BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast

It's a very special week on BatChat. We have now recorded 200 episodes. 600 stories. It's a whole lot. And to celebrate, Matt and Will are together in one room, face to face, along with our first fan, our first Patreon backer, Matt's bestest pal in the whole world, Dan Grote, to read a milestone Batman story, Grant Morrison's The Return of Bruce Wayne, along with two of the stories that inspired it. We're talking Morrison, so there are some deep dives, and Dan brings his expertise about babies, which Matt and Will are sorely lacking.

Since this is an in person recording, the sound quality is different and a little rough, but stick with it because this is a lot of fun.

It Happened in Rome (Batman V.1 #24)

Dark Knight, Dark City (Batman V.1 #452-454)

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #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

Next week, the second season of the HBO Max series Peacemaker drops. The first season featured some seriously obscure DC characters, and this week, to tie in with the release of the new season, we're reading three stories featuring three of those characters: Peacemaker, Vigilante and Judomaster. Now, we're stretching the definition of featured here, since one of these characters has never appeared in a story with a Bat character that wasn't just a panel in some big event, but we made it work.

And as promised in the episode, here's a YouTube link to the opening of season 1 of Peacemaker, because it is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mrr3UNALww

Assault on Arkham (Suicide Squad V.7 # 1-2)

Corvalho (Checkmate V.2 # 11-12)

The Vigilante and the Batman (Vigilante V.1 # 47)

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 Teen Titans have always been linked to the Bat Family. There are very few iterations of the Titans that don't include a former or current Robin in their ranks. So most Titans stories fit within the remit of this podcast. Patreon backer and friend of the show Matt McThorn specifically wanted to talk about a couple late 90s/early 00s stories featuring Nightwing and his relationship with Batman and the other original Titans, and we decided to throw in one of those completely insane Bob Haney Brave and the Bolds to round it out.

Rebels in the Streets (The Brave and the Bold V.1 # 94)

The Technis Imperative (JLA/Titans # 1-3)

Survival (Titans V.1 # 15-16)

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

Batman is not just popular here in the USA. As our listeners know, as you are from many countries, people outside America love Batman too. And sometimes we get stories reprinted here in the States that feature Batman that were created in other countries. We're reading three of those today, one from France, one from Italy and one from Japan.

Batman: The Dark Prince Charming Vol. 1 & 2

Batman/Dylan Dog # 1-3

One Operation Joker Vol. 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

Somehow, as we near 200 episodes, we still stumble across holes in our coverage. He's appeared in a lot of stories we've covered, but we have never done an episode purely focused on Penguin stories. So this week, we remedy that. We're reading Penguin's first appearance, the story that changed him from supervillain to mobster and the start of his recent maxi-series.

One of the Most Perfect Frame-Ups (Detective Comics V.1 #58)

Odds Against (Detective Comics V.1 #683-684)

The Fall and Rise of Oswald Cobblepot Part 1 (The Penguin #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

Superman was pretty great, huh? We wanted to keep the good times rolling this week with an episode featuring characters other than the big guy who appeared in the movie. I really wanted to do a Batman/Mr. Terrific team up, but outside team settings, there aren't really any, so we instead went with a classic Bob Haney Metamorpho story, a Batman/Guy Gardner story that doesn't end with Gardner unconscious and the story of Maxwell Lord's infamous heel turn.

Alias the Bat-Hulk (The Brave and the Bold V. # 68)

2011: A Space Oddity (Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors # 13)

The OMAC Project/Sacrifice (Countdown to Infinite Crisis # 1, The OMAC Project # 1-6, Superman V.2 # 219, Action Comics V.1 # 829, Adventures Of Superman V.1 # 642-643, Wonder Woman V.2 # 219)

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 birth of the new DC Cinematic Universe... DC Extended Universe... DC... ah whatever the hell they're calling it, kicks off on the big screens this week with the debut of James Gunn's Superman film, so we're obviously tying in because SEO is a powerful thing. We have three more stories of the World's Finest heroes with a delightful Bronze Age oddity and two tales from the President Lex era that feel strangely prescient nowadays.

The Werewolf from Krypton (World's Finest Comics #256)

Lord of the Ring (Superman V.2 #168/Detective Comics V.1 #756)

Public Enemies (Superman/Batman V.1 #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

The revolving doors of any prison or mental health facility in Gotham City are running jokes, and rightly so; they can't keep a D-lister like Ratcatcher locked up, let alone someone like the Joker. But they do keep winding up back in custody, so there has to be story potential there, right? This week's episode looks at three times Joker wound up locked up. A graphic novel from Dixon and Nolan finds Joker on death row, a tale of Joker's first time in custody and there's a mystery of exactly how all of Gotham's rogues wound up in a warehouse together and only Joker is talking.

Apologies for the sound on Matt's end: this and the next couple episodes had smoe issues, but it's definitely listenable, just echoey.

The Joker: Devil's Advocate OGN

Do You Understand These Rights? (Batman Confidential # 22-25)

The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox # 1-7

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

Doug Moench wrote Batman stories for about a decade over the course of his runs on the character. And while his Bat work is probably best associated with his collaboration with Kelley Jones, generally his best known collaborator is penciller Paul Gulacy, with whom he defined Shang-Chi over at Marvel. That isn't to say he didn't work wit Gulacy on Batman though. This week we read three of those team-ups, including two Legends of the Dark Knight arcs defining the post-Crisis Hugo Strange and a Batman/Predator crossover.

Also, this episode is partly brought to you by Matt's local library, which had a copy of that out of print crossover. If you're looking to read comics you can't find elsewhere? Check your local library. They're great resources.

Prey (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #11-15)

Bloodmatch (Batman Vs. Predator II #1-4)

Terror (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #137-141)

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 evolution of representation of queer characters in mainstream superhero comics is something that entire books can, and should, be written about. So I'm not going to wax rhapsodic about all the changes here, but it's June and thus Pride Month, and so we're back with queer Bat characters. First we wrap up Greg Rucka's run on Batwoman, next we see the first HarlIvy wedding (in the Injustice Universe of all places) and we read one of the DC Pride anthologies, the one that includes the brilliant story written by the one true voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy.

Cutter (Detective Comics V.1 # 861-863)

Injustice: Year Zero (Injustice: Year Zero Chapters 1-14)

DC Pride 2022

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