The Classy Comics Podcast

The book featuring DC's most awesome heroes (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) begins with three villains gathering and then our heroes having a pow wow to discuss continuity before getting to a real adventure.
Affiluate link included
Transcript below:
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, DC's longest enduring superheroes come together to talk. We'll tell you all about it next as we take a look at Trinity Volume Two: Dead Space straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.
Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are the only three characters to have published continuously since World War II. Yes, there's Captain America but he disappeared from publication for many years. Those three continued to be published even during that really dark spot between 1948 and 1956 when superhero comics really faded away. It was not actually thought to put all three of them together in their own book until 2003 when there was a three issue mini-series called Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman: Trinity and this was followed up in 2008 with a fifty-two week series of weekly comics called Trinity. With DC Rebirth a new Trinity series was relaunched. The first volume Trinity Volume One: Better Together focused on them getting used to the new status of a Superman we've talked about before being the post-crisis Superman, as opposed to The New 52 Superman. It wasn't a great story but it was fairly good. Volume 2 of the series Dead Space collects issues Seven through Eleven of the series. [In Issue Seven] there's neither Superman ,Batman or Wonder Woman but instead features there are three archenemies: Ra's al Ghul, Luthor and Circe, and they're being offered access to the Pandora Pit which will give them all sorts of evil power.
Now there are a couple of problems with this. From what I gather this issue does pay off and become something several issues down the line. I have a problem with that when you're dealing with a monthly comic book and you're setting up events and saying ‘Don't worry, this'll make sense in another book' if you're reading from the trade or in four months if you're reading from the actual comics. So, yeah, that's a somewhat dubious practice. The other problem is Lex Luthor was a bit off in this story because Luthor actually – if you've been reading Action Comics – has been trying to be somewhat of a hero, and that sort of determination to be a better person is kind of…it gets a bit of a battering in the story. He doesn't go completely evil; in fact, he's the one who is hesitant about a lot of this, not just because it's evil but because it deals with magic which is not something he's particularly comfortable with. Still this is a very talky issue without our heroes in it directly and yeah, it's was just not a great read.
Issue Eight is The Truth About Superman which is another series or guest piece by the same writer, different artists and it's essentially Superman relating a dream which we see drawn out and then them talking about it. And this is another really long talky issue with them just going back and forth about this thing that Superman barely understands himself. It's not really necessary to be in Trinity because Superman has his own aftermath on this issue, and there's just some stuff in there that's lame, such as when Batman says in regards to the dream, "I'm not sure I love the idea of you having visions of me running around inside your brain", and Wonder Woman says, "It's not time for jokes". Batman joking is not really a thing that happens too often, and you'd hope if he did tell a joke it would be better than that.
Finally,

The book featuring DC’s most awesome heroes (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) begins with three villains gathering and then our heroes having a pow wow to discuss continuity before getting to a real adventure.

Affiluate link included

Transcript below:

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, DC’s longest enduring superheroes come together to talk. We’ll tell you all about it next as we take a look at Trinity Volume Two: Dead Space straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.

Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are the only three characters to have published continuously since World War II. Yes, there’s Captain America but he disappeared from publication for many years. Those three continued to be published even during that really dark spot between 1948 and 1956 when superhero comics really faded away. It was not actually thought to put all three of them together in their own book until 2003 when there was a three issue mini-series called Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman: Trinity and this was followed up in 2008 with a fifty-two week series of weekly comics called Trinity. With DC Rebirth a new Trinity series was relaunched. The first volume Trinity Volume One: Better Together focused on them getting used to the new status of a Superman we’ve talked about before being the post-crisis Superman, as opposed to The New 52 Superman. It wasn’t a great story but it was fairly good. Volume 2 of the series Dead Space collects issues Seven through Eleven of the series. [In Issue Seven] there’s neither Superman ,Batman or Wonder Woman but instead features there are three archenemies: Ra’s al Ghul, Luthor and Circe, and they’re being offered access to the Pandora Pit which will give them all sorts of evil power.

