BatChat With Matt & Will: A Batman Ranking Podcast Matt Lazorwitz

The beauty of DC's Elseworlds concept, rather than a more traditional What If? or imaginary story, is the variety it opened up. This wasn't a simple small recasting of one event, butterfly effect style, but creators imaginations could go wild and choose different times, places, and even twist the most basic concepts of the character that was starring in the book. And sometimes those stories got a bit... spooky. This week, we're reading three Elseworlds inspired by classic horror. See Batman fight the Elder Gods, create life, and confront the Masque of the... Purple Death?

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham #1-3
Batman: Castle of the Bat
Batman: Masque

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

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Of all superheroes, Batman seems to have spawned more characters that are dark reflections of him than any other. Sure, Superman has Bizarro, and Spider-Man has Venom, but Batman has a legion of the them: Killer Moth, Bane, Hush, Owlman (the Lincoln March one), Wrath, Prometheus. There are enough to fill multiple episodes, so we have to start somewhere. This week, it's the two most directly anti-Batman dark mirrors from DC comics, but an intercompany crossover with the character who might just be the ultimate dark mirror of Batman.

Batman/Grendel (Batman/Grendel: Devil's Riddle, Batman/Grendel: Devil's Masque)
... The Player on the Other Side (Batman Special # 1)
Prometheus (New Year's Evil: Prometheus, JLA # 16-17)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

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While there are plenty of stories with Bruce Wayne in them, how many are really about Bruce Wayne? Not Batman, the Dark Knight, but captain of industry, philanthropist and playboy Bruce Wayne? At least three, as this week we look at the story of Bruce's problematic return to health after Knightfall, a 150 year old corpse at Wayne Manor, and a day in the life of Bruce Wayne

Knightquest: The Search (Justice League Task Force # 5-6, Batman: Shadow of the Bat # 21-23, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 59-61)
Wayne Manor: Anatomy of a Murder (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #45)
24/7 (Batman: Gotham Knights #32)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Batman's allies are known for many things. Their brains. Their fighting skills. Their dedication. And while Dr. Leslie Thompkins, the woman who comforted Bruce Wayne the night his parents were killed is lacking in the second of those three attributes, she more than makes up for it in the first and third. Leslie is a strict pacifist in a world that runs on tights and fights, and so provides a point of view that we rarely see. This episode we talk about Leslie's first appearance, a story that might fill the timeline between Year One and Dark Knight and why calling out your usage of racist stereotypes doesn't make using them any better.

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley (Detective Comics V.1 # 457)
Faith (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 21-23)
The Surrogate (Detective Comics V.1 # 791-793)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill

Wouldn't it be great to go to school in Gotham City? Well, it probably wouldn't be scarier than anywhere else. This week, Mrs. Abigale Heartbalm, Esq. stops by, and we talk Gotham Academy and two other school centric Batman related stories. We talk about how Gotham Academy successfully brings manga tropes to Gotham, question how far an AU story can diverge from canon before it breaks established readers' view of the world, and what exactly a MacGuffin is.

Welcome to Gotham Academy (Gotham Academy # 1-6)
Bruce Wayne: Not Super OGN
Tree of Knowledge (Batman Adventures V.1 # 26)

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Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

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Every time Will has complained about how much he hates Hush, Matt or someone else said, "Well, read 'Heart of Hush.' That might change how you feel." And this week he did. And, well, it was the best story of the week, and the best story centered around Hush as the primary antagonist (since the original "Hush" story is a Riddler story in the end). We discuss why Hush doesn't seem to work, more of Paul Dini's psychology, and the one good page in the third story we wish was the entire comic.

Pushback (Batman: Gotham Knights # 50-55)
Heart of Hush (Detective Comics V.1 # 846-850)
Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman- Hush

Check out our current ranking list at www.comicsxf.com/batchat-rankings/

Thanks to Geri Nonnewitz for our podcast logo

Follow the show on Twitter @BatChatComics and support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/batchatwithmattandwill