BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast

Who would have thought we'd have made it to 50 episodes? But we did it! This week, for the first time ever, Matt & Will were in the very same place, Matt's dining room, where they discussed three stories that wrap up in big number anniversary issues to tie in with this special anniversary. Knightfall Part 2: Who Rules the Night? (Batman V.1 # 498-500, Detective Comics V.1 # 664-666, Showcase '93 #...

Time takes us all. And as the comics we grew up with grow older, so too do the people who made them, and with time, comes other things, sadly. Recently, Alan Grant, legendary co-creator of many of the great Bat villains of the 80s and 90s, passed away, having been preceded a couple of years ago by his regular collaborator, artist Norm Breyfogle. So this week, we celebrate this legendary team with...

This week, we're returning to three series/arcs/runs that we have started in previous episodes. See Batman rub testosterone all over himself in the next arc of Grant Morrisons' Batman. Witness the Scarecrow play mind games in the second arc of "No Man's Land." And gaze in wonder as Alfred beats the ever loving hell out of Superman in the second half of Injustice: Gods Among Us Year One The Three G...

Friend of the show and Patreon backer Dan Grote came at us hard with his new request this week: the out of print and utterly bonkers computer generated graphic novel, Batman: Digital Justice. So this week we dig into three schway stories of Batman of the future. Batman: Digital Justice OGN Grounded (Batman Beyond V.2 #1) Batman: Year 100 #1-4 Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/...

So, Matt spent most of his long drive into work trying to come up with a Batman version of the Green Lantern oath, but he's not a poet, so instead we're admitting that here. This week, we're reading three stories where Batman wields a power ring. One of these books is far and away the comic with the most problematic creators, if not content, that we've ever read, so buckle up for that one! Univers...

Batman has a complicated relationship with religion. He is a rationalist living in a world with real angels and demons. So what happens when Batman intersects with religion? Well, we don't really answer that specific question. But we do have three stories where Batman confronts people and creatures with specific religious ties. And we're joined by ComicsXF's resident expert of religion, Rob Secund...

One of the artists most represented on the big board, and probably, if we arrogated based on number of stories and story placement (and that would be higher if Matt got his way with "Blades"), one of the favorite artists we have, comics lost a major talent with the passing of Tim Sale last month. So Matt and Will looked at his catalog of work, and this week, we are featuring three other stories by...

Doctor. Philanthropist. Vigilante? Killer? For a character who was introduced to be killed and be the motivation to drive his son into a life of crime fighting, Thomas Wayne has worn a lot of hats (and cowls, for that matter). This week, we're reading three stories that are about Thomas Wayne and his legacy. The First Batman (Detective Comics V.1 # 235) Cold Case (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knigh...

This week, Chip Zdarsky becomes the regular writer on the flagship Batman title, so we're looking at three of his earlier stories writing the Dark Knight. Cheer (Batman: Urban Legends # 1-6) Last Ride (Justice League: Last Ride # 1-7) Batman: Black and White # 1-6 (2021) Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/ Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo Follow th...

So, this week was supposed to see the release of the final issue of James Tynion IV's ongoing Joker series, a series Matt & Will have unabashedly loved over on the BatChat column. But whether it's supply chain shipping issues or something more related to the production of this particular issue, the comic has been pushed back a week. But time, tide and ranking lists wait for no man, and so we are m...

Jason Todd tier Patreon backer Kyle Still asked us to cover Knightfall, and so we decided to do it (and by decided, I mean that we live up to our word). But Knightfall has a nice clean point where we can divide it. Back in the day, when trades were still a rarity, Knightfall was divided into two trades, and so this week we read what was that first trade, called The Broken Bat, along with two of th...

Dick Grayson-tier Patreon backer Josh Weil is back this week, and he brings with him a heck of a story. War Games was the early 00s crossover where a huge gang war breaks out in Gotham, and so, we get a 25 park crossover! That's the longest single story we've covered in here. Can we make it? What do we cover for the other two stories? How many problematic elements are in this story? You'll just ha...

This week, Matt and Will are joined by the Carrie Kelly to Matt's grumpy old Bruce Wayne, singer/storyteller/myth scholar and previous guest of WMQ&A, Veronica Biatrise, to talk about one of her favorite characters, Poison Ivy, just in time for Ivy's new mini-series to debut this week. We have classic Ivy, modern Ivy and animated Ivy in this week's episode, and it's is a deep one, filled with stor...

There are some creators who left us too soon, and left us at the height of their creative output. One of those creators was Darwyn Cooke, whose work balanced on a tightrope of nostalgia and modernity, who could tell a story with the best of them. Cooke's output included many Batman stories, and thanks to Patreon backer Sam Hopper, Matt and Will are going to dig into three of them this episode Batm...

They are the World's Finest Team, but when things go wrong? Batman and Superman make a deadly pair of enemies. This week, we're reading three stories of Batman Vs. Superman Injustice: Gods Among Us V.1 (Injustice: Gods Among Us # 1-6 [Digital # 1-18]) Execution 2001 (Superman V.2 Annual # 3) Superman's Secret Kingdom (World's Finest Comics # 111) Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf....

Jason Todd is probably the unluckiest Robin (with apologies to Stephanie Brown): seemingly orphaned, lived on the streets, taken in by Batman only to be killed by the Joker only to be resurrected as a homicidal vigilante. But for decades, it was Jason's death, not his life, that defined him as a character and added a new layer of tragedy to Batman's life. This week, we're looking at two stories ab...

Hey look at that! They said it couldn't be done, but we have actually gotten up to 100 stories on the big board! To celebrate, Matt & Will just... picked stuff they wanted to talk about. So this week we finish the Vampire Batman trilogy, we go back to the world of The Long Halloween to see what Catwoman was up to off-panel for most of Dark Victory, and in a bit of synergy, we read an all-ages grap...

Batman's most significant female nemesis. His true love on many Earths. The best thief in Gotham. A star of screens, both small and big, with numerous famous actors having portrayed her. An icon. All of these describe one character: Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman. This week, we're looking at three stories starring Catwoman Your Face is Your Fortune (Batman V.1 # 15) Her Sister's Keeper (Catwoman V.1...

As The Batman is now streaming on HBO Max, Matt and Will thought it was time to look at one of the stories that served as a prime inspiration for this year's blockbuster Bat movie- Batman: Earth One. And to go with it? Two other stories of Batman's origins and early years. Batman: Earth One Vol. 1 OGN The Untold Legend of the Batman # 1-3 My Beginning... And My Probable End... (Detective Comics V....

This week was supposed to mark the real and true and totally final death of Batman in Justice League #75's "Death of the Justice League," issue, but the vagaries of comic scheduling in a pandemic have forced that issue back a week. But still, that would not have been the first time Batman died, and this week, we're looking at three other deaths of Batman: some literal, some metaphorical. To Kill a...

Among Batman's many foes are serial killers, madmen and monsters. But few are the type of villain who seeks to dominate or control the world. The one who is, possibly the foe that Batman respects and fears the most, is Ra's al Ghul, the Demon's Head. Seemingly immortal, Ra's wants to return the world to a pristine sphere, under his control, and only after wiping out much of humanity. This week, as...

Another week, another Jason Todd tier Patreon backer choosing violence. This time, Will's fiancee, Abigale Heartbalm, chooses Batman: The Widening Gyre, Kevin Smith's incomplete Batman masterpiece (?). So, this week's theme? Hollywood folks writing Batman. We get that story, the beginning of one of the most ambitious Batman stories ever, and a recent anthology with a story written by an actor with...

When you back the podcast at the Jason Todd tier of $10 a month, you get to select a story for Matt & Will to read. As much as they don't want to read it. And this week? We get our first Jason Todd tier request. Previous guest of the show, co-host of the other show Matt does each week, WMQ&A, and writer/editor/podcaster triple thread Dan Grote decided that the guys have to read Batman: White Knigh...

Starting out as one of the main writers on Batman: The Animated Series, the platonic ideal of Batman, Paul Dini has gone on to write Batman in nearly every medium: TV, movies, video games, and, of course, comics. And since we're a podcast that focuses on Batman comics, well, we're going to look at some Dini comics, and we have three very different ones here: an animated series universe story, one...

They're darkness and light. One is the champion of the city of tomorrow, one is the hero a corrupt and fallen city needs. They have been rivals, allies and sometimes friends. They are Batman and Superman. This week, a new volume of World's Finest, the classic Batman/Superman team-up book, launches so Matt and Will are joined by noted Superman expert and writer at Women Write About Comics and Comic...