BATMAN RETURNS

Back in 2019, for the bulk of the year, I took a "curated" look at BATMAN IN THE SEVENTIES, by means of several major stories available via DC collected editions or digitally. We looked at material from Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Don Newton, Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Marv Wolfman, and others. The final issue I looked at was BATMAN #335, the end of Wolfman's brief run on the title, which was actually published in 1981.

Now here we are five years later, and I've got another Batman itch to scratch -- and fortunately, I know exactly how to do it! We're essentially going to pick up where we left off, by way of DC's three-volume TALES OF THE BATMAN: GERRY CONWAY series. This is another one of those runs I've wanted to read for years. Indeed, I've gone so far as to avoid as many spoilers about it as I could, knowing I would someday check it out. All I'm really aware of is that Conway writes both BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS almost as one biweekly series, he brings back Englehart & Rogers' corrupt city councilman Rupert Thorne for an extended engagement, and introduces Killer Croc and a new Robin. (Oh, and the stories run contemporaneously with the NEW TEEN TITANS stories I looked at several years ago.)

Conway's run begins on DETECTIVE COMICS with isue 497, cover dated December 0f 1980 -- which places Conway's DETECTIVE alongside Wolfman's BATMAN for several months. Conway then takes over BATMAN as well with the July 1981 issue, 337, just a month after Wolfman jumps ship. Conway's primary collaborators for his time with Batman are pencilers Don Newton and Gene Colan, two artists I'm always happy to see more from.

So next week, we're jumping back over to the DC Universe after spending several solid years with Marvel. As near as I can tell, Conway wrote about fifty issues of BATMAN and DETECTIVE combined, so this will be another year-long project, at a pace of one issue per week, for the most part. So as the old saying goes, be here next week -- same Bat-time, same Bat-... uhh... website!

Available on Amazon:
TALES OF THE BATMAN: GERRY CONWAY vol. 1 | vol. 2 | vol. 3