BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast

BatChat religion correspondent Robert "Bobby TwoBucks" Secundus is back this week, and he's brining with him Jean-Paul Valley, the vigilante and sometimes fanatic known as Azrael. We chart the journey of Azrael from the beginning of his ongoing to his most recent mini-series, with a stop off in an alternate world that is... something. We have one of the widest gulfs in the show's history, with a t...

While Gotham City is an integral part of the Batman mythos, Batman is an international hero, and there are plenty of stories that take Batman out of the grim confines of his home city and out into a wider world. This week, we read three such stories: one a tour of the great cities of Europe with the Joker by Batman's side, one a tale of Batman's visit to his ancestral lands of Scotland, and a Bron...

Commissioner James Gordon has existed literally as long as Batman has, having appeared in Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman. Over the years, he has changed and evolved as many comic characters have. Originally mostly a deskbound civil servant who was just here to turn on the Bat Signal, Gordon has become an important part of Gotham's police, leading from the front as the incorru...

Welcome to the first episode of our new Oppenheimer podcast. This first episode investigates how director Christopher Nolan's film deals with the Trinity Nuclear Test. What? It's still a Batman podcast? It's about Batman meeting Superman and Wonder Woman, the other members of DC's trinity? OK, I guess that's cool too. World's Finest (World's Finest Vol.2 # 1-3) Gods of Gotham (Wonder Woman V.2 # 1...

It's taken three episodes, but we've finally covered every story in the original Batman # 1. That means this week, we're covering the first appearance of Catwoman, and so we're also covering a couple other Catwoman stories, one a story that's place in continuity is weird even by DC Comics standards, and one that started off so promisingly, before it became a big sprawling mess later in its run. Th...

There are plenty of superheroes you could talk about where the issues of copaganda in 2023 don't come up. I'm sure there are. But Batman isn't one of them. We've had episodes talking about Jim Gordon and the main detectives of the GCPD before and had to look at those questions, and this week, we're back again. Only this time one of the stories is asking them along with us. Officer Down (Batman V.1...

I was going to do some parody of that God awful Nicole Kidman commercial that airs in front of every movie at AMC Theatres (why are you advertising the movie chain to people already in their seats?!?!?!?), but you're listening to this episode, so I love you and wouldn't subject you to that. This week, we're looking at three comic book stories that tie into Batman media outside comics: the Burton B...

We're back to the three series we've been covering arc by arc. This time, Will actually likes a Grant Morrison story in his run on Batman! The Penguin has a rough day in No Man's Land! And a reasonable number of artists draw an arc of Injustice! It's a miracle all around! Well, except for Penguin. That guy kinda sucks and gets what's coming to him. Batman Dies at Dawn (Batman V.1 # 672-675) Bread...

The Mad Hatter is one of Batman's oddest major foes. While all of the rogues who have existed since the Golden Age have gone through various permutations, few are as wildly different. Sometimes he is obsessed with hats. Sometimes he is a mind control scientist. Sometimes he is obsessed with Alice In Wonderland and has a creepy obsession with young girls he deems his Alices (super creepy). And we h...

He has been many thing to Batman over their time together. Butler. Healer. Confessor. But above all else? Father. Alfred Pennyworth has been a part of the Batman legend since the 1940s, but with the advent of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the change making Alfred a part of Bruce's life from his earliest memory, Alfred has become an indispensable ally to Batman. This week, as we get near Father's...

They stalk the night. When they have your name, you are as good as dead, so pray that you never draw their attention. They are the League of Assassins. Whether they serve Ra's al Ghul, his daughter Talia, the Sensei or any other master, the League has been a thorn in the side of Batman for decades. This week we read a team-up between Batman and Deadman as they face the League, a civil war between...

The beauty of DC's Elseworlds concept, rather than a more traditional What If? or imaginary story, is the variety it opened up. This wasn't a simple small recasting of one event, butterfly effect style, but creators imaginations could go wild and choose different times, places, and even twist the most basic concepts of the character that was starring in the book. And sometimes those stories got a...

Of all superheroes, Batman seems to have spawned more characters that are dark reflections of him than any other. Sure, Superman has Bizarro, and Spider-Man has Venom, but Batman has a legion of the them: Killer Moth, Bane, Hush, Owlman (the Lincoln March one), Wrath, Prometheus. There are enough to fill multiple episodes, so we have to start somewhere. This week, it's the two most directly anti-B...

While there are plenty of stories with Bruce Wayne in them, how many are really about Bruce Wayne? Not Batman, the Dark Knight, but captain of industry, philanthropist and playboy Bruce Wayne? At least three, as this week we look at the story of Bruce's problematic return to health after Knightfall, a 150 year old corpse at Wayne Manor, and a day in the life of Bruce Wayne Knightquest: The Search...

Batman's allies are known for many things. Their brains. Their fighting skills. Their dedication. And while Dr. Leslie Thompkins, the woman who comforted Bruce Wayne the night his parents were killed is lacking in the second of those three attributes, she more than makes up for it in the first and third. Leslie is a strict pacifist in a world that runs on tights and fights, and so provides a point...

Wouldn't it be great to go to school in Gotham City? Well, it probably wouldn't be scarier than anywhere else. This week, Mrs. Abigale Heartbalm, Esq. stops by, and we talk Gotham Academy and two other school centric Batman related stories. We talk about how Gotham Academy successfully brings manga tropes to Gotham, question how far an AU story can diverge from canon before it breaks established r...

Every time Will has complained about how much he hates Hush, Matt or someone else said, "Well, read 'Heart of Hush.' That might change how you feel." And this week he did. And, well, it was the best story of the week, and the best story centered around Hush as the primary antagonist (since the original "Hush" story is a Riddler story in the end). We discuss why Hush doesn't seem to work, more of P...

From her first appearance, Barbara Gordon was a dynamic and exciting addition to the Batman family. Brilliant, tough and strong willed, Barbara has faced more adversity than most superheroes, dealing with trauma and coming out stronger for it. This episode, we read three stories that trace her evolution from the dominoed dare doll, Batgirl, to the seer of heroes, Oracle. The Million Dollar Debut o...

The Gotham City Police Department, or GCPD for short, has been part of Batman's world since his first appearance, which also happened to be the first appearance of Commissioner James Gordon. And while the members of the GCPD focused on in the comics have shifted over the years, the presence of it has been a constant, although Batman's good standing has been anything but. This week, we're reading t...

There are many great supporting characters in the Batman mythos. Alfred. The myriad Robins and Batgirls. Jim Gordon. Leslie Thompkins. And then, there is Bat-Mite, the 5th Dimensional imp who claims to be Batman's biggest fan. And he is, in the same way that Annie Wilkes is to Paul Sheldon (that's a Misery reference for those who don't know their Stephen King). Dan Grote wanted us to talk about Ba...

Linewide crossovers are a big part of comics, and Batman has often been a big part of these kind of events. But our buddy Josh Weil comes back on the show to talk about three crossovers form the 90s where Batman doesn't play a big part. So we talk about Batman, sure, but also about Hal Jordan, Blue Devil, Trickster, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Will gets introduced to all sorts of madness, and...

I have been having a hard time saying that this month marks the 40th anniversary of the first appearance of Jason Todd. It just doesn't seem like to could be that long ago, but it absolutely is. And so, to celebrate the anniversary of the angriest Robin (well, Damian does give him some competition), we're looking at three stories from Jason's long history, from his first appearance to his return f...

It's over! We have made it through the entirety of our giant sized, three part 75th episode, which means we have reached the end of the 52 issues of Batman Eternal. We discuss the ending, which Will admits to misremembering, how the preview issue of Batman fit in, and how the series worked as a whole. Batman Eternal # 35-52, Batman V.2 #28 Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/bat...

We're back with the second part pf our 75th episode and the second chapter of Batman Eternal. And this one is... not as exciting. There's a whole lot of Hush this time. Like, a whole lot. Plus the supernatural stuff takes over a lot, and most of the cool crime stuff is forgotten. As is pretty much everything else. So if you're a big fan of Hush, you might enjoy this. Or probably not, since neither...

So, Will has been asking for it since about episode 3, and this week, it begins. For our 75th episode, we are covering the year long, weekly series Batman Eternal. But because it's so long, this isn't a normal episode. The series was collected in three trades, so we're covering it as three stories in a three part episode, mostly so the Big Board remains evenly divisible by 3. This week, Jim Gordon...