Now there are a couple of problems with this. From what I gather this issue does pay off and become something several issues down the line. I have a problem with that when you’re dealing with a monthly comic book and you’re setting up events and saying ‘Don’t worry, this’ll make sense in another book’ if you’re reading from the trade or in four months if you’re reading from the actual comics. So, yeah, that’s a somewhat dubious practice. The other problem is Lex Luthor was a bit off in this story because Luthor actually – if you’ve been reading Action Comics – has been trying to be somewhat of a hero, and that sort of determination to be a better person is kind of…it gets a bit of a battering in the story. He doesn’t go completely evil; in fact, he’s the one who is hesitant about a lot of this, not just because it’s evil but because it deals with magic which is not something he’s particularly comfortable with. Still this is a very talky issue without our heroes in it directly and yeah, it’s was just not a great read.

Issue Eight is The Truth About Superman which is another series or guest piece by the same writer, different artists and it’s essentially Superman relating a dream which we see drawn out and then them talking about it. And this is another really long talky issue with them just going back and forth about this thing that Superman barely understands himself. It’s not really necessary to be in Trinity because Superman has his own aftermath on this issue, and there’s just some stuff in there that’s lame, such as when Batman says in regards to the dream, “I’m not sure I love the idea of you having visions of me running around inside your brain”, and Wonder Woman says, “It’s not time for jokes”. Batman joking is not really a thing that happens too often, and you’d hope if he did tell a joke it would be better than that.

Finally,

A look at a milestone issue jam-packed celeberation of Superman in Actions Comics #1000 with stories from some of the greatest creators in the comic book industry.
Affiliate link included.

It's Action Comic's 1000th Issue. We take a look at it straight ahead.
Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.
Welcome to a special episode of the Classy Comics Podcast. Usually I record these podcasts well in advance. You probably, this point, just heard Episode Thirty-Three. I just recorded Episode Fifty-Two today, so I stay well ahead. There are a lot of reasons for that, mostly having to do with the number of books I read from the library and I want to record the episodes while they're fresh in my mind. That said, I'm actually recording this fairly recently so I can talk to you about Action Comics Number 1000. Now here I'm kind of breaking my own rule in reviewing a standalone comic rather than a trade; however, Action Comics Number 1000 is a very big comic book, it's practically trade-length itself. It has ten Superman stories written by some of the premiere writers in the comic book field, so I think that this is acceptable to go ahead and take a look at, and I want to do it while it is out fresh. I'll try to avoid spoilers but there may be a few along the way.
Alright, so let's go ahead and we'll start with the first story which is written by Dan Jurgens and it is called ‘From the City that has Everything', and this is a play on the key story from Superman Annual Number Eleven ‘For the Man who has Everything', but this one's got an entirely different plot. ‘From the City that has Everything' has Superman getting ready to observe a Superman Day Celebration; however, there's an alien invasion and, truth be told, Superman would rather be dealing with the invasion. And as Clark Kent says, the Superman Day Celebration it's not why he does it, it's not what he's all about. He doesn't do it for parades and grand spectacles, and it's an interesting story that does a good job showing the relationship between Superman and the city of Metropolis, and it's just a really…has some really nice emotional moments. It's written by Dan Jurgens, most recent author of Action Comics, but a pretty solid Superman scribe from the 1990s.
Then we have ‘Never Ending Battle' which is an interesting story in which we're told of Superman battling Vandal Savage, and Savage tries to get him trapped in time, and he begins going through this loop where he's experiencing different eras, and this leads to the art showing Superman as he's been portrayed throughout the ages going back to the 1930s and then into the Silver Age, and more into some of the modern day stuff. The story is written by Patrick Tomasi and it's a pretty…and it's a lot of text with big full page spreads on nearly every page, and these are great pieces of art. Tomasi, good writer, and Gleason is just – his Superman is just a beauty to behold, and it just looks great from start to finish even if the stories just kind of maybe above average because the purpose of the story really is just to showcase the art and to celebrate Action Comics Number 1000 and the eightieth anniversary of Superman.
Next stop is The Enemy Within which has the Metropolis P.D. dealing with a principal who is gone all over the deep end and is holding one of his students hostage while Superman's out of town. And this is meant to be a salute to human beings, to average ordinary people who do extraordinary things. It's written by Marv Wolfman; I don't think it's a bad story but it doesn't really have enough space to develop. There are,

A look at a milestone issue jam-packed celeberation of Superman in Actions Comics #1000 with stories from some of the greatest creators in the comic book industry.

