Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
This is the third volume of Batman stories that Martin Greenberg edited to capitalize on the popularity of the Batman film series in the '90s. (It's actually third even though the title says second because the true second was titled The Further Adventures of the Joker.) Greenberg did a good job of selecting writers from both the science fiction and mystery genres, as well as presenting different facets of this character who'd frequently overlooked. My favorites in this one were by Nancy Collins (the only writer represented who was also particularly noted for work in comics), Max Allan Collins, Steve Rasnic Tem, and William F. Nolan. Grab your bullet-proof umbrella...
The Penguin has always seemed to be a dumb bad guy to me. This book proves me wrong. The book looks at The Penguin as not just smart, but also a nearly worthy foe. Stories that stand out are "Fat Tuesday", "Brothers", "Robber's Roost", "Vulture: A tale of the penguin", "Reformed", "Going Straight", and one where abused and homeless children are vanishing off the streets...but why would the penguin care? We even look into Penguin's troubled past, when he seems to be killing off old members of a gang that used to bully and torment him for years.
Interesting but too often follows the pattern of The Penguin escapes/released from jail, appears to be going straight, Batman suspects otherwise and is proved right.