If you’re looking for classic Batman graphic novels and must-read stories, there are plenty of listicles on the web to serve your needs. (I’ve provided some tips myself.) But perhaps you’ve already read those and are wondering what to get next, or perhaps you’re disappointed with the drab direction the series has taken as of late and find yourself in search of past glories, or maybe you’re just a nerdy hipster who wants to impress others with arcane knowledge in order to disguise your insecurities about not being able to come up with original ideas… In any case, I’m here to help. If you want cool, self-contained comics that flew under the radar, do yourself a favor and track down these overlooked gems:
‘Heretic’ (The Hill)
As hard as it is to write Batman stories informed by social realism, Christopher Priest pulls it off with confidence in this crime tale set in the Hill, Gotham City’s ghetto for the disenfranchised African-American community. Basically, the Dark Knight goes after a local kingpin but has to face the fact that people in the Hill are exposed to so much drama and violence in their everyday lives that they hardly give a damn about some white guy in a cape.
Artists Shawn Martinbrough and John Lowe help keep the comic tight, with a cinematic flow, although the narrative could have benefited from some decompression – it would have been more powerful and easy to follow if the various characters had been given more room to breathe. Regardless, Priest delivers pre-The Wire dialogue rich with urban slang and deals with the topic of social exclusion in a way that may be superficial but doesn’t come across as insultingly naïve or annoyingly preachy. Even better, he gives us a Bruce Wayne for whom both the Batman disguise and his douchebag playboy persona are means to an end, and who is willing to fully reinvent himself in order to achieve his aims.
‘Actions’ (Gotham Adventures #48)
Scott Peterson and Tim Levins (with occasional fill-ins by Rick Burchett) had an amazing run in Gotham Adventures. It was consistently satisfying, with the typical issue including a handful of dynamic action scenes yet still leaving enough room for a twist-filled crime story and some poignant characterization. In this sense, ‘Actions’ may seem like the least packed of the lot, as it is basically just a conversation between Robin (Tim Drake) and Alfred, accompanied by silent flashbacks and shots of Batman’s nocturnal activities. Yet this issue is such a meticulously constructed piece of storytelling that the fact that its creators make it feel simple and light becomes another one of their accomplishments.
There are three intertwined narratives: Robin coming to grips with Batman’s attitude towards the people he saves; Batman pursuing a car through the Gotham night; and, in flashback, Batman going to great lengths to help out a recently orphaned Dick Grayson. The off-page dialogue between Tim and Alfred is often superimposed on the two latter narrative threads, creating some amusing juxtapositions, such as when Alfred comments that Bruce sometimes seems ‘as though he’s entirely wrapped up in his work’ while we see an evil contortionist literally wrap himself around Batman (yes, an evil contortionist). It is a virtuoso act that culminates in a final page where all story threads pay off simultaneously. What makes the issue shine even more than its execution, however, is the fact that the choice to keep the Batman panels wordless further enhances the central theme that for the Dark Knight actions speak louder than words.
‘Carnival of the Cursed’ (Batman #224)
Angered that one of his favorite musicians was murdered, Batman sets off to New Orleans to bring the killers to justice. Because it’s New Orleans, he gets into a fight on a funeral second line, daringly escapes from a deathtrap on a Mississipi paddle steamer, and the whole thing culminates at a moonlit Mardi Gras parade. As I’ve pointed out before, Denny O’Neil sure knows how to write one hell of a Batman story!
Just like a jazz song built around a recognizable structure, this comic is less about the plot than about atmosphere… and boy is there plenty of atmosphere. O’Neil is in poetic mode, from the opening lines (‘Clouds cluster in a slate-grey sky line like ancient mourners… A finger of wind pokes sharply from the river… And rain falls with a sad whisper on New Orleans…’) to the powerful ending where the horn which has spawned music, greed, and murder ends up as just a battered piece of metal on the street. But it’s the art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano – together with the carnavalesque colors – that truly makes this comic work, bringing to life a haunted city where the malformed villain looks like just another grotesque Mardi Gras costume.
‘The Frigid Finger of Fate!’ (Detective Comics #375)
Told from the point of view of a criminal, this is one of those stories where the Caped Crusader takes the backseat, serving mostly as McGuffin and deus ex machina in someone else’s tale. Indeed, here is a story that could just as easily have come out of Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Gardner Fox’s script, one of the last in his long run, just never lets go: there’s an intriguing opening hook (a sniper is about to shoot Batman, claiming that he has already seen himself doing it), a smooth flashback (rain transitioning into shower water), a hard-on-his-luck protagonist trying to grasp the rules of a bizarre gift (his premonitions only work if he dreams them while feeling cold), a Barbara Gordon cameo, literary references ranging from Sophocles to Coleridge (and a likely autobiographical wink about authors getting story plots from dreams), a good-spirited dose of Dynamic Duo whoopass, a couple of plot twists, and a denouement that is as dark and poetic as they come.
Fox being Fox, the comic may feel a bit cluttered with text (although the wordy narration does help build up tension) and there are some quirky details, such as a Batman-themed holiday and a thief who supplies a gratuitous lesson about diamonds – still, nothing nearly as eccentric as this issue’s back-up story, which features the Elongated Man and a guy with the power to literally stop clocks with his face. As for the art, the clean lines of Chic Stone (ghosting for Bob Kane, according to the Grand Comics Database) do not always reach Eisneresque levels of expressionism and experimentation, but Irv Novick’s cover comes remarkably damn close…
‘Earthly Delights: Scenes from a Work in Progress’ (Batman and Robin #26)
And now for something completely different: a freaky superhero tale set in Paris, with Dick Grayson acting as Batman (not that his identity makes any difference in this story). The Dynamic Duo gets called in by Nightrunner (AKA the French Dark Knight) when there is a breakout at the Parisian version of Arkham Asylum. What ensues is a surreal battle among an upside-down Louvre and an insane mob whose collective id has been magically unleashed. The twist is that, because it’s France, the villains are all mind-bending and highbrow, their crimes channeling various arts, such as film, architecture, sculpture, painting, performance, and literature.
Writer David Hine planned for a longer storyline but ended up getting only one issue, so he crammed all his fascinating ideas into 20 pages of madness. Hine, who is a master craftsman of bizarre, conceptual comics (if you don’t believe me, check out his Bulletproof Coffin), breaks the issue into sub-sections paying homage to specific creators, from René Magritte to Man Ray. The result is fun, challenging, and sometimes mesmerizing. No wonder Hine decided to open the comic with the word ‘Dada.’