Affiliate link included.

It’s Action Comic’s 1000th Issue. We take a look at it straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.

Welcome to a special episode of the Classy Comics Podcast. Usually I record these podcasts well in advance. You probably, this point, just heard Episode Thirty-Three. I just recorded Episode Fifty-Two today, so I stay well ahead. There are a lot of reasons for that, mostly having to do with the number of books I read from the library and I want to record the episodes while they’re fresh in my mind. That said, I’m actually recording this fairly recently so I can talk to you about Action Comics Number 1000. Now here I’m kind of breaking my own rule in reviewing a standalone comic rather than a trade; however, Action Comics Number 1000 is a very big comic book, it’s practically trade-length itself. It has ten Superman stories written by some of the premiere writers in the comic book field, so I think that this is acceptable to go ahead and take a look at, and I want to do it while it is out fresh. I’ll try to avoid spoilers but there may be a few along the way.

Alright, so let’s go ahead and we’ll start with the first story which is written by Dan Jurgens and it is called ‘From the City that has Everything’, and this is a play on the key story from Superman Annual Number Eleven ‘For the Man who has Everything’, but this one’s got an entirely different plot. ‘From the City that has Everything’ has Superman getting ready to observe a Superman Day Celebration; however, there’s an alien invasion and, truth be told, Superman would rather be dealing with the invasion. And as Clark Kent says, the Superman Day Celebration it’s not why he does it, it’s not what he’s all about. He doesn’t do it for parades and grand spectacles, and it’s an interesting story that does a good job showing the relationship between Superman and the city of Metropolis, and it’s just a really…has some really nice emotional moments. It’s written by Dan Jurgens, most recent author of Action Comics, but a pretty solid Superman scribe from the 1990s.

Then we have ‘Never Ending Battle’ which is an interesting story in which we’re told of Superman battling Vandal Savage, and Savage tries to get him trapped in time, and he begins going through this loop where he’s experiencing different eras, and this leads to the art showing Superman as he’s been portrayed throughout the ages going back to the 1930s and then into the Silver Age, and more into some of the modern day stuff. The story is written by Patrick Tomasi and it’s a pretty…and it’s a lot of text with big full page spreads on nearly every page, and these are great pieces of art. Tomasi, good writer, and Gleason is just – his Superman is just a beauty to behold, and it just looks great from start to finish even if the stories just kind of maybe above average because the purpose of the story really is just to showcase the art and to celebrate Action Comics Number 1000 and the eightieth anniversary of Superman.

Next stop is The Enemy Within which has the Metropolis P.D. dealing with a principal who is gone all over the deep end and is holding one of his students hostage while Superman’s out of town. And this is meant to be a salute to human beings, to average ordinary people who do extraordinary things. It’s written by Marv Wolfman; I don’t think it’s a bad story but it doesn’t really have enough space to develop. There are,

FBI Agent by Day, Commie-fighting cold war superhero by night. We look at Jim Drake, the Black Cobra who appeared in three issues of his own magazine in 1954-55.
Read the Black Cobra from Ajax Comics for free at the Digital Comic Museum.
Transcript below:
Meet a Cold War man of mystery who was so mysterious even his writers weren't clear if he had superpowers. We'll tell you all about it as we look at The Black Cobra, straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.
If we think of comics, particularly superhero comics during the Golden Age, we think of Marvel and we think of DC. While those two companies dominated, they were far from the only game in town. With the success of characters like Captain America, Captain Marvel and of course Superman, there was a plethora of companies that were offering their comics. And you can actually read many of them online for free, and I probably should have mentioned that when I did the program a few weeks back on how to read comics for free, but this is somewhat of a different category.
The Digital Comic Museum, digitalcomicmuseum.org collects public domain comic books. Back during the Golden Age and even the early Silver Age of comics copyright only lasted twenty-eight years. You could renew it for an additional twenty-eight year term and that's what's happened to most of the really popular entertainment of that time, and then it's been further extended by the Government. But if you didn't get in that first twenty-eight year renewal prior to 1964 your work would fall into the public domain. Superhero comics boomed during World War II but then went bust after the war, and many companies went belly-up. Therefore, when it came time to renew the copyright on their comics and their characters there was no one to renew it. And Digital Comics Museum captures all these comics which you can read and download for free. Now if you would like to read them on their website you can do that pretty easily. If you would like to download them, most of their files are in what's known as a CBR format which is a comic book archive, so you need a CBR Reader. For my Kindle I use ComiCat – it's a very simple program, I just get the comics onto my Kindle and it will display them.
Now Black Cobra which we're going to talk about today is a somewhat obscure comic that you can find there. However, there are others that are a little bit better known that are also available there. DC has bought the rights to various characters but doesn't own all of their past stories, among them, Captain Marvel and Plastic Man. They bought all of the comic characters from Fawcett and Quality Comics, but all of the stories from this era are actually free-for-all that you can go ahead and read, and some just really interesting titles. There's so much there that I might want to get to one day. But we're going to start with Black Cobra because he's got a relatively short run, and also I'm working on a book where I use some public domain superheroes, so I'm kind of sharing some of my research on these characters with you.
The one I'm talking about is actually the second character named Black Cobra. The mid-1950s saw a brief attempt to revive superheroes, and it only had been a few years after the Golden Age bust. And you can trace the root of it back to Atlas which was the precursor company for Marvel which revived the Submariner, Human Torch and Captain America, and particularly Captain America was focused on fighting communism. The others were there to a certain extent, and there were other characters during this brief period before the Silver Age properly began with the return of The Flash with Barry Allen.

FBI Agent by Day, Commie-fighting cold war superhero by night. We look at Jim Drake, the Black Cobra who appeared in three issues of his own magazine in 1954-55.

Read the Black Cobra from Ajax Comics for free at the Digital Comic Museum.

Transcript below:

Meet a Cold War man of mystery who was so mysterious even his writers weren’t clear if he had superpowers. We’ll tell you all about it as we look at The Black Cobra, straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.

If we think of comics, particularly superhero comics during the Golden Age, we think of Marvel and we think of DC. While those two companies dominated, they were far from the only game in town. With the success of characters like Captain America, Captain Marvel and of course Superman, there was a plethora of companies that were offering their comics. And you can actually read many of them online for free, and I probably should have mentioned that when I did the program a few weeks back on how to read comics for free, but this is somewhat of a different category.

The Digital Comic Museum, digitalcomicmuseum.org collects public domain comic books. Back during the Golden Age and even the early Silver Age of comics copyright only lasted twenty-eight years. You could renew it for an additional twenty-eight year term and that’s what’s happened to most of the really popular entertainment of that time, and then it’s been further extended by the Government. But if you didn’t get in that first twenty-eight year renewal prior to 1964 your work would fall into the public domain. Superhero comics boomed during World War II but then went bust after the war, and many companies went belly-up. Therefore, when it came time to renew the copyright on their comics and their characters there was no one to renew it. And Digital Comics Museum captures all these comics which you can read and download for free. Now if you would like to read them on their website you can do that pretty easily. If you would like to download them, most of their files are in what’s known as a CBR format which is a comic book archive, so you need a CBR Reader. For my Kindle I use ComiCat – it’s a very simple program, I just get the comics onto my Kindle and it will display them.

Now Black Cobra which we’re going to talk about today is a somewhat obscure comic that you can find there. However, there are others that are a little bit better known that are also available there. DC has bought the rights to various characters but doesn’t own all of their past stories, among them, Captain Marvel and Plastic Man. They bought all of the comic characters from Fawcett and Quality Comics, but all of the stories from this era are actually free-for-all that you can go ahead and read, and some just really interesting titles. There’s so much there that I might want to get to one day. But we’re going to start with Black Cobra because he’s got a relatively short run, and also I’m working on a book where I use some public domain superheroes, so I’m kind of sharing some of my research on these characters with you.

The one I’m talking about is actually the second character named Black Cobra. The mid-1950s saw a brief attempt to revive superheroes, and it only had been a few years after the Golden Age bust. And you can trace the root of it back to Atlas which was the precursor company for Marvel which revived the Submariner, Human Torch and Captain America, and particularly Captain America was focused on fighting communism. The others were there to a certain extent, and there were other characters during this brief period before the Silver Age properly began with the return of The Flash with Barry Alle...

Watch as we pull a podcast out of our hat—and look at some classic Rocky and Bullwinkle comics.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript below:

Now it's time for something really different. I'll be taking a look at Rocky and Bullwinkle Classic Adventures from IDW straight ahead.
Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.
In the 1950s and '60s, almost any media property could be a comic book, whether it's Have Gun with Travels, Star Trek, I Spy, And today's entry Rocky and Bullwinkle. Sometimes the transition to the comic book medium could be very rough. Oftentimes it didn't feel like the original story – it was missing a certain something. I remember reading some gold key Looney Tunes comics several years back and they just didn't feel all like Looney Tunes: they weren't funny, they seemed to miss the whole point of Looney Tunes. If you read the early gold key Star Trek comics and even some of the later ones, it doesn't feel at all like the show. They used words that don't quite seem like Star Trek, and it feels like the people who wrote and drew it just kind of had seen some pictures and decided to make up a story. That, thankfully, is not the case with these classic Rocky and Bullwinkle comics that were reprinted by IDW.
The book collects issues One through Twelve of the Gold Key Series of Rocky and Bullwinkle stories. They managed to capture the tone of the series perfectly. Each issue contained four stories, just kind of like the TV show often had for segments. Each has two Rocky and Bullwinkle segments, and in the middle you have Sherman and Peabody, and either Dudley Doright or Fractured Fairytales.
The only thing really missing from the equation is the use of serialized stories on the TV show. You can't really have that. These comics actually were published between 1962 and 1976, so you couldn't really carry on a multi-part story. It does seem like a curious model by Gold Key, and they did a lot of big gaps on the books they sold; but I think they were less intended to be ongoing serial stories and things that you read every month. I suppose they were, I think more something that you had in stores that you could buy and give to fans of a series or which might catch the eye of a fan. As such, the closest we have to a long-form story is one where the first and second Rocky and Bullwinkle segments tied together in a story that ties into the Moon Man.
To go over the plots of all these comics would seem to be kind of redundant. Rocky and Bullwinkle was never really about the plots, even when they were traveling along ways on an adventure they were just traveling so they could get from one gag to the next gag. What's important is the tone and the humor and they do a great job capturing that, and there are some hilarious stories in there. My favorite is probably the one where Bullwinkle accidentally buys a laundromat and this ends up leading Boris into thinking that Bullwinkle is secretly a Pottsylvanian spy. Or the story where Snidely Whiplash is hypnotizing Dudley Do Right to do his bidding and commit robberies in his sleep, and Dudley is going around with a picture of the suspect drawing based on witness accounts and is showing it to people, saying, "If you see this man, report him" – no clue that it's actually him. So these are the type of stories that they really would use on the TV show.
The criticisms or, I guess, questions…one thing that came up when I was reading this is they had a couple of stories where they had Dudley dealing with modern things: he went on TV in one episode and another he went up in a modern aviation program, and it seems like maybe the writers forgot that Dudley Do Right was supposed to be a period piece set around th...

Watch as we pull a podcast out of our hat—and look at some classic Rocky and Bullwinkle comics.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript below:

Now it’s time for something really different. I’ll be taking a look at Rocky and Bullwinkle Classic Adventures from IDW straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.

In the 1950s and ’60s, almost any media property could be a comic book, whether it’s Have Gun with Travels, Star Trek, I Spy, And today’s entry Rocky and Bullwinkle. Sometimes the transition to the comic book medium could be very rough. Oftentimes it didn’t feel like the original story – it was missing a certain something. I remember reading some gold key Looney Tunes comics several years back and they just didn’t feel all like Looney Tunes: they weren’t funny, they seemed to miss the whole point of Looney Tunes. If you read the early gold key Star Trek comics and even some of the later ones, it doesn’t feel at all like the show. They used words that don’t quite seem like Star Trek, and it feels like the people who wrote and drew it just kind of had seen some pictures and decided to make up a story. That, thankfully, is not the case with these classic Rocky and Bullwinkle comics that were reprinted by IDW.

The book collects issues One through Twelve of the Gold Key Series of Rocky and Bullwinkle stories. They managed to capture the tone of the series perfectly. Each issue contained four stories, just kind of like the TV show often had for segments. Each has two Rocky and Bullwinkle segments, and in the middle you have Sherman and Peabody, and either Dudley Doright or Fractured Fairytales.

The only thing really missing from the equation is the use of serialized stories on the TV show. You can’t really have that. These comics actually were published between 1962 and 1976, so you couldn’t really carry on a multi-part story. It does seem like a curious model by Gold Key, and they did a lot of big gaps on the books they sold; but I think they were less intended to be ongoing serial stories and things that you read every month. I suppose they were, I think more something that you had in stores that you could buy and give to fans of a series or which might catch the eye of a fan. As such, the closest we have to a long-form story is one where the first and second Rocky and Bullwinkle segments tied together in a story that ties into the Moon Man.

To go over the plots of all these comics would seem to be kind of redundant. Rocky and Bullwinkle was never really about the plots, even when they were traveling along ways on an adventure they were just traveling so they could get from one gag to the next gag. What’s important is the tone and the humor and they do a great job capturing that, and there are some hilarious stories in there. My favorite is probably the one where Bullwinkle accidentally buys a laundromat and this ends up leading Boris into thinking that Bullwinkle is secretly a Pottsylvanian spy. Or the story where Snidely Whiplash is hypnotizing Dudley Do Right to do his bidding and commit robberies in his sleep, and Dudley is going around with a picture of the suspect drawing based on witness accounts and is showing it to people, saying, “If you see this man, report him” – no clue that it’s actually him. So these are the type of stories that they really would use on the TV show.

The criticisms or, I guess, questions…one thing that came up when I was reading this is they had a couple of stories where they had Dudley dealing with modern things: he went on TV in one episode and another he went up in a modern aviation program, and it seems like maybe the writers forgot that Dudley Do Right was supposed to be a period piece set around th...

Zatara comes back into Bruce's life while the cult that birthed Azrael has an idea for sentient religious robots. What could go wrong?
Affiliate link included.
Transcript below:
Batman has a magical meeting with an old flame and he and his team have to face off against a fanatical robot and Spoiler tries to save the city from vigilante superheroes by being a vigilante superhero. We'll talk about it all in a review of Batman: Detective Comics: Deus Ex Machina, straight ahead.
Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.
This is the fourth volume of the Detective Comics series in D.C. Rebirth and it collects issues 957 to 962. While Tom King's Batman has been solely a Batman-focused book, Detective Comics has tried to be a team book. Batman forms a team because he senses something really dangerous is coming to Gotham City and he needs to be ready. And he chooses for his team a variety of characters and most of these had either had their own series or been quite popular with fans. The original team was Batwoman, Red Robin, Tim Drake, Spoiler, Stephanie Brown, the heroine Orphan Cassandra Cain, and the oddest choice for the team, the super villain Clayface who's reformed now. In the first volume it looked like Tim Drake was killed, but it was revealed at the end of the issue that he's actually being held somewhere, and then in the second volume Spoiler departed. In the third volume both of them were replaced on the team by Azrael and Batwing.
Batwing is Lucas Fox, the son of Lucius Fox, a long-time employee of Bruce Wayne. He's a wealthy inventor and scientist in his own right with his own company and a kind of Tony Stark-esk ego, but not necessarily the charm.
Azrael is Jean Paul Valley and that character has a very interesting backstory. He was introduced in the 1990's; he was a college student unaware that he was the latest in a line of assassin enforcers for the cult The Order of St. Dumas. However, he runs into Batman and he ends up giving up the path of the assassin and becoming a protege of Batman – which became important during the Nightfall event where Batman's back was broken by Bain. And it was stated in the comics that Bruce would never walk again, and Jean Paul Valley actually took over as Batman. However, he became increasingly unstable and out of control, to the point that Valley and Bruce have to fight, with Bruce ultimately finding a way to triumph.
After Bruce Wayne took over as Batman, he would kind of kick around and appear here and there through the D.C. Universe, seeming to die in the late 1990s story ‘No Man's Land', but it all becomes kind of unclear. The D.C. Universe rebooted with the New Fifty-Two and he made an appearance in Batman and Robin Eternal, and then was introduced into Detective Comics. In this current timeline he's alive and he's been freed from the order St. Dumas, and prior to joining up with the Bat Team he was out helping up people in a shelter. And I liked in the last volume, it revealed even though he's left this cult he still holds on to faith – which I think is kind of cool because a lot of comics would be tempted to turn him into an atheist or make some kind of straw man argument. And they didn't go there – I give James Tynion credit for that. Deus Ex Machina in its A-plot is really an Azrael story. The Order of St. Dumas is trying to reassert itself over his armor and take control of his armor and him, and at the same time they're also sending in robot versions of Azrael, trying to replace him with a robot who – unlike a human – will not be programmed to doubt and to alter or back away from the mission.
This story was kind of hard to get into. I don't think the order of a St.

Zatara comes back into Bruce’s life while the cult that birthed Azrael has an idea for sentient religious robots. What could go wrong?

Affiliate link included.

Transcript below:

Batman has a magical meeting with an old flame and he and his team have to face off against a fanatical robot and Spoiler tries to save the city from vigilante superheroes by being a vigilante superhero. We’ll talk about it all in a review of Batman: Detective Comics: Deus Ex Machina, straight ahead.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.

This is the fourth volume of the Detective Comics series in D.C. Rebirth and it collects issues 957 to 962. While Tom King’s Batman has been solely a Batman-focused book, Detective Comics has tried to be a team book. Batman forms a team because he senses something really dangerous is coming to Gotham City and he needs to be ready. And he chooses for his team a variety of characters and most of these had either had their own series or been quite popular with fans. The original team was Batwoman, Red Robin, Tim Drake, Spoiler, Stephanie Brown, the heroine Orphan Cassandra Cain, and the oddest choice for the team, the super villain Clayface who’s reformed now. In the first volume it looked like Tim Drake was killed, but it was revealed at the end of the issue that he’s actually being held somewhere, and then in the second volume Spoiler departed. In the third volume both of them were replaced on the team by Azrael and Batwing.

Batwing is Lucas Fox, the son of Lucius Fox, a long-time employee of Bruce Wayne. He’s a wealthy inventor and scientist in his own right with his own company and a kind of Tony Stark-esk ego, but not necessarily the charm.

Azrael is Jean Paul Valley and that character has a very interesting backstory. He was introduced in the 1990’s; he was a college student unaware that he was the latest in a line of assassin enforcers for the cult The Order of St. Dumas. However, he runs into Batman and he ends up giving up the path of the assassin and becoming a protege of Batman – which became important during the Nightfall event where Batman’s back was broken by Bain. And it was stated in the comics that Bruce would never walk again, and Jean Paul Valley actually took over as Batman. However, he became increasingly unstable and out of control, to the point that Valley and Bruce have to fight, with Bruce ultimately finding a way to triumph.

After Bruce Wayne took over as Batman, he would kind of kick around and appear here and there through the D.C. Universe, seeming to die in the late 1990s story ‘No Man’s Land’, but it all becomes kind of unclear. The D.C. Universe rebooted with the New Fifty-Two and he made an appearance in Batman and Robin Eternal, and then was introduced into Detective Comics. In this current timeline he’s alive and he’s been freed from the order St. Dumas, and prior to joining up with the Bat Team he was out helping up people in a shelter. And I liked in the last volume, it revealed even though he’s left this cult he still holds on to faith – which I think is kind of cool because a lot of comics would be tempted to turn him into an atheist or make some kind of straw man argument. And they didn’t go there – I give James Tynion credit for that. Deus Ex Machina in its A-plot is really an Azrael story. The Order of St. Dumas is trying to reassert itself over his armor and take control of his armor and him, and at the same time they’re also sending in robot versions of Azrael, trying to replace him with a robot who – unlike a human – will not be programmed to doubt and to alter or back away from the mission.

This story was kind of hard to get into. I don’t think the order of a St.