Tag Archives: Greg Rucka

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (10 March 2025)

I’ve finally caught up with the cartoon show Batman: Caped Crusader. Other than some very nasty killings, it doesn’t add much – visually or dramatically – to the 1990s’ Batman: The Animated Series, although admittedly this is a pretty high … Continue reading

Posted in GOTHAM INTERLUDES | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Harvey Bullock – part 2

The Batman Adventures #33 Picking up from where I left off last month, let’s have a further look at the evolution of Gotham City’s gruffiest, scruffiest police detective, Harvey Bullock. In the 1990s, Bullock gained prominence as a memorable supporting … Continue reading

Posted in GOTHAM CITIZENS | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Political thrillers in Gotham City

Detective Comics #801 Political thrillers are one of my favorite genres. I crave witty, cunning characters and intricate plots that combine micro and macro scales while turning the political process into thrilling suspense and clever maneuvers, both because it’s a … Continue reading

Posted in POLITICS OF BATMAN COMICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ed Brubaker’s mature Batman

Ed Brubaker is one of the most critically acclaimed comic book writers of the 21st century. Heavily influenced by crime fiction and by the superhero revisionist turn of the 1980s, he has continually sought to imbue American comics with a … Continue reading

Posted in WRITERS OF BATMAN COMICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

On Blackgate Penitentiary

Prison stories are basically their own genre, what with the dangerous, claustrophobic environment, the parallel rules of life in a world of outlaws, full of both comradery and suspicion, and the occasional trope of elaborate escape plots (which are kind … Continue reading

Posted in GOTHAM CITIZENS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gotham crime graphic novels

The trailer for the upcoming The Batman movie looks pretty darn awful, once again doubling down on the gloom without any hint of what makes the source material so much fun in the first place. That said, I suppose the … Continue reading

Posted in BATMAN COMICS FOR BEGINNERS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

1990s’ Batman comics reading guide – part 6

Night Cries Back in part 3 of this reading guide, I mentioned how 1994’s crossover event Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! retroactively altered the DCU’s past and, thus, served to selectively revise (or fix) certain aspects of Batman’s canon. Rather … Continue reading

Posted in BATMAN COMICS FOR BEGINNERS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A couple of excellent spy novels

Shifting gears for a bit, today let’s talk about a couple of cool books without drawings that came out almost a decade ago… OUR KIND OF TRAITOR (John le Carré, 2010) “At seven o’clock of a Caribbean morning, on the … Continue reading

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

On the discreet BATMAN DIES!!! event

In November 2000, the ‘Next Issue’ blurbs in the Batman family of comics announced that something big was about to go down… Batman #585 Catwoman (v2) #88 Robin (v4) #84 The premise of a story in which the Dark Knight … Continue reading

Posted in WEBS OF FICTION | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Great post-‘No Man’s Land’ stories

A year ago, I did a couple of posts about the coolest stories from the 1999 mega-crossover No Man’s Land, in which Gotham City, partly destroyed by an earthquake, descended into chaos and was cut off from the rest of … Continue reading

Posted in BATMAN COMICS FOR BEGINNERS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment