The Fate of Batman

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Tom Foolery
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Tom Foolery »

That opening page. It's just a head shot of Batman partially in shadow with his teeth bared. But its fucking badass.
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Diabolical »

I found the issue online via torrent. I'll post the page later tonight.
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Re: The Fate of Batman

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116-126. A bunch of No Man's Land issues. So, a bunch of story fragments with no ends or no beginnings or both.
One issue worth mentioning is 125. First, a quick recap. After the earthquake and the fallout, once Gotham was declared NML and abandoned, Batman disappeared for three months. For the people who stayed, like Gordon, this was seen as a monumental betrayal and when Batman finally came back Gordon basically told him to fuck off. So they were dealing with NML separately. This is a great issue where they reconcile and Batman apologizes and he actually removes the cowl so Gordon can see his face. Gordon of course refuses to look and says "What makes you think I couldn't figure out who you were ten years ago if I had wanted to?" But it's a great issue written by Greg Rucka.
"No Tom Foolery today, Ron. I'm tired of looking at your dreadful, speckled mug."
"Why do you hurt me in this way, Harry?"
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by anarky »

Doesn't he also say that maybe he does know and doesn't care?
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Diabolical »

Here it is.
Yeah, pretty awesome.
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Re: The Fate of Batman

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The next batch has some great names involved.

127-131. The Arrow and The Bat. By Denny O'Neil and Sergio Cariello. Retells the "first" meeting between Green Arrow and Batman. A Tibetan-esque nation embroils both Queen Industries and Wayne Industries in a geo political conspiracy. Very much a throwback to the 70s style writing. O'Neil writes a fantastic cocky Oliver Queen and some decent villains to challenge the two heroes. Above average stuff.

132-136. Siege. By Archie Goodwin with Robinson and art by Marshall Rogers and Bob Waicek. This was Archie Goodwin's last project ever. He got cancer and died before it was completed, so Robinson stepped in and finished the dialogue on the last part if the series. Excellent Rogers art. Set during the time Bruce had relocated to the Penthouse in Wayne Tower and abandoned Wayne Manor and the Batcave. A mercenary who was mentored by Bruce's grandfather Jack and was kind of an 'adopted' brother to Thomas returns to Gotham to reclaim what he's "earned" and lays seige to Gotham with a mercenary army so he can break into Wayne Manor and exact revenge on the family that turned it's back on him. Also features the the return of Silver St. Cloud. Another great arc. I had stopped collecting during this period, and only learned later how many greats passed away in the late 90s like Goodwin and Mark Gruenwald to name a few.

137-141. Terror. By Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy. Set early in Batman's career, because it involves his "first" encounter with Catwoman, but after his encounter with Hugo Strange. I feel like that's a continuity kerfuffle. But anyway, Hugo Strange returns to antagonize Batman again, this time breaking Scarecrow out of Arkham to assist. But Scarecrow double crosses and kills Strange, then goes after Batman and Catwoman. Not as good as the previous two arcs, but still pretty good.
"No Tom Foolery today, Ron. I'm tired of looking at your dreadful, speckled mug."
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Tom Foolery »

When does Alfred sleep?

Think about it, Bruce's schedule is usually thus; he suits up as Batman around 10-11 PM and goes out patrolling and is back home by 2 and then either works out or does Batcave or Batmobile maintenance. Or if he's working a case he's out until dawn. Then he sleeps for a couple hours, depending on whether he's got Wayne Enterprises business or not. Then he's out gallivanting as a philanthropist at various dinners, galas, parties etc until dusk, then it's back to Batcave for another night of vigilantism.

But Alfred always seems to be in the Batcave while Bruce is out to handle his on the spot research or cleaning it or whatever. Then he's waiting to take the cape and cowl when he gets home. And always has breakfast ready for Bruce when he wakes up a couple hours later. Then he spends the day taking care of Wayne Manor and chauffering Bruce around.

The man gets less sleep than the boss does. Except he doesn't have ninja training that allows him to get by on one hour of sleep per day.
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Re: The Fate of Batman

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Onward with the books.


142-145. The Demon Laughs. By Chuck Dixon and Jim Aparo. This was a follow up to Dixon's Contagion and Legacy epics. Râs and Talia break Joker out of Arkham to help them create a newer super virus to wipe out the world. Of course Joker double crosses them, and gets killed for it. Then Batman has to use a Lazarus Pit to bring Joker back because he's the only one who knows where the virus is. Great stuff. And I believe this was Aparo's very last work before he died.

146-148. Bad. By Doug Moench and Barry Kitson. A very large very violent man is wreaking havoc in Gotham and Batman seeks the aid of a psychiatrist because he thinks the man has MPD (aka DID but this was written awhile ago) and he wants to avoid hurting the "innocent" childlike mind if it's possible. Average stuff. Historical Note: This was the arc on shelves when 9/11 happened.

149-153. Grimm. By JM DeMatteis and Trevor Von Eeden. Dick Grayson narrates a tale of his early days as Robin when a fanciful peid piper-esque woman named Mother Grimm collected all the homeless youth of Gotham in an undergroud amusement park. The relationship between Dick and Bruce is tested then strengthened. Didn't need five issues to tell.

154-155. Colossus. By Mike Baron and Bill Reinhold. A killer is murdering anyone connected with the construction of a new Civic Center and the architect's previous legacy skyscraper. Pretty good stuff.
"No Tom Foolery today, Ron. I'm tired of looking at your dreadful, speckled mug."
"Why do you hurt me in this way, Harry?"
”It’s a grid system motherfucker. Eleven up and one over, you simple bitch.”

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Re: The Fate of Batman

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156-158. Blink. By Dwayne McDuffie and Val Semeiks. Excellent story by McDuffie and great art by Semeiks. A blind grifter named Hyland born without eyes has a special gift; if he touches someone he can see through their eyes. After helping a woman getting attacked he gets embroiled in a case involving snuff films and Batman needs his help finding the killer, the filmmaker, and the rich bastards buying the product. Awesome stuff.

159-161. Loyalties. By John Ostrander and David Lopez. Another great arc I would've otherwise dismissed because of the ugly Jason Pearson cover art. Set shortly after Year One, the case that forced Gordon to leave Chicago comes back to haunt him. He gets kidnapped in order to find out the name of the secret witness in a case from years ago, so Batman heads to Chicago to rescue his "friend". The witness turns out to be teenage Barbara Gordon. Her mother is killed in the course of the story and she comes to live with her uncle Jim.....Historical Note: This arc was on shelves the same time as Hush started by Lee and Loeb. Which is when I restarted collecting. Holy fuck!! It's been twelve years since I started up again? That's longer than my first go around (88-95) and longer than the break I took (95-02). It's almost longer than the two of them put together. Shitfire, I've been buying these things a long time.

162-163. Auteurism. By John Arcudi and Roger Landridge. Joker finds an old homeless former comic actor(think Buster Keaton) who inspired him and decides to dress him up as the Joker in order to film his "life story" by using the ranting actor mixed with actual footage of Batman. Semi interesting stuff.

164-167. Don't Blink. By McDuffie and Semieks. Sequel to Blink(see above). Batman needs Hyland's help to stop a baby smuggling ring, and discovers he's been abducted by the govt for nefarious covert ops. Batman busts Hyland out of the black ops facility, they stop the baby traffickers then have to rescue Hyland's girlfriend from the Agents who want him back. More great stuff from the late Mr. McDuffie. The Blink/Don't Blink series Might be my favorite LotDK arc so far. I wonder what Semeiks has been up to recently.

168. Urban Legend. Oneshot by Bill Willingam and Tom Fowler. Batman falls from a building and wakes up with amnesia. All he has to go on is the urban myths citizens think they "know" about Batman (like his "Bat Powers" of flight and night vision etc) and tries to complete his mission. Fun idea.
"No Tom Foolery today, Ron. I'm tired of looking at your dreadful, speckled mug."
"Why do you hurt me in this way, Harry?"
”It’s a grid system motherfucker. Eleven up and one over, you simple bitch.”

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Re: The Fate of Batman

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169-171. Irresistible. By Tom Peyer and Tony Harris. An incredibly hideously ugly young man (think Butthead from Beavis & drawn by Picasso. Fugly.) has the power to make people do what he wants by touching them. This gives him access to women, money, political influence...and puts him on the Bats radar. Okay, but forgettable.

172-176. Testament. By John Wagner and Chris Brunner. Overlong series set early in Batman's career. Copycat vigilantes start killing people and the GCPD goes after ALL vigilantes. Eventually the copycats break into Wayne Manor (Alfred is armed yet again) and find Bruce's secret Batman journal and attempt to blackmail him. Tries to hard to be an epic and fails. Might've been good as a two or three-parter, but it dragged too long.

