Customer Reviews

Batman: Strange Apparitions

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was a dark and stormy night. (or should that be Knight?) "It's Joker weather," says Commissioner Gordon. "True Commissioner," says Chief O'Hara, "But it's also tailor made for him!" The Batman is a character who needs lots of atmosphere. Darkness, rain, lightning, tall dark buildings, smoking gangsters, skinny trees bereft of leaves, all this and more fill the very affordable paperback collection of some of the best Batman stories ever produced. BATMAN: STRANGE APPARITIONS collects the beautifully drawn and superbly written DETECTIVE COMICS 469-476 and 478, 479 from 1977-1978. Some have called these issues "the definitive Batman." It was these stories that got the ball rolling on making a big budget and serious Batman movie and you can definitely see that many of the ideas from that movie came from these stories.

These pages are alive with atmosphere! Artist Marshall Rogers' panels literally drip down the page and capes slither behind the storyboards. Rogers sometimes lets the design of his panels tell the story as much as the art within them. When characters talk on the phone the panel's edges are drawn like phone cords. Sometimes panels rest on top of full-page illustrations that most artists would weep before covering up. Rogers is teamed for the most part with the incredibly talented inker Terry Austin. Together they provide pictures that are at once moody and sharp and exquisitely defined. When Batman menaces a thug you believe it. When Bruce Wayne has a nightmare you feel it. This artwork is a joy to look at and if the story were rotten it would still be worth buying this collection just to see the Batman look like the Batman should!

As the tale begins, Bruce Wayne has given up living at Wayne manor and he and his loyal butler, Alfred, have moved to a luxurious penthouse in the heart of Gotham. This makes it easier for the Batman to prowl the night. The first two issues, drawn by Walt Simonson (later of THOR fame) before Rogers came on board, sets the stage for what is to come. Bruce Wayne meets the beautiful and intriguing Silver St. Cloud and falls head over heels for her. But their romance is interrupted when a scheming white collar criminal, who has been turned to phosphorus (which burns on contact with air he loves to scream), decides to take revenge on the city that he believes is responsible for his fate. Dr Phosphorus contacts the corrupt city official "Boss" Rupert Thorne and agrees to spare his life if he will get the Batman off his back. Though Batman defeats Phos (of course) Boss Thorne continues to use his political power to undermine the Batman through the rest of the novel.

Hugo Strange, a great character who appeared long ago in BATMAN #1, is brought back from the 1940's. Strange has a hospital for the rich needing privacy that is actually a place where he drugs and mutates and blackmails them into doing his bidding. It isn't long before he captures millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and (gasp!) learns that he is really Batman. Hugo Strange is an interesting character who seems to admire the Batman as his only equal. "Truly a life of genius is a lonely one," he says. Strange is killed by Boss Thorne, but don't count him out! He is the "strange apparition" the book is named after. He haunts Boss Thorne all through the book and even helps the Batman out a time or two.

Next, the Batman faces off against the Penguin and another character from the golden age of comics, albeit retooled for the 70's Deadshot. All the while he dodges the machinations of Boss Thorne and as Bruce Wayne falls deeper and deeper in love with Silver St. Cloud, who by this time has discovered that he is Batman. After all, she "has spent many nights studying his chin." The bittersweet romance between St. Cloud and Wayne is so thick you can taste it, and for the reader extremely satisfying. It is rare to see the Batman obsessing over a woman as he flits through the darkened Gotham streets, but that is what he does. But he has little time for mooning because his next opponent is the maniacal Joker.

"My world goes CRAZY sometimes," thinks Batman as he considers all the things that are piling up on top of him at the beginning of "The Laughing Fish." The Joker has another insane plan and is on a killing spree. There are some beautiful scenes between the two archenemies and the Joker is portrayed as delightfully chilling and insane. His laugh is described as "raining down like ice cubes." The two Joker issues are my personal favorite Joker stories. He is deadly, evil, menacing and doggonnit FUNNY! The Joker never takes himself too seriously - except when he does. And if you don't know which way he is taking himself at the moment - he'll kill you. You gotta love a guy like that (from a DISTANCE!)
The plot lines of Silver St Cloud, Boss Thorne, Hugo Strange and The Joker all come to conclusions, but I won't spoil them for you.

The paperback ends with a pair of stories featuring a new Clayface, written by Len Wein and continuing with the beautiful art of Marshall Rogers. Clayface is a somewhat tragic figure who is in love with a wax dummy. Wein does a good job conveying this and keeping it sad rather than comic.

STRANGE APPARITIONS features an all-new cover illustration by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin and a foreword by Steve Englehart? It is attractive and easy to read without cracking the spine. It gives you 10 classic comics for thirteen bucks - such a deal! And Like any good compilation, this one ends too soon and leaves you begging for more. Unfortunately that more will have to come from back issue bins - at least until someone decides to collect Englehart's Justice League America!

Highest Possible Recommendation!

The book "Strange Apparitions" is an anthology of a section of Detective Comics in the 1970's. There are stories featuring the Joker, Clayface, Dr. Phosphorus, Hugo Strange, and the Penguin. Reading the book shows that this was one of the high points of the Batman series.
Also this book contains the classic Joker story, "The Laughing Fish." This is one of the best Batman plots of all time. The Joker commits one of the most unusual and inventive crimes of all.
This also explains how Hugo Strange came to know the identity of Batman. Some of the episodes of "Batman: the Animated Series" are inspired from these comics. If you are a fan of the animated show from the '90s, you'll also appreciate these comics, the inspiration for some of those cartoons. On a side note, the animated series is one of the greatest works of television, fictional or non-fictional, I have ever experienced. The comics from the "Strange Apparitions" era provided much of its inspiration.
So this is a good sampling of the Batman and his exploits.

Certainly one of the best runs ever on the Batman - portrayed appropriately by writer Steve Englehart not as a psychotic, vengeful terrorist of some sort but as an adventurer/detective born of a lifelong desire to see that no child would come to the end of their childhood as violently as he had. Justice being the goal, but not at the expense of life (any life), he adopted this identity to work with law enforcement, in a manner which they could not. Artist Marshall Rogers appropriately renders the Batman with the build of a gymnast/martial artist - fitting for one skilled in all manner of each and inker/embellisher Terry Austin brings further character and mood to these renderings. There might well be a better depiction of the Batman, but one would be hard pressed to find it. Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" from the mid-1980's (which is said to have inspired the Batman films in the late 80's) is often cited as the height of the Batman's lore, but was intended as a tale outside the current Batman stories - a story of a possible future, 10 years after his retirement and a tale of hope and redemption mired in a dark, grim and gritty world. Unfortunately, those who followed Miller focused solely on the "dark, grim and gritty" and superimposed that mood upon the character of the Batman. "Strange Apparitions" by Engelhart and Rogers is, in my own opinion, a much better rendition of the Batman. Beautiful art and engaging story for juvenile fiction fans old and young alike.

During the late 1970s, DC managed to entice writer Steve Englehart aboard on Detective Comics. At Marvel, Englehart had repeatedly proven his skills and imagination on titles such as Avengers, Captain America and Incredible Hulk. Teamed up with Marshall Rogers on pencil and coloring, they created classic stories where today, their version of Batman is regarded as one of the authoritative alongside that of Frank Miller, Dennis O'Neil & Neil Adams, Dick Sprang and of course, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and Bill Finger's.

The first instalment starts off with the introduction of Dr. Phosphorous and the corrupt Gotham City Councillor, Rupert Thorne. Englehart also presents us a new love interest for Bruce Wayne, Silver St. Cloud. The good doctor has made very few appearances since then (notably in Starman) but Thorne has become a feature villain in the animated television series while St. Cloud served as the template for Vicki Vale's persona in Tim Burton's blockbuster film. Both characters also serve as important elements throughout Englehart's epic run on Detective Comics.

Unfortunately, the first two instalments in Strange Apparitions is not representative of excellent pencil work on behalf of Walt Simonson. Perhaps the fault can also be attributed to inker Al Milgrom but the result is art that is flustered, flat and lifeless. Do not expect the type of visual which made Simonson's Thor, Fantastic Four and Orion memorable masterpieces. However, the events and characters' presentation solidly sets up the stage for the next seven chapters in Englehart's story arc.

Marshall Rogers pencilled back up features in Detective Comics #466, #467 as well as a full length story in issue 468 prior to being assigned as regular artist on the duration of Englehart's tenure in '77 & '78. The decision to pair him up with Englehart as well as adding inker Terry Austin to the creative team was another genial one by editor Julius Schwartz. With Rogers' stylised pencil work, angular structure and keen sense of cinematic poses, his Batman appeared more sleek & athletic instead of bulky and muscular. It is quite reminiscent of Jim Starlin's unique style on Captain Marvel except that Rogers' anatomy and facial structures are more realistic.

Rogers also strongly emphasizes background scenery and the architecture of Gotham City. It brings a vivid grandeur to the stories' setting. Combined with Englehart's prominent scribing, their depiction of Bruce Wayne is simply not a facade for the Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne and Batman are one and the same. Englehart strongly emphasizes the man behind the mask without resorting to poorly personifying psycho babble melodrama that has been so prominent since Jim Starlin's departure from the Batman title in 1989.

The team's first effort offers a story which represents a villain which had long been forgotten but yet appeared in the historic first issue of Batman. Thirty-five years after his last appearance, Hugo Strange was reintroduced to a new generation of readers. In a classic plot twist, Strange discovers Wayne's alter-ego. A pivotal point that paved the road to his obsession with Batman in many subsequent story lines in which this villain appeared in.

While Englehart revitalized Hugo Strange and built upon the character's Golden Age foundation, the next four chapters features two of Batman's greatest arch foes. "The Malay Penguin" also marks the guest appearance of Robin who in the last two instalments plays a minor but important role. The complicity and friendship between the two is well depicted as they thwart another outlandish caper by Oswald Cobblepot. As the romance between Silver and Bruce evolves and takes center stage, a subplot is inserted as the 'ghost' of Hugo Strange haunts his murderer, Rupert Thorne. This tale also demonstrates Batman's detective prowess and skills as well as Robin's admiration for his mentor.

In the next chapter, Englehart totally revamps a throw away villain from yesteryear. A character which became instrumental in John Ostrander's Suicide Squad series and fortified him as one of the deadliest maniacs in Batman's Rogue Gallery. In a story which seems to pay homage to Dick Sprang's outlandish "props" from the Golden Age, Deadshot is now a menace in very sense of the word. The Thorne-Strange subplot ensues but another becomes full blown as Batman's mask cannot fool Silver's keen sense of observation about her lover's physique and facial features. A woman's passion for her man will indeed make it very hard for him to conceal his physical features, body movements as well as his voice. Even if that man is shrouded in a cap and cowl. I guess Batman should have tried a pair of glasses instead!

"The Laughing Fish" and "Sign Of The Joker" stories are considered as the paramount confrontation between Batman and Joker since their first clash in 1940. Englehart severs all ties from Joker's dreaded Clown Prince Of Crime persona and brings him back to his Pre- Comic Code Authority roots. His camp Silver Age characterization now makes place for his true homicidal disposition. Joker's psychotic nature is even more prominent as he holds Gotham City hostage to pay monetary fees for fish which bears his grinnish resemblance. Which of course, is of his own doing. Only Frank Miller and Alan Moore have been able to exquisitely portray Joker's genial and demented psyche as well as Englehart. Subsequent writers and story lines have all been a mockery and pale echo of the standards which Englehart set with the character in this epic two parter. Its impact is still felt in the Batman mythology because 22 years after it was published, Englehart extended upon it in a two part story featured in the Legends of the DC Universe series (issues 26 & 27).

The last two instalments marks a shuffle in the creative team. Dick Giordano replaces Austin as inker while Englehart's position is succeeded by Len Wein. Giordano's influence is quite evident as his heavier inking style slightly alters the look of Rogers' dynamic pencil work and layout. Wein's writing on the two part story introducing an utterly deranged villain establishes why he has his place amongst comic book greats. Wein is CO-creator of Swamp Thing and one of the masterminds behind the relaunch of Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise.

Perhaps Clayface III is another lunatic amongst many in Batman's extensive and rich Rogues Gallery but Wein manages to separate him from the other two villains bearing the same name by making the reader sympathetic to his plight. His physical deformity and Clayface's failed attempt at a cure only spiralled his high intellectual capacity into the mouth of madness. But a killer is a killer... If your sole introduction to the character was in the creative abortion which appeared in the Detective Comics story arc entitled "The Mud Pack" (issues 604 to 608) during 1989 then I urge you to seek out the 1987 Batman Annual. Only the imaginative and depraved mind of Alan Moore has been able to recapture and evolve upon the terror of Clayface's powers and mindset.

Batman is not about No Man's Land. He is not about Knighfall and certainly not about Bruce Wayne: Murderer wankfest. I fail to understand why DC insists on making a creative artistic mockery with the character by holding the fans hostage with another useless crossover within the major Batman titles and its spin-offs.

Strange Apparitions is a worthy edition for all Batman fans, astute comic book readers and those who wish to enjoy a viable representation of the essence of Bob Kane & Bill Finger's character. Does it hold up to today's comic book production of coloring and separation? No, of course not. Don't be silly. This would be comparing the music produced today with that of 60 years ago based on the sole merits of technology and equipment.

Englehart, Wein and Rogers' offering to the character's mythos and storytelling standards which left its mark on the Batman legacy may be occasionally equalled but rarely surpassed. This is Batman in his finest hour.

Review by Brian Grindrod

This collection of Batman tales remains one of the most engaging, fun, and brilliantly wrought sagas of the Detective's long and storied history. Steve Engleheart pens a classic with the Joker fish, and Silver St.Clair stands as one of the more memorable and alluring love interests that the Batman has had over the years. However, as has been said before (yet cannot be emphasized enough) the real attraction here is the artwork, which (sadly enough) marked the pinnacle of Marshall Rogers' career, and remains one of "the" definitive renditions of the character (alongside such luminaries as Neal Adams, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Alan Davis, and Dave Mazzuchelli- look for their work). Ably abetted by Terry Austin in the height of his prowess (see Essential X-Men vol.2 for more of his very best work with joltin' Johnny Byrne), the Batman as presented in this collection is truly awe-inspiring and larger than life. Or, in other words- THIS BOOK IS BEAUTIFUL! An "art-fan's" delight. Not only that, if you are looking for "classic" Batman- the gentleman detective-cum-player, the swingin' bachelor with a keen intellect and a penchant for fisticuffs, well, you can't go wrong with this one. Top drawer, people, top drawer.

BATMAN: STRANGE APPARITIONS collects the beginning of what is, in my mind, the definitve Batman. These stories introduce the writer/artist team of Steve Englehart and Marshal Rogers, ably inked by the great Terry Austin. These guys redefined the style and look of Batman in the late `70s, reestablishing him as the guardian of Gotham City (let's face it, while Ra's al Ghul is a neat villain, Batman has no place globetrotting after international criminals), and placing him against such criminals as Dr. Phosphorous, Hugo Strange, the Penguin, Deadshot, and the Joker. What's so interesting about these stories is how well-versed Englehart is in the dark knight's history, in some cases picking up plot threads from Golden Age Batman and Detective Comics stories - if you know your Batman history from numerous DC Archives, there are more than a few incidents in this book that will jog your memory. Rogers packs the pages with sharp, detailed artwork that is full of nods to the Golden and Silver Ages. All in all, these stories are like a unification of the Golden-, Silver-, and Bronze-Age versions of Batman, and the team pulls it off stunningly. Also featuring work by Len Wein and Walt Simonson, the book collects DETECTIVE COMICS #469-479.

This run reprinted from late 70s Detective Comics has many good things going for it. Steve Englehart for the first time weaves ongoing subplots into a Batman run, Marshall Rogers (a man who has an architechtural background) uses art deco to capture Gotham City and pencils very illustrative versions on the Batman and his villains, etc.

The reasons this collection didn't get 5 stars from me;

-The beautiful covers were not reprinted from the original issues or the Shadow of the Batman mini-series that reprinted these very same issues in 1986.

-The first cameo appearance of Clayface III is not reprinted. This issue contained an aftermath of the whole Boss Thorne subplot courtesy a nice framing sequence by Len Wein/Marshall Rogers. Where is it? It's an incomplete run without it.

-The first couple of chapters are very poorly illustrated by Walt Simonson. His work prior to these issues was the stunning Manhunter series and The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy from an earlier Detective Comics. He would go on to draw better Batman stories like Dreadful Birthday Dear Joker but what happened here? His pencils on this book are weak compared to other works by this master artist. Was he a last minute fill in?

