Among the books that I gathered up at the Baltimore Comic-Con either from bins or mystery boxes were several Bat-books from different eras. Two of them were signed–Robin #40 and #41, which were signed by Chuck Dixon. I’ve automatically decided to keep those (in addition to a Superman issue signed by Dan Jurgens) without reading them. And a big reason for that is because I’ve read them multiple times in the past because that Chuck Dixon Robin title is one of my all-time favorites.

But what about the others? Are they worth holding onto? Let’s see.

Detective Comics #500. I feel as if this should be a no-brainer because it’s a landmark issue in Batman’s history. I found this in a back-issue bin and the price on it was $7.00, but I think I may have actually paid less than that for it. Even so, considering what some Bronze Age comics are going for these days, $7 is a good price.

I’ve read one of the stories that is in here, which is “To Kill A Legend,” the Alan Brennert and Dick Giordano tale of Batman traveling to a parallel Earth to stop the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. In fact, it’s one of the first Batman stories I ever read becuase it is in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told and is one of my all-time favorites. I didn’t skip over it–why would you–and it was cool to see it in hits “natural habitat.”

The rest of the issue? Well, you’ve got stories with Slam Bradley (and a number of other detectives), Hawkman, Elongated Man, and more Batman. It has the feel of a special issue. For a while the years after ‘Tec #500, the milestone issues started to become more about launching or concluding whatever big storyline was going on, although there was acknowledgment of the milestones. I bought issue #1000 when it came out a few years ago (and might buy issue #1100) and that book was a lot like this one: separate stories that highlighted how great of a character Batman is and has been.

The verdict on this? Definitely Keep.

Batman: Dark Allegiances. This one is an Elseworlds one-shot by Howard Chaykin that was published in 1996. In it, Chaykin puts Bruce Wayne in 1930s Gotham high society. It’s anti-Fascist Batman, taking on the Klan, Nazi sympathizers, and by the end, Hitler’s forces themselves. Chaykin does what most Elseworlds writers do, which is weave in the villains and supporting cast members so that ultimately, Batman is fighting The Joker but in a different context.

I’ve been hot and cold on Chaykin’s reimagining of DC characters. I really like his Blackhawk, but I remember his Shadow series being hard to follow (in fact, I think I offloaded it). This one works really well, both story-wise and art-wise. He has a good handle on what “high society” in a city like Gotham would be like, and his art matches that. In fact, in 1996–the tail end of hte “exxxtreeeme Nineties” when skinny waists and big tits were all the rage–Chaykin gives us a vampy Catwoman who is curvy and stunning. In the Chaykin way of revealing outfits, anyway.

I believe that this was recently covered on one of Michael Bailey’s podcasts, probably “The Overlooked Dark Knight.” I’m very behind on that one, but I’m going to plug it in this week to hear what he and Andrew Leyland have to say about it. In the meantime, I’m going to keep this one.

Batman (vol … 3? 4? 257? I don’t know what we’re up to now) #158, 159. I got these in a Third Eye Comics mystery box, which probably means they were over-ordered a.f. And since they’re the first two parts of Hush 2, I’m sure they were.

I read Hush in trade a long time ago and found it to be a good story. Nothing life-changing for me, but definitely entertaining. I wasn’t too interested in the sequel when it was announced and figured I’d just pick it up when it comes to the DC Infinite app. After these first two issues, I’m standing by that.

It’s not bad by any means. But it’s such a quick read and Loeb pulls out some Batman concepts that are … well, cliche’s not the right word, but having Batman insist on saving The Joker’s life and the possibility that Jason Todd is working with Hush don’t seem all that original. Still, with Jim Lee on art, it’s meant to feel like a blockbuster and it does. So I’ll trade wait/app wait for this one and in the meantime, this is going into the dotate/trash pile.