The Black Casebook

The Black Casebook episodes:

• 06.27.2024

  Casefile #17: Dark Knight, Dark City

  The city never sleeps. The Black Casebook returns with a MEGA-sized exploration of Dark Knight, Dark City, Peter Milligan and Kieron Dwyer's underrated classic about the secret history of Bruce Wayne's hometown. Lost in the shuffle of Batman's golden age,...

  
• 04.11.2024

  BONUS: Year Three Mailbag!

  As of today, Year Two of The Black Casebook is officially in the books. Thank you to everybody for your support and your questions! I hope you enjoy this long, occasionally coherent victory lap of a Q&A;, and I hope...

  
• 03.13.2024

  Casefile #16: Cold Days

  The trial of the century. The Black Casebook returns with a deep dive into one of the most controversial eras in Batman’s recent history: the Tom King run. The former CIA officer envisioned a Gotham without hope, protected by a...

  
• 01.15.2024

  BONUS: Whedon's MCU with Collective Action Comics

  A birthday miracle? To celebrate my encroaching obsolescence, here's a fun chat I had with Nat from Collective Action Comics about Joss Whedon's The Avengers (as well as The Age of Ultron, unfortunately) and Mark Millar's The Ultimates. Despite their...

  
• 12.26.2023

  Casefile #15: Batman Returns

  A Christmas miracle. To close out 2023, we’re taking the plunge into the kinky, gender-bending world of Batman Returns, the strangest blockbuster ever to have a Happy Meal tie-in. After the many compromises involved in making Batman ’89, Tim Burton used...

  
• 11.22.2023

  Casefile #14: The Last Arkham

  From the twisted mind of Casebook Walt! We're looking back to the early '90s and the heyday of American crime with a deep dive into "The Last Arkham," the terrific arc that introduced scarified serial killer Victor Szasz alongside a...

  
• 08.21.2023

  Casefile #13: The Black Glove

  Let's raise the stakes. This month, we're investigating Grant Morrison's brilliant, challenging Batman run through two lesser-known stories: "The Three Ghosts of Batman" and "The Club of Heroes." Besides being incredibly entertaining, these arcs can help unlock the deeper meanings...

  
• 05.29.2023

  Casefile #12: One Bad Day: Clayface

  Hoo-ray for Hollywood. We're turning our gaze to the stars this month for One Bad Day: Clayface, which might be the best Batman comic in a decade. Essentially a super-sized Batman: The Animated Series episode, the story follows the artist...

  
• 04.11.2023

  BONUS: Year Two Mailbag

  I have to become...more. Year One of The Black Casebook is a wrap! Let's celebrate a year of hard work, announce some plans for Year Two, and answer a slew of questions from Listeners Like You. We have a Patreon⁠⁠! You can find...

  
• 04.04.2023

  Casefile #11: A Death in the Family

  I'm not mad, just disappointed. This month's casefile digs into one of the most notorious Batman stories out there: "A Death in the Family," which for more than 15 years marked the last appearance of the maligned second Robin, Jason...

  
• 02.09.2023

  Casefile #10: The Dark Knight

  This is a big one, folks. What better way to kick off 2023 than with a deep dive into The Dark Knight? Christopher Nolan's take on The Empire Strikes Back captured the accelerating pace and constant anxiety of the War...

  
• 12.22.2022

  Casefile #9: Night of the Stalker/Deja Vu

  It is happening again. For our last casefile of 2022, we turn to what might be, pound for pound, the two best Batman stories ever written: 1974's "Night of the Stalker," by Steve Englehart, Sal and Vin Amendola, and Dick...

  
• 11.16.2022

  Remembering Kevin Conroy

  A few words on the late, great Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman and a hero in his own right. You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram @blackcasebookpod, and you can write in to [email protected] to share...

  
• 10.31.2022

  Casefile #8: Batman vs. Predator

  IF IT BLEEDS, WE CAN KILL IT. For our special Halloween episode, we're taking a look at Dave Gibbons' and Andy and Adam Kubert's Batman vs. Predator in all its '90s glory, a book that--against all odds--turned out to be...

  
• 10.04.2022

  Casefile #7: Year 100

  This week, we're going back to the future, as the Dark Knight wages a crusade against a fascist police state in Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100. Released in 2006, Year 100 is a window into the anxieties of the Bush...

  
• 08.18.2022

  Casefile #6: Batman: White Knight

  Well, they can't all be winners. This time, we're covering White Knight, Sean Gordon Murphy's revisionist take on Batman and the structural nature of crime in Gotham City. In the process of carving this turkey, we explore the place of...

  
• 07.07.2022

  Casefile #5: The Court of Owls

  The Black Casebook returns! This week, we're covering a modern classic: The Court of Owls, the debut story of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's legendary run on Batman. This casefile has everything: cosmic horror, Satanic churches, bat psychology, Arthur Schopenhauer,...

  
• 06.15.2022

  BONUS: Bat-Politics with Collective Action Comics

  Way back in March, I sat down with Nat Yonce of Collective Action Comics to discuss the politics of Batman, both in specific incarnations like Year One and the Dark Knight trilogy and as an American cultural symbol. Does Batman...

  
• 05.31.2022

  Casefile #4: The Saga of Ra's al Ghul

  The Batman goes global this week as we explore the Orientalist framework supporting Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ classic, if problematic, Saga of Ra’s al Ghul. Underneath Adams’ genre-defining artwork and O’Neil’s boy’s-adventure storytelling is a West vs. East dichotomy...

  
• 05.16.2022

  Casefile #3: The Long Halloween

  The Bat goes noir. This week, we're delving into one of the most iconic and tragic Batman stories ever created: Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween. We explore the historical roots, artistic method, and psychological fatalism of the...

  
• 05.02.2022

  BONUS: The Batman Returns!

  Just a little old-fashioned speculatin' on where Matt Reeves and co. could go with their Batman sequel, now that it's been officially announced. Will the Court of Owls be unveiled as the power behind the throne in Gotham City? Have...

  
• 04.25.2022

  Casefile #2: The Batman

  Time to give Matt Reeves his flowers. This week, we're diving into the characters, themes, and cinematic style of The Batman (2022), which might be the Caped Crusader's finest live-action outing.  ALSO: You can listen to my interview with Collective Action...

  
• 04.11.2022

  Casefile #1: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

  Hey, you gotta start somewhere. One of the most controversial and challenging stories in the Dark Knight's canon, Arkham Asylum is also one of the most important. Batman's all-time bad trip is a different kind of Year One, a skeleton...