Comic Flashback: Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 (1992)

Batman has been around for 80 years and has appeared in more comics than you could imagine. Over that time, the character has changed and evolved through countless storylines by hundreds if not thousands of creators. With so much material out there, it’s no wonder that every Batman fan has his or her favorite writer and artist.

For me, that’s an easy choice. Because I started reading comic books religiously in the late 1980s, my Batman fandom was sealed by the work of writer Alan Grant and the art of the late Norm Breyfogle. And as someone who loved to draw, it was Breyfogle’s art which got my attention the most, and I was very sad when DC took him off the main Batman book. Luckily for Breyfogle fans, this is the book that brought him back to the Bat-family.

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1
“The Last Arkham, Part One”
Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Norm Breyfogle
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Assistant Editor: Scott Peterson
Editor: Denny O’Neil
Cover Price: $1.50
Published by: DC Comics

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 opens with a sort of flashback as Arkham Asylum os being emptied. It was a surprising start for sure, but then we meet Arkham’s new director, Jeremiah Arkham who we learn is not very fond of the Gothic look of the building. But hiring a new decorator is only the start for Jeremiah who also wants to bring the asylum into the modern era. In an attempt to start over, he orders the destruction of the building and the destruction of all the old files his predecessor kept.

After we see the new and improved Arkham Asylum and how Jeremiah runs the place, we jump to the streets of Gotham where a man named Horse is being beaten by some thugs. Lucky Robin was in the neighborhood, and he takes care of the thugs. After making sure Horse is oka,  Nightwing arrives at lends a hand. But once he realizes Robin took care of everything he instead asks is there’s anything he can do to help Tim Drake adjust to being Robin.

Meanwhile, back at Arkham, Jeremiah is meeting with the series’ first notable villain… Mr. Zsasz. They talk about a man named Skinner (not the WWF wrestler), but an orderly in the asylum who Zsasz recently tortured. Zsasz ends the conversation by wondering out loud whether Jeremiah might meet the same fate as Skinner. Jeremiah’s last stop around new Arkham brings him to one of the maximum-security cells. Before entering the cell Jeremiah orders the orderlies to get their nightsticks ready before they meet their newest resident… a very pissed off looking Batman.

Once they are in the cell, Jeremiah Arkham immediately suggests Batman should be sedated before he becomes a danger to others. When Batman refuses to take his medication like a good boy, Jeremiah tells the orderlies to hold him down. But Batman manages to fight them off despite having his hands chained to the wall. In his rage, Batman is even able to break the chains and launches himself at Jeremiah.

However, before he can get his hands on the good doctor, Batman meets the nasty end of a high-pressure hose which finally brings him down. That’s where the nightstick-wielding orderlies put an epic beating on the Dark Knight. After Jeremiah calls them off, one orderly try to unmask Batman, but surprisingly Jeremiah stops him. He tells the orderly that he doesn’t want the cowl, at least not that way. What he wants if for a “cured” Batman to hand the cowl to him himself.

After that shocking sequence, TBatman: Shadow of the Bat #1 ends with Jeremiah and the orderlies leaving the battered Batman lying on the floor of his cell. But after they’re gone, we see Batman may not be as beaten as we thought.

I still remember buying Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 from New England Comics. But you have to know that when this book came out in May 1992 there was no internet and Wizard Magazine was in its infancy. Getting comic book related news was nearly impossible in 1992. You found out stuff when you visited a comic shop. So when I saw Shadow of the Bat #1 on the shelf that day, I jumped to grab it.

The issue was creepy as hell and left you asking all kinds of questions. It only took a couple of pages for me to hate Jeremiah Arkham. The way he treated his “patients” made me cringe. To me, he was the true villain os Shadow of the Bat #1. But I also loved the scene where Nightwing shows up to talk to Robin. This might be my favorite scene in the issue because this was the first time I had seen Nightwing talk to Tim since he became Robin.

Most of the conversation between Nightwing and Robin takes place in Shadow of the Bat #2, but seeing them meet here is where I began thinking of them more like brothers rather than just two guys who shared the role of Robin. In hindsight, Nightwing is there because something has happened to Batman, but I still get the feeling that he was just as concerned with how Tim was doing.

Something else that was cool about Shadow of the Bat #1 was that the comic came polybagged with two painted Brian Stelfreeze posters, a 3D pop-up of Arkham Asylum, a detailed Arkham Asylum blueprint and a Batman Bookmark. All of this came with a cover price of $1.50. Seriously, $1.50. In today’s comic world a set like this would probably charge you at least $10 if not more. And it was drawn by Norm freaking Breyfogle?! I was in heaven.

A little voice in my head kept telling me to get two copies of the book. One to read when I got home and a second to keep inside the polybag. But because I was planning on buying many other comics that day, I decided to buy only one copy of Shadow of the Bat #1. It was a decision I would regret a couple of hours later when I opened the poly bag and suddenly realized that I should have listened to that little voice in my head.

When I got home, the first thing I did was open my copy of Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1. But I was heartbroken to discover that the Brian Stelfreeze posters, as well as the Arkham Asylum blueprint and 3D pop-up, and the comic itself,  were torn. All these items had a tear from one end to near the middle of each one. The only item in the set that wasn’t damaged was the bookmark. I still read the comic of course, but I can’t deny that I was mad over the damaged product.

The strange thing is that the polybag itself wasn’t torn or damaged in any way before I opened it. Had it been messed with I would have grabbed a different copy of Shadow of the Bat @1. All I can think of is that the poster, blueprint and the comic were damaged as the polybag was sealed. And because the bookmark was so much smaller than the other things, it didn’t get damaged the same way.

Still, I wished I had known about the damaged stuff before I bought the set. Plus it wasn’t like I could just go back to New England Comics and show them the items. I lived two towns aways and visits to NEC in those days were limited to a handful each year. When I finally made back to the store later that summer, all copies of Shadow of the Bat #1 were gone. It took another 6 years before I found an opened copy in 50 cent bin. But to this day I have yet to find the original polybagged edition.

Ah well, you win some and you lose some I suppose. Overall though, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 is definitely worth reading. The entire first arc is worth checking out, especially if you want to see how Batman ended up a guest at Arkham Asylum. In the second issue, there’s even a great moment where Batman is attempting to escape Arkham only to run into Nightwing who is attempting to break into the institution.

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 and its follow up issues are among the most underrated 1990’s Batman comics. This arc is easy to get into, and you don’t need to know anything that has happened before. The single issues should be cheap to find online, and I think they finally released a trade in the last few years. Go check them out, you won’t be sorry!

RIP Norm Breyfogle

Artist Norman Breyfogle passed away on Monday at the age of 58. Breyfogle was widely regarded as one of the definitive Batman artists, primarily because of his lengthy run on the character. This included stints on Detective Comics alongside writer Alan Grant, as well as subsequent work on the main Batman title, and later Batman: Shadow of the Bat.

During his time working on Batman, Breyfogle co-created characters such as the Ventriloquist, Ratcatcher, Zsasz, and Jeremiah Arkham. After leaving DC, he also co-created the character Prime for Malibu Comics. Breyfogle continued to work in Comics until 2013. A stroke in 2014 brought an end to his career.

For me, Norm Breyfogle is my all time favorite Batman artist. His artwork was so different from anything else at the time, and his redesigns  for Robin and the Batmobile remain close to my heart. I still have fond memories of reading some his Detective Comics as my family drove from Boston to North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

I also remember spending hours and hours trying to draw like him, but never quite getting there. His Batmobile was harder to draw than you’d think. And I shall never forget that one year he took a few seconds of his time to wish me happy birthday on Facebook. Maybe he did that for a lot of people, but it meant the world to me that one of my comic heroes said hello to me on my birthday.

Rest in peace Norm, and thank you for the countless hours of entertainment you gave me.

Comic Flashback: Batman #464

Spending part of the summer on the Outer Banks of North Carolina is one of my favorite childhood memories. Each year we’d spend at least two weeks in Nags Head, and we’d always rent the same beach house.

One of my favorite parts of the yearly trips, was the 11 plus hour drive from Boston to North Carolina. Normally, it would be hell for a kid to be stuck in a car for that long. But during oyr first drive to Nags Head, I discovered how to make this time fly by: Comic Books.

It became my routine that at every gas stop, I would go into the convenience store and look for a comic rack. Or, if we stopped to eat at a rest stop, I would head over to the gift shop to see what they had to offer. These stops allowed me to discover several books that my local convenience store didn’t have. Among my purchases over the years were issues of The Real Ghostbusters, Speed Racer, Justice League, Doctor Strange, Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, and of course… Batman.

In the summer of 1990 my family and I stopped at a rest stop (I think in Pennsylvania) to eat some delicious Roy Rogers food. But first I ventures into the gift shop where I found the last copy of Batman #464. The issue was written by Alan Grant, with art by Norm Breyfogle and Steve Mitchell. What immediately caught my eye was the striking cover by Breyfogle. There was just something about seeing Batman fighting whatever that was, it just grabbed me right away.

As soon as we got back on the road i devoured that comic. I didn’t care if this was part 3 of a story, Grant and Breyfogle did more than enough to let me know what was going on. Batman #464 sees Batman, Black Wolf and Dog join forces to prevent a horrific act of mystical vengeance deep in the caverns of the Grand Canyon.

I loved seeing the Batmobile in the desert, and the awesome shot by Norm Breyfogle of Batman standing by the lightning. And I couldn’t help but laugh when by the end of the issue, the Dark Knight ends up with a new friend.

Before we got to Nags Head I had already read Batman #464 three times. Over the next couple of weeks, I spent hours trying to draw like Norm Breyfogle. I never got there, but Breyfogle’s art has stayed with me ever since. He is my all-time favorite Batman artist, and this issue is one of the reasons why.

It’s the car, right? Chicks love the car

A couple of days ago I decided to finally watch the special features on “The Dark Knight Rises.” While many of the featurettes are quite good, my favorite special feature  was the Batmobile documentary. Seeing all five Batmobiles in one room was something special, and I even learned a thing or two about the creation of each car. For instance, I never noticed Vicky Vale takes off her shoes to get in and out of the car in 1989’s “Batman” because she chipped the paint. Or how during pre-production Batman’s ears were too long and got caught when he closed the canopy. The documentary is filled with tons of interesting information every Bat-fan should know.

I was also very happy the filmmakers interviewed comic book creators to talk about the Batmobiles in the comics. They talk about the classic Batmboile with the giant bat face on the hood, and how the tv show in the 1960’s influenced the car in the comics. They even mention Frank Miller’s version of the car in Dark Knight Returns, Which makes sense, since Miller’s design is so close to the Tumbler used in Christopher Nolan’s films. However, I was disappointed that my favorite version of the Batmobile was not included in the documentary.

I started reading comics in the late 1980’s, but the Batmobile in those days was a dull copy of the Adam west ride. But when I saw t the car pictured above, I was amazed. The early 1990’s version of the Batmobile was designed by artist Norm Breyfogle, who by the way, is my favorite Batman artist. There’s a couple of versions of the car, but this one was always my favorite. It looked like a spaceship on wheels, and I thought “Now that’s the car a billionaire would drive.” The Breyfogle car stuck around for a few years, until AzBats destroyed it during the KnightsEnd storyline. I was very sad to see it go, and none of the cars that have followed, have come close to matching this one.