More about my own knowledge of Batman's comic history

Hello All comic book fans and non comic fans as well....                                                                     I know that I can't say it enough times but I really enjoy reading comics,  and more than anything Marvel over their competition of Decetevice Comics yet over the past couple of years I had definitely given myself the opportunity to grow more than just into my main man of Peter Parker also known as Spider-Man. Lately besides knowing of Batman from what I have heard from other comic fans and the other forms of media the old Adam West television series mostly come to mind besides the many animated cartoons the character is in, I don't know much about Batman's comic lore in greater details other than some big well known story  lines! What I really know about Batman stories besides his greatest foe being a fellow that calls himself the Joker... is that he also has a few other key nemesis such as the Penguin, Catwoman, The Riddler, to name a few of the classical rouges that I and most of you all know about.                                                            Batman was originally started way back in the late spring and early summer of nineteen thirty nine a whole year after two young men named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had created a character known as Superman to a publisher named National Comics. One particular title that National Comics had ongoing was named Decetevice Comics that was started in February of nineteen thirty seven with a cover date of March by National Comics. It had ten stories in it, as to how many pages were part of each story I can honestly say that maybe not many at all if the page count was twenty two pages as is the main count of morden comic books unless it is a special anniversary issue, those go for about sixty four pages which can be a main story of the title character and then maybe three mini stories. Which cost about close to ten dollars with whatever state tax is of where the book is brought. Back then in the nineteen thirties the cost of a comic was ten cents and why readers loved them were because of three things: number three people who read comics were meant to be for children,  but even way back then I am sure the readers ages did like now truly varied from teenagers to guys in the armed services. , number two now I will actually be honest this might me but I really would want to believe that children and adults who read comics love/loved the art that accompanied the words of dialogue between the said creative creations of characters rather if they are of the title character or whatever they are facing in the creative stories. , the number one reason comics of yesteryear I  know that they the comics are important to all who read them is the stories help us be inspiring to not only ourselves but to others in their everyday lives by more than anything they help people who read comics to learn to increase not only their imaginations but as well increase their overall vocabulary.                    Batman was created by two men just like Superman a whole year before.  The two men were named Bill Finger seen here from   

    a comic creator card set that came out around nineteen eighty nine that I have the whole set in my collection of comic stuff. Bill thought of Batman more as a pulp character than a comic book character. He was born February 8th, 1914- January 18th, 1974. The other  man was the illustratior of Batman and his name was Bob Kane seen here.                  

 He was born in October on the 24th,1915- November 3rd, 1998. Bob claimed that for many years that he was the sole creator of Batman, when in truth he was just a fantastic penciler of those in the Batman family of characters... He did make a cameo in the Batman movie by Tim Burton in nineteen eighty nine. When Bob took on that claim the only thing Bill Finger did to keeping a connection to Batman is he wrote a couple of episodes of the Batman television series that starred Adam West and Burt Ward who portrayed the main leads... of Batman and Robin in the mid nineteen sixties! 

                        Now that you are caught up on my main historical information of Batman as a comic character.  As to where my main focus will be on this entry is on the Batman stories seen in this trade and the start of something new novel wise seen here.                               