177-178. Lost Cargo. By Devin Grayson and Jean Jaques Dzialowski. LotDK briefly returns to "current" continuity. Someone is smuggling girls into East End, and Catwoman reluctantly teams up with Matches Malone to find the missing truckload of girls. I liked the art.

179. A Oneshot by AJ Lieberman and Greg Scott. Some Vietnamese orphanage kids track down and assassinate the guy who tortured them as children. Batman only shows up on the last page. Good story, but not a Batman story.

180-181. Secret City. By Dylan Horrocks and Ramon Bachs. Oracle finds a hidden online fantasy world for elite hackers after one of them is killed. She must then enter the virtual world (as Batgirl natch) to solve the crime.

182-184. War Games. The crossover. Which I bought and read ten years ago.
"No Tom Foolery today, Ron. I'm tired of looking at your dreadful, speckled mug."
"Why do you hurt me in this way, Harry?"
”It’s a grid system motherfucker. Eleven up and one over, you simple bitch.”

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Re: The Fate of Batman

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185-189. Riddle Me That. By Shane McCarthy and Tommy Castillo. Little Eddie Nash was abused and grew up to be Riddler. I'm missing the first two issues, but other than the ending where Riddler outsmarts Batman, nothing memorable.

190-191. Freeze's Final Rest. By J. Torres and David Lopez. Freeze gets it in his head to end it all and decides to surround himself with enshrined baubles like an Egyptian pharaoh. But after freezing his thugs and even a helpless ice skater in the wrong place, he changes his mind and escapes. Stupid.

192-196. Snow. By Dan Curtis Johnson with JH Williams and art by Seth Fisher. Weird having back to back Freeze stories. This one is about Freeze's origin. Early in Batman's career he's having trust issues with Gordon and GCPD, so he recruits his own support staff. They end up getting in trouble with the cops while Fries' boss sells his tech to a criminal. It ends up with some of Batman's team dead or maimed. Seth Fisher died while this series was coming out. And by died, I mean he chucked himself off a hotel balcony in Tokyo or someplace.

197-199. Blaze of Glory. By Will Pfiefer and Chris Weston. An armored car robber is taken out by a single batarang and spends seven years in prison concocting a revenge plan after a brain tumor give him hyper intelligence. Decent story.

200. Gotham Emergency. By Eddie Cambell and Darren White. Art by Bart Sears. Joker has left bombs around in Gotham and accidentally ingests his own Smilex, so Batman has to take him to the Emergency room to revive him. Some great Sears art. But seriously, Batman has saved Joker's life HOW MANY times now?? Oye.
"No Tom Foolery today, Ron. I'm tired of looking at your dreadful, speckled mug."
"Why do you hurt me in this way, Harry?"
”It’s a grid system motherfucker. Eleven up and one over, you simple bitch.”

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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Diabolical »

Kevin Smith recently put out the call for Batman related guests for his Fatman on Batman podcast, so I messaged Norm Breyfogle on Facboook and suggested he reach out. Norm responded and said he emailed Kevin months ago but never heard back.
I went to my rarely used twitter and tweeted Will Wilkins, the guy Kevin said people should hit up because he doesn't always see every tweet he receives. I got a response.
Josh Griffith ‏@JoshGriffith
@netheadww, @ThatKevinSmith - Breyfogle for Fatman on Batman, please! He's tried contacting Kev before w/no repsonse. http://www.facebook.com/norm.breyfogle
Will Wilkins ‏@netheadww
@JoshGriffith @ThatKevinSmith Copy that Josh...
*fingers crossed*
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Diabolical »

Here a better pic of print I bought from Norm Breyfogle, but this one has been colored.
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by Diabolical »

It looks like trying to get Norm on Fatman on Batman is gaining traction.

I posted the call for guests to DC Comics, Collect and Print Norm Breyfogle's Batman Work on facebook, which they reposted and a number of other Batman-realed facebook pages posted it and people started tweeting it.
Someone else got a response that said "We'll do what we can."

One step closer to getting Breyfogle/Grant the recognition they deserve.
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Re: The Fate of Batman

Post by anarky »

Breyfogle broke the top five of CBR's Top 75 Batman Artists, and, aside from Jim Lee (WTF?), I have no real arguments against those who "beat" him.

Alan Grant, however, came in about eight or nine positions too low.
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