The Batman Chronicles, Vol. 7 by Bill Finger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects Batman stories from Detective Comics #66-#70 and Batman #12 and #13.

If you're looking for Batman facing foes has to this day, this is really a book for you. We get the first two two face stories in Issues 66 and 68. There's a lot about the character that's the same as today, yet because of the children's audience, these book were written for, some of the psychology is exaggerated or played weirdly. Still, it's a fun look at how this character came to be.

By this time, it seems the writers knew that when they did four Batman stories in an issue of Batman, one had better be about the Joker. He's in both issues of Batman and also in Detective Comics. This portrayal of the Joker is a puzzler. His MO is that he pulls an outrageous crime that on the surface looks like he's nuts...like actually "painting the town red," or stealing a kid's report card so he'll cry, or giving people items that are useless like a clock with only one hand. In each case, there's something far more devious behind it. These are fun stories.

The Penguin also appears in Detective Comics #67 and we're given an energetic and vibrant story.

As for the rest of the book? We're given some interesting stories. There's a mystery on the train, to there's a few morality tales involving non-super criminals, and then there's a goofy one where A guy regains his memory of being a crime boss by being hit with a stone and so decides to get revenge by using things that have stone in their name for his revenge. It's goofy but enjoyably so.

The ones that didn't work are, "Batman Takes a Lone Hand," where Batman convinces Robin that they're quits and we get a somewhat dumb story. And the final story with a mentalist who gets real mindreading powers has a few flaws and is a bit below the standards of the rest book.

Still with five stories from classic Batman villains from the 1940s that are mostly very good, Volume 7 of the Batman Chronicles is one of the better trades in this series.



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