The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told

Grade:

The term greatest is used a little loosely but this is a solid collection of Batman stories, though they are far from the best. The trade was published in 1988 and is still one of the better DC greatest collection and much better than any Marvel has put out.

The good points are many. Unlike Marvel collections, this one covers every era the character was in and draws from many sources. This collection has atleast 2 stories from the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, and 80's. By far most of the stories are from the 70's with about half the book. The stories are not limited to Batman or Detective comics either. One story is from the sindicated newspaper times, another is from Worlds Finest and Brave and the Bold.

The stories are a mixed bag. None are really excellent and some are pretty cheesy, some of the 50's and 60's ones are kind of painful to read. However there is a good mix of talent, including Denny O'Neil, Michael Golden, Bob Kane, Archie Goodwin and Alex Toth. There is a mini bio for each creator in the back, which also tells what stories they did for the book.

The best stories are probably Batman vs. the Vampire, Ghost of the Killer Skies, The Deadshot Rocochet, To Kill a Legend, and Jungle Cat Queen. They all have solid stories and good art. But for every good story, there is one that is almost hard to read due to is hokeyness. Like the First Batman, a story in which we learn Bruce Wayne got his inspiration from a costume his father was wearing. Believe me the story kind of ruined Batmans origin a bit for me. Don't forget the "classics" Robin Dies at Dawn and Opperation Escape. But overall most of the stories are pretty good and you can see why they were picked. My biggest complaint, the original covers are not included with each story. There are plently of covers throughout the book but like, 1 of them actually has a story in the book. Still, at 15.00 it might not be a bad buy for a batman fan and a if its on sale, feel free to pick it up.