I bought this collection, part of them anyway and translated to Spanish, about seventeen years ago when I was fourteen years old. During all these years I've read and seen a lot of versions of Batman but this remain as one of my favorites Batman runs ever. I like the art, I like the writing, I like the inking but over all that I like the way It made me love the comics more than I already did. If you are a comic fan you should buy this and feel the magic of this underrated medium.

For every person who still clings to the notion that this is a definitive Batman treatment, there's someone else who would say it's now outclassed by Dark Knight Returns, Hush, The Long Halloween, Batman: Year One, and various other more recent Batman epics that have a darker, grittier feel than what we get from Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Terry Ausin & Co., in Strange Apparitions.

I cling to the notion that this is a definitive Batman treatment, essential Batman reading and viewing pleasure. You get major Batman villains: Joker, Penguin, and Clayface. You get forgotten Batman villains, revamped: Hugo Strange, and Deadshot. Throw in Dr. Phosphorus, Boss Rupert Thorne (head of Gotham's City Council where he can corrupt the city from inside the system), Silver St. Cloud, Commissioner Gordon, and Robin...and you have a fun time in Gotham City courtesy of some solid plotting, and artwork by one of my favourite comic-book artists ever ever ever, Mashall Rogers. Just look at the beautiful cityscapes...Gotham by day, on page 98 of this graphic novel, and Gotham by night, on page 108. Look at the malicious purple glee of the Joker as he invades the copyright offices and demands that he get paid for every poisoned, Joker-faced fish pulled out of the sea. Take a gander at Deadshot's new killer threads, while he lines up Batman in his sights. And how gorgeous is Silver St. Cloud, the woman who tumbles to Bruce Wayne's secret identity as she falls for him? And then there's Batman himself, in the blue and grey outfit that has never looked better. Marshall Rogers works as the colourist for most of these stories, and if the scenery isn't as shrouded in shadows, or as drearily monotone, as we're used to in Batman tales these days, I for one am not complaining about the rainbow of colours that light up the daytime scenes. When night falls, and the fog roles in off the harbour, and Batman prowls the rooftops, the colours run and hide, appropriately.

At first glance, writer Steve Englehart gives us traditional stories that don't break any new ground. But what happens to Hugo Strange at the hands of Boss Thorne, at the end of "I Am The Batman!", is rather shocking, even if the violence is played down. I've rarely seen such a cold-hearted end to a comic tale. The Penguin story gives us that villain at his most brilliant, as Batman and Robin struggle to deduce just exactly what crime the avian archfiend is in fact planning to commit. And the highlight of Strange Apparitions is the two-part Joker story from Detective Comics #'s 475 and 476 where the Joker's lunacy knows no bounds--a horrendously delightful celebration of insanity for insanity's sake. The Joker has truly gone off the deep end here, but he's got the guns and the muscle and the chutzpah to actually look like he can make a profit from the most bizarre extortion scheme known to clown. Personally, I think he does it just for the murder.

Walt Simonson does the pencilling for the early part, the fast-moving Dr. Phosphorus story--while Len Wein is the writer on board for the wrap-up involving the new Clayface (new and improved--with more scrubbing, scalding bubbles that'll scrub the flesh right off you. Yuck.). So it's not quite an Englehart/Rogers monopoly; but it's all held together by a few extended subplots involving Boss Thorne's relentless smear-campaign against Batman, the romance angle, the many repercussions of Hugo Strange's auction held to sell Batman's greatest secret, and, of course, the ghost.

Amazing artwork gracing some wonderful if somewhat formulaic storylines. Batman: Strange Apparitions features major Bat-villains at their very best (Joker looks great helping the reader actually turn one of the pages--Isn't that cool!), and the Dark Knight himself does what he does best...follows clues and fights hard to take back each Gotham night from those fiends who would hold it hostage.

This is the epitomy of Classic Batman. The story arcs are beyond reproach, even if the dialogue and expositionary blurbs are melodramatic and farcical by today's standards. If you grew up a fan of Batman: The Animated Series, you'll recognize this as the archetype for what that series became. The artwork, at most times, is the epitomy of the era. These days comics are more artistic and design-oriented, while these remain rather straight-forward. As such, they are the standard by which all other comics of the era, from the 70's through the mid-90's, should be measured.