I had got the Batman trade along with the year that followed which was 1987-1988 which was titled "Killing Joke and other stories", this one is Batman year one and year two that covers stories that include the most interesting take in Bruce Wayne's life known as the new Robin Jason Todd.  I know that you as a regular reader of a comic of any kind are saying wait there's more Than just Dick Grayson who has been the original Robin sidekick to Bruce Wayne's Batman. How it all happened of there being new Robin for Bruce was a complete company Event.... 
            Before I get into what the name of the company Event was at the same time over at Marvel comics they too had just started a new Event at their company that had all of their major comic characters in a ongoing reset of sorts at the same time theirs was to for the first time in a long amount of time have toys of their characters in toy stores worldwide  the toyline was also named as the comic storyline, which was known as Serect Wars. And I have a couple of copies of that too. Decetevice Comics as a company decided to reset or clarify all of their main characters that was designed differently from Marvel's way of doing so, they had wanted to modify each heroes history since by this time in Decetevice Comics history ALL of their heroes had been around as far back before World War II even had begun...                                                                                                                                                While Sercet Wars was happening at Marvel in the mid nineteen eighties, over at Decetevice Comics at the same time their story line was known as Crisis on Infinite Earths and like Sercet Wars their story went and dusted off years of back histories and upon its ending even though I haven't read it yet... I know it made all of their heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and so many others including Batman a stronger character and those he knows likes Jim Gordon have a more interesting set of new stories too. What Decetevice Comics decided as well as new stories for readers they wanted to change things up for Dick Grayson who was the original Robin by letting him become after all of his time with Bruce's approval into a new hero besides that of being Robin he had became Night Wing and lead the teenager group of heroes calling themselves the Teen Titans. It was during this very time that Batman himself decided he would be better off without a Robin...                                                                                                                                                   Yet before the event known in 1985 as "Crisis on Infinite Earths"  Jason Todd was introduced two years before in Batman 357, dated March nineteen eighty three seen here, 

 

with an actual release date of November nineteen eighty two. At that time I was ten years old and knew of Batman and other Decetevice Comics heroes as I said earlier from the superfriends various cartoon series... This new character that was introduced as a possible Interesting Robin had the background that was similar to Dick Grayson the original Robin with Jason Todd's family were acrobatics in a circus. A few issues later Bruce Wayne became Jason's guardian in Batman 360.

                                                                                                           And still the per "Crisis on Infinite Earths" version of Jason Todd was trying to figure out if fans were actually accepting of him as a adopted placement for Dick Grayson who was trying to figure OUT where he belongs during this given time.  During this very time it turns out that Gerry Conway who a whole decade before was at Marvel and wrote Peter's girlfriend Gwen Stacy out of existence in Amazing Spider-Man issue 121 dated July of 1973. Yet a whole decade later he scripted the actual introduction of the worst sidekick to Bruce Wayne before the company's resetting their comic universe. Still here is Jason's first appearance cover wise in nineteen eighty four, is issue 

 Batman 368 which was released in  February on the cover even though it was released in January as Robin and it seems as Bruce just acts like his relationship with Dick Grayson is at a certain unknowable for the foreseeable on the upcoming future. Now before getting to ahead of myself I must admit I don't know exactly what month in nineteen eighty four was the official end date of the fifty years of time that Decetevice Comics the company decided to start the official planning  process for their upcoming new destinations directly. I just remember seeing the cover of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" issue 7 at Payless when I was picking up in their music department the audio cassette of the Masters of the universe new movie called the secret of the sword,  which features the branching out of the HE-MAN toy franchise with his sister She-Ra added to it. Here's what that issue number seven cover looks like 

 the one in the upper left hand upper corner is the one I am talking about here, where Superman is holding his cousin Supergirl. Three years earlier at Marvel during a storyline called "The Dark Phoenix Saga they had Scott Summers known as Cyclops holding Jean Grey in issue one hundred and thirty four of The Uncanny X-MEN in nineteen eighty three

 which was part eigth of  The Dark Phoenix Saga out of ten issues for a story that was originally split in two arcs storywise.  I have found out about something known as Homage  covers from one site that I have followed for years that I will write about soon! Actually now back to the main topic at hand of the Batman year one and year two trade in D.C.FINEST and the reintroduction of Jason Todd as Robin after the event known as "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Batman was now able to finally be his darker version of himself while the newer version of Robin was able to be edger as well,  in a way that had comic readers unclear and possibly undecided as to if they would love him at all.  

Along with the two four parts of year one and year two D.C. FINEST contains the whole years from nineteen eighty five/six to nineteen eighty six/seven, the comic titles are Batman #401-412, Batman annual #11, and Decetevice Comics #568-579 also a series known as Batman the New Adventures # 408 to # 412, and then Year Two... earlier in this very entry I was going tell us all how Batman met his new Robin.  The cover seen here of                                             

                                                                                                             Batman the New Adventures number four hundred and eight says it all Jason is stripping the Batmobile of it's tires. The main plot of this story is about the couple of days before Batman witnessed the death of his parents in Crime Alley. After he and Dick Grayson stop the Joker from stealing the smile of death which are known as Hopeless Diamonds. And when Robin nearly falls to his death Batman has some heavy thinking to do... and decided that he needed to work alone from now on and not put any teenagers in trouble by them being Robin. Then on the night of his parents murder he finds no criminal activity going on till he returns to the Batmobile 

, and finds a young youth stripping off his tires on the vehicle. The youth agrees to attending a school so that he will stay out of trouble and Batman takes him to a local reform school for boys named MA GUNN'S SCHOOL FOR BOYS, 

and I won't tell you how it ends other than is it possible that even a hero can make a big mistake? This introduction of the second Robin is written by Max Allen Collins and illustrated by Chris Warner. Yet there were many comic writers like new Batman comic readers who didn't really know if they loved this new Jason Todd as Robin and before he was even fully introduced in this issue he was killed by Batman foes the Scarecrow and even the Mad Hatter in Decetevice Comics #571 and #573 and #574 with that comic writer being Mike W. Barr who after that Batman year two.                                                                      In another blog entry that I wrote in 2022 about the Joker film coming out I had reviewed a comic trade known as Batman vs Joker which had a bunch cool stories in it from as far back as early 1970's. And at that same time  I reviewed Batman year One in that same entry and since it is in this trade of Batman year one and year two I will give a bit different take on this version of year one in this DC FINEST of Batman 1986-1987 one. Year One was written by comic legendary creator Frank Miller and drawn by David MazzuchellI, It was in the Batman title starting with issue four hundred and four through four hundred and seven in it's beginning of it we the readers learn of what Bruce Wayne has been doing before he took on the identity of fear for the criminals he faces in his future,  we also see in year one the growth of Jim Gordon the police commissioner from when he first came to Gotham and was a lieutenant in the police force before becoming the police commissioner he is known as! In Year one in the first issue we see how Bruce Wayne uses his heart and mind to build his body to be stronger and use his mind to learn to be a detective in the worst parts of downtown Gotham! Whilst leteutenant Gordon meets with Gotham police chief commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and chief Flass. Gordon sees while on protol with Flass a bit of brutality that gives him more to find out about the very police force he works for! One thing that I almost forgot to mention is that in this four issue stories is Catwoman who in this is kinda a guardian of a young street kid known as Holly who she protects from the evils of the world. By the end of Year One there is a reassuring bit of respect between Jim Gordon and Batman and you know that a certain clown prince of crime is out there making it known he is out there waiting.....                     What I find really interesting about Year One besides the story itself is what is hiding in MazzuchellI's panels in some parts of it, like here

when Gordon meets his new boss Gillian B. Loeb in his office. If you look closely at where they are talking you notice something very familiar on the lamp shade. Here is the panel up closer for 

         a better look. Maybe before the editing of this scene Decetevice Comics editors let MazzuchellI art speaks volumes he added his favorite newspaper comic strip in the story but it really wasn't just "peanuts" that got snuck in a Batman tale. Yet Charlie Brown wasn't going to be the thing MazzuchellI snuck into the Year One story for in issue two of the series he put a certain famous mouse of who owns Decetevice Comics competition Marvel on Gillian B. Loeb jacket's seen here                                                                                   

 as he is talking to Gordon about where Batman possibly is? Unbeknownst that Batman is just outside his property taking out the commissioner's personal protective guards on the night of May nineteenth! Then in the fourth issue we see yet maybe more Disney possible interesting show of Decetevice Comics ownership when we see that MazzuchellI places a Micky Mouse phone in Gillian B. Loeb's hand when he orders that Gordon's wife be held hostage till Batman is dead. One other thing that is priticular  indeed important is that writer Frank Miller gave a part of a future Batman writer Jeph Loeb an acknowledgement he will ģet to be crafting words of Batman in the far far future by naming Jim Gordon's boss in part with the last name of Loeb.

In late nineteen eighty six in the month of May, but dated on the cover of Decetevice Comics issue #575 June the writer of the title Michael Barr starts another year of Batman in this Bruce Wayne is thinking about retirement after years of stopping street criminals and super villains seems far from his thoughts till a mysterious guy starts showing up all over Gotham and has a big white skull to hide his identity.  Bruce happens to have real reason for his wanting to give up his cowl and cape, for a woman, her name is Rachel Caspian. The art of issue five hundred and seventy five is provided by Alan Davis.  
The next three issues are still written by Mike W Barr, but penciler Alan Davis must of had another comic title he was assigned to because after his few issues of the the title "INFINITY INC" the one of seven who walked away from both Marvel and Decetevice Comics in nineteen ninety two was the illustratior of Batman year two in nineteen eighty six... His name is Todd McFarlane and he did at least one Batman cover 

       seen here. In this story which was released in September of 1988 Batman was trying to save two teenagers from their addiction to drugs. The main story is written by Marvel writer of the original Infinity Gauntlet and creator of mad titan known as Thanos, Jim Stariln. Back to Batman year two where Todd had taken on being a bit gritter than ever before with the greatest Decetevice Comics character of comics! Now there is one more pair stories in Batman annual # 11 with Batman creator Alan Moore who writes in nineteen eighty seven with the famous arc called "The Killing Joke"... which is another DC FINEST which I have as well!
Now you're probably wondering what novel yours truly is wanting to throw at myself for the foreseeable future,  I had found earlier in early this month at Barnes and Nobles... It is called Revelation Space and it's for sure going to be a very interesting read since it is the first part of a trilogy,  that is written by Alistair Reynolds... 

A TRUE LOOK AT (ANOTHER LOOK OF THE 80's) other than....

 Hey All,                                                                                                                                                           You know sometime you at times come up with an idea of what you may want to write when your are a creative person and right now I have a for the first time in long time I am finding it hard to come up with the words for this very comic review, not because it isn't because of trying to find my way to talk about a non superhero/science fiction/horror themed background of this one at all, but because this one sorta hits home with one priticular panel that I will be sharing.  I will and you will know it trust me! Okay with my little percusor out the way I feel safe with starting my overall review of "Grommets" that is published by Image comics and is written by comic creator Rick Remender and Brian Posehn and is illustrated by Brett Parson.                                                                                                    "Grommets" is a story that was seven issues of growing up in the nineteen eighties and trying to figure out these two characters named after the writers and their experiences or what they wanted to have their lives be like? It's about trying to find a way to bound with a given in crowd. There are a lot of nineteen eighties references between Rick and his father as seen here

in the opening page of the first issue! Now before going any further for a moment in the bottom panel the father mentions as they are rushing from the little coffeehouse or very small local mini mart which is more likely for in the eighties.... "First on the list, a three-way with Loni Anderson and Sally Field Ha!" places this around the end of W.K.R.P. in Cincinnati which ended in 1982 and around the same time when Sally's new film "Smoky and the Bandit" was in theaters about 1983. Yet how the whole part about seeing Anderson name in a certain time frame right now brings a tear to the eye if you haven't heard that just last week she passed away. We learn that it seems hard for Rick to as I said before to find new friends except for his long haired buddy Brian. Then the two are with Brian's granddaddy in his vehicle heading out to 

 a certain California stake park.                              We find out that Rick is a true nerd in his own way besides liking to be cool with Brian at loving to flipping boards he also loves as seen here when he is waking up in his own bedroom that he has a thing about comics  

 by that incredible hulk poster on his wall behind him.  Throughout the rest of second issue we see the beginning of tensions between Brian and his mother besides his fun times with his grandfather from the first issue. An we see that both Rick and Brian find some gals that love to tear it up with broads then after having grub at a certain taco joint they go to a car garage to have a fantastic dare among their age group.  

