice Society #1-4

... Land Where Our Fathers Died...! (Batman and the Outsiders V.1 Annual #1)

Batman: Outlaw #1-3

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

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill