Batman by Neal Adams Book One

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There’s a sense, when you look at the physicality of Adams’ Batman, that the character has actually spent his life honing his body to something like a deadly, pointed weapon. I never got it, and I've read mixed reports about Adams' touch-ups of the original stories (I really disliked what was done to that story in the Deadman volume).

Even "All Star Batman and Robin," as awful as it was, presented Batman at his very extreme, whereas "Batman: Odyssey" is just a bunch of nonsensical gibberish that fails to come together. Darn great Bronze Age stuff, ranging from his fun and dynamic Brave and the Bold work to his solo caped crusader tales that defined the character for a generation with Denny O’ Neil. Adams provides a new cover and introduction, and has gone back to tweak some of his early art and re-color five of the eight stories presented here. would have introduced DC's first African American superhero but was rejected by publisher Carmine Infantino.In 1984, Adams founded his own comic book company Continuity Comics, which was in business until 1994. I'm sure initially that seemed innovative and "out of the box" thinking, but he did it all the time (at least in these first couple of issues) to the point where it seemed obvious he was trying to hard to do that. I am just glad that Adams still cares that much about his artwork to go back and to make all this effort. Paint a Picture of Peril sees Batman visit a mansion owned by a “poor, tortured soul” who has been driven mad by the loss of his beloved.

Still, despite all that, I think there’s something more at the root of Batman’s special type of anger towards Ra’s, and his willingness to consider options he would otherwise dismiss. Story-wise, the early World's Finest stuff is just what you would expect from the late 60's, very tongue-in-cheek, and corny. Still, he also made Batman a world traveller and an adventuring hero of incredible ability that was fun to read. In addition to Capp, Jerry Brondfield also wrote for the strip, with Adams stepping in occasionally.

An exploration of an early adventure in which Batman learned not to use guns could provide fascinating character development, but instead we get Batman evacuating a train by shooting into a crowd. Helped by artist Elmer Wexler, who critiqued the young Adams' samples, Adams brought his portfolio to the agency, which initially "didn't believe I had done those particular samples since they looked so much like Elmer Wexler's work. His first work features the uniting of the Superman Revenge Squad and the Batman Revenge Squad, which tells you all you need to know. He won an Inkpot Award in 1976 [113] and was voted the "Favourite Comicbook Artist" at the 1977 [114] and the 1978 Eagle Awards.

Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent, but Ra’s is an absolutely fascinating concept, and O’Neil and Adams do an exceptional job crafting the foe. It’s been argued that Batman faces a similar dilemma – if he ever compromised his “no kill” rule, he’d find himself on a path to a very dark place. He was also interviewed by Steven Novella on a Skeptics Guide podcast in 2006, and afterward continued the debate on Novella's blog. If you want to delve into the murky world of pop psychology, there’s something distinctly Oedipal about the dynamic between Ra’s and Bruce. Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

While “Batman Odyssey” is a very strange story, far outside of Batman continuity — Robin is Dick Grayson, Deadman takes over Alfred — it is also a good story. I actually bought Batman Odyssey as individual comic books, but apparently it was extended more than I bought.