Must-Read List of Must-Read Stories

[thehefner]

EgoTV Online lists "10 awesome Batman stories you've probably never heard of."

This list makes me extremely happy, and not just because they've included my favorite Two-Face story, Eye of the Beholder (included with what I suspect is one of my own scans, no less!). I consider Prey to be one of the ten best Batman stories ever written, and one that--if they expanded the Catwoman subplot--would also serve as a perfect template for the as-of-today-named The Dark Knight Rises.

I'm slowly working on a series of posts focused upon Professor Hugo Strange for scans_daily and even about_faces, just as a break from Harvey for a bit. I've come to believe that Hugo was intended to be Batman's Moriarty, and that's the role he should have now, up there on top instead of obnoxious wannabes like Hush and Dr. Hurt. Strange did what they're doing first, and he did it better.

Furthermore, I'm of the opinion that the Animated Series universe of comics are, pound for pound, the finest Batman comics of the past twenty years. There's so much great Harvey stuff alone that I could easily dedicate a couple weeks to Animated!Harvey posts.

So yeah, keep this list in mind next time you guys go scouring back issue bins, until such time as DC wises up and finally puts these gems (back) into print.

Comments

[sharkbites.livejournal.com]

I have been getting a lot of back issues from that series. I did a lot of back issue hunting in August. I intend to get some missing issues when I go to the Long Beach convention this weekend. I really liked the three parter at the end of the first series run, the one with Hugo Strange and Catwoman.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

That three parter is stunning. It runs the perfect gamut of fun, character-packed, movingly plotted, gut-punching, downright heartbreaking, and ends on a thoroughly satisfying note. I must remember that one for my Hugo Strange series.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

The ice...

IS GONNA BREAK!

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

This is only slightly on-topic (underappreciated comic, check, Batman, nope), but I've gotta thank you for reccing "Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th grade" a while back. I found the collection a couple of weeks before this term started. So worth it.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I totally forgot that I recommended it here! That's awesome! So glad you liked it! I'm still amazed at how much fun it was.

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

There needs to be a sequel series with Kara and Lena as crimefighting BFFs. Why does such a thing not exist yet?

[yaseen101.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! Someone else remembers Harvey Harris! Yay! (also, Mark Waid wrote a Batman story?)

To be truthful I have never really been that 'big' on Hugo Strange, I think that mostly lay in my general ignorance about the character, I think I only read two stories involving Strange, one was 'Prey' and that issue of Gotham Knight with Bruce effectively forgetting that he is Batman. I'm going to see what I think of 'Prey' now but I think I'll wait for your posts.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Englehart/Rogers run of Batman (the most famous part is "The Laughing Fish"), which was collected in Batman: Strange Apparitions? That and Prey really solidified Hugo as a major threat who was barely used anywhere else. He's kind of a cult villain, I think, as he's only appeared in a handful of stories, most of which are very well-regarded.

I will do my best in the posts, but Prey is so good that I shudder to consider what I'll have to cut to keep it under the 1/3rd limit.

[yaseen101.livejournal.com]

Not really, I have...heard enough of it to have a good idea of what happened.

I think the first Dr. Strange story I ever read was the two-part finale for 'The Batman Adventures' (the first series) wherein Strange tries to build a machine that will make him forget about his son's death because it's starting to eat away his psych unfortunately, the machine ended up hitting Batman instead.

It didn't exactly paint Hugo as a malevolent, scheming mastermind in my mind and it wasn't until Prey and that one issue of Gotham Knights that I started to slowly started to like him.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, THAT Strange story. It kind of reminds me of SPIDER-MAN 2, where Doctor Octopus there isn't really the Doc Ock from the comics, but god damn, it's so powerful and moving that you don't really care. That Hugo Strange story was pretty much the only time that anyone's ever attempted to write him as anything other than an out-and-out evil mastermind.

[yaseen101.livejournal.com]

I think Dock Ock was my favorite character out of the entire franchise actually though even pre-teen was going all, 'my dead wife, what? but we barely even saw her!' but dammit other than that I loved every other minute he was on.

I wasn't exactly feeling it back then, might have been due to my age but thinking back now, yeah it was a great story.