Barbara Gordon was introduced to add some flair to the final season of Batman '66, to try to buoy the sagging ratings on the show. And while she didn't save that series, she has become the iconic Batgirl of the comics, a character who has had a long career in various identities. This week, friend of the show and Patreon backer John Wickham returns …

It's time for our annual tradition here at BatChat, up there with cranberry sauce from a can, stuffing that's a little too dry and avoiding conversations about politics with your red baseball cap wearing relatives: it's all ages Thanksgiving. Three stories of Batman for the whole family come in some very different flavors this year: the next volume…

For a brief, shining moment just before the New 52 rewrote the DC Universe, Batman was everywhere. You might say to me, "Hey, podcast guy, Batman is everywhere now. And he has been since at least 1989, probably since 1966." But I'm talking in universe here. Grant Morrison had created Batman Incorporated, where Batman travelled the world, making an …

While in comics circles the most well known alternate future for Batman is The Dark Knight Returns, in the public consciousness, that title has to be held by Batman Beyond. Three seasons of young Terry McGinnis and crotchety old Bruce Wayne in the DCAU, plus appearances on Justice League Unlimited, left a mark for this particular iteration of Batma…

Friend of the show and Patreon backer Matt McThorn is back this week, and he wanted to return to one of is earlier themes, with three more stories featuring Thomas Blake, the Bat rogue known as Catman. We get a 90s story featuring Catman and Ratcatcher from before Catman turned super cool under the pen of Gail Simone. Then we see Blake meet Huntres…

Welcome to your annual, spooky Halloween week BatChat. We've done weeks with vampires, with Man-Bats, with Demons. This year, we're dipping into stories featuring Matt's favorite classic monster: the werewolf. Batman fights the beast under a full moon over the city, and maybe even turns into one...Moon of the Wolf (Batman V.1 # 255)Werewolf Moon (D…

For you out there, it has only been one week since our last episode. But we took a week off recording so we could really pack in the comics. This week, we're covering the entire, 26 issue run of Batman & Robin Eternal, the weekly series that ran at the end of the New 52 era. It sees the return of some Bat characters lost in the rest of that era, ha…

Jim Gordon made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27. You know, the same comic that Batman made his first appearance. So, you can imagine the number of stories that Gordon has been featured in. But especially since Frank Miller made "Batman: Year One" as much about Gordon as it is about Batman, that number has exploded, and the history of t…

We're back following the three runs we've been reading in order for a while now. No Man's Land reaches its midpoint as the Bat family comes home to Gotham and the identity of the new Batgirl is revealed. Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne face their ultimate challenge as they are trapped between Dr. Hurt and the Joker in the final arc of Grant Morrison'…

Gotham Academy returns to comic shops this week with a new prequel series, so we're reading three stories about teens in Gotham. Tim Drake faces a major challenge with his first confrontation with the man who killed the previous Robin, the Joker. Duke Thomas is recruited into the We Are Robin movement in a Gotham with a very different Batman. And t…

Time moves ever forward. I can't believe that Batman Begins is 20 years old this year. As I question my mortality and life choices, this week we read three stories from the Batman Begins trade, including the movie adaptation, a retelling of Batman's origin by Denny O'Neil and a one off by Greg Rucka.Batman Begins: The Official Movie AdaptationThe M…

This week, Deadpool/Batman will be released, the first Marvel/DC crossover in well over a decade. And as anyone who knows how comics work, the biggest characters are the ones who get crossed over, and no one at DC is bigger than Batman. So to tie in, we're reading three Batman/Marvel team-ups. These are some fun books, and we have a good time. Plus…

We're joined by first time guest and long time Patreon backer Sam Hopper to read some Damian Wayne stories from earlier in the character's life. Back when Damian was a truly insufferable brat. I know, for many of his haters he still is, but man, in these stories he is really something else. We read his first encounter with a member of the Superman …

There are periods where certain characters have more of a spotlight than others. Sure, there are always a lot of Batman stories, Joker stories. But then there are pockets of time when we get lots of stories focused on Jim Gordon or the Riddler. Between 2003 and 2006, Mr. Freeze had his day. He appeared in major stories like "Under the Hood" and "Ci…

Lady Shiva walks through the world, leaving a trail of bodies behind her. Not a hero, but often not quite a villain, Shiva has developed relationships with many members of the Bat Family: trainer to Tim Drake, rival and sometimes member of the Birds of Prey, mother to Cassandra Cain. Josh Weill joins the show to take on three of these stories. One …

It's a very special week on BatChat. We have now recorded 200 episodes. 600 stories. It's a whole lot. And to celebrate, Matt and Will are together in one room, face to face, along with our first fan, our first Patreon backer, Matt's bestest pal in the whole world, Dan Grote, to read a milestone Batman story, Grant Morrison's The Return of Bruce Wa…

Next week, the second season of the HBO Max series Peacemaker drops. The first season featured some seriously obscure DC characters, and this week, to tie in with the release of the new season, we're reading three stories featuring three of those characters: Peacemaker, Vigilante and Judomaster. Now, we're stretching the definition of featured here…

The Teen Titans have always been linked to the Bat Family. There are very few iterations of the Titans that don't include a former or current Robin in their ranks. So most Titans stories fit within the remit of this podcast. Patreon backer and friend of the show Matt McThorn specifically wanted to talk about a couple late 90s/early 00s stories feat…

Batman is not just popular here in the USA. As our listeners know, as you are from many countries, people outside America love Batman too. And sometimes we get stories reprinted here in the States that feature Batman that were created in other countries. We're reading three of those today, one from France, one from Italy and one from Japan.Batman: …

Somehow, as we near 200 episodes, we still stumble across holes in our coverage. He's appeared in a lot of stories we've covered, but we have never done an episode purely focused on Penguin stories. So this week, we remedy that. We're reading Penguin's first appearance, the story that changed him from supervillain to mobster and the start of his re…

Superman was pretty great, huh? We wanted to keep the good times rolling this week with an episode featuring characters other than the big guy who appeared in the movie. I really wanted to do a Batman/Mr. Terrific team up, but outside team settings, there aren't really any, so we instead went with a classic Bob Haney Metamorpho story, a Batman/Guy …

The birth of the new DC Cinematic Universe... DC Extended Universe... DC... ah whatever the hell they're calling it, kicks off on the big screens this week with the debut of James Gunn's Superman film, so we're obviously tying in because SEO is a powerful thing. We have three more stories of the World's Finest heroes with a delightful Bronze Age od…

The revolving doors of any prison or mental health facility in Gotham City are running jokes, and rightly so; they can't keep a D-lister like Ratcatcher locked up, let alone someone like the Joker. But they do keep winding up back in custody, so there has to be story potential there, right? This week's episode looks at three times Joker wound up lo…

Doug Moench wrote Batman stories for about a decade over the course of his runs on the character. And while his Bat work is probably best associated with his collaboration with Kelley Jones, generally his best known collaborator is penciller Paul Gulacy, with whom he defined Shang-Chi over at Marvel. That isn't to say he didn't work wit Gulacy on B…

The evolution of representation of queer characters in mainstream superhero comics is something that entire books can, and should, be written about. So I'm not going to wax rhapsodic about all the changes here, but it's June and thus Pride Month, and so we're back with queer Bat characters. First we wrap up Greg Rucka's run on Batwoman, next we see…

We're getting near 200 episodes of this show, and many of those episodes have been experiences where we discover fun, fascinating comics. And then there is this week. Patreon backer and friend (?) of the show John Wickham made his pick for his return, and he decided to pick three stories related to the Joker and Joker related characters that could …

We're back to our three runs we're following in order. In No Man's Land, we meet a new character who will be an important part of the Bat Family moving forward. In the Morrison run, we get some side stories in the run up to The Return of Bruce Wayne. And in Injustice, Renee Montoya hits Superman with the Washington Monument.Mark of Cain (Batman V.1…

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight was a title like no other at the time, with its rotating creative teams of big name creators. As the series progressed, some of the creative teams featured less well known creators, but the series always tried to do something different, even if some themes came up over and over. Patreon backer and friend of the sh…

Y'know, sometimes you get an episode request, and you wind up with stories better than you could have expected. Patreon backer and friend of the show Matt McThorn specifically wanted to talk about the Batman annual with the origin of Clownhunter and art by James Stokoe. So we decided, what better theme than more annuals. And not to spoil too much, …

Patreon backer Sam Hopper wanted to give us a nice, fun week, and we appreciate that. He requested three stories that inspired episodes of Batman '66. There are surprisingly few episodes of that show that were adaptations, but definitely enough or an episode. But these are really short stories, so we wanted to add a little something. So on top of r…

We're back with two of our favorite ladies this week: Patreon backer (and Will's wife) Abigale Heartbalm and Stephanie Brown. Abigale wanted to read three stories featuring Stephanie, and we wanted to go with something similar as the first time we did a Stephanie episode where we touch on different eras of the character, but we kinda wanted to avoi…

People love Batman. People love Apes. So when you combine them, you're bound yo get some fun comics, right? Well, sometimes. Patreon backer Dan Grote asked us to read some Batman and apes stories, and we read a delightful Golden/Silver Age story, a 90s story that had it's fun moments and a story that is proof that the New 52 could suck the joy out …

This whole episode came about when Matt was looking for something else entirely, and he stumbled across an issue of Batman: Gotham Adventures, the animated series tie-in, written by Ed Brubaker. As he didn't remember that at all, he decided he had to read it, and since he has minimal time to read for pleasure, the best solution was to work it into …

