Batman Chronicles, Vol. 3 [Paperback]

Bob Kane (Author), Bill Finger (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (May 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401213472
• ISBN-13: 978-1401213473
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.5 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have collection, October 12, 2008

By 

Hussein Abulreesh "Batman fan" (Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Batman Chronicles, Vol. 3 (Paperback)

The third installment of the Batman Chronicles series. The series that prsent, in chronological order, every single Batman story ever published.

The thrid volume of the series includes the following stories:

(1) Professor Strange's fear dust (Detective Comics #46, 1940)
(2) Money can't buy happiness (Detective Comics #47, 1941)
(3) The case of the Joker's crime circus (Batman #4, 1941)
(4) Blackbeard's crew and the yacht society (Batman #4, 1941)
(5) Public enemy #1 (Batman #4, 1941)
(5) Victory of the dynamic duo (Batman #4, 1941)
(6) The secert cavern (Detective Comics #48, 1941)
(7) Clayface walks again (Detective Comics #49, 1941)
(8) The case of the tree deviles (Detective Comics #50, 1941)
(9) The riddle of the missing card (Batman #5, 1941)
(10) Book of enchantment (Batman #5, 1941)
(11) The case of the honest crook (Batman #5, 1941)
(12) Crime does not pay (Batman #5, 1941)
(13) The witch and the manuscriot of doom (World's Best Comics #1, 1941)

The Batman Chronicles series is a must have collection. If anyone interested in the expensive ARCHIVES EDITIONS (THE DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES) or (THE BATMAN ARCHIVES), now you have the chronicles series that reprints all those stories in the archive editions and make them available in affordable paper back volumes.

The 6th volume coming soon, and the 7th will be available in March 2009, I can't wait to get them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cost-effective classics for budget-conscious comic aficionados, November 19, 2009

By 

Z. Shinder (Cerritos, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Batman Chronicles, Vol. 3 (Paperback)

WARNING: SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!!!



"Batman Chronicles, Vol. 3" is the third in what is currently (that I own/know of) an eight part collector's series that compiles "... all the `Batman' stories in the exact order they were published" (taken from the black bar at the top of the front cover). Inside are comics, which in their original trade paperback (TPB) form, are worth on the order of some $100,000 (together and stand-alone); among which are:

Detective Comics #46: Professor Strange's Fear Dust* (Professor Hugo Strange is back and this time his aspirations of grand larceny have produced his newest weapon: a gas gun that fills people with fear (a possible precursor to the Scarecrow))

Detective Comics #47: Money Can't Buy Happiness* (the follies of the children of an affluent millionaire teach tragic lessons about how money can't buy someone's problems away)

Also included is Batman #4 and five stories that appeared within:
The Case of the Joker's Crime Circus (the Joker returns with a new scheme: he forms an in-house entertainment racket wherein he and his performers are hired by Gotham's wealthiest citizens, they case their homes and return later to rob them)
Blackbeard's Crew and the Yacht Society (gangsters dressed as pirates attack a yacht full of the city's richest citizens)
Public Enemy #1* (the life story of a notorious gangster Jimmy McCoy)
Victory for the Dynamic Duo* (Batman and Robin stumble upon an extortion racket threatening a football player and trying to make bank by betting against the team)

Detective Comics #48: The Secret Cavern (A man discovers a hidden cavern that he calculates to end underneath the gold vault of "Fort Stox", he unwisely brags about this and is overheard by gangsters who kidnap his daughter and force him to take them to the cavern to break into the vault)

Detective Comics #49: Clayface Walks Again! (while in transit to the state asylum, Basil Karlo/Clayface escapes and in his mad determination to make the world remember him, sets his sights on destroying a rising star named Portia Storme)

Detective Comics #50: The Case of the Three Devils (three former circus acrobats in the guise of devils turn to crime and Batman and Robin must work to stop them before they pull off an enormous heist)

Also included is Batman #5 and five stories that appeared within:
The Riddle of the Missing Card (The Joker returns with a new gang (whose names are reminiscent of card faces/suits) and take to stowing aboard a casino yacht to steal from the gamblers (shocker: one of his cronies discovers Batman's secret identity!))
Book of Enchantment (Batman and Robin are summoned by a scientist to rescue his daughter who - by means of one of his inventions - has become trapped inside a collected works of fairy tales brought to life)
The Case of the Honest Crook! (Batman and Robin come across the path of a man whom they believe to have been framed by gangsters and set out to clear his name (shocker: Robin may kick the bucket!))
Crime Does Not Pay* (Batman and Robin come to find themselves up against criminal brothers who're close to getting a permanent lesson in how crime doesn't pay)

World's Best Comics #1: The Witch and the Manuscript of Doom (a fiction novelist is murdered and the motive may be because he was going to out a real live witch!)
***(The stories with an asterisk were originally untitled, but are give titles in the table of contents for reader convenience.)***

Every one of the stories contained within this tome are "priceless" classics, though it should be noted that these were not written for 21st Century readers and may get the occasional "eye-roll" or "exasperated sigh" (REMEMBER!: these are not "Batman: Year One", "Batman: The Long Halloween", or "Batman: Hush". These stories and their styles need to be taken at face-value and appreciated for what they are and for the times they were written in).

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The right audience will enjoy this, November 10, 2008

By 

Ryan Bonneville (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Batman Chronicles, Vol. 3 (Paperback)

Calling this "good" would be an enormous stretch. Bill Finger's writing is pedestrian and formulaic, and Bob Kane's art is blocky and awkward. Most of the plots make little to no sense and the "detective" elements are pretty weak.

Still, there's something kind of charming about all of this. Several of the stories - including my favorite, "Book of Enchantment" - are just plain ludicrous. The idea of Batman and Robin using a machine to enter a book of fairy tales, where they fight giants and a dragon, is not even plausibly related to the Gothic detective elements that generally make up these early Batman stories, but it's sheer manic fun anyway. Through the course of this volume, Batman fights the Joker twice, Clayface once, two separate witches, and a bunch of pirates. Again, none of it makes any sense, but the Golden Age-y exuberance - right down to the bad puns and sound-effect words - is infectious.

I'm also quite fond of the casual violence. Finger and Kane seem to have no trouble with the idea that Batman leaves behind a wake of mad destruction on the path of justice. More often than not, that means the criminals shooting each other in the madness of battle, but Batman doesn't seem to have any major objections to tossing people off of buildings or cliffs either. And the best part is that it isn't even written in a more modern "gritty" sense; Batman is pretty good-natured in the act of sending his enemies to their deaths.

For most people, this is probably pretty tedious and forgettable stuff. For the Batman or Golden Age fan, though, there's a lot of fun to be had here.