Batman: Strange Apparitions (1977) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Wednesday. I'm back with a comic book review for this week. This time I'll be discussing the 1977-1978 Batman storyline, Strange Apparitions, which ran in Detective Comics #469 to #479 and was written by Steve Englehart and Len Wein, with art by Marshall Rogers, Walt Simonson, Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, and Dick Giordano. So let's get into it.

This is probably the most famous Batman storyline that was published in the '70s. It's also the most popular one from this era. I know it's one that I've known about since the late '90s when I first got the 1988/1989 trade paperback compilation, The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told for my 11th birthday. The way Englehart and Wein wrote this story is incredible. Especially connected to the artwork of Simonson, Rogers, Austin, Milgrom, and Giordano.

While Batman deals with Dr. Phosphorus, Hugo Strange, the Penguin, the Joker, and Clayface III, he's also having to deal with crime boss, Rupert Thorne, who has control of the city council, and is attempting to oust Batman from the city. He also meets wealthy socialite, Silver St. Cloud, who quickly deduces that Bruce Wayne and Batman are one and the same and shakes things up for both Bruce Wayne and Batman in a very different way than Vicki Vale or Julie Madison had previously (Bruce even mentions Julie in his thoughts while he's with Silver in "The Deadshot Ricochet" from Detective Comics #474).

Silver St. Cloud is one of my favourites when it comes to Batman's love interests. Besides Catwoman, she's also the most interesting. I think it's because she isn't just a photographer or a bored rich girl. She actually does something with her money, similar to what Bruce Wayne does with the Wayne Foundation, and is incredibly intelligent. I mean she sees Batman one time and immediately figures out that he's Bruce Wayne. The only other person who has ever done that was Ra's al Ghul, and that was before Ra's had even met Batman in person. I was also just impressed with the way she handled things during Batman's fight with Deadshot in Detective Comics #474 and the security guard tried to apprehend him due to Thorne's cease and desist order. Instead of turning him over to the authorities, Silver orders the guard to back off. Which is cool. After this storyline, Silver won't appear in the comics again until Batman #600, where she appears in a flashback, in 2000. She'd also return in Englehart's 2005 miniseries, Batman: Dark Detective and Kevin Smith's 2009 miniseries, Batman: Widening Gyre, which takes place when Tim Drake is Robin, Jason Todd is no longer dead, and Grant Morrison was nearing the end of his run on the Batman titles.

I was extremely surprised to see that Chief O'Hara appears in Detective Comics #470, in his first "onscreen" appearance in the comics. Having never read this issue before, I had no idea that O'Hara appeared, being that I know him from the 1966 TV series, the 1966 movie, and the late 2010s Batman '66 direct to video animated movies. So that was a wonderful surprise.

The villains in this storyline are interesting, as you have a mix classic villains such as the Penguin, the Joker, and Hugo Strange, and new adversaries such as Dr. Phosphorus, Rupert Thorne, and Clayface III. I'm the most familiar with Rupert Thorne from his appearances in Batman: The Animated Series and its comic book tie-in, The Batman Adventures. He's fascinating here though because he's the president of the city council and has as much power as Lex Luthor would once he was recreated post-Crisis on Infinite Earths in the mid to late '80s. Yet, he's a crime boss. Apparently in Steve Englehart's draft of the script for the project that became Tim Burton's 1989 movie, Batman, Rupert Thorne was supposed to be the crime boss instead of Carl Grissom, who was created by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren for the movie, once it was decided not to use Thorne.

While Phosphorus began as a Batman villain, he's appeared all over the DC Universe, including in Starman, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Titans (2000-2003). I actually know him as one of the bad guys that Stephanie Brown has to face as Batgirl in Batgirl #'s 6 and 7 from 2009. He also appeared in Batman and Robin #22 in 2011.

Hugo Strange is another villain I know more from The Batman Adventures than the main comics. Though I did read his appearance in Batman #1 (1940), which was reprinted in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. 

Clayface III is interesting because I actually know him more from the comics of the '90s as he appeared in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #'s 26 and 27, during Knightquest: The Crusade, which was the second storyline in the Knightfall saga, and Jean Paul Valley is Batman during that two issue story. 

The Penguin and the Joker are the most interesting though. The Penguin is there for one issue and that's pretty much it. Technically two issues since he's used as a plot device to get Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot, out of prison at the beginning of Detective Comics #474. But, it seems to be your typical Penguin story. The Penguin is one of the few villain characters who hasn't changed all that much since he was created in 1941 though he's not completely the same as he was 83 years ago. 

The Joker on the other hand is a completely different story. The Joker is portrayed as he was originally in his earliest appearances in the first four or five issues of Batman from the '40s, with him using the Joker Gas and announcing his victims over TV broadcasts as he had over radio broadcasts in first two appearances in Batman #1 (1940). Which is interesting since the story ends the way many of Batman's fights with the Joker have ended, with the Joker seemingly dying, only to return in a future issue. There's also a bit of hints of the modern Joker from the New 52 and Rebirth, where he doesn't want Batman's secret identity exposed by the likes of Hugo Strange or Rupert Thorne, as it would spoil his fun. While the more modern versions of the Joker just doesn't care who Batman is under the cowl, this version just doesn't want it exposed. Which is very interesting.

Having read Detective Comics #474 in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told since I was 11, it was actually nice to have context for everything that was happening around that issue. Both before and after it. Especially because the ghost of Hugo Strange appeared in front of Rupert Thorne in the issue, and I had no idea when Thorne had had Strange killed. I also didn't know when Bruce had met Silver, or why Robin was even in Gotham, helping Batman fight the Penguin. So it was nice to finally have that context, and to actually read Englehart's complete run on Detective Comics for the first time in its entirety.

Alot of the time, switching between artists in the middle of a story arc can be a bit jarring. But switching from Walt Simonson and Al Milgrom to Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin, and then Dick Giordano replacing Austin after Detective Comics #477, didn't have much of an impact. At least, not on me. The artwork in this storyline is awesome and all of the pencilers and inkers did an incredible job on this story.

This was the era that Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and the other people who created Batman: The Animated Series were inspired by when they created that show. In fact the episode "The Laughing Fish" was partially adapted from Detective Comics #475, which was also called "The Laughing Fish", with elements from "Sign of the Joker!" from Detective Comics #476 and "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" from Batman #251 (1973) being combined for the episode. And I think that's why the '70s is the most well known era of Batman's publication history. The stories are timeless and were adapted into many episodes of the 1992 TV show. These guys were kids when this storyline was running in Detective Comics so this is their Batman, even while the 1966 TV show was airing in reruns and Batman and Robin were appearing in Super Friends from Hanna-Barbera and Filmation's The New Adventures of Batman during this same time. And because they were inspired by their Batman, they ended up creating a definitive version of Batman for a whole generation of kids who were watching Fox Kids from 1992 until 1995, or Global and YTV in the case of Canadian kids. 

Strange Apparitions was originally collected in trade paperback form in 1999. While select issues were included in books such as The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told and other similar volumes, this was the first time that the story was collected in its entirety. It's also the only collected edition to collect a complete story from the '70s, with its own title, similar to Knightfall or Year One or something like that. Normally '70s stories would be collected randomly in volumes like the aforementioned The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. I actually found this trade for $10 at a convention that I went to two weeks ago. It was the only thing I bought at that con. So I'm glad I was finally able to read it.

The storyline was partially collected in 2011, except issues 469 and 470, in the hardcover collected edition, Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers