BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast

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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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

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The DC Universe has a lot of strange looking characters. King Shark is a bipedal shark man. G'Nort is a walking, talking dog alien. Animal-Vegetable Mineral Man is... well, look him up. Dude looks weird as all hell. But amongst the more macabre looking characters is super villain turned superhero turned super spy Mr. Bones, a guy whose soft tissue, from skin to organs, is invisible, so he's basically a walking skeleton. This week, a Patreon request from Dan Grote, first Patreon backer, editor-in-chief at ComicsXF, and Matt's best friend of over 30 years, has us looking at three times Bones ran into the Bat family. See Bones and his Infinity Inc. teammates meet the Outsiders (and Batman on 1 page). Read Bones sending Cameron Chase to find out Batman's secret identity in two issues of one of DC's best series that didn't last a year. And think about what might have been if the payoff of the New 52 arc featuring Bones and the DEO pulling Batwoman's strings hadn't been cut short.

From Here to Infinity (The Outsiders Special # 1, Infinity Inc. Special # 1)

Shadowing the Bat (Chase # 7-8)

Batwoman/Wonder Woman: World's Finest (Batwoman V.2 # 12-17)

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

BatChat has been running now for 4 and a half years, which is pretty unbelievable to me. That is not quite as long as Grant Morrison's 7 year run on the Bat titles. or as tempestuous as the last period if that run. This week, we do indeed arrive at the grand finale of that epic, the final arc of Morrison's Batman Inc., as well as the next arcs of No Man's Land and Knightquest: The Crusade. Expect discussions of AzBats's mental health, exactly when Chuck Dixon went from kinda conservative to right wing crank and what might have been if the the New 52 didn't jam itself into the last third of the Morrison run.

Tally Man (Batman: Shadow of the Bat # 19-20)

Escape to Blackgate (Nightwing V.2 # 35-37)

Gotham's Most Wanted (Batman Incorporated V.2 # 7-13, Special # 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

Catwoman has been around for over 80 years, and like all good Bat villains, she has changed with the times. But it's amazing how much of the character has been there through the ages. Patreon backer and friend of the show Sam Hopper joins us to look at the evolution of Catwoman, what has stayed the same and what has changed, in three stories from three different eras. In a Golden Age story, Selina works to prove she's gone straight. In a Bronze Age story, well she also works to prove she's gone straight. And in a glorious story of Silver Age madness, she is not going straight at all, but is instead turning Lois Lane into another Catwoman and Superman into a housecat. It's as wild as it sounds.

Catwoman: Empress of the Underworld (Batman V.1 # 65)

The Catwoman's Black Magic (Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane # 70-71)

Shadow of the Cat (Batman V.1 # 323-324)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

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

We've read plenty of his stories, and if you are a long time listener to the podcast, I'm sure you realize that Tom King is a writer who has some serious variety of placements on the big board. He has multiple stories in the top 10, plus a number of stories lingering near the bottom. Tonight, friend of the show and Patreon backer John Wickham returns, and he's picked some more Tom King, including his Eisner winning Riddler story that baffled both Matt and Will in how it got there. Plus, John's vendetta against Will reaches new heights; he's come with a game that fits pretty well with ol' Eddie Nygma's schtick.

The Fall and the Fallen (Batman V.3 # 70-74, Secret Files # 2)

An Unimportant Man (The Penguin # 6-7)

Batman: One Bad Day- The Riddler # 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

Love is in the air. It's nearly Valentine's Day, and for the past couple of his appearances, Patreon backer and friend of the show Josh Weil has mentioned that he's been considering selecting one of the few truly whimsical and just plane fun stories Tom King has written: "Date Night," where Batman an Catwoman go on a double date with Superman and Lois Lane. And since this week his appearance lined up with Valentine's, we figured it was time to finally add that story to the big board. Also, Bruce and Talia go on an animated series style date in Paris in a story with an inappropriate title and Nightwing and Oracle get married in a crossover that is mostly forgotten but was a breath of fresh air at the time.

Super Friends: Date Night (Batman V.3 #36-37)

Last Tango in Paris (Batman Adventures V.1 #13)

Birds of Rage (Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle #1-2)

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

Superheroes were an American invention, at least the modern conception of them. But they have spread across the globe and taken on many forms. We've done an episode about Batman stories across the world before, but this weeks we're focusing specifically on Batman stories from Japan. We're reading the first collection of stories that spun out of the 60s Batman TV craze, a more serious tale of a killer stalking Gotham with connections to Bruce Wayne's study's in Japan and the final volume of the series where Joker raises a de-aged baby Batman.

Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga Chapters 1-19

Batman: Death Mask # 1-4

One Operation Joker V.3

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

This week, BatChat is once more joined by Patreon backer and friend of the show Matt McThorn. This time, Matt wanted to talk about times Batman and his allies and enemies crossed over with properties from Dark Horse Comics. So we have Batman meeting Hellboy (and Starman, but that's less of a jump), The Joker trying on The Mask and the Justice League winding up on the farm that serves as the setting for Black Hammer.

Batman/Hellboy/Starman #1-2

Joker/Mask #1-4

Hammer of Justice (Black Hammer/Justice League #1-4)

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

We read three stories an episode. So with that math, episode 222 means we are ranking story 666, which is certainly a portentous number. It's a number that screams horror. And it's not like we haven't covered plenty of Batman horror on this show. But as we get to that number here, we figured there's no better time to get back to it. So this week, we're reading the first appearance of the most horror of the main Batman villains, the Scarecrow, reading a Legends of the Dark Knight one off drawn by Mike Mignola and a maxi-series from horror comic master Steve Niles with art from the definitive Batman horror artist, Kelley Jones.

The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow (World's Finest Comics # 3)

Sanctum (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 54)

Batman: Gotham After Midnight # 1-12

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

This week, BatChat is returning to the three runs we've been following in order. Well, sorta. Yes, we're reading the next arc of No Man's Land and the penultimate arc of Grant Morrison's epic run. But Injustice has been showing signs of severely diminishing returns the past few volumes, and we had something else we've been wanting to get to, so we're subbing in Knightquest: The Crusade, the adventures of Azrael as Batman. We'll get back to Injustice once the Morrison run is over, but for this month, AzBats takes on the Trigger Twins (and Robin), Batman and Robin go into Robinson Park in No Man's Land for a conversation with Poison Ivy and the wat between Batman Inc and Leviathan kicks off in earnest

Money Train (Detective Comics V.1 #667-669, Robin V.2 #1-2)

Fruit of the Earth (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #88, Batman V.1 #568, Detective Comics V.1 #735)

Demon Star (Batman Incorporated V.2 #0-6)

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