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Batman Illustrated #2
Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams, Vol. 2
Collecting one comics' most legendary characters as envisioned by one its most influential creators, and featuring some of Batman's most memorable stories of all time. Neal Adams is the man responsible for taking Batman from TV-inspired campiness and returning him to into Gotham City's dark shadows, as a brooding and mysterious vigilante who strikes fear into the heart's of criminals everywhere. This stunning edition chronologically collects Neal Adam's Batman work from 1967 to 1969, with dark stories that set a new standard for the caped crusader and introduced him to a new generation of fans.
Collecting BATMAN #217, 220-222, 224-227 and 229-231, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #86, 88-90, 93 and 95, DETECTIVE COMICS #394-411 and WORLD’S FINEST #199-200 and 202.
Collecting BATMAN #217, 220-222, 224-227 and 229-231, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #86, 88-90, 93 and 95, DETECTIVE COMICS #394-411 and WORLD’S FINEST #199-200 and 202.
236 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2004
24 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Dennis O'Neil
1,751 books277 followers
Dennis "Denny" O'Neil
was a comic book writer and editor best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.
His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.
His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
March 3, 2019
Batman by Neal Adams Book Two contains stories from Batman 219, The Brave and the Bold 86 and 94 and Detective Comics 395, 397, 400, 402, 404, 407, 408, and 410.
Neal Adams is often credited with revitalizing Batman and changing comics forever with his illustration-based style. This volume is a prime example.
In Batman by Neal Adams Book Two, the Caped Crusader goes up against Man-Bat, Dr. Tzin-Tzin, and the League of Assassins, as well as more mundane menaces. He teams with Deadman and enters the House of Mystery, encounters ghosts and immortal lovers. None of the stories are anything spectacular apart from Neal Adams' art, although it's interesting to see Batman as the Dark Knight Detective rather than the guy who plans for every contingency. As a whole, the stories are more mature than the ones in Batman By Neal Adams Book One, although it's still amusing to see Neal Adams' realistic looking Batman engaged in occasional Silver Age silliness.
Neal Adams' art is as fresh as ever. It has a timeless quality, like it was in a comic published yesterday instead of being fifty years old. Dick Giordano's inks on most of the tales only serve to drive home that point. Adams and Giordano's Batman spends a lot of his time in moody, shadowy places. His Man-Bat is also great, a grotesque but still sympathetic figure. It's sad that Man-Bat has pretty much faded into obscurity these days since his tales in this collection were easily my favorites.
Neal Adams' reputation as a pioneer and innovator in comics is well-justified. While his Batman isn't quite my favorite, it's easily in the top three. Four out of five stars.
Neal Adams is often credited with revitalizing Batman and changing comics forever with his illustration-based style. This volume is a prime example.
In Batman by Neal Adams Book Two, the Caped Crusader goes up against Man-Bat, Dr. Tzin-Tzin, and the League of Assassins, as well as more mundane menaces. He teams with Deadman and enters the House of Mystery, encounters ghosts and immortal lovers. None of the stories are anything spectacular apart from Neal Adams' art, although it's interesting to see Batman as the Dark Knight Detective rather than the guy who plans for every contingency. As a whole, the stories are more mature than the ones in Batman By Neal Adams Book One, although it's still amusing to see Neal Adams' realistic looking Batman engaged in occasional Silver Age silliness.
Neal Adams' art is as fresh as ever. It has a timeless quality, like it was in a comic published yesterday instead of being fifty years old. Dick Giordano's inks on most of the tales only serve to drive home that point. Adams and Giordano's Batman spends a lot of his time in moody, shadowy places. His Man-Bat is also great, a grotesque but still sympathetic figure. It's sad that Man-Bat has pretty much faded into obscurity these days since his tales in this collection were easily my favorites.
Neal Adams' reputation as a pioneer and innovator in comics is well-justified. While his Batman isn't quite my favorite, it's easily in the top three. Four out of five stars.
December 1, 2017
Some of the stories here collected not aged much well at all, but Batman illustrated by Neal Adams is just an important milestone to Dark Knights comics fans, marking the end of the campy cartoonish Golden Age and the start of a more realistic and dark Silver Age, a path that the character is still walking in modern days.
Neal Adams photorealistic and sometimes Hammer-Horror inspired drawings are just awesome, and "The Secret of the Waiting Graves" and "Man or Bat!" are two of my most favourite Caped Crusader stories ever since I was a kid.
January 4, 2018
Neal Adams has long been one of the definitive Batman artists. His pages drip mood and atmosphere. Batman’s cape swirls around him, accentuating shadows. Dynamic figures seem to pop off the page. For me, one of the best versions of Batman were the stories by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams. They managed to simultaneously take him back to his roots while updating him for a contemporary age. They brought a new level of realism to the character that breathed fresh air into the concept.
That said, some of these stories are pretty contrived. I’m guessing that quite a number of them were written with a single scene or concept in mind, and the rest of the story was concocted as way to get there no matter how. Batman’s classic rogues gallery is notably absent. There’s no Joker, no Penguin, not even Maxie Zeus. I know Denny and Neal did at least one Joker story, but it must be in either volume one or three of this series. The classic, “Ghost of the Killer Skies,” is in here, though, as well as the notably creepy, “The Secret of the Waiting Graves.” This is a lovely collection of classic Batman stories. Highly recommended!
That said, some of these stories are pretty contrived. I’m guessing that quite a number of them were written with a single scene or concept in mind, and the rest of the story was concocted as way to get there no matter how. Batman’s classic rogues gallery is notably absent. There’s no Joker, no Penguin, not even Maxie Zeus. I know Denny and Neal did at least one Joker story, but it must be in either volume one or three of this series. The classic, “Ghost of the Killer Skies,” is in here, though, as well as the notably creepy, “The Secret of the Waiting Graves.” This is a lovely collection of classic Batman stories. Highly recommended!
May 29, 2011
The art is amazing, but the modern re-coloring on this edition flat out does not work for comics from the 60s-70s. The issue covers seem to have been colored differently than the interior story pages, as the coloring on the covers doesn't bother me.
December 20, 2022
This is more like it, compared to the last volume, but the updated coloring still sucks. Neal Adams’ Batman is all about atmosphere and a lot of that’s lost with this new coloring. It makes everything too highly contrasted, too crisp. Gone is the moody murkiness. It really makes Neal’s work uglier than ever!
Compare Detective Comics #395 from this volume to the Millennium Edition floppy or even old scans of the floppy. For example: the cliff-diving page: gone are the eerie violet and green backgrounds; now every panel has the same exact “midnight” blue peppered with white stars. How frigging boring is that?! Compare for yourself. Every page has been “updated” like this and the harm it does to the aesthetics and vibe is self-evident. Some artists literally don’t know what other people see in their work and I think that’s the case here. Sometimes artists work better when their own lack of tools or technology forces them, or their original colorist, to be inventive. For crying out loud, Neal Adams has subtracted the Neal Adams-ness from these comics!
This volume also features one really crazy issue that flies in the face of the whole ‘Neal Adams killed campy Batman idea’: the Christmas issue. Seeing Batman caroling is not gritty realism. Batman singing “dashing through the snow,” “we three kings of Orient are,” and “you better watch out” is just silly. For some reason the campiness is heightened because it’s all rendered in Neal Adams’ style. This could have been pulled off but the way Neal composes the pages—lots of head shots, as opposed to maybe long shots from the rafters with Glee Batman enshrouded in shadows—doesn’t work. None of the golden age Christmas stuff that I’ve read was this goofy.
I do love this era of Batman, though. Once Robin goes to college the stories get darker, more Grand Guignol, and they’re often honest-to-God mysteries that give Batman a chance to prove his “great detective” rep. But a lot of the best stories from this time aren’t drawn by Neal Adams! And they remain uncollected, sadly.
A lot of the covers are awesome and they appear to have been spared a lot of “updating” (updating for those ever-elusive “new readers” the big two are always courting in vain and for those “modern readers” who have no taste or sense of history.)
Regardless, how much you love or hate Man-Bat is probably what will dictate how much you love or hate much of this volume!
Compare Detective Comics #395 from this volume to the Millennium Edition floppy or even old scans of the floppy. For example: the cliff-diving page: gone are the eerie violet and green backgrounds; now every panel has the same exact “midnight” blue peppered with white stars. How frigging boring is that?! Compare for yourself. Every page has been “updated” like this and the harm it does to the aesthetics and vibe is self-evident. Some artists literally don’t know what other people see in their work and I think that’s the case here. Sometimes artists work better when their own lack of tools or technology forces them, or their original colorist, to be inventive. For crying out loud, Neal Adams has subtracted the Neal Adams-ness from these comics!
This volume also features one really crazy issue that flies in the face of the whole ‘Neal Adams killed campy Batman idea’: the Christmas issue. Seeing Batman caroling is not gritty realism. Batman singing “dashing through the snow,” “we three kings of Orient are,” and “you better watch out” is just silly. For some reason the campiness is heightened because it’s all rendered in Neal Adams’ style. This could have been pulled off but the way Neal composes the pages—lots of head shots, as opposed to maybe long shots from the rafters with Glee Batman enshrouded in shadows—doesn’t work. None of the golden age Christmas stuff that I’ve read was this goofy.
I do love this era of Batman, though. Once Robin goes to college the stories get darker, more Grand Guignol, and they’re often honest-to-God mysteries that give Batman a chance to prove his “great detective” rep. But a lot of the best stories from this time aren’t drawn by Neal Adams! And they remain uncollected, sadly.
A lot of the covers are awesome and they appear to have been spared a lot of “updating” (updating for those ever-elusive “new readers” the big two are always courting in vain and for those “modern readers” who have no taste or sense of history.)
Regardless, how much you love or hate Man-Bat is probably what will dictate how much you love or hate much of this volume!
June 5, 2025
Some terrific stories here with art by Neal Adams. A few I remember reading as a kid and many I’ve reread over the years. I particularly like the Man-Bat stories written by Frank Robbin’s. Classic Batman.
September 14, 2011
One of my top three Batman books, along with Year One and The Long Halloween. This may be the greatest collection of Batman stories ever published in one book.
Writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams came to Batman in the late 1960's and rescued the franchise from the buffoonery the books had become when they erroneously assumed the campy charms of the popular TV show could somehow be adapted to the world of four color crack.
The dynamic duo writer and artist infused intensity, drama, emotion, and respect into the books and created a Silver Age of brilliance that remains of the of the best eras for dynamic adventure storytelling for the Dark Knight.
This collection contains my personal favorite Batman story of all time, the bittersweet brooding love story "Man-Bat". It is a knockout tale.
I am a huge Jim Lee fan, but I have to say without a doubt the best Batman artwork of all time is in this book. No one can match the great Neal Adams. His framing and cinematic sense of movement is amazing!
This book was "restored" with modern digital coloring techniques. For those who prefer to read and experience these stories in something closer to how they may have looked in the original comics, the Batman in the 70's trade paperback reprints many of these same stories including "Man-Bat".
Writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams came to Batman in the late 1960's and rescued the franchise from the buffoonery the books had become when they erroneously assumed the campy charms of the popular TV show could somehow be adapted to the world of four color crack.
The dynamic duo writer and artist infused intensity, drama, emotion, and respect into the books and created a Silver Age of brilliance that remains of the of the best eras for dynamic adventure storytelling for the Dark Knight.
This collection contains my personal favorite Batman story of all time, the bittersweet brooding love story "Man-Bat". It is a knockout tale.
I am a huge Jim Lee fan, but I have to say without a doubt the best Batman artwork of all time is in this book. No one can match the great Neal Adams. His framing and cinematic sense of movement is amazing!
This book was "restored" with modern digital coloring techniques. For those who prefer to read and experience these stories in something closer to how they may have looked in the original comics, the Batman in the 70's trade paperback reprints many of these same stories including "Man-Bat".
December 9, 2021
We've now moved into the Denny O'Neil era, but I'm still waiting for this stuff to get "classic". A lot of the stories are only about 15 pages long, with nothing important continuing from one issue to the next. As with the first volume, this collection earns most of its rating from Neal Adams's artwork.
January 22, 2012
If you've been looking for Batman comics that remind you of Scooby Doo cartoons, this is the collection for you. The writing may be dated, but the art is still top notch. A very fun, weird trip.
August 23, 2021
Again, eh. Some more interesting stuff but still not too exciting. Less of Adams meddling with his own art but it's still here. Not super entertaining.
November 10, 2023
Less a collection of vintage comic books and more a bastardized George Lucas Special Edition-style commission, I have mixed feelings about Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2. On one hand, these stories are absolutely incredible, with crisp writing and Adams' frenetic artwork. On the other hand, I am a purist who wants to see these issues as originally published...just on better paper, printed without line bleed and off color registration, and squarebound in a collected edition as God intended. Neal Adams is one of my favorite artists, as his work bursts with excitement and breathes life. The problem with this book is not whether or not could Adams “improve” this material by reinking, redrawing, and recoloring it with then-modern computer coloring, but whether or not he should...and my answer is an emphatic no.
Okay, now that I have gotten all of that off of my chest I will tackle the stories themselves. Unlike Vol. 1, Adams is firing on all cylinders here. Also unlike Vol. 1, he is paired with top notch writers. Denny O' Neil is just fantastic, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good Frank Robbins' writing is since I have never read anything that he wrote before. He wrote the first two appearances of the Man-Bat based on Adams' plot (Detective Comics #400 and 402). Man-Bat frickin' rocks, and those issues are the highlight of the book. I loved watching Dr. Kirk Langstrom's mind go down the tubes the further his mutation progressed.
I enjoyed The Secret Of The Waiting Graves from Detective Comics #395. While it was predictable by modern standards it was well executed, and, quite frankly, Neal Adams' brilliant artwork could make the most banal story palatable. The Silent Night Of the Batman (Batman #219) is a hard-edged yet uplifting Christmas story, something that you would never see in today's overly sensitive politically correct world. No comic book or television show does Christmas specials anymore, they do “holiday” specials. Even if they are celebrating Christmas there is at least one Jewish person in the story to tell about their holiday, so on and so forth.
So the artwork is great, regardless if it is redrawn or not. Adams has a great sense of panel composition, with each flowing into the next, giving my mind the illusion of movement. The modern recoloring is mostly garish but occasionally works. I will be more than happy to double dip and buy this in an authentically recolored and properly restored (read: keeping Neal Adams as far away from the restoration process as possible!) Archives line of this era of Batman. I'm certain that there are a boatload of Adams fans who would be all over such a line. There are hardcovers available of these three books, but I could not justify buying the Special Edition version of Neal Adams' Batman in a high end hardcover. It didn't seem right. So these inexpensive softcovers were right up my alley. This is highly recommended reading in spite of the substandard recoloring.
There is a segment of the comic book buying population that would love to see all old comic books recolored with modern computer coloring techniques. I am not among that segment of the population. The reason why is evidenced in this very book. When I look at a collected edition of old material and see the flat four color process, I think Coloring may have been primitive, but this is authentic to how the material was originally published. When I look at this book I think Wow, this looks dated and garish by modern standards. Worse still, not only does this 2006 recoloring job look outdated but it is not authentic to the original publications. This is the ultimate lose-lose scenario. The folks who think that recoloring classic material with “modern” coloring is a good idea are the same folks who applaud George Lucas for making the original Star Wars trilogy Special Editions, replacing those “outdated” special effects with “state of the art” CGI...which is now also outdated by modern CGI standards. Folks should leave art alone.
Okay, now that I have gotten all of that off of my chest I will tackle the stories themselves. Unlike Vol. 1, Adams is firing on all cylinders here. Also unlike Vol. 1, he is paired with top notch writers. Denny O' Neil is just fantastic, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good Frank Robbins' writing is since I have never read anything that he wrote before. He wrote the first two appearances of the Man-Bat based on Adams' plot (Detective Comics #400 and 402). Man-Bat frickin' rocks, and those issues are the highlight of the book. I loved watching Dr. Kirk Langstrom's mind go down the tubes the further his mutation progressed.
I enjoyed The Secret Of The Waiting Graves from Detective Comics #395. While it was predictable by modern standards it was well executed, and, quite frankly, Neal Adams' brilliant artwork could make the most banal story palatable. The Silent Night Of the Batman (Batman #219) is a hard-edged yet uplifting Christmas story, something that you would never see in today's overly sensitive politically correct world. No comic book or television show does Christmas specials anymore, they do “holiday” specials. Even if they are celebrating Christmas there is at least one Jewish person in the story to tell about their holiday, so on and so forth.
So the artwork is great, regardless if it is redrawn or not. Adams has a great sense of panel composition, with each flowing into the next, giving my mind the illusion of movement. The modern recoloring is mostly garish but occasionally works. I will be more than happy to double dip and buy this in an authentically recolored and properly restored (read: keeping Neal Adams as far away from the restoration process as possible!) Archives line of this era of Batman. I'm certain that there are a boatload of Adams fans who would be all over such a line. There are hardcovers available of these three books, but I could not justify buying the Special Edition version of Neal Adams' Batman in a high end hardcover. It didn't seem right. So these inexpensive softcovers were right up my alley. This is highly recommended reading in spite of the substandard recoloring.
There is a segment of the comic book buying population that would love to see all old comic books recolored with modern computer coloring techniques. I am not among that segment of the population. The reason why is evidenced in this very book. When I look at a collected edition of old material and see the flat four color process, I think Coloring may have been primitive, but this is authentic to how the material was originally published. When I look at this book I think Wow, this looks dated and garish by modern standards. Worse still, not only does this 2006 recoloring job look outdated but it is not authentic to the original publications. This is the ultimate lose-lose scenario. The folks who think that recoloring classic material with “modern” coloring is a good idea are the same folks who applaud George Lucas for making the original Star Wars trilogy Special Editions, replacing those “outdated” special effects with “state of the art” CGI...which is now also outdated by modern CGI standards. Folks should leave art alone.
April 11, 2020
"Batman : tekijänä Neal Adams" (Egmont, 2005) sisältää tunnetun piirtäjän kynäilemiä tarinoita vuosilta 1969-1971. Käsikirjoituksista vastaavat muun muassa Denny O'Neil ja Frank Robbins. Lepakkomiehen seikkailut koettavat olla kovin goottilaisia ja tummanpuhuvia, mutta vähän tyhmänpuoleista touhu tuppaa olemaan. Kyllä joukkoon mahtuu muutama ihan mukavakin juttu, kuten vaikkapa Mike Friedrichin käsikirjoittama joulutarina "The Silent Night of Batman" tai vaikka Ihmislepakon ympärille rakentuva vähän pitempi tarinakokonaisuus.
Sarjakuva-albumiin on otettu mukaan myös kansikuvia saman aikakauden lehdistä, joissa näyttäisi seikkailevan Beatlesin jäseniä ja Mustia Panttereita. Olisi ihan jännä tutustua niihin!
Sarjakuva-albumiin on otettu mukaan myös kansikuvia saman aikakauden lehdistä, joissa näyttäisi seikkailevan Beatlesin jäseniä ja Mustia Panttereita. Olisi ihan jännä tutustua niihin!
May 18, 2022
While it was written and drawn years before I was born- somehow, someway- the Neal Adams and Dennis O'Neil Batman run has become the gold standard of Batman for me. Probably because I absorbed so many other people's collections growing up.
Yeah, there is ONE stinlers in here. The problematic Dr. Tzin-Tzin story. Another two I skipped because I read the Arkham Man-Bat collect last year which are great but I didn't feel like rereading so soon... but if you haven't read them you totally should.
So, GREAT Batman stories by perhaps the greatest creative team the Batbooks have ever had. And I count Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson when I say that.
Yeah, there is ONE stinlers in here. The problematic Dr. Tzin-Tzin story. Another two I skipped because I read the Arkham Man-Bat collect last year which are great but I didn't feel like rereading so soon... but if you haven't read them you totally should.
So, GREAT Batman stories by perhaps the greatest creative team the Batbooks have ever had. And I count Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson when I say that.
December 20, 2018
Very interesting collection and Adams does indeed add emotion and realistic hero proportions to Batman (as mentioned in the intro). The panels for the main part are artfully constructed and flowing, the storylines and covers suitability ridiculous. Some stories I read and enjoyed before, while some like the Silent Night themed issue were a welcome change in format, others like the one supposedly set off the coast of Ireland irked me somewhat but were enjoyable to laugh at. My favourite thing was the continuation of interactions with the man-bat.
June 9, 2024
As a comic collector, I recall seeing certain artists listed whose name on that issue meant an increase in value; Neal Adams was one of them (sometimes just the cover; by the way, THIS trade paperback is one of those where the cover gallery part may be the best part!). These stories from the late 1960s-early '70s are mostly single-issue stories, from the days of heavy word balloon narration (I liked, and still like, them though), but still a darkness that fit the later brooding Dark Knight. I'm sure the colors were redone for this collection, but the action and plot are strong regardless.
July 23, 2025
Collection of stories drawn by Neal Adams, ranging from run of the mill stories featuring Man-Bat, to more galactic and strange stories.
The main creator does a great job with illustration. By today's standard it holds up, while not wowing. What sets it back a bit is the basic coloring, giving it that retro look.
The stories are short and alright. Some cringe announcer boxes and inner dialogue is to be expected, but the stories themselves work well. I'll happily read the rest of these, but don't think I will keep them around for collecting.
The main creator does a great job with illustration. By today's standard it holds up, while not wowing. What sets it back a bit is the basic coloring, giving it that retro look.
The stories are short and alright. Some cringe announcer boxes and inner dialogue is to be expected, but the stories themselves work well. I'll happily read the rest of these, but don't think I will keep them around for collecting.
November 22, 2017
Adams' artwork is stunning. It's realistic without losing any of the energy of more stylized legends like Kirby or Ditko.
Unfortunately, by this time in history, Batman writers hadn't caught up to the sophistication of Adams' drawing, so there's a goofy, dumbed-down quality to the dialogue and some of the situations, but even that has its charm. And if nothing else, though, these stories and covers are gorgeous to look at.
Unfortunately, by this time in history, Batman writers hadn't caught up to the sophistication of Adams' drawing, so there's a goofy, dumbed-down quality to the dialogue and some of the situations, but even that has its charm. And if nothing else, though, these stories and covers are gorgeous to look at.
June 12, 2020
Tunnustan, että otin tämän albumin lukuun pelkästään Man-Batin ensimmäisten tarinoiden vuoksi, jotka olivatkin hauskoja. Myös Batman-sarjakuvan 60-70-lukujen historiaan tutustuminen oli mielenkiintoista. Albumissa on myös paljon vanhojen lehtien kansikuvia, jotka kannatti tsekata.
Nämä aikoinaan Batmaniä uudistaneet tarinat, eivät ole tietenkään kestäneet aikaa, mutta Neal Adamsin piirrokset ovat edelleen selkeän kauniita ja katselemisen arvoisia. Ehkä lukaisen Adamsin seuraavankin kokoelman 70-luvun alusta...
Nämä aikoinaan Batmaniä uudistaneet tarinat, eivät ole tietenkään kestäneet aikaa, mutta Neal Adamsin piirrokset ovat edelleen selkeän kauniita ja katselemisen arvoisia. Ehkä lukaisen Adamsin seuraavankin kokoelman 70-luvun alusta...
January 28, 2021
Neal Adams is an awesome Storyteller and Artist. His illustrations are brilliant and he makes the Barman fly off the pages with his dynamic artwork.
Neal Adams is one of the greatest artists who give life to an awesome superhero, The Batman on the pages of a comic book now a kindle comic.
Neal Adams is one of the greatest artists who give life to an awesome superhero, The Batman on the pages of a comic book now a kindle comic.
May 10, 2022
Better quality writing in this volume from writers I'd actually heard of (Dennis O'Neil, Len Wein & Marv Wolfman in particular but still hasn't completely shaken off the legacy of corny stories from the 50s & 60s, but it's getting there.
August 23, 2024
An improvement over the first volume.
Denny O'Neil and Len Wein/Marv Wolfman write some good stories, and I really liked Frank Robins' penned Man-Bat trilogy.
Overall, it's a decent light read with some great art.
Denny O'Neil and Len Wein/Marv Wolfman write some good stories, and I really liked Frank Robins' penned Man-Bat trilogy.
Overall, it's a decent light read with some great art.
September 18, 2017
Some of the best Batman stories ever told are in this volume.
January 26, 2020
Artwork is great, but some of the older stories are a bit silly. Still good stuff even if not as story based as stuff today
March 22, 2020
So much better than part one, I loved this so much.
A collection of random Batman stories written in the style of Adam West's Batman. I just loved all of it.
A collection of random Batman stories written in the style of Adam West's Batman. I just loved all of it.
July 5, 2020
I liked this second volume better than the first since it has several Man-Bat stories and a couple offbeat House of Mystery-type tales. Includes a number of covers as well.
May 30, 2021
Tasaisen upeaa taidetta mutta kaikki tarinat eivät ole kestäneet aikaa kovinkaan hyvin.
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August 15, 2024After reading a few issues and getting back into this style of 70's comic, I had a lot of fun with this
June 22, 2025
Another really good collection semi-ruined by revamped art. Is it just me, or is Batman kind of an asshole in every Manbat story? Let them get married! Pre-crisis Batman would HATE Swamp Thing.
January 28, 2026
An joy to read and to see Adams' art coming to life
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April 9, 2019The stories weren’t just Batman in a story, but stories about Batman and how he alone dealt with it. – Neal Adams, from introduction
The second Neal Adams collection is a step up from the first. The stories here are mostly from Batman’s solo titles, as opposed to exclusively team-ups. Each one has a strong sense of emotion, creepy atmosphere, and solid characterization for Batman. The book includes the first issues by the legendary team of Adams, writer Denny O’Neil, and inker Dick Giordano. Adams’ art remains fantastic.
The centerpiece of this collection is a three-part story introducing Man-Bat, or Kirk Langstrom. I wasn’t too familiar with Man-Bat before reading this book, thinking he was kind of silly. But these stories are great. Langstrom is a tragic character: a museum zoologist, he’s inspired by Batman to gain bat-like abilities and fight crime. He creates a serum that gives him heightened sensitivity to sound and light before mutating into a literal man-bat figure. Initially horrified, he later helps Batman fight crooks. But in the second story, Langstrom steals a chemical cure as Batman simultaneously attempts to halt his criminal urges and fix his condition. It’s a situation not unlike that of Two-Face: Batman believes he can put him on the right path, but Langstrom lapses into mad rampages.
I also loved “The Secret of the Waiting Graves” from Detective Comics 395. This is the first Batman collaboration between Adams and Denny O’Neil, and I can imagine what a jolt this story was to Batman readers at the time. It’s a supernatural mystery about immortality and death – themes far removed from the camp and sci-fi fare of the last two decades. The final pages are nearly silent; they contain eerie images that I’m still thinking about. In fact, there are a handful of powerful silent panels in this book, something I rarely saw in Golden or Silver Age stories. It’s a matter of writer and artist being in tune: O’Neil knows when to let Adams’ art tell the story. Narration would lessen the impact.
I did my best to take note of Adams’ framing and panel structure in this book. Open any page, and it’s visually interesting. His panels especially stand out. Adams frequently does away with your standard rectangular grids, opting instead for slanted sequences where characters creep beyond panel confinements. He also adds an unexpected splash page here and there.
And he draws some fantastic sequences with Batman. One of my favorites is in the second Man-Bat story from Detective 402. There’s a panel of Batman crouched, scanning for evidence. His face is hidden, but we see his reflection on the floor: stern, stoic, contemplative, even while his mind is surely racing with tactical tidbits and scientific formulas. It’s a great model of Batman’s two sides: the mystique and the detective.
Stray observations:
Adams’ introduction to the book is a great history lesson about how he came to draw the character.
A few stories didn’t move me as much as others. “Ghost of the Killer Skies”, about a murder during a WWI film shoot, is forgettable. I also didn’t get much out of “A Vow from the Grave”, whose emotional resolution didn’t hit as hard as the writer wanted it to.
It’s great to see Batman doing straightforward detective work in these stories. Examining evidence, deducing, using logic.
In most stories, the writers call him “The Batman”, instead of just “Batman”.
The League of Assassins is mentioned in at least one story here.
Another scene I loved comes from “Paint a Picture of Peril”. Batman fights thugs on a dock and is silent during the entire encounter, while they’re shouting at him and each other. The staging of this fight is great, with the action moving perfectly from panel to panel.
While most of the stories here have some sort of creepy supernatural element, “The House That Haunted Batman” goes full on horror. It’s a legitimately terrifying tale of Batman searching for Robin in a creepy mansion. Not for the easily spooked.
The second Neal Adams collection is a step up from the first. The stories here are mostly from Batman’s solo titles, as opposed to exclusively team-ups. Each one has a strong sense of emotion, creepy atmosphere, and solid characterization for Batman. The book includes the first issues by the legendary team of Adams, writer Denny O’Neil, and inker Dick Giordano. Adams’ art remains fantastic.
The centerpiece of this collection is a three-part story introducing Man-Bat, or Kirk Langstrom. I wasn’t too familiar with Man-Bat before reading this book, thinking he was kind of silly. But these stories are great. Langstrom is a tragic character: a museum zoologist, he’s inspired by Batman to gain bat-like abilities and fight crime. He creates a serum that gives him heightened sensitivity to sound and light before mutating into a literal man-bat figure. Initially horrified, he later helps Batman fight crooks. But in the second story, Langstrom steals a chemical cure as Batman simultaneously attempts to halt his criminal urges and fix his condition. It’s a situation not unlike that of Two-Face: Batman believes he can put him on the right path, but Langstrom lapses into mad rampages.
I also loved “The Secret of the Waiting Graves” from Detective Comics 395. This is the first Batman collaboration between Adams and Denny O’Neil, and I can imagine what a jolt this story was to Batman readers at the time. It’s a supernatural mystery about immortality and death – themes far removed from the camp and sci-fi fare of the last two decades. The final pages are nearly silent; they contain eerie images that I’m still thinking about. In fact, there are a handful of powerful silent panels in this book, something I rarely saw in Golden or Silver Age stories. It’s a matter of writer and artist being in tune: O’Neil knows when to let Adams’ art tell the story. Narration would lessen the impact.
I did my best to take note of Adams’ framing and panel structure in this book. Open any page, and it’s visually interesting. His panels especially stand out. Adams frequently does away with your standard rectangular grids, opting instead for slanted sequences where characters creep beyond panel confinements. He also adds an unexpected splash page here and there.
And he draws some fantastic sequences with Batman. One of my favorites is in the second Man-Bat story from Detective 402. There’s a panel of Batman crouched, scanning for evidence. His face is hidden, but we see his reflection on the floor: stern, stoic, contemplative, even while his mind is surely racing with tactical tidbits and scientific formulas. It’s a great model of Batman’s two sides: the mystique and the detective.
Stray observations:
Adams’ introduction to the book is a great history lesson about how he came to draw the character.
A few stories didn’t move me as much as others. “Ghost of the Killer Skies”, about a murder during a WWI film shoot, is forgettable. I also didn’t get much out of “A Vow from the Grave”, whose emotional resolution didn’t hit as hard as the writer wanted it to.
It’s great to see Batman doing straightforward detective work in these stories. Examining evidence, deducing, using logic.
In most stories, the writers call him “The Batman”, instead of just “Batman”.
The League of Assassins is mentioned in at least one story here.
Another scene I loved comes from “Paint a Picture of Peril”. Batman fights thugs on a dock and is silent during the entire encounter, while they’re shouting at him and each other. The staging of this fight is great, with the action moving perfectly from panel to panel.
While most of the stories here have some sort of creepy supernatural element, “The House That Haunted Batman” goes full on horror. It’s a legitimately terrifying tale of Batman searching for Robin in a creepy mansion. Not for the easily spooked.
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