We're back to the bookshelf Will keeps of random Batman trades he has picked up over the years (a shelf that for Matt is something he just calls his house). We start off as ever with a volume of Batman '66, follow that up with Batman meets The Da Vinci Code meets Last Crusade and wrap up with a mini-series that led into Final Crisis that is actuall…

There are very few characters in comics that I, Matt, truly dislike. One of them is, sadly, a character with significant ties to the Bat family: Deathstroke the Terminator. A villain turned anti-hero who I don't feel like ever should have been, I decided it was time to bit the bullet and cover three stories featuring Deathstroke. We have his first …

The Bat family has grown considerably over the years. What started out as Batman and Robin now contains what seems to be a dozen or more characters. And recent years have seen many attempts to add characters who would be big hits and draw massive popularity. And while this has created some good characters, none of the characters created in period o…

Mainstream superhero comics have been a boys' club since their invention, and while things have gotten better in recent years, it is telling how few Batman comics have women writers, outside the works of Devin Grayson and Mariko Tamaki. For the last week of March, of Women's History Month, we're reading three stories by other women who have written…

Gotham villains seem to spend so much time fighting each other, it's a wonder they have any time to fight Batman. Friend of the show and Patreon backer John Wickham returns for three instances of villain on villain violence, with Blackgate Vs. Arkham during the Forever Evil crossover, Hush Vs. Talia in the run up to Infinite Crisis and The War of J…

Friend of the show and Patreon backer Josh Weil is a busy guy these days. Josh is running in a special election as the Democratic nominee to be the new Representative for Florida's 6th District. But Josh is such a dedicated fan that he took some time off from his busy schedule to join us and talk about three Batman stories from the Golden Age of Co…

I have a soft spot for Wildcat, the Golden Age hero, member of the JSA, and trainer of heroes. And he has a connection to the Bat family, having trained more than one member. So this week we're reading a perfectly whacky issue of Brave and the Bold as only Bob Haney could write it, and two mini-series by Chuck Dixon that feature Bat characters team…

I sit and write this introduction on a February morning where it is in the mid 40s and going up to the low 50s today, but it's still winter, and so we were thinking about the snow and cold when coming up with episodes, and when you think of cold and Gotham, who else do you think about but Mr. Freeze? We feature his first appearance this week, when …

I usually try to put something witty or informative here. But this week, Patreon backer Matt McThorn is back, and he asked us to read Neal Adams's mad dream, Batman: Odyssey. He didn't know what he was getting himself or us into, so we have forgiven him, but this one feels like an all-timer. We also read two Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams stories from the…

Lightning can strike twice. But not often. The original Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight series was a collection of classic creators doing amazing stories. DC has tried to recapture that magic multiple times, and that lightning has never quite hit again. Legends of the DC Universe was another attempt to get that magic, but this time for the entir…

Will wanted to talk about Paul Dini and Alex Ross's graphic album, Batman: War On Crime, so the logical episode theme was more Paul Dini stories, so this is not Matt 100% forcing more Dini on Will. And while Matt didn't do it intentionally, well, he did wind up picking a story with Zatanna, because there are so many of them. But he also picked a st…

It's always a good time for us to return to the runs that we're following in order. This time, things go from bad to worse in No Man's Land, Dick Grayson investigates Wayne Manor for clues to Bruce Wayne's whereabouts while Damian has a strange encounter with Oberon Sexton, and the magical war in the Injustice world reaches its epic conclusion.Clai…

Over the past 169 episodes, we have covered work from a lot of creators. And I can't think of one that we have unanimously and consistently lauded than the late Darwyn Cooke. A writer artist like few others, Cooke passed away at a tragically young age, leaving a body of work that would have only grown. This week, we are covering the last comic Cook…

While nearly all of Gotham's vigilantes are affiliated in some way with Batman and his family, there are a few who stand on their own. One of those few is Ragman, one of the few canonically Jewish heroes in the DC Universe. Rory Reagan wears the suit of souls, a collection of patches that are made up of the souls of criminals. And even though he is…

Batman has teamed up with pretty much every hero in the DC Universe because he's, well, Batman. He's also teamed up with many a villain. We've read stories where he worked with Lex Luthor, Ra's al Ghul and Bane. But Patreon backer Ross Holmes very specifically wanted us to read a story where he teams up with the most unlikely of villains: The Joker…

It's the New Year's week, and if you've been listening to the podcast, you know what that means: New Year, New Batman. That's right, it's three more Elseworlds. We have Nosferatu (which is strangely more an adaptation of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari than Nosferatu), The Nail (which is more a Marvel-style What If? than most Elseworlds) and I, Joker, …

Happy holidays, BatChat listeners. It's the week of Christmas and Chanukah this year, so we're celebrating the holiday in the BatChat style. Patreon backer and friend of the show John Wickham is joining us to discuss three of Dc's modern holiday anthologies. Have yourself a merry everyone!DC Infinite Holiday Special # 1DC Rebirth Holiday Special # …