Batman: The Dark Knight Archives, Vol. 1

Batman: The Dark Knight Archives #1

by Bill Finger, Gardner Francis Fox, Whitney Ellsworth

Striking fear in the hearts of criminals, Batman is a mythical creature of the night who protects the streets of Gotham with his own form of dark justice. Through the years, as this legendary character has evolved, he has also gained in popularity and prominence. BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES VOL. 1 reprints the early adventures from Batman's past, which now serve as the foundation for his worldwide appeal. Featured in this book are the first appearances of his archnemesis the Joker and his feline adversary, Catwoman.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

William "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development. In later years, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation. Comics historian Ron Goulart, in Comic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger", and a DC Comics press release in 2007 about colleague Jerry Robinson states that in 1939, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for [DC predecessor] National Comics".

Film and television credits include scripting The Green Slime (1969), Track of the Moon Beast (1976), and three episodes of 77 Sunset Strip.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Corban Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Batman was a Killa...figuratively AND literally! It was crazy to read these issues and see how "dark" the "dark knight" truly was, but it was also interesting and I surprisingly had more than a few laughs at Batman just offing evil doers. Definitely recommended, especially for the chilling introduction of the Joker into comic book mythos.

[Althea J.]

I'm not drawn to The Golden Age of comics, so when the Panels 2015 Read Harder Challenge had a category that required me to read a book from that era, I wanted to read all of the Catwoman Golden Age appearances. This is not collected as such, so I sought out each issue that features Catwoman.

This book collects Batman issues #1-4, the first 3 of which contain Catwoman stories. So those are the 3 stories I'll be talking about here.



First of all, while reading Batman #1, all I could think of was "...a superstitious cowardly lot!"

(and if that embed code doesn't work, here's a link to the full clip of Batman, The Musical from the Batman Beyond episode: https://youtu.be/ebI8H5nq5L4)

...the tone of which is totally apt. Golden Age Batman isn't *quite* as goofy, but it's the kind of thing you read and take with a grain of salt. It is what it is. Not something I'd like to spend a lot of time reading, but a fun little jaunt back in time.

I got the biggest kick out of realizing this early Catwoman is the Gene Parmesan of her day :). She is a master of disguises in all 3 of these storylines...

from Batman #1:


from Batman #2:


from Batman #3:



please forgive me as I attempt to paste in a flurry of Arrested Development gifs that are totally applicable because everytime Catwoman is revealed, I thought, "GENE!, I knew it!" in Lucille's voice









(all from here)

I did LOVE seeing the Bats/Cat dynamic in its infancy. Hoo-boy, the UST is delightful even then :)

See for yourself...

from Batman #1:

https://41.media.tumblr.com/cca1e8d34...

https://36.media.tumblr.com/09331ccbd...

from Batman #3:

https://40.media.tumblr.com/672d01453...

https://40.media.tumblr.com/5d36ff46f...

https://36.media.tumblr.com/261b6d814...

[Jeff Mauch · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the full history of the Batman character last month, I felt I at least had to read a selection of the very early comics to truly get a feel for where Batman started. This collection was some of the very early issues from 1940-1941, which is right at the beginning considering Batman debuted in 1939. I pretty much got exactly what I expected here, Batman and Robin as the ultimate do-gooders. I can now truly see that the Batman TV show with Adam West that appears bizarrely campy is almost an exact representation of the 1940s Batman. He spouts cheesy quips at the bad guys, always has the perfect solution hidden in his boot or up his sleeve, and always tries to prevent killing others at all costs. The art here is the real gem, not the story lines, especially in the comics that include the Joker. I actually find the early Joker to be by far the most interesting thing enclosed in these pages because of just how different he was from the Jokers that I grew up with in film and television. Overall this is a good read, but it gets repetitive after reading a number of adventures as you can usually see the ending coming one way or another and these are incredibly predictable. That said, it's definitely worth a flip through just to see the 1940s comic art.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of Batman comics #1-4 from 1940-1941, also with Robin. Stories with the Joker are definitely the best

[Casey Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some fun and antiquated reads.

[Eamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great Compilation That Reminds us of Batman's past, Batman: The Dark Knight Archives, Vol. 1 is sure to delight.

[7medb7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

[Daryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection to read, for the historical perspective, if nothing else. The hardcover collection reprints the first four issues of Batman from 1940-41 (not the first Batman stories, as those appeared in Detective Comics a couple of years previous, and have been reprinted elsewhere). Here we get the first (and 2nd, 3rd, & 4th) appearance of the Joker and the first (and 2nd & 3rd) appearance of Catwoman. In addition, Batman spends a lot of time fighting mobsters and gangsters, as well as a few weird stories ("The Case of the Missing Link" from issue #2 was particularly strange). One of the things I noticed about it was the occasional poor placement of the word balloons and (especially) captions, which made it difficult to follow the order in which they were to be read. Probably the biggest differences between these stories and modern comics comes in the art. I was surprised by how good and detailed the art actually was, and also the predominance of full figure action shots. Today we'd see lots more close-ups, but in these stories we see lots of long distance shots of complete figures. I'm not sure what that means, but it was the most obvious thing about the art. There are four stories per issue (16 in all) and they all wind up in the 13-page format. This is not the grim, dark knight version of the Batman (despite the title) that has been prevalent since the '80s. This Batman is a wise-cracker on a par with his partner Robin, who appears in (almost) every story here. These aren't earth-shattering stories, but historically fascinating.

[Doug Brunell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a Batman fan. I am also a fan of DC's Archive editions, and this one is a must-have as it is priced at under $20. You can't go wrong.

The reason it only gets three stars, however, is due to the writing. I understand that these stories were written in the 1940s, but that doesn't excuse poor stories and plot holes. Taken in context of the times, it was pretty remarkable stuff, but even during these story's original publication the issues are obvious ... and obviously ignored by readers.

Classic and essential Batman, but don't expect solid storytelling.

[Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can I just say that I love this version of Batman, and always will?

Nowadays, it seems like every single Batman comic/movie/game is DARKER AND GRIMER. And yes, some of those comics are fantastic (such as The Killing Joke) but I miss the days of The Goddamn Batman. It's good to see all the bad quips ("That's like Robin Hood, not robbing hoods!"") and nonsensical situations (A shark! Guess I have no choice BUT PUNCHING IT.) in this volume.

[Renata · Rating 2 out of 5]

UHH maybe only worth reading if you have mad nostalgia for Golden Age Batman. Or have to read Golden Age Batman for your comics class. Basically, kitschy and moderately entertaining but if it hadn't been for class I probably would have stopped after 30 pages or so. The storytelling just doesn't really hold up.

Please don't murder me, Batman fans.

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to see how much Batman has changed over the years. Nice visit to the Batman archives.

[Cyn McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Batman #1-4 (quarterly, 4 stories per issue) Spring 1940-Winter 1941

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is so much cheese in early batman...