Where does Batman's Bronze Age begin?

[shaxper]

I've been slowly amassing a bronze/modern age run of Batman and Detective Comics and have been looking forward to reading them, but I'm not sure where to start. I know that, by Batman #330, a sense of continuity was being established as tensions grew between Batman and Robin over Robin leaving college, but where does this more adult tone begin? At what point does Batman shift from a "story a month" title to a semi on-going drama?

[Greg Hatcher]

Well, those are two different questions. The beginning of Batman's "Bronze Age" is widely regarded as being when Robin leaves for college in the first place, and the template for the Bronze age Batman was set in Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' "The Secret of the Waiting Graves." This was 1969.

HOWEVER, if what you want to know is "When did the Bat books adopt a Marvel-style, serial approach," that came much later, around the time Marv Wolfman did his Ra's Al Ghul story. That's more like the early 80's. And even then it was intermittent, it didn't really become the norm until Conway/Colan/Newton.

[shaxper]

And even then it was intermittent, it didn't really become the norm until Conway/Colan/Newton.

What issues would those have been?

[Greg Hatcher]

Starting somewhere around Batman #330-340. I'd have to go to the GCD to pin it down.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Well, those are two different questions. The beginning of Batman's "Bronze Age" is widely regarded as being when Robin leaves for college in the first place, and the template for the Bronze age Batman was set in Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' "The Secret of the Waiting Graves." This was 1969.

The story where Dick leaves for college is "One Bullet Too Many" from Batman #217. I believe it's the last story in the Batman in the '60s TPB.

[J'onn J'onzz]

The Englehart stories had continuity. I think I'd like to know when the first multi-part story was.

[JKCarrier]

I think I'd like to know when the first multi-part story was.

Very early on: Detective Comics #31-32 (1939) was a two-part story where Batman fought The Monk.

I guess the first really lengthy story-arc would be the "Outsider" storyline, which ran intermittently between Detective Comics #334-356. But even then, each individual story more or less stood alone, with the Outsider shown as the behind-the-scenes mastermind tying everything together.

[shaxper]

As far as I know, Year One was the first time an individual Batman comic was labelled as part of a larger story. There were stories and central themes that continued from issue to issue before that, but I think that was the begining of "part 1 of 4" type stories.

[Greg Hatcher]

Oh, good heavens, no, MUCH earlier than that. "The Lazarus Affair" by Marv Wolfman and Irv Novick got a subtitle and ran three or four parts, starting in #332 and foreshadowed in subplots beginning in #330. There was David V. Reed's and Jim Aparo's "Where Were You On The Night Batman Was Killed?" that ran from Batman #291-295. There was Len Wein's great "Bat-Murderer!" story in Detective #444-449. And I am pretty sure there were earlier ones.

[Cei-U!]

Heck, the first two Bronze Age Bat-stories, Batman #217 and Detective #394, loosely constitute a two-parter. Consistant inter-tile continuity, however, didn't begin until Paul Levitz assumed editorship of the Bat-books (including Brave & Bold) in '79.

Cei-U!
Where are my dagnabbed notes??

[Captain Jim]

I'm not sure whether continued stories is really the proper criteria to judge change in tone. I would point to the aforementioned Batman #217 (December, 1969) as being a very intentional change in tone. The silver-age Batman is generally regarded to coincide with Julie Schwartz's "new look" period that began in 1964. This later morphed into material very similar to the campy TV show (which ran from 1966-1968). After the TV show was cancelled, the comics began to gradually improve, but Batman #217 was an intentional attempt to make them as different from the campy version as possible. It was here that Batman's motif was changed back to the "creature of the night" and Robin was removed from the storyline. The villains were also revamped: this is when the Joker was made a crazy killer again, Two Face was brought back (after not appearing--I think--since the 1950's) and Ras al Ghul was introduced.

[shaxper]

I'm not sure whether continued stories is really the proper criteria to judge change in tone.

I respect that #217 changed the tone of Batman significantly and brought an end to much of the 1960s campiness and neutral momentum, but what strikes me about the mid 300s is that there are overarching themes and concerns behind the major plots of some issues. Whereas we saw ten years of manipulative covers with Robin punching Batman or Batman threatening to kill Robin and we always knew there was no serious rift between them, we actually see the two sharing a prolongued difference of opinion over Robin's future in these issues, and it even occasionally breeds outright hostility. I'm not really looking for the begining of continued stories in Batman as much as I'm looking for the begining of these overarching themes and developments in the world of Batman. When do we begin to see Batman concerned with (or affected by) the events of previous issues other than to say "this is tougher than that other time..."? Batman #217 was a conscious shift for Batman, but where do the long term reprecussions begin beyond that engineered issue?

[T GUy]

Greg, There was David V. Reed's and Jim Aparo's "Where Were You On The Night Batman Was Killed?" that ran from Batman #291-295. There was Len Wein's great "Bat-Murderer!" story in Detective #444-449. And I am pretty sure there were earlier ones.

The two that spring to mind are 'The Underworld Olympics of 1976,' by David V. Reed in Batman, and the Denny O'Neil Ra's Al Ghul on-off semi-serial in 1971/2, IIRR.

But the Marvel 'continuous biography' style came in when Doug Moench took over Batman (and Detective at some point?). This would be around Batman 320 and 1980.

[Lone Ranger]

How about when Detective Comics really try to take on more of a mystery/detective angle?

Does anyone know precisely when that began in the early 70s?

To me, that created a real distinction between Batman and Detective Comics and it would be difficult to see them as part of a larger Bronze Age continuity whole.

[Citizen V]

If the Bronze Age was set then....then where does the Current Age begin?

[shaxper]

If the Bronze Age was set then....then where does the Current Age begin?


#404

That's where DC reboots Batman's continuity post-crisis, first with Year One, then a brief retcon of Jason Todd's origin, and eventually Year Three, which retcons Dick Grayson's origin.

[J'onn J'onzz]

Crisis creates the current age for most comics.