The true depth of this series besides two friends getting to know each other over what they love in the way of stake boarding they like all teenagers of any generation are trying to figure out relationships with the girls that know... like Rick's girlfriend seen here              

 and her name happens to be Samra, an her characterization is that of a young teenage gal of that given decade. She even asks Rick if he is a wild boy while they both seem to be watching a Duran Duran video on of course MTV. Rick then learns from his father that the family will be moving to another state just as he realizes he has it going good with his set of friends and now that happens...
Meanwhile...  Brian has been at his grandfather's place getting a party together that he's been so eager to have to show his friends just how cool he really is! Rick happens to come over before the beginning of this party to talk to Brian about his ordeal to find that another big personal thing is going on     

                         

with Brian.       
        The party is suppose to be the stake geeks which happens to include Samra as well as the two Jennifer's in the story too. After having some unintended guests at the party things go from bad to worst. By the series end both Rick and Brian find even greater value and challenges but not in California but rather in Arizona! For a non superhero type of comic tale this story is full of great nods of the nineteen eighties even if I didn't get to be so darling in my own way of growing up in the eighties.... I still enjoyed my way of being able to be kind to everyone I knew from back in that time of growing up! If you are wanting to look for Grommets for yourself here is what the cover 

                                    looks like.  

BATMAN HUSH

Hello comic readers of Batman,                                                                              Well where should I start with this very entry,  I mean in the past I have had plenty of chances to talk about what comics are and how they have good sides and doubtful sides of when a book takes a character whether it's a group of characters or side supportive characters have growth in them that brings a character like Bruce Wayne to life. In Batman Hush that was published in Batman individual issues of 608 through 619 that came out from 2002 through 2003. The very trade version that I read had this as a main cover

                                                              which I actually got with one my comic purchasing trips to a local comic store that is called Adventures Underground in uptown Richland Washington last December before Christmas time. The main reason why I decided to include this in my reading list of comics besides having a whole other larger copy of this story from also at Adventures Underground from around 2016 but has a entirely different cover on it, I had heard as mid October and early November that the company of Decetevice Comics is putting out a sequel that had started late April of 2025 by the same creative team of comic writer Jeph
Loeb and comic artist Jim Lee whose best work mainstream wise was X-MEN titles in the late nineteen eighties to early nineteen nineties for Marvel comics,  but is now the chief creative officer of Decetevice Comics currently.  Meanwhile Loeb before being a writer of comics, besides what he has written for Batman before see Batman the Long Halloween, Batman Dark Victory, and one I can't recall right now but connected to those two. He also wrote the Marvel line of comics series of colors. Which are seen here 

                                                           the only one that I know that I am looking for is the Captain America White.  So far I can honestly say that I can only find that one in Hardcover format, Jeph also wrote a few other Marvel comics title but I don't know if I really want those particular ones. His other things he penned was the first Teen Wolf movie in nineteen eighty seven that starred Michael J Fox as Scott Howard during his last season of his television series Family Ties.                                                                                   Yet before the beginning of this story called Hush in this BATMAN title was a four issue arc that was about because of it being so close to in real life a plotical race time, comic writers Edward Burbaker (Captain America Winter Solider at the same time  of this, and comic writer Goeff Johns  his upcoming work was Green Lantern with Ethan Van Sciver of Cyberfrog fame in the 1990's. In the story titled " DEATH WISH- FOR TWO" in Which he faces his adversity called Deadshot who is out to kill a upcoming plotical candidate in Gotham city and Deadshot decides to include Batman to who is paying him for the original job. I don't know of how I feel about this topic of sharing my plotical choices, because I don't feel it's my right to make you decide to feel the way I do. This issue of Batman is part of a bigger story arc                                 

             known as Batman BRUCE WAYNE FUGITIVE. I knew of this story but didn't decide to collect this whole arc... but I had heard a lot about Batman Hush for years and had gotten a copy of it for my nephew Bryce for a Christmas present along with a Star Wars comic trade back in 2014, as to if he loves the story I still need to ask him about it...                Right about this very same time over at Marvel with the character that I love of Spider-Man,  they had just ended the first volume of Amazing Spider-Man with issue #441 with The Final Chapter part 1 of 4... 

