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Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway #2
Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway Vol. 2
From the time his first story was published in 1969, Gerry Conway became one of the most prolific and highly regarded comics writers of the era. He wrote for nearly every character being published at the time, and his original creations--including Firestorm, Steel and Vixen--changed comics history forever. Conway's work had a profound effect on the legacy of Batman, with his creations Killer Croc and Jason Todd becoming mainstays in the legend of the Dark Knight.
Illustrated by artists including, Gene Colan, Don Newton, Klaus Janson and José Luis García-López and featuring guest appearances by Superman, Man-Bat, and the whole Bat-Family, these classic tales showcase one of the greatest talents ever to write for the Caped Crusader!
Collects Batman #337-346, #348, Detective Comics #505-513, World's Finest Comics #270.
Illustrated by artists including, Gene Colan, Don Newton, Klaus Janson and José Luis García-López and featuring guest appearances by Superman, Man-Bat, and the whole Bat-Family, these classic tales showcase one of the greatest talents ever to write for the Caped Crusader!
Collects Batman #337-346, #348, Detective Comics #505-513, World's Finest Comics #270.
472 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2018
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About the author
Gerry Conway
2,061 books89 followersGerard Francis Conway (Gerard F. Conway) is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics' vigilante the Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man. At DC Comics, he is known for co-creating the superhero Firestorm and others, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway wrote the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 6, 2022
Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway Volume 2 collects Batman #337-346, #348, Detective Comics #505-513, World's Finest Comics #270.
This book is nearly 500 pages and still feels jam packed. Gerry Conway has enough subplots going to fuel an entire season of a Batman TV show. Man-Bat is missing, Poison Ivy is trying to take over the Wayne Foundation, and the mayor candidates are gunning for Batman and Commissioner Gordon. On top of all that, Vicki Vale is trying to discover Batman's identity and villains like Mirage, Two-Face, Dagger, Blockbuster, and others are up to their old tricks.
Rich Buckler, JLGL, Don Newton, Irv Novik, Trevor Von Eeden, and Gene Colan supply the pencils on this with a hoary host of inkers like Klaus Janson. Heavy hitters like Jim Aparo and Joe Kubert even do guest covers.
There isn't a lot more to say. These are some of the best pre-Crisis Batman stories of the 1980s.
This book is nearly 500 pages and still feels jam packed. Gerry Conway has enough subplots going to fuel an entire season of a Batman TV show. Man-Bat is missing, Poison Ivy is trying to take over the Wayne Foundation, and the mayor candidates are gunning for Batman and Commissioner Gordon. On top of all that, Vicki Vale is trying to discover Batman's identity and villains like Mirage, Two-Face, Dagger, Blockbuster, and others are up to their old tricks.
Rich Buckler, JLGL, Don Newton, Irv Novik, Trevor Von Eeden, and Gene Colan supply the pencils on this with a hoary host of inkers like Klaus Janson. Heavy hitters like Jim Aparo and Joe Kubert even do guest covers.
There isn't a lot more to say. These are some of the best pre-Crisis Batman stories of the 1980s.
April 13, 2020
More Batman goodness from 1981-82. Don Newton, with inks by Dan Adkins, drew the most beautiful Selina Kyle in one of these stories, in the top right panel on page 274. I love Gene Colan's Batman art from this period, but Batman was never drawn better at this period in time than by Don Newton, who was also drawing the Shazam! feature in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS and would later sign on to draw INFINITY, INC., completing a single issue before his unexpected death in 1984.
December 10, 2024
These collections had good intentions and in one way they were great and in another way they are frustrating for collectors.
The way they are great is - you get to pick one writer/artist to buy the collection around. Maybe you really like Len Wein's writing but not Marv Wolfman's/ Maybe you like Don Newton's art on Batman (I do) but not Gene Colon's. So there Tales of the Batman/Dark Knight are for you. They are also the very few ways you can get nice reprints from this time of Batman (the early 80's) other than the classic runs like Batman Year One and Death in the Family. Also - I really like the size and printing for these collections. Nice reproductions of the original comics on glossy paper and 43-ish page count means it is a lot easier to read than omnibuses. I used to be a big "omnibus" guy but lately I avoid them because they are so hard to carry around and even store on a bookcase.
The way they are frustrating is - collectors want completeness. And with these collections you would have to get them all to get a more complete run, there is some overlap if you got the writer volumes and the artist volumes (because Don Newton drew stories that Gerry Conway wrote). But, on that fron, I was happy that in this collection it is unbroken in terms of the issues collected Batman 337-46 and Detective comics 505-13. Although it is odd to have it skip back and forth from Batman to Detective comics.
So how was the content? Well Gerry Conway is a solid writer - I think he cut his teeth at Marvel on Spider-man. But when I say solid he also is not an exciting writer. He is great at having some on going threads while also doing episodic stories but none of the ongoing threads are that exciting and none of the stand alone stories are ones that really wowed me. Thanks to the incredible art by Don Newton and even (to a lesser extent) Gene Colon (inked by Klaus Janson) I still enjoyed reading this volume but none of these stories would crack a Batman Best of Collection.
My biggest complaint would be some of the ongoing story threads were not handled very well. One was: Who will win the mayor race of Gotham - so someone wins and he is in the pocket of a crime boss...ho hum. Then another one that was even worse was Poison Ivy brainwashes everyone on the Board of Governors at Wayne Enterprise to give her control of it but they can't say anything due to her brain washing. It was bad because it lasts so many issues but there is no drama. Every issue or two for a panel or two Batman laments "Ivy will soon have control over my company and I can't do anything about it!" and then on with the story for that issue. He never tries to have the brain control removed or do anything to fight it. this goes on for what seems like a year and then it is easily resolved one issue. This would have been much better as a self contained story rather than prolonging it for no dramatic reason. Or - even better - have the tension build up over the issues until it gets to a head. But alas...boring story and unsatisfying conclusion. Then there is one where Dick falls for what seems to be a vampire and ...it isn't even resolved. Then there is one with Man Bat that seems to be forgotten about but thankfully is tied up in the last issue in this collection. Too many story threads. Having ongoing stories CAN add to the interest of a book but in these cases they should have just been episodic.
So - that's my take. A fun collection. A great way to read some early 80's Batman. But nothing you need to go out of your way to get.
The way they are great is - you get to pick one writer/artist to buy the collection around. Maybe you really like Len Wein's writing but not Marv Wolfman's/ Maybe you like Don Newton's art on Batman (I do) but not Gene Colon's. So there Tales of the Batman/Dark Knight are for you. They are also the very few ways you can get nice reprints from this time of Batman (the early 80's) other than the classic runs like Batman Year One and Death in the Family. Also - I really like the size and printing for these collections. Nice reproductions of the original comics on glossy paper and 43-ish page count means it is a lot easier to read than omnibuses. I used to be a big "omnibus" guy but lately I avoid them because they are so hard to carry around and even store on a bookcase.
The way they are frustrating is - collectors want completeness. And with these collections you would have to get them all to get a more complete run, there is some overlap if you got the writer volumes and the artist volumes (because Don Newton drew stories that Gerry Conway wrote). But, on that fron, I was happy that in this collection it is unbroken in terms of the issues collected Batman 337-46 and Detective comics 505-13. Although it is odd to have it skip back and forth from Batman to Detective comics.
So how was the content? Well Gerry Conway is a solid writer - I think he cut his teeth at Marvel on Spider-man. But when I say solid he also is not an exciting writer. He is great at having some on going threads while also doing episodic stories but none of the ongoing threads are that exciting and none of the stand alone stories are ones that really wowed me. Thanks to the incredible art by Don Newton and even (to a lesser extent) Gene Colon (inked by Klaus Janson) I still enjoyed reading this volume but none of these stories would crack a Batman Best of Collection.
My biggest complaint would be some of the ongoing story threads were not handled very well. One was: Who will win the mayor race of Gotham - so someone wins and he is in the pocket of a crime boss...ho hum. Then another one that was even worse was Poison Ivy brainwashes everyone on the Board of Governors at Wayne Enterprise to give her control of it but they can't say anything due to her brain washing. It was bad because it lasts so many issues but there is no drama. Every issue or two for a panel or two Batman laments "Ivy will soon have control over my company and I can't do anything about it!" and then on with the story for that issue. He never tries to have the brain control removed or do anything to fight it. this goes on for what seems like a year and then it is easily resolved one issue. This would have been much better as a self contained story rather than prolonging it for no dramatic reason. Or - even better - have the tension build up over the issues until it gets to a head. But alas...boring story and unsatisfying conclusion. Then there is one where Dick falls for what seems to be a vampire and ...it isn't even resolved. Then there is one with Man Bat that seems to be forgotten about but thankfully is tied up in the last issue in this collection. Too many story threads. Having ongoing stories CAN add to the interest of a book but in these cases they should have just been episodic.
So - that's my take. A fun collection. A great way to read some early 80's Batman. But nothing you need to go out of your way to get.
May 12, 2025
So now I get the complete picture of a bunch of stories I already read in the Gene Colan volume. Fortunately there's a) a ton of new material here and b) I couldn't even remember the Colan stories in detail because my brain is on the blink.
This is the first time that Batman feels like a Comic Book forging ahead with its own identity rather than scrabbling around trying to come up with good stories from a revolving door of writers and artists. The art still isn't consistent but, honestly, Gene Colan is so good you can but just nod your head every time his pencils show up. it's gravy to Conway's writing that's utterly matured now - what's so beguiling to me is that he knows how to mix it up, when to throw in a villain of the week, when to rumble a long-term plot in the background, when to switchup styles, and even when to throw in some "Dick Grayson goes to find himself" stories. It's all so good. Not quite Stan Lee or Chris Claremont good but we're not far off it.
Unlike volume 1, which had a completely different tone to the writing, there was barely an issue I didn't love here. Highlights I guess are Poison Ivy and Two-Face, especially as the former sends Bruce into a multi-issue crisis which eventually segues into a Man-Bat recurring plot that sees him leaving his city apartment and going back to Wayne Manor. But I also just love the guy with the knives or the sportsman killer ... these stories cut to the heart of classic Batman but in a new context whilst the real villainy feels utterly new. There's something for everyone here. Bravo and I can't wait to get to the third volume.
This is the first time that Batman feels like a Comic Book forging ahead with its own identity rather than scrabbling around trying to come up with good stories from a revolving door of writers and artists. The art still isn't consistent but, honestly, Gene Colan is so good you can but just nod your head every time his pencils show up. it's gravy to Conway's writing that's utterly matured now - what's so beguiling to me is that he knows how to mix it up, when to throw in a villain of the week, when to rumble a long-term plot in the background, when to switchup styles, and even when to throw in some "Dick Grayson goes to find himself" stories. It's all so good. Not quite Stan Lee or Chris Claremont good but we're not far off it.
Unlike volume 1, which had a completely different tone to the writing, there was barely an issue I didn't love here. Highlights I guess are Poison Ivy and Two-Face, especially as the former sends Bruce into a multi-issue crisis which eventually segues into a Man-Bat recurring plot that sees him leaving his city apartment and going back to Wayne Manor. But I also just love the guy with the knives or the sportsman killer ... these stories cut to the heart of classic Batman but in a new context whilst the real villainy feels utterly new. There's something for everyone here. Bravo and I can't wait to get to the third volume.
March 27, 2024
Hey... remember the days when Batman was just supposed to be, like, a human man? With physical and cognative limitations, and relatively well-regulated emotions? Fighting colorful and entertaining villains who weren't all violent, psychopathic murderers?
Well, thanks to this book, I definitely do!
A wonderful compilation of Bronze Age Batman adventures written by Gerry Conway (with a bevvy of amazing artists) in the early '80s, this is meat-and-potatoes superhero storytelling from one of the unsung greats of the medium. Conway has a knack for spinning out engaging subplots that play out in the background-- in this volume alone, there's a contentious mayoral race and a devious plot by Poison Ivy to defraud the Wayne Foundation via hypnosis-- and, similar to his Spider-Man run, he churns out new supervillains on a regular basis... even though most of 'em didn't stick long-term. (My personal favorite is the Snowman, a half-man/half-Yeti with ice powers... but I'm also fond of Manikin, a former supermodel in a faceless, super-strong mannequin suit!)
The fact is, though, that Conway's storytelling is just rock-solid. These Batman tales are largely self-contained and satisfying, even with the ongoing subplots threaded through them... and his relatively grounded depiction of Batman allows the jeopardy to feel more immediate, and the stakes to feel higher. This is practically the platonic ideal of all-ages superhero comics.
Well, thanks to this book, I definitely do!
A wonderful compilation of Bronze Age Batman adventures written by Gerry Conway (with a bevvy of amazing artists) in the early '80s, this is meat-and-potatoes superhero storytelling from one of the unsung greats of the medium. Conway has a knack for spinning out engaging subplots that play out in the background-- in this volume alone, there's a contentious mayoral race and a devious plot by Poison Ivy to defraud the Wayne Foundation via hypnosis-- and, similar to his Spider-Man run, he churns out new supervillains on a regular basis... even though most of 'em didn't stick long-term. (My personal favorite is the Snowman, a half-man/half-Yeti with ice powers... but I'm also fond of Manikin, a former supermodel in a faceless, super-strong mannequin suit!)
The fact is, though, that Conway's storytelling is just rock-solid. These Batman tales are largely self-contained and satisfying, even with the ongoing subplots threaded through them... and his relatively grounded depiction of Batman allows the jeopardy to feel more immediate, and the stakes to feel higher. This is practically the platonic ideal of all-ages superhero comics.
September 18, 2018
I have to confess a bias for the era. These were stories I grew up with. It's nice to see a Batman who makes mistakes and on occasion gets his ass handed to him. The writing does get silly at some points and I've never cared for Gene Colon's superhero work but I still maintain you could do a lot worse.
June 19, 2020
While there are a few goofy stories in this collection, most of the stories are great. The art is mainly by Don Newton and Gene Conan, which is a great in itself. I really enjoyed how Conway crafted most of the stories as “done in one”, but had enough subplots carry from issue to issue that it also has the benefit of being an ongoing narrative. Overall, this is a great collection.
May 23, 2020
This must've been a low point for Batman. Most of the stories were soap-opera extensions to older stories from better times. All characters explaining themselves like parrots in the most wordy and clunky way possible. It's a wonder Batman managed to survive such poor writing!
November 13, 2021
Great early 80s art, fairly boring monster-of-the-week stories.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews