What do you think?
Rate this book
Tales of the Batman
Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman, Volume 1
Marv Wolfman is one of the biggest writers to ever put pen to paper in the name of comics, now, DC collects the best Batman stories from the famed co-creator of The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Illustrated by artists including Irv Novick, Don Newton, Pat broderick and Rich Buckler, and featuring guest appearances by Tim Drake, Two-Face and the whole Bat-Family, these classic tales showcase one of the greatest talents ever to write for the Caped Crusader!
Collects Batman #328-335, #436-439, Detective Comics #408, The Brave and the Bold #167, World's Finest Comics #288, New Teen Titans #37 and Batman and the Outsiders #5.
Illustrated by artists including Irv Novick, Don Newton, Pat broderick and Rich Buckler, and featuring guest appearances by Tim Drake, Two-Face and the whole Bat-Family, these classic tales showcase one of the greatest talents ever to write for the Caped Crusader!
Collects Batman #328-335, #436-439, Detective Comics #408, The Brave and the Bold #167, World's Finest Comics #288, New Teen Titans #37 and Batman and the Outsiders #5.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2020
About the author
Marv Wolfman
2,298 books308 followersMarvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 9, 2021
Tales of the Batman: Marvel Wolfman Volume 1 collects Detective Comics #408, Batman #328-335, 436-439, The Brave and the Bold #167, World's Finest Comics #288, The New Teen Titans #37, and Batman and the Outsiders #5.
I've been digging these artist and writer Batman Best Of books for a few years now. This one dropped to $20 one day so I finally grabbed it.
Marv Wolfman has never been a favorite of mine outside of The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Most of the time, I think he's average writer at best. However, he crafted some readable Batman tales in his day.
For my money, the New Teen Titans / Batman and the Outsiders story and The Lazarus Affair were the best, although I wish The Lazarus Affair didn't have a title that spoiled who the mastermind was. Then again, with Talia involved, the Demon's Head is never far behind.
There's an all-star team of artists on this - Jim Aparoo, Irv Novick, Neal Adams, Dave Cockrum, George Perez, Don Newton, and others. Pat Broderick also does Batman: Year Three and somehow I'm not a fan of what he did, which is strange considering how highly I think of his work on Captain Marvel and Captain Atom.
While it wasn't the most enjoyable tale, Batman: Year Three was probably the best written, dealing with Batman's trauma over Jason Todd's death while rehashing his early relationship with Dick Grayson as Nightwing tries to pull him back from the brink.
Marv Wolfman isn't one of my favorite Bat-writers but Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman Volume 1 is still a decent collection of Batman stories. Three out of five stars.
I've been digging these artist and writer Batman Best Of books for a few years now. This one dropped to $20 one day so I finally grabbed it.
Marv Wolfman has never been a favorite of mine outside of The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Most of the time, I think he's average writer at best. However, he crafted some readable Batman tales in his day.
For my money, the New Teen Titans / Batman and the Outsiders story and The Lazarus Affair were the best, although I wish The Lazarus Affair didn't have a title that spoiled who the mastermind was. Then again, with Talia involved, the Demon's Head is never far behind.
There's an all-star team of artists on this - Jim Aparoo, Irv Novick, Neal Adams, Dave Cockrum, George Perez, Don Newton, and others. Pat Broderick also does Batman: Year Three and somehow I'm not a fan of what he did, which is strange considering how highly I think of his work on Captain Marvel and Captain Atom.
While it wasn't the most enjoyable tale, Batman: Year Three was probably the best written, dealing with Batman's trauma over Jason Todd's death while rehashing his early relationship with Dick Grayson as Nightwing tries to pull him back from the brink.
Marv Wolfman isn't one of my favorite Bat-writers but Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman Volume 1 is still a decent collection of Batman stories. Three out of five stars.
April 22, 2020
It's hard to not like Marv Wolfman's writing. His NEW TEEN TITANS series with George Perez and Romeo Tanghal, et al., was one of my favorite series of the early- to mid-1980s. Of the stories in this volume, however, I only remember reading two or three at the time they were published, and those were the issues featuring Two-Face and the BRAVE AND THE BOLD team-up with the Blackhawks. I'm not saying I didn't read others -- the ending of the four-part "Lazarus Trap" was oddly familiar, though it's possible I read about it somewhere.
The only stories that I really didn't care for were the "Batman: Year 3" four-parter and the WORLD'S FINEST COMICS reprint. The "Year 3" story, in particular, felt weird, but I chalk that up to it being a post-Crisis-, post-Batman:Year One-era tale featuring an even darker, more gritty Batman, especially as it takes place almost immediately after the brutal death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker.
There are enough Wolfman Batman stories to fill a second Tales of the Batman volume, and I'm sure I'll read them when the volume is published, but the late '80s/early '90s Batman is not my favorite.
The only stories that I really didn't care for were the "Batman: Year 3" four-parter and the WORLD'S FINEST COMICS reprint. The "Year 3" story, in particular, felt weird, but I chalk that up to it being a post-Crisis-, post-Batman:Year One-era tale featuring an even darker, more gritty Batman, especially as it takes place almost immediately after the brutal death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker.
There are enough Wolfman Batman stories to fill a second Tales of the Batman volume, and I'm sure I'll read them when the volume is published, but the late '80s/early '90s Batman is not my favorite.
February 10, 2025
I have been making my way through these Tales of the Batman compilations because they are a nice way to see some Batman stories form the 80's that haven't been reprinted in any other format. These collections, in general, are a great format: hardcovers, good paper and focus on a specific writer/artist from that era. This one actually disappointed me.
Marv Wolfman helped writer (really cowrite) the New Teen titans with George Perez and those are some of my fav comics of the 80's. I am seeing how much heavy lifting Perez did in the writing. Especially since you have one issue inserted in this volume because of the Teen Titans/Batman and the Outsiders crossover. That was the single best issue in the entire collection in terms of both writing AND art. There is also a four part Batman Year three at the end which was also solid - I will get to that later.
Other than that - yikes the writing was bad. We have a lot of forgettable stories and a four part Lazarus affair which was especially bad. Because it was such a typical Ras Al Ghul story that I feel I had read 50 times already by different writers. Bruce Wayne is getting harassed "but by who!?", Talia (Ras' daughter) is lurking around - "who could the big unknown villain be?!!". OMG! It was Ra's Al Ghul!! but he died how could he still be alive?! Oh right - he always comes back to life because of his Lazarus pit. And like he will 50 more times after this. Also Wolfman acted like Ras didn't know Batman was Bruce Wayne when that was something Ras figured out the first time he ever met Batman. Also - that makes the fact Ras was harassing Bruce Wayne very stupid. Why would he if he didn't know Bruce was Batman (which he does). It also doesn't help that "Bruce Wayne is getting his fortune stripped from him" was a story I just read in the Gerry Conway collection. And it also doesn't help that Irv Novak did most of the art in the first 2/3rds of the collection. That man makes Dick Dillan's art look dynamic. Just kidding. They both suck at drawing action. Every figure they draw looks like a posed mannequin.
I mean we even get some classic Batman villains, Two-Face, Catwoman, Ra's Al Ghul...all feel wasted in boring stories. And the main character development is "Batman is being snotty to Robin" but in the end they shake and respect each other. Not because of any revelations but because the story is over so let's end on a good note.
Then the Teen Titans/Outsiders story - that was actually very fun.
Then Batman Year three. A solid story involving the killer of Dick Grayson's parents and we flash back to when Bruce became Dick's ward (didn't adopt him). Good but my nitpick (when I first read this) was Batman Year One was a classic - perhaps the best Batman story ever. And it WAS his first year. Then the follow ups Year Two and Three could have been set at any time - they were just trying to ride the success of Batman Year One by using those titles. Year Three (the one in this collection) isn't even year three - it just flashes BACK to year three a little bit. And Robin Year one by Chuck Dixon (something that came out decades later) actually told the story of Robin's first year MUCH better.
All in all - I was very disappointed by the quality of Wolfman's writing. He was not a good writer of Batman by any stretch of the imagination. He is a good writer - just not for Batman.
Marv Wolfman helped writer (really cowrite) the New Teen titans with George Perez and those are some of my fav comics of the 80's. I am seeing how much heavy lifting Perez did in the writing. Especially since you have one issue inserted in this volume because of the Teen Titans/Batman and the Outsiders crossover. That was the single best issue in the entire collection in terms of both writing AND art. There is also a four part Batman Year three at the end which was also solid - I will get to that later.
Other than that - yikes the writing was bad. We have a lot of forgettable stories and a four part Lazarus affair which was especially bad. Because it was such a typical Ras Al Ghul story that I feel I had read 50 times already by different writers. Bruce Wayne is getting harassed "but by who!?", Talia (Ras' daughter) is lurking around - "who could the big unknown villain be?!!". OMG! It was Ra's Al Ghul!! but he died how could he still be alive?! Oh right - he always comes back to life because of his Lazarus pit. And like he will 50 more times after this. Also Wolfman acted like Ras didn't know Batman was Bruce Wayne when that was something Ras figured out the first time he ever met Batman. Also - that makes the fact Ras was harassing Bruce Wayne very stupid. Why would he if he didn't know Bruce was Batman (which he does). It also doesn't help that "Bruce Wayne is getting his fortune stripped from him" was a story I just read in the Gerry Conway collection. And it also doesn't help that Irv Novak did most of the art in the first 2/3rds of the collection. That man makes Dick Dillan's art look dynamic. Just kidding. They both suck at drawing action. Every figure they draw looks like a posed mannequin.
I mean we even get some classic Batman villains, Two-Face, Catwoman, Ra's Al Ghul...all feel wasted in boring stories. And the main character development is "Batman is being snotty to Robin" but in the end they shake and respect each other. Not because of any revelations but because the story is over so let's end on a good note.
Then the Teen Titans/Outsiders story - that was actually very fun.
Then Batman Year three. A solid story involving the killer of Dick Grayson's parents and we flash back to when Bruce became Dick's ward (didn't adopt him). Good but my nitpick (when I first read this) was Batman Year One was a classic - perhaps the best Batman story ever. And it WAS his first year. Then the follow ups Year Two and Three could have been set at any time - they were just trying to ride the success of Batman Year One by using those titles. Year Three (the one in this collection) isn't even year three - it just flashes BACK to year three a little bit. And Robin Year one by Chuck Dixon (something that came out decades later) actually told the story of Robin's first year MUCH better.
All in all - I was very disappointed by the quality of Wolfman's writing. He was not a good writer of Batman by any stretch of the imagination. He is a good writer - just not for Batman.
November 16, 2025
Placeholder for Bat Bronze Age Omni v5 Detective #488-505 & Batman #321-39
The weakest Bronze Age Batman vol yet as Wein's solid run ends, Wolfman's run mostly fizzles (except for the Catwoman-Robin team-up), & Conway's run starts weakly
1980-1 gems include Joker birthday, Spook & Two-Face sentence Batman to death, Capt. Bommerang v. batarang, Batman punches out a vampire’s fangs, Catwoman catnips Bruce Wayne & accidentally kills Catman, Batman committed to Arkham, Prof. Milo running the asylum, Batman & Vigilante’s nephew v. Riddler in Houston, original Clayface returns, Talia & Robin squabble, Electrocutioner debuts, Phantom Stranger takes the Dynamic Duo multiversal, Monarch of Menace extorts Cluemaster & Spellbinder, Scarecrow eludes Robin & Batgirl, Abominable Snowman debuts, jack-in-the-box samurai Joker, & Ivy ambushes Bruce Wayne
The weakest Bronze Age Batman vol yet as Wein's solid run ends, Wolfman's run mostly fizzles (except for the Catwoman-Robin team-up), & Conway's run starts weakly
1980-1 gems include Joker birthday, Spook & Two-Face sentence Batman to death, Capt. Bommerang v. batarang, Batman punches out a vampire’s fangs, Catwoman catnips Bruce Wayne & accidentally kills Catman, Batman committed to Arkham, Prof. Milo running the asylum, Batman & Vigilante’s nephew v. Riddler in Houston, original Clayface returns, Talia & Robin squabble, Electrocutioner debuts, Phantom Stranger takes the Dynamic Duo multiversal, Monarch of Menace extorts Cluemaster & Spellbinder, Scarecrow eludes Robin & Batgirl, Abominable Snowman debuts, jack-in-the-box samurai Joker, & Ivy ambushes Bruce Wayne
Read
January 25, 2023standouts are the ra's al ghul arc - batman's romantic tensions between catwoman and talia, cat woman and robin's team up is funny too. year 3 is also excellent. batman after the death of jason todd, grieving once again and alone, his neuroses building.
at this point in my batman readings i feel that the integral components of batman are his internal monologue during fights - describing his moves, monitoring his opponents, emphasizing his own injuries - and the compulsion that he must go out night after night. it's what makes batman so interesting - he does this because he has to because there's nothing else he can think of.
at this point in my batman readings i feel that the integral components of batman are his internal monologue during fights - describing his moves, monitoring his opponents, emphasizing his own injuries - and the compulsion that he must go out night after night. it's what makes batman so interesting - he does this because he has to because there's nothing else he can think of.
March 29, 2021
Wolfman's post-crisis run is significantly better than his pre-crisis run.
April 19, 2022
*3 and a half stars*
May 10, 2024
A nice and fun long read.
That was fun. A nice collection of Batman stories. Not much too say but the word fun. Read it today!
That was fun. A nice collection of Batman stories. Not much too say but the word fun. Read it today!
July 9, 2022
A collection of Batman stories, some are good, some are decent and others are less then than spectacular.
The House the Haunted Batman - great art by Neal Adams, but a weird and forgettable story.
Double Jeopardy & Twice Dies the Batman - good murder-mystery featuring one of Batman's most notorious foes.
Ice Station Alpha - Batman fighting Nazis in WW2 together with Blackhawk. Meh.
Target & Closed Circuit - 2 standalone stories, which also serve as setting up the next arc. Talia enters Bruce/Batman's life, and Robin is around for this too. Nothing too wow.
The Lazarus Affair - This 4-issue story is my favourite part of this book. Batman, Talia and Robin work together (or not?) to find out who's trying to ruin Bruce Wayne and why, and this sets them up for some adventures around the globe, including the Swiss Alps and Shanghai. Catwoman joins the party too.
To Hell and back - Batman/Superman team-up. Bats is taken over by an evil force and tries to fight it from within, while Supes is working on the outside. Decent.
Batman & The Outsiders and The New Teen Titans - 2 issues where the two groups take on the Fearsome Five. Not really a Batman story, but it's ok. The most interesting thing for me was seeing Robin's inner struggle regarding Batman assuming leadership of the group fight against the villains.
Batman Year Three - good story, which is about Nightwing and his origins as Robin just as much as it is about Batman.
The House the Haunted Batman - great art by Neal Adams, but a weird and forgettable story.
Double Jeopardy & Twice Dies the Batman - good murder-mystery featuring one of Batman's most notorious foes.
Ice Station Alpha - Batman fighting Nazis in WW2 together with Blackhawk. Meh.
Target & Closed Circuit - 2 standalone stories, which also serve as setting up the next arc. Talia enters Bruce/Batman's life, and Robin is around for this too. Nothing too wow.
The Lazarus Affair - This 4-issue story is my favourite part of this book. Batman, Talia and Robin work together (or not?) to find out who's trying to ruin Bruce Wayne and why, and this sets them up for some adventures around the globe, including the Swiss Alps and Shanghai. Catwoman joins the party too.
To Hell and back - Batman/Superman team-up. Bats is taken over by an evil force and tries to fight it from within, while Supes is working on the outside. Decent.
Batman & The Outsiders and The New Teen Titans - 2 issues where the two groups take on the Fearsome Five. Not really a Batman story, but it's ok. The most interesting thing for me was seeing Robin's inner struggle regarding Batman assuming leadership of the group fight against the villains.
Batman Year Three - good story, which is about Nightwing and his origins as Robin just as much as it is about Batman.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews