In the turn toward the 1970s, Batman comics grew moodier, with more realistic designs and a less campy feel than the stuff coming out in the previous decades. Creators like Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Frank Robbins clearly sought distance from the ludicrous Batman TV show starring Adam West, but it wasn’t just that… There was a whole bitter vibe taking over much of American popular culture at the time, with a wave of gritty, maze-like genre fiction. In film (usually a major influence on comics), this ranged from the classics of paranoid cinema to low-budget productions like Ivan Dixon’s Trouble Man or Michael Winner’s The Mechanic, which made stripped-down, unglamorous settings part of their style while delivering gripping plots and virile dialogue.
Before going full grimdark in the late ‘80s, Batman comics managed to put their own spin on this sort of sensibility without entirely losing their inherent gonzo nature (the best of both worlds!) throughout what became known as the Caped Crusader’s Bronze Age. This week’s reminder that comics can be awesome spotlights ten covers from this era that tread that line:
