Guest Reviews - Crisis on Earth-Prime!

Doug: We hope our friends in the States are enjoying their Labor Day off. Our pal from north of the border, Mike W., is along to walk us through a fun Justice League of America summer team-up romp. Take it away, Mike!

M.S. Wilson: Since my last Justice League of America review (from #195-197) was so well-received, I thought I'd try another one... but with a couple of extra parts this time. This is a review of the 5-part crossover "Crisis on Earth Prime", which spanned JLA #207-209 and All-Star Squadron #14-15. I was reminded of this crossover a while back when someone (possibly Edo) mentioned it as being one they liked. I remember liking it too, but it's been years since I read it, so I was interested to see if it holds up. I'm a big All-Star Squadron fan, so I'm predisposed to like this. Enough talk, let's get reviewing!

 Book One: Justice League of America #207 (October, 1982)
"Crisis Times Three"
Written by Gerry Conway; Art by Don Heck and Romeo Tanghal

 We start out with five members of the Justice Society (Dr. Fate, Starman, Green Lantern, Huntress, and Power Girl) getting ready to beam to Earth-1 for their annual get together with the JLA. Five JLA members (Superman, Hawkman, Firestorm, Aquaman, and Zatanna) eagerly await the arrival of their friends (and we learn that Firestorm still has the hots for Power Girl). But something goes horribly wrong! (Hey, it's a JLA/JSA crossover... something always goes wrong.) Instead of the JSA materializing on the satellite, the Leaguers are shocked to see their old foes the Crime Syndicate (and we get a splash page that's a rip-off -- I mean homage -- of X-Men #100, with the teams facing off against each other). Since Firestorm hasn't met them before, he (and any new readers) are treated to a brief history of the Crime Syndicate: They're from Earth-3, where there are no superheroes but only super-villains; they fought the JLA before and were trapped in Limbo. But now they're out and make short work of the JLA. This seems like one of those DC fights where the good guys lose because it moves the plot forward; I'm sure when it's time to wrap up the story, the Leaguers will mop up the floor with the bad guys. Anyway, the Syndicate smashes a hole in the satellite and send Superman and Zatanna tumbling into space; they then repair the hole in the satellite and steal the JLA rocket plane to go conquer Earth-1. I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure a gaping hole to outer space would cause explosive decompression and pull everyone into space... maybe they have one of those Star Wars force fields that allows people to stand in open docking bays. The Syndicate mentions (several times) that they were betrayed by someone named Per Degaton ... now, who could that be? Any fans of All-Star Squadron are way ahead of me.

We next find out what happened to the missing JSA members; logically enough, they're in the inter-dimensional stasis bubble that previously housed the Crime Syndicate. We get more exposition about the Syndicate, including a recap of their previous appearances, as the JSA work on an escape plan. It doesn't take them long to bust out and Green Lantern says he knows how to get back home (something to do with a rip in the dimensional fabric, blah, blah, comic book science, blah, blah). But instead of ending up on Earth-2 (or Earth-1 for that matter), they find themselves on another Earth -- one that's been devastated by what seems to be a nuclear holocaust. It looks like they're in New York City... the Empire State Building seems to have broken in half, but the antenna tower on top is surprisingly intact! They're attacked by some mutated plants, which they defeat easily. GL uses his incredible plot device -- I mean ring -- to deduce: (1) that they're on Earth-Prime, a world with no superheroes i.e. our world; (2) that the nuclear holocaust happened decades ago; and (3) that the holocaust was caused by... Per Degaton! That is one handy ring.

Back above Earth-1, Superman saves Zatanna (miraculously, of course) and the JLA decide to use the trans-matter cube to go to Earth-2 and look for the missing JSA members. I guess it never occured to them to look in Limbo, where the Syndicate were imprisoned? Firestorm is shown to be reluctant to use the trans-matter cube -- seriously, he's like Dr. McCoy -- but hasn't he used it before? I'd swear he's been to Earth-2 before. Anyway, they go to Earth-2, but JSA headquarters is a shambles and, according to a wall calendar, has been abandoned since 1942. They go outside and all the cars and fashions are straight out of the 1940s, but they quickly realize they're in the present (1982), but a present far different from the one they expected. They soon figure out Per Degaton is behind the altered history (the gold statues of him on every corner kinda give it away) and are attacked by some of Degaton's thugs. After a quick fight, they go back into JSA headquarters and Superman and Firestorm combine powers to travel back in time (another of those plot convenient abilities that's never seen again). We're also reminded that Firestorm is the young, hip member of the team when he references Rick Springfield... in 1982, nobody was hipper! When they get back to the 1940s, the JSA headquarters is intact, so they know whatever Degaton did to change history hasn't happened yet. They hear someone at the door and eagerly anticipate meeting a young, dynamic JSA (in Zatanna's case, she seems very eager), but when the door opens they're shocked to see... the All-Star Squadron! Wait, who? We'll find out in part two! (Actually, part two tells the parallel story of the All-Star Squadron leading up to this moment, so we'll have to wait even longer to see the fantabulous first meeting between these two teams).

 

 

Book Two: All-Star Squadron #14 (October 1982)
"The Mystery Men of October" 
Written by Roy Thomas; Art by Adrian Gonzalez and Jerry Ordway

This issue starts with twelve members of the All-Star Squadron giving Nazi salutes to Per Degaton and then trying to kill each other. Professor Zee (Degaton's boss from All-Star Squadron #3) shows up to remind the Squadron that Degaton is a bad guy; the heroes quickly turn on him and... Degaton wakes up. Yes, he was just dreaming (at least Patrick Duffy wasn't in the shower), but the dream has restored Degaton's memory of his two previous defeats. That's right, last time Degaton was defeated, Roy Thomas used that old cliche of having everyone (hero and villain) forget everything that happened. Well, I'm sure he and Gerry will find a much more clever way of ending this story.

 

Anyway, now that Degaton has regained the memory of being ignominiously defeated (twice), he immediately starts working on a new scheme. I'm sure this one will work out much better. He kills Professor Zee (well, that's new at least) and uses the Professor's time machine to go from 1947 (his present) into 1982 (his future) to get weapons so he can go back and conquer 1941 (his past)... got all that? But there's a glitch and he winds up in 1982 on Earth-Prime (aka our Earth). He realizes there are no superheroes there and figures it's a great place to steal weapons. But back in his time machine, he's caught in a timestorm and ends up in Limbo. He rescues the Crime Syndicate from their stasis bubble and we get another recap of their history. Degaton asks the Syndicate to do him a favor since he busted them out, and they agree. He takes them to 1962 (on Earth-Prime) and has them steal the missiles from the Cuban Missile Crisis (and Roy Thomas gets to be a schoolteacher again as he gives us a rundown of the real life Cuban Missile Crisis). They get the missiles, which leaves the United States and the Soviet Union hurling accusations at each other over the "missing" nukes; this explains the devastation found by the JSA on Earth Prime in JLA #207. Naturally, the Crime Syndicate betrays Degaton, but he was expecting that (would you trust people who call themselves the Crime Syndicate?) and as soon as they touch him, they're hurled forward to a random Earth in 1982. Degaton doesn't know which Earth, but we do, since we already saw the Syndicate appear on the JLA satellite on Earth-1. Now that Degaton has a bunch of nukes, he's ready to go back to Earth 2's past and take over the world. And speaking of Earth-2 in the 1940s...

 

We next see Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick, and Firebrand getting out of a taxi in New York. They're immediately attacked by a goofy-looking guy calling himself Nuclear the Magnetic Marauder. Robotman and Commander Steel show up to help, but they probably aren't the best choice to go up against a guy who controls magnetism. After a short fight, Nuclear gets away and the All-Stars continue on to JSA headquarters. Nuclear is seen again in All-Star Squadron in a couple months, but he's not exactly a classic villain. It feels like this issue was running short and they needed to fill up a few pages. When the Squadron members get to the JSA meeting room, who do they find? Yes, it's the five JLA members from Part One. So, we end with the same scene, but get two different paths leading to it. It's actually a neat idea and it's executed pretty well, tying Degaton, the Crime Syndicate, and the nuclear holocaust on Earth-Prime all together. Gerry and Roy are listed as plot consultants in each other's books, so they were obviously working closely to tie everything together. So, in the next issue we'll see the long-awaited confrontation between the JLA and the All-Star Squadron... unless they decide to take a side trip to Earth-C to bring in Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew!

 

Book Three: Justice League of America #208 (November 1982)
"The Bomb-Blast Heard Round the World" 
Written by Gerry Conway; Art by Don Heck and Sal Trapani

We start off with something we've already seen twice -- the confrontation between the JLA and the All-Star Squadron in JSA headquarters on Earth-2 in January 1942. We get the usual misunderstanding fight (remember, Gerry and Roy both worked at Marvel for years), but it's soon settled and the two teams compare notes and recap the previous two parts of this crossover. Firestorm also tries to make time with Firebrand, but things don't really work out. The Squadron gets a call from President Roosevelt and they all head to the White House to see him. Most of the JLA members are quite impressed; in fact, Zatanna seems very taken with FDR. I'm not sure if Gerry's trying to write Zatanna as being kind of "man-hungry", but that's the way it comes off to me. I know later on he writes her as (almost literally) salivating over Dale Gunn, but this characterization seems a little weird to me. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. Anyway, the meeting is interrupted by Degaton (on one of those futuristic projection television devices... Japanese-made, no less), and he tells them -- and the rest of the world -- that he has nukes from the future and intends to demonstrate their devastating potential the next day on some random targets. The heroes realize this is the turning point that leads to the future where Degaton is master of the world, and they vow to stop him and restore history.

We now check in with the JSA members in the nuclear devastation of 1982 Earth-Prime. They track some "human" readings with Green Lantern's ring, but find only mutated freaks. After a short fight, they find a normal (relatively speaking) human and Dr. Fate absorbs his memories, learning about the Cuban Missiles disappearing. Fate senses a psychic residue and realizes Per Degaton was behind it all. Back on Earth-2 (1942), the All-Stars and the JLA watch Degaton's nuke demonstration in the middle of the ocean. The Squadron members are shocked by the power of the warhead and realize Degaton could potentially destroy the world. Suddenly, the missing JSA members appear in their time-bubble above the ocean. They're unconscious, but the JLA and All-Stars grab them and take them aboard the observation ship. Speaking of observation, Per Degaton is watching them from a jetliner, which he also stole from the future apparently (along with a communications satellite and whatever else is needed for the plot to advance). Degaton gloats about the stranglehold he now has on the world and plans his conquest, along with the destruction of the All-Star Squadron. Will he succeed? We'll have to wait until next issue to find out.

Book Four: All-Star Squadron #15 (November 1982)
"Master of Worlds and Time" 
Written by Roy Thomas; Art by Adrian Gonzalez and Jerry Ordway

We start this issue with Per Degaton still watching the first gathering of the three teams (JLA, JSA, and All-Star Squadron). He's still confident he can take over the world and eliminate all of them in the process. We get a flashback explaining how the JSA happened to show up here -- Dr. Fate, Green Lantern, and Starman combined powers to get off of Earth-Prime and Degaton's nuclear demonstration drew them to this exact time and place... or something like that. GL refers to "your Earth" when talking to the All-Stars, but aren't they both from Earth-2? These particular JSAers are from the future, but it's all Earth-2 as far as I know. Anyway, the three teams tell Roosevelt what's going on and Degaton sends another threat to the world, saying he has another two dozen nukes and will use them against any nation that doesn't turn over supreme power to him. Roosevelt tells the assembled heroes that he'll do what Degaton asks if they can't get rid of all the nukes.

They split into smaller teams (which is a staple of these crossovers). Superman, Dr. Fate, and Robotman attack Degaton's satellite up in space. But Degaton left a surprise for Superman--some green kryptonite! Robotman learns not to open unlabeled lead boxes, but before he can remedy his mistake, Ultraman (from the Crime Syndicate) shows up (getcha scorecards, you don't know the players without a scorecard!). Yes, apparently the Syndicate is working with Degaton again, even though last time we saw them (on Earth-1 in 1982) they were mad at him for double-crossing them. Robotman almost sacrifices himself to save Supes from the green-K, and Supes (after pounding Ultraman) returns the favor by yanking Robotman out of the atmosphere before he burns up. Fate does his usual magical mumbo-jumbo.

 

We next see Aquaman, Starman, and Liberty Belle over the ocean south of Japan. Liberty Belle worries about what would happen if Degaton (or anyone) used nukes. Aquaman and Starman decide not to tell her how WWII is going to end. They track the nukes to an island and get jumped by Superwoman. She's beating them until Aquaman gets a couple of blue whales to smash into the island, flooding the facility and (I guess?) destroying the missiles. During the fight, Starman warned Superwoman that using his cosmic rod might set off the nukes, but apparently thousands of tons of seawater pouring in on them is just fine. Starman does give Liberty Belle a small spoiler by mentioning Jimmy Doolittle's Tokyo raid, but he covers by saying he was talking about Doctor Doolittle ... and Libby apparently buys it. People were so innocent in the 40s.

 

Meanwhile, in the Midwestern United States, Hawkman, Huntress, and Johnny Quick search for more nukes. Huntress steadfastly refuses to give Johnny any clue about what happens in the future, but still manages to slip up a couple of times. They find the missiles hidden in grain silos (of course) and are attacked by Power Ring. He says the Crime Syndicate have been planning to double-cross Degaton the same way he did to them ... I think we all saw that one coming, didn't we? Huntress knocks out Power Ring quite easily (thus making the parallel between him and Hal Jordan complete), but his ring still launches one of the nukes. Johnny and Hawkman catch it and defuse it, as well as the others still in the silos. On the final page, we see Per Degaton freaking out about the Crime Syndicate betraying him (well, I guess someone was surprised by it), but he boasts that the rest of the missiles will never be found ... and even if they are, he has an ace up his sleeve. What could it be? We'll see in the final chapter.

 

Book Five: Justice League of America #209 (December 1982)
"Let Old Acquaintances Be Forgot..." 
Written by Gerry Conway; Art by Don Heck 

We open with the three successful teams from last issue returning to the White House to tell Roosevelt they've found most of the nukes. But as long as Degaton still has some left, the world still isn't safe. We then get a quick recap of the overall story so far. There's also an interesting aside as Roosevelt is shown pondering the ethics of the Manhattan Project. We next see Geneva, Switzerland where Firestorm, Power Girl, and Commander Steel are looking for the last three nukes. They're confronted by the mayor, who I can only assume came through Degaton's time machine since he's dressed like someone from the 1800s. They're attacked by some of Degaton's thugs and Power Girl is pounded by Johnny Quick (the Crime Syndicate guy, not the All-Star). Quick accidentally launches the missiles before Firestorm takes him out and the three heroes have to disable the nukes, which they do, of course. A couple of them are shown exploding, but I'm assuming (hoping!) the nuclear warheads were disabled so half of Europe isn't covered by fallout. I'm not sure how Power Girl could get into Europe... at this point, I thought Hitler had the Spear of Destiny, which turned any super-powered person into a Nazi (that was Roy's explanation for the obvious question of why the superheroes didn't just go to Europe and end WWII within a day or two). Maybe Power Girl wasn't affected because she's from the future? It can't be because she's Kryptonian (which she still was, at this point), because the Earth-2 Superman was affected by the Spear in other stories.

 

Anyway, back in Washington the rest of the heroes are relieved that all the nukes are accounted for. But three of the heroes haven't been seen yet. Zatanna, Green Lantern, and Firebrand are at Professor Zee's lab, trying to convince him that his bumbling assistant Per Degaton (who's absent today) will use the Professor's time machine to wreak havoc in the future. The Professor says his machine isn't working yet, but GL and Zatanna fire it up and program it to send them to Cuba in 1962 so they can stop the theft of the nukes before it starts... even though it's already happened! A few issues ago, Superman said something about the timestorm (which Degaton mentioned in All-Star #14) affecting probability, so the heroes would actually be able to change events that had "already happened". Well, if Superman said it, it must be true. Also, the missiles were stolen from Earth-Prime's 1962, so I guess the Professor's time machine can cross dimensions too... or maybe that was part of GL and Zatanna's programming? I guess in this case, we can truly use "a wizard (witch) did it" as an explanation.

 

The rest of the heroes track Degaton to his hideout, which turns out to be the site where the Pentagon will soon be built. You gotta admit, Degaton's got style. The heroes make short work of Deggie and his minions, despite the futuristic weapons he's equipped them with. Owlman -- the last Crime Syndicate member -- being a master tactician, decides to run away, but Huntress pounds him. In 1962 Earth-Prime Cuba, the three heroes beat the Crime Syndicate quite handily, which harks back to my earlier comment about plot convenience: is this really the same Crime Syndicate that took out (or will take out) five Justice Leaguers, including Superman? Degaton is with the Syndicate and tries to flee, but Zatanna knocks him out. She and GL combine their powers again and send the Syndicate and Degaton back where they belong, which instantly reverses everything that happened... and  everyone forgets the whole damn story. Arrrrggghhhhh! They did it again! I can see the logic (Degaton didn't steal the missiles to begin with, so none of it ever happened, so nobody can remember something that didn't occur), but I hate when they wipe out the whole story like that; it makes me feel like reading it was all just a big waste of time, since none of it "really happened". That's my main complaint about Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade/Whatever... everyone's memory is wiped at the end, so what was the point? But at least those stories still happened, even if no one remembers... this story has been retroactively wiped from existence. And who knows what sort of dangerous precedent that might set for DC?

We get a few pages of wrap-up, showing everything back to normal. Of course, some characters have "lingering feelings of doubt", but that's par for the course with this type of story resolution. We see the full JLA/JSA reunion, where some of the heroes marvel that nothing happened this time around and Batman says another crisis was "against the odds". It also looks like Firestorm might actually get somewhere with Power Girl (speaking of dangerous precedents). And that's the end. Overall, it was a pretty good story; the plotline got a little convoluted, but it's not as hard to follow as I remembered -- though it comes close in a few places. It was well done in general, with most of the story making sense, though the "everybody forgets because it never really happened" ending still bugs me. The art is good--I always liked Gonzalez/Ordway on All-Star Squadron, and Heck's stuff looks better than usual here. So, all in all, I'd say it's worth reading, as long as you don't mind a few time travel convolutions and a bit of a cheat ending. But if we let things like that bother us, we'd all have given up on comics years ago!

Guest Reviews - Mike W. Barr's Batman Annuals

Doug: As summer approaches, what better format of comic books to discuss than Annuals! Edo Bosnar is here today with his thoughts on a few of his favorite books from those warm days of our youths -- two Batman Annuals and a Batman Special written by a personal favorite, Mike W. Barr.

Edo Bosnar: When I was a youngster back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Mike Barr was just one of many comics writers with whose name I was familiar, but who never had that same status in my mind as say, Chris Claremont or Roy Thomas, to say nothing of the then increasingly popular writer-artists like Frank Miller, John Byrne or Walt Simonson. But when I got back into comics sometime in the first decade of this new century and started thinking about all of the comics I liked (and slowly began to re-acquire some of the stuff that I had in my original long-lost comics collection), I realized that many of the Batman stories I recalled quite fondly were in fact written by Mr. Barr. Specifically, three ‘big’ issues immediately came to mind, Batman Annual #8 and the 1984 Batman Special in particular, but also Batman Annual #9.

Batman Annual #8 (1982)

“The Messiah of the Crimson Sun”
Mike W. Barr-Trevor von Eeden

Initially my favorite of these was Batman Annual #8. This is definitely one of those “the cover made me buy it” books. DC annuals were pretty uncommon at the time anyway, so that intrigued me right away, while the absolutely gorgeous art by Trevor von Eeden really sealed the deal for the young me.

The story begins with the horrible deaths of pretty much everyone in a small farming community north of Gotham City – they all have the flesh fried from their bones at the crack of dawn by some oddly reddish sunlight. Not long afterward, television transmissions in Gotham are interrupted by an announcement from a mysterious cowled figure and calling himself the Messiah of the Crimson Sun, who apparently runs some kind of cult that has a big church in the city. He tells the Gotham’s residents that they’re next. This prompts Batman to go to the farming community, which has been cordoned off by the military – not an obstacle for him, obviously.

There, he finds out that two people did survive the massacre by dawn’s early light: a kidney patient at the local hospital, who is hooked up to a dialysis machine, and some flaky guy in a white robe called Seth, who keeps telling everyone to have faith in the Crimson Sun. The latter is also very thirsty and keeps asking for water. The army physician can’t figure out why everyone was killed, and why these two survived. So there’s all the ingredients to a great Batman story: a mystery, a threat to Gotham, and a megalomaniacal villain.

Batman sends Robin (who happens to be in town), disguised as Seth, to infiltrate the Crimson Sun’s organization, and then there’s a shocking reveal - since this came out over 30 years ago, I don’t think I’ll spoil this too much by noting that the Crimson Sun is actually Ra’s al-Ghul.

It’s all another one of his schemes to wipe out most of the planet’s human population – this time by using a gigantic orbiting lens that focuses the sun’s rays (and gives them that crimson hue) on a specific point on the planet. The people get fried because he adds a chemical to the water supply in advance which reacts quite unpleasantly in the human body when hit by direct sunlight.

Batman, meanwhile, figures much of this out himself, and also where the goons sent by Ra’s/Crimson Sun will attempt to contaminate Gotham’s water supply. However, before takes them all out, one of them manages to flip the valve to release the chemical into Gotham’s main water plant.

Eventually, Batman confronts R’as in his orbiting space station – he gets there by borrowing a space shuttle from NASA, with Robin and Talia (always conveniently there when Ra’s shows up) in tow. When I recently re-read this to prepare for this review, I found that this last part of the story didn’t hold up for me: it just seemed to take the otherwise generous leeway I give to superhero stories a little too far. I think it would have worked better if the action had been a little more, well, grounded. That’s why I said above that it used to be my favorite – now it’s slipped a bit in my estimation, even though I still think it’s well worth reading. And this is because of my favorite aspects of the story: the really nice build-up, the somewhat shocking reveal of the villain, and the little character moments, mainly Batman’s interactions with Robin and Alfred in particular. These are in fact Barr’s strong suits.

I also have to laud the art in this one. Von Eeden was really on fire here, and every panel and every page look spectacular. The colorist, Lynn Varley, also deserves special praise, because the color palette is so perfectly suited to the story: it consists mainly of darks like various shades of black, gray and blue, and then tones of red, orange, magenta, scarlet, and yellow.

Batman Special (1984)
"...the Player On the Other Side"
Mike W. Barr-Michael Golden/Mike DeCarlo  

Sandwiched between these two annuals is the Batman Special from 1984, again with lovely art, this time by two more Mikes: Michael Golden and Mike DeCarlo. The story, called “…The Player on the Other Side” contains something of a retcon (long before that term became part of the everyday vocabulary of superhero comics at the big two) of Batman’s origin and Commissioner Gordon’s past. It really doesn’t impact Batman’s origin as such, but it tells the story of another killing on that same night, in a different part of Gotham City, in which a man and woman, with their young son in tow, are caught sneaking out of a ground floor window – apparently after breaking and entering – by a beat cop. The hot-headed dad takes a shot at the police officer, wounding him, but the officer gets off a few shots that take down both of the apparent burglars. The boy witnesses all of this and it shapes his future, just as Bruce Wayne was shaped by seeing the slaying of his parents. However, this little boy, understandably I suppose, swears revenge against the cop who killed his parents, and develops an abiding hatred for law enforcement and all of its representatives. That young beat cop, by the way, was James Gordon.

Although he spends the rest of his troubled childhood in foster care and juvenile detention, the boy (we never learn his name), much like Wayne, is consumed with his purpose, and hones and his body and mind to what will become his life’s mission of retaliation. He grows to manhood, spending time in and out of foster care and juvenile detention, and eventually becomes a secretive, world-class professional hitman called the Wrath, who dons a costume quite similar to Batman’s and basically wages a crusade against the law that is the opposite of Batman’s crusade for justice.

The Wrath is already in Gotham to finally exact his revenge on Gordon, and has made several attempts on his life (Batman was usually there to save him). Frustrated by Batman’s interference, the Wrath goes about finding out anything he can about him by threatening some of his known underworld informants, and he learns from one of them that Batman comes to that same spot in “Crime Alley” on the same date every year. It’s a date that obviously has meaning for the Wrath as well, and he breaks into the public library and checks on newspaper reports for any other significant events there on that date, and puts 2 and 2 together when he sees the report about the killing of Martha and Thomas Wayne. Makes a lot of sense, actually: any number of criminals with their ear to the ground should have been able to figure out the same thing.

So while Gordon is in hiding, the Wrath uses his new-found knowledge to hit Batman where it hurts, first by vandalizing the tombstone of his parents, and then by brutally assaulting Alfred. He makes it clear to Batman that he wants the Commissioner.

But Batman also gets busy, and eventually learns that the Wrath has his own weak spot: his lover, who is the daughter of some local crime boss and who just wants to get away from it all. Batman tracks her down and confronts her.

And this is where another character is re-introduced: Leslie Thompkins, who was first seen in another retcon of Batman’s origin, “There is No Hope in Crime Alley” (by Denny O’Neill and Dick Giordano, first published in Detective Comics #457 in 1976). In that story, she extends some solace to the young Bruce Wayne just after his parents are killed. Here, she is taken hostage by the Wrath, and this leads to a stand-off, as he bargains with her life for the Commissioner’s.

How it plays out is largely predictable, but that’s really not important. What I liked about this story is the whole idea of Batman having a counterpart whose life was scarred and then dictated by a similar event, but who went in another direction. Additionally, I like how this one focuses on Batman’s friendship with Gordon, his deep affection for Alfred, and his relationship with Leslie Thompkins, who, by consoling the young Bruce Wayne and showing him some humanity immediately after the death of his parents perhaps made her own little contribution to keeping him grounded, so that he even though his personal tragedy indelibly marked him, it didn’t turn him into a stone-cold vengeful killer like the Wrath.

Batman Annual #9 (1985)
"The Four Faces of Batman"
Mike W. Barr-Jerry Ordway/Alex Nino/Dan Jurgens/Paul Smith

Batman Annual #9 has always been my least favorite of these, but I thought it completed the little trifecta of “big books” I have going here. The story, called “The Four Faces of Batman,” actually consists of four short pieces, each one almost kind of a vignette, that is supposed to explore different aspects of Batman’s persona. To wit: the child, the avenger, the detective and the man. However, I never got the impression any time I read this that a clear delineation is made between these various “faces” of Batman. As with the previous two books, Barr is served by some outstanding artists, in this case Jerry Ordway, Alex Nino, Dan Jurgens (inked by Dick Giordano) and Paul Smith.

I think the first and fourth “faces” (i.e., ‘The Child’ and ‘The Man’) work the best. The first involves Batman rushing to track down some armed robbers who inadvertently run down and kill the parents of a young boy right in front of him. Bruce Wayne knows the family and happened to be at the scene when the tragedy occurs, and he sees the boy swear revenge. Obviously, he sees the similarity with his own situation, but Barr puts in another aspect – he flashes back to Bruce’s childhood, and we learn that before his parents were killed, he was a budding artist – a sculptor to be specific.

 After his parents died, however, he ignored his artistic talent as he became driven to fight injustice and crime. In the present, he fears that the young boy, who is a prodigy with the violin, will go down a similar path.  I really liked how Barr added in this harmless little retcon to Batman’s origin which adds another intriguing facet to the character.

The second face, ‘The Avenger,’ was my least favorite, not just the story but also the art by Alex Nino. I’m normally a huge fan of Nino’s work, but his style was really ill-suited to this story and it’s simply unattractive. The story is also rather bleak. It starts with a bank heist apparently perpetrated by a terrorist group that has already robbed a few banks before. However, this one ends with a fatality (not a trademark of the aforementioned terrorist group), as one of the tellers dies of a heart attack. It turns out that the robbers just pretended to be the terrorist group, and said terrorists then go after them for besmirching their reputation. Batman also goes after them, but instead of stopping them, he basically incites an armed confrontation between the two groups – and then just sits it out and lets them kill each other. It’s really pretty cynical and kind of out of character for both Batman and Barr.

The third face, ‘The Detective,’ is not as bad, but also not really notable in any way. It’s just a whodunit, meant to highlight Batman’s sleuthing capabilities (although these were better demonstrated in the first story). It seems more like one of those largely forgettable back-up stories you’d find in an issue of Batman Family or Detective Comics.

The last ‘face’, as I said above, is pretty good and it’s very nicely drawn by Paul Smith. Batman rescues a bunch of children from a fire in a hospital, and the event is shown from the standpoints of various witnesses to the event, and concluding with Batman’s own recounting of the night’s incident to Alfred. This one is really nice, and it has a lot of those great character moments that Barr does so well, especially the final brief scene that highlights Alfred’s role as something of a surrogate parent to Batman.

All three of these books that highlight why Mike Barr is one of my favorite Bat scribes: he tells engaging, well-paced stories first and foremost, interspersed with these wonderfully done interactions between Batman and the various members of his supporting cast.

Barr did quite a bit of work with the character throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which included ushering in and writing Batman and the Outsiders, and a rather well-regarded run in Detective Comics, initially teamed up with artist fan-favorite Alan Davis. Unfortunately, Frank Miller’s take on Batman at almost the same time got – and still gets – much more attention from comic fans, while Barr’s work is generally (and unfairly I think) overlooked. I definitely think that, like Archie Goodwin and Len Wein, Barr deserves his own “Tales of the Batman” volume. Not that I’d be likely to afford such a book should DC decide to publish it… :-(