and ended in Peter Parker Spider-Man vol 1 1990 with issue #98 seen here 

 , then Marvel restarted Spider-Man the comic series with Amazing Spider-Man volume 2 number one in December 1998. Which was originally in January 1999 by John Byrne and he at the same time had a new Spider-Man title at time as well called Spider-Man Chapter One that ran for a twelve issues which then canceled. Meanwhile Amazing Spider-Man volume 2 ran from issue 1 to 29 with `fair to good stories with Marvel writers trying to again still get rid of Mary Jane Watson Parker.  Then in April of 2001 with a cover date of June Amazing Spider-Man started a fantastic renewal with Writer Michael Straczynski with issue 30. I was wanting to place where Spider-Man was at the general time during the time Batman Hush was about to be released November of 2000 which was really in December of that year and Batman issue # 608 came out!                                                   Hush begins with Batman saving a boy named Edward Lamont IV, the young heir to the Lamont chemical fortune, in the middle of the night at one of the many of one of Gotham's shipping yards....                                                   

                                                                      he once there takes out three gun men and his foe Killer Croc  while he is trying to keep ten million dollars from Croc and the gun men from Lamont's family.  After he helps the boy to Police and F.B.I. custody someone stops him from chasing Catwoman who has taken the money yet we don't know who that is?  The first chapter of HusH is titled The Ransom....  In Chapter two of HusH we the reader find out who Catwoman had taken the money for Edward Lamont to, which I will tell you about later. But we still have no clue of who was helping Catwoman escape from Batman while he chased her across Gotham's night sky, we only that Batman himself fell to a very specific alley that is part of his actual origin known as Crime Alley. As some local bums try to beat him up one of his female partners known as "H" right now fights the bums as the Batmobile arrives in Crime Alley and takes him to the Bat cave where his butler Alfred is trying his best to help Batman.                                 

 With his injuries...  when Bruce uses morse code that puzzles Alfred for a brief moment because what Bruce's fingers are saying is Thomas and at first the butler thinks his employer is talking about his own father, when in truth he isn't at all?

Throughout other parts of HusH we come to see that Jeph wants to have a event between both Batman and the very first superhero from so long ago that without saying that hero's name I can still let you know who he is by the city he protects and that is of course Metropolis! In chapter five, it's revealed that the person who Catwoman had given the ransom money to is Batman's adversity Poison Ivy. Who gets the aforementioned mentioned hero to side with her and Batman ends up having a brawl with 

                               the last son of Krypton, and to be honest outside of the main story of Batman HusH Jim Lee I have to say probably enjoyed penciling issue five the most out of the whole series. After issue five of Hush the major points seem to have Batman fighting his main enemies of Harley Quinn, Joker, his former Robin known as Jason Todd who was killed on Batman's forty ninth anniversary in nineteen eighty eight. Yet it turns that Jason Todd the second Robin in this story wasn't even alive for real, it turned out here Batman's adversity Clayface was Jason Todd in story, and for non comic book fans reading this it was Batman fans who chose to kill him with a phone poll with a choice of two nine hundred numbers.          The other big thing story wise that Jeph Loeb puts a focus on is a relationship between Catwoman and Batman as both Bruce Wayne and Sellina Kyle their civilian selves. It turns out that HusH is a old friend of Bruce Wayne's before that famous night that he and his parents were walking down a area known as Crime Alley in Gotham city and even though we do as readers find out that HusH is doctor Thomas Elliott and He is still out there... yet how HusH ends is very much an odd place of who was behind it all? Is all I will admit to! My grade overall for Batman HusH is a whole is a C+ for the story, for the Art Jim Lee was completely fantastic like his work of art back in the late nineteen eighties 

,when he did a book known as X-MEN for Marvel comics.