THE NEW TEEN TITANS #37 & BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #5

"LIGHT'S OUT, EVERYONE!" | "PSIMON SAYS..."
Writers: Marv Wolfman (NTT #37) & Mike W. BARR (B&TO #5)
Artists: George Pérez & Romeo Tanghal (NTT #37) & Jim Aparo (B&TO #5)
Letterers: John Costanza (NTT #37) & Jim Aparo (B&TO #5)
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: (NTT #37) At the order of Psimon, Gizmo breaks Shimmer and Mammoth out of prison. Dr. Light convinces them to spring him as well. At the suggestion of Shimmer and Mammoth, Psimon leads the Fearsome Five to kidnap Dr. Jace, a woman with a technique for imbuing normal humans with superpowers.

Later, Terra leaves a Titans' meeting when she receives an emergency signal from Dr. Jace, who gave her and her brother their abilities. Terra heads for Jace's lab, where she finds the Outsiders -- Metamorpho, Katana, Halo, and Black Lightning -- investigating the demolished facility. The Titans catch up and a fight breaks out, but when the Outsiders' fifth member -- Terra's brother, Geo-Force -- reveals himself, both sides make amends.

The teams' respective leaders, Robin and Batman, are summoned from Gotham City while Psimon mentally coerces Dr. Jace into working with the Fearsome Five. When the heroes investigate several recently transformed half-mud vagrants, their path leads them to Psimon's lab outside Gotham City. There, Dr. Jace's procedure has been perfected and the Fearsome Five have an army of mud monsters under their control.

After a brief skirmish, Psimon triggers explosives on his island lair which sink it into the sea with the Titans and Outsiders aboard, while the villains and their monsters escape.

BATMAN BY MIKE W. BARR & ALAN DAVIS: DETECTIVE COMICS # 572, 573, 574

"THE DOOMSDAY BOOK"
Writer: Mike W. Barr | Pencilers: Alan Davis, Terry Beatty, Carmine Infantino
Inkers: Paul Neary, Dick Giordano, Al Vey | Colorists: Adrienne Roy, Carl Gafford
Letterers: John Workman, Todd Klein, Romeo Francisco | Editor: Denny O'Neil

"THE MAD HATTER FLIPS HIS LIDS" | "...MY BEGINNING...AND MY PROBABLE END"
Writer: Mike W. Barr | Penciler: Alan Davis | Inker: Paul Neary
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Denny O'Neil

Art by Mike Kaluta

DETECTIVE COMICS #572 is a "jam" issue, celebrating the title's fiftieth anniversary, and starring three of the book's regular featured characters of decades past: Batman (of course), the Elongated Man, and Slam Bradley, who I had never heard of before. Upon looking him up, I've learned that he starred in DETECTIVE #1, and has appeared sporadically in the DC Universe since.

Beyond the above group, the story also stars Sherlock Holmes, who, it seems, is a real person in the DC world. Watson's chronicles of Holmes' cases are treated here as works of non-fiction, and everyone views Holmes as a well-known historical figure. It's a conceit I enjoyed, and it fits just fine into a shared universe like this one. However, Barr goes overboard with the idea here, revealing in the story's finale that Holmes is still alive and fairly spry at well over a hundred years of age, due essentially to nothing more than clean living.

BATMAN BY MIKE W. BARR & ALAN DAVIS: DETECTIVE COMICS # 569, 570, 571

"CATCH AS CATSCAN" | "THE LAST LAUGH" | "FEAR FOR SALE"

Writer: Mike W. Barr | Penciler: Alan Davis | Inker: Paul Neary

Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: John Workman | Editor: Denny O'Neil

Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis have a slightly peculiar run on DETECTIVE COMICS. Their issues begin after CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, in the rebooted world of "Batman: Year One" and other such stories. They are telling tales featuring the Batman teamed with post-Crisis Jason Todd, the angry brat who would eventually perish by the Joker's hand.

And yet, no one seemed to tell them this. These stories might as well be set in the pre-Crisis universe. Indeed, they draw upon pre-Crisis continuity, such as the fact that Catwoman is reformed and aware of Batman's secret identity. Robin here has not become the unlikable character who would eventually be killed off -- he is very much like the classic Dick Grayson Robin, in fact.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT: ALAN DAVIS

LEGENDS OF THE DARK NIGHT: ALAN DAVIS
Hardcover, 2013

Winter is upon us, and in my mind there's no better superhero to read about on a nice chilly night than the Batman. As a kid I didn't read many DC comics. I was all about Marvel, preferring to get my DC fix from their other media: the Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN films, the Adam West BATMAN series (still in syndication when I grew up in the eighties), and SUPER FRIENDS. Later on, of course, came the Bruce Timm cartoons, starting with BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. In fact, the comic book spin-off of B:TAS, BATMAN ADVENTURES, was -- and remains -- the only DC comic I ever read regularly on a monthly basis.

I did manage to read the occasional limited series as I got older, but regular monthly DC comics remained a sizable blind spot in my comic book knowledge. Finally, in recent years, I've begun plugging some holes in my DC collection through various collected editions. Among the collections out there are two series of hardcovers from DC, which inexplicably have different titles even though they're essentially the same line: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT and TALES OF THE BATMAN. The books themselves are beautiful, with great design work, slick dustjackets, and top-notch production.