Recently, longtime project supporter and contributor Troy Doliner, as part of a Patreon request, posited the questions: “What are your favorite Earth-1 stories (from the Silver/Bronze Age)? And what are your favorite Earth-2 stories (from the Golden Age and Silver/Bronze Age)?” Thanks, Troy!
As I thought about these questions—the more challenging they became. Because the Golden Age and Silver/Bronze Age were written mostly single issue to single issue (as opposed to arc to arc, or later trade to trade), it’s quite a difficult task to list out favorite stories compared to doing so with later continuities. That’s not to say I don’t love the continuities of old. In fact, because so much of contemporary continuity is modeled directly off of these old stories, I really love a lot of the old stuff, sometimes much more than the newer stuff.
It’s hard for me run through my memory banks to list out dozens of single stories, some of which I haven’t read in a very long time, but what I can do much more definitively is list my favorite writers of yesteryear (keeping a Batman focus), along with a few suggested examples of their work.
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In my humble opinion, in regard to Earth-1 stories, Denny O’Neil is the greatest Batman writer of all time. (When I think of the Silver/Bronze Age, Jack Kirby is my #1 guy overall, but he didn’t work on very much Batman, so that’s the only reason he’s not listed below.) Unlike most writers today (who are obsessed with the deconstruction of the superhero genre and often write fascistic power fantasies), O’Neil always understood what a superhero was supposed to represent—helping the little guy and trying to make a positive impact on the world, above all else. Here’s my list of favorite Earth-1 storytellers (in order) along with a random couple favorite tales of theirs to boot.
1. Denny O’Neil – Batman #237, Justice League of America #71-75, Justice League of America #72-75, Justice League of America #82, Detective Comics #483, Batman #232-244 (“The Saga of Ra’s al Ghul”), Batman #251 (“Joker’s Five Way Revenge”)
2. Len Wein – Justice League of America #103, Batman #312-314, Batman #323
3. Doug Moench – World’s Finest Comics #289, Batman #360-400 and Detective Comics #527-566 (his final epic Bat-run to close out the era)
4. Cary Bates – Justice League of America #123-124, his entire Flash run
5. Elliot S! Maggin – Justice League of America #123-124, Action Comics #440
6. Gerry Conway – Batman Family #17, Justice League of America #125-134, Justice League of America #153, Justice League of America #183-185
7. Marty Pasko – Wonder Woman #221-222, Justice League #147-148
8. Bob Haney – Brave and the Bold #54, Teen Titans #1, The Brave and The Bold #79, The Brave and The Bold #83, The Brave and The Bold #94, The Brave and The Bold #98, The Brave and The Bold #115, World’s Finest Comics #239, World’s Finest Comics #255
9. Gardner Fox – Batman #171, Justice League of America #9, Brave and the Bold #28-30, Justice League of America #1-70 (the first few years of JLofA are not only fun but highly influential), Detective Comics #359, “Flash of Two Worlds”
10. Marv Wolfman – Batman #332-225 (“The Lazarus Affair”), New Teen Titans #1-4, Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #1 (“The Judas Contract”), Tales of the Teen Titans #50
11. Bob Rozakis – DC Super-Stars #10, Batman Family #11
12. Steve Englehart – Detective Comics #439, Justice League of America #140-149, Detective Comics #469–476 (the famous “Strange Apparitions”/”Dark Detective” run is just okay, getting way overhyped, but it’s definitely worth reading and highly influential)
X. Harlan Ellison – Special runner up, specifically for the brilliant Detective Comics #567
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In terms of Earth-2 Batman stories, where would we be without the fantastic Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Edmond Hamilton, or Don Cameron? And the art contributions by Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, and Sheldon Moldoff are big enough they should/could really be considered writing contributions too. In the Bronze Age, though, O’Neil and Paul Levitz (and others) were writing excellent Earth-2 material as well. Admittedly, O’Neil’s contributions to Earth-2 mostly come in the form of JSA/JLSA crossovers. (This is true of a lot of the other names mentioned above on the Earth-1 list that also make it down here.) Here are my favorite creators for Earth-2 Batman tales (and a few suggested examples of their works).
1. Denny O’Neil – Justice League of America #72-75, Justice League of America #82
2. Bill Finger (along with Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Sheldon Moldoff, Curt Swan, and yeah I guess Bob Kane too) – Detective Comics #27 w/ Kane, Batman #1 w/ Kane & Moldoff, WFC #3 w/ Kane & Robinson, Batman #11 w/ Kane & Robinson, WFC #11 w/ Robinson, WFC #75 w/ Swan
3. Don Cameron (along with Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang) – Batman #12 w/ Robinson, Batman #14 w/ Robinson, Detective Comics #74 w/ Kane & Robinson, Batman #19 Part 2 w/ Sprang, Detective Comics #83, Detective Comics #109, Batman #46 Part 1 w/ Sprang
4. Roy Thomas – All-Star Squadron #1-4, All-Star Squadron #25-37, Secret Origins Vol. 2 #1, Secret Origins Vol. 2 #6
5. Gardner Fox – “The Mad Monk,” all Earth-2 crossovers with JSA/JLA, “Flash of Two Worlds”
6. Edmond Hamilton (along with Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang) – Batman #11 Part 3 w/ Kane & Robinson, Detective Comics #91 w/ Sprang, Detective Comics #215 w/ Moldoff, World’s Finest Comics #91 w/ Sprang
7. Paul Levitz – DC Special #29, DC Super Stars #17, Adventure Comics #461-462
8-12. Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, Gerry Conway, Marty Pasko, and Steve Englehart – A lot of really great Earth-1/Earth-2 crossover JLA/JSA stories.
So, yes, Denny O’Neil is my number one favorite—the G.O.A.T!
Interestingly (and here’s where I slide into a tangent), I recently came across a fascinating series of Reddit posts by user FlyByTieDye, in which they analyze Batman comics across the years to ascertain who had the greatest impact on the character based upon number of writing and art credits. Obviously, this is a bit flawed since impact is subjective, and a writer or artists can greatly impact a character even with only one issue. Plus, I don’t think FlyByTieDye includes any Justice League titles in his analysis, which is a major oversight. In any case, though, his project does give us a general idea of who the big names are when it comes to shaping the Dark Knight.
Check out FlyByTieDye’s Golden Age analysis here. Check out their Silver Age analysis here. And check out their Bronze Age analysis here.
I think the desired result of this post was meant to be a list of essential (or at least my favorite) Earth-1 Batman stories and Earth-2 Batman stories, but clearly I’ve failed in that task, so apologies for that. Nevertheless, I hope that the stream of consciousness response above (which includes a quick list of favorite writers and some interesting links) satisfies my readership! If you are looking to read some really great Batman stories, while I haven’t provided such a list, I highly suggest checking out all the Bat-works of the writers listed above. Leave a comment below, and let me know some of your favorite stories from yesteryear!
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