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A review by thecommonswings
The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, Vol. 1 by Bill Finger
4.0
I’ve always leant more to Marvel than DC because the heroes have just been more interesting and distinct than D.C.’s roster usually are. Certainly I’ve never understood the appeal of Superman: if Captain America’s wrinkles are that he is a bit uptight and still slightly suffering from being lost in time, Superman is just good at everything - even his newspaper employer is nice to him unlike poor Spider-Man. What’s the appeal of a big powerful bloke who’s always powerful and always wins?
At least Batman is human and not super powered and has the odds stacked against him as much as he’s able to beat said odds. Batman is immediately closer to the darker pulp heroes like the Shadow and thus managed to attract - in his not goofy period - people who wanted to write pulpy crime fiction (there’s literally an illustrated short story in this to illustrate that point) as much as pair him off against super powered types. Reading this whizz through the decades, Batman is obviously a character who works best with some grit and darkness around him and generally feels more interesting when he’s grounded in a recognisable world. Certainly the most interesting stories here are from that milieu (not necessarily the most enjoyable - I always love the near stream of consciousness madness of forties and fifties superhero comics of any kind and this has a fair amount of those)
Also I think Batman is more interesting to read because he’s more interesting to draw. Superman soars and is all physicality in the huge shiny sun. Batman twists and turns and loiters in the dark - the huge range of art styles here finding new and interesting things to do with Batman visually speaks volumes of this. It just feels more introverted where Superman is extroverted, more full of the interior world of madness and insanity and weirdness. You sometimes feel a bit punch drunk reading this collection but that’s because that’s Batman’s world: Jokers and gangsters, murder and low level monsters as much as there’s big threats. He just feels a more substantially interesting character. Even after all these years there’s still stuff to do with him which is more than can be said for Supes
At least Batman is human and not super powered and has the odds stacked against him as much as he’s able to beat said odds. Batman is immediately closer to the darker pulp heroes like the Shadow and thus managed to attract - in his not goofy period - people who wanted to write pulpy crime fiction (there’s literally an illustrated short story in this to illustrate that point) as much as pair him off against super powered types. Reading this whizz through the decades, Batman is obviously a character who works best with some grit and darkness around him and generally feels more interesting when he’s grounded in a recognisable world. Certainly the most interesting stories here are from that milieu (not necessarily the most enjoyable - I always love the near stream of consciousness madness of forties and fifties superhero comics of any kind and this has a fair amount of those)
Also I think Batman is more interesting to read because he’s more interesting to draw. Superman soars and is all physicality in the huge shiny sun. Batman twists and turns and loiters in the dark - the huge range of art styles here finding new and interesting things to do with Batman visually speaks volumes of this. It just feels more introverted where Superman is extroverted, more full of the interior world of madness and insanity and weirdness. You sometimes feel a bit punch drunk reading this collection but that’s because that’s Batman’s world: Jokers and gangsters, murder and low level monsters as much as there’s big threats. He just feels a more substantially interesting character. Even after all these years there’s still stuff to do with him which is more than can be said for Supes