Greatest Batman stories ever told TPBs

[ChrisIII]

What's the difference between the recent TPB edition (With the Alex Ross art) and the ones published in the 80s? The Amazon reviews aren't any help because for some reason the reviews are for War Games....

[Corsair]

The Alex Ross cover versions appear to be a restart to the Greatest Stories series. Evidently DC (stupidly) decided to start again rather than continuing where they left off.

Near as I can tell there isn't any overlap between the two, but I can't find a complete list of what's in the new one. The DC website indicates the new version has stories from "Detective #33, Batman #5, Batman #62 and more!". None of those are in the 1988 Greatest Stories volume 1 that I have (which is still in print, incidentally).

The Catwoman story from Batman #62 was reprinted in the 1992 Greatest Stories volume 2 (now out of print), but whether the Catwoman story is the one that's in the new edition, I don't know. GCD lists two other Batman stories in that issue, so it may be one of the others.

[Jaye]

Here is what is included in the Batman: Greatest Stories Ever Told TPB.

Detective Comics 33, 439, 572 (two page spread), 574
Batman 5, 62, 156, 250, 251
DC Special Series 15
1980 Super-Star Holiday Special
Legends of the Dark Knight 79
Gotham Knights 32


(the Alex Ross cover one)

[Corsair]

Ah, looks like there is some overlap.

Here's the table of contents for "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" (with a most excellent Walter Simonson cover) for comparison:

Introduction by Dick Giordano
Foreword by Mike Gold

Detective Comics #31, 32 - "Batman versus the Vampire"
Batman #1 - "Dr. Hugo Strange and the Mutant Monsters"
Batman #25 - "Knights of Knavery"
Syndicated comic strip - "1001 Umbrellas of the Penguin"
Batman #47 - "The Origin of Batman"
Batman #61 - "The Birth of Batplane II"
Star-Spangled Comics #124 - "Operation: Escape"
Detective Comics #211 - "The Jungle Cat-Queen"
Detective Comics #235 - "The First Batman"
World's Finest Comics #94 - "The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team"
Batman #156 - "Robin Dies at Dawn"
Detective Comics #345 - The Blockbuster Invasion of Gotham City"
Detective Comics #404 - "Ghost of the Killer Skies"
Batman #234 - "Half an Evil"
Detective Comics #429 - "Man-Bat Over Vegas"
Batman #250 - "The Batman Nobody Knows"
Detective Comics #437 - "Deathmask"
Detective Comics #442 - "Death Haunts the Skies"
Detective Comics #457 - "No Hope in Crime Alley"
DC Special Series #15 - "Death Strikes at Midnight and Three"
Detective Comics #474 - "The Deadshot Ricochet"
Detective Comics #482 - "Bat-Mite's New York Adventure"
Batman #312 - "A Caper a Day Keeps the Batman at Bay"
Detective Comics #500 - "To Kill a Legend"
The Brave and the Bold #197 - "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne"

End Notes by Robert Greenberger
Biographies by Mark Waid

[OverMaster]

Both sound swell, and both have stories I don't own yet. Which one should I look for first?

[Apathy Boy]

The original one (with the Walt Simonson cover) is much, much better. For one thing, the original is bigger. For another, the story selection is much better. The original trade has two brilliant stories written by Alan Brennert ("The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne" and "To Kill a Legend" - the latter of which is often referred to as one of the best single issues of Batman ever), which are not included in the recent trade, presumably because they both involve the old DC Multiverse. It also has work from Alex Toth, the classic Englehart-Rogers team and Archie Goodwin, and extra stories from O'Neil, Adams and Giordano.

Quite frankly, I think the stories selected in the second edition are awful. The roster of talent is nowhere near as impressive. And while the stories themselves aren't necessarily horrible, most of them belong nowhere near a list of the greatest of all time.

[Maestro]

The story I consider to be the best in the second book is already in the first one ("Death Strikes at Midnight and Three"). You should buy the first one if you can.

[Chad]

Only the first one deserves to be called The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. While the second one would have made a decent 80 page giant it doesn't even come close to the first edition.

The first one covers Batman's entire history while the second one almost completely ignores anything published before the 1970s. I think there's one story from the 40s, one from the 50s, one from the 60s, and three from 1973 (Detective 33 merely reprints the two-page origin sequence from that issue and not the story). It doesn't seem as if any research was done into putting this volume together and it's a little too obvious that this was a rush job.

Dick Sprang gets nothing more than a pin-up, Jim Aparo is similarly ignored, and it almost feels as if this book was put together simply to sell the Alex Ross cover.

I don't want to be overly negative - I've been a fan my whole life yet it was in this recent volume that I first read the classic story from Detective 439 and I'm glad I did - but I can't stress enough that the first one is the one to buy.

[dancj]

The first one covers Batman's entire history while the second one almost completely ignores anything published before the 1970s.

That actually makes me more interested in the new edition. I've got the original "Greatest" books and I didn't really enjoy the older material that much