What a time to be a kid. 8-year-old chezkevin caught the fever around the end of the series, but that was basically my first exposure to Batman. I loved it. I drew Batman on the walls around our house. My grandpa got me Batman shoes, and used the shoebox as his personal spice rack. I imagine opening the cupboard and it warms my heart to see that shoebox in there, a reminder of both my childhood heroes. My uncle got me the 1998 Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero animated movie on VHS for Christmas that year...from Blockbuster. Remember those?!?
For these reasons, Batman: The Animated Series will always be close to my heart. I'm a sucker for nostalgia. The way that Batman looks in this particular design will always be home to me. So it's a no-brainer that I picked up the 4-volume collection of the comic book spin-off. For whatever reason, these 10-issue collections are budget-friendly at $2.99 or $3.99 at comiXology. They're worth much more than that.
The Batman Adventures: Volume 1
by Kelley Puckett, Ty Templeton and more
Collects the first 10 issues of the 1992 series
- Issue #'s 1-3: The Joker orchestrates heists for two villains -- The Penguin in #1, and Catwoman in #2, and reveals himself in issue 3 to kidnap Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, and murder them on live television. All-ages, huh?? Issue #1 is unique in the wry humor depicted as the Penguin attempts to infiltrate high society and educate his henchmen, makes this one unique.
- 4-5: Scarecrow hits the scene with a "dyslexia ray" that causes car accidents and riots in Gotham City. It's up to Batman and Robin to stop him. This story is a great example of how some of Batman's villains are victims...of themselves. Jonathan Crane, while imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, accepts an offer to teach part-time at a college to reduce his sentence. When he despairs at the students he's given, there's only one person left to turn to...
See the tears in his eyes. You can tell that he really doesn't want to give in, but he can't help it. This psychotic persona is the only way he can cope. Like a lot of other Batman villains, he's a victim of himself.
- 6: One-shot murder mystery...and Bruce Wayne is suspect #1! Batman and Robin work together to deduce a murderer, all while Bruce is in jail. The main highlight from this issue is the atmosphere. It all takes place one dark and stormy night. With the shadows given by the charcoal drawings, it really feels like you're watching an episode of the animated series.
I love this scene. Really evokes the pulp origins of Batman. What an amazing piece of sequential art.
- 7: Killer Croc one-shot. Batman tracks down a Chicago mobster and his path crosses with Killer Croc, who's fighting in an underground boxing league. It's much more a Croc story, who is about to face an old foe that he once lost to before. It's here that the art shifts to Mike Parobeck, who can still evoke the style of the animated series, but oftentimes there's shortcuts that make the characters look like they're Playskool action figures. Not a fan.
- 8: Clayface one-shot -- Clayface pulls off an elaborate string of heists, and plans to retire in a life of anonymity -- but not before Batman stops him. Another pensive slice-of-life style story like issue 7.
- 9: Batman goes to painstaking lengths to acquire a red book, evidence of crime boss Rupert Thorne's misdoings. After a standoff at Thorne's mansion, he survives and does get the red book to the prosecution...making Thorne sweat for 15 minutes before the jury, bought with Thorne money, acquits him. You can't win them all, but sometimes, even 15 minutes is a win.
- 10: The Riddler, discontent that the Batman always solves his riddles, makes one last ploy to steal the same set of jewels as Mr. Nice and the Perfessor. Batman catches him anyways, but only because he knew the jewels were a hot item, failing to solve his initial riddle. The Riddler, even though he's caught once again, is triumphant in having stumped the dark knight. The writers are able to take this limitation of the series -- that it has to maintain the status quo -- and turn it around and make these stories into musings about the villains really shows the strength of the characters.
The art takes a dip when it transitions to Parobeck, but for the most part he's still serviceable. It's so difficult in comics to have both quality and reliability, consistently, but the sequential art remains strong with him. You can never go wrong with triple batarang action:
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