Batman Archives, Vol. 2 by Bill Finger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book contains nearly 300 pages of Golden Age reprints of Batman stories from Detective Comics #51-#70 with each story being 12 pages long.

The book features a great introduction by crime writer Max Allan Collins who breaks down the history on each comic and what it's going for. Collins is also able to offer some cogent comparisons with Dick Tracy.

Then we're for a total of 20 different stories which are solid quality. Of the twenty stories in the book, we have the first two stories with Two Face, three stories with Penguin (including the first two), and three with the Joker.

And the rest of the book is no slouch either. There's a great amusement park story which is plenty of fun: pirates, a story featuring black marketeers with a fight on board a Nazi Zeppelin. There are some strange crime tales like a man who has 24 hours to live and starts killing off his heirs, a criminal gang hijacking police radio to send criminal messages, and a phony mentalist that actually gets the ability to read minds. I also loved, "The Three Racketeers."

The war rhetoric stars to heat up. Batman wants everyone to do their part, urging criminals shooting at him to conserve on bullets and the Joker flies away in a stolen bomber but assures Batman, "I'll send the Bomber back so it can drop a few eggs on the Japs." The Joker may be a homicidal maniac, but he's a patriotic one!

Robin continues to be outstanding, less of the traditional sidekick and more of a true partner. The villains put Batman to the test and Batman comes through every time.

These are simply superb stories. There are minor points to critique. The second Two Face Story is a little too over the top. The story featuring a Raffle Rip off named Baffles is merely okay. And the gesture of having the entire city conspire to deceive the parents of an understudy actress is sweet, but comes off as more of a Superman thing to do with an ending that's a little forced. It's interesting to see someone argue that Gotham City isn't so bad though as we live in the "Gotham is hell" age.

Overall, these stories are absolute fun. The rough edges of the early comics have been cleaned up and what remains is one of the best Golden Age characters of them all. Whether in the Archives or the Batman Chronicles, these are must-read stories.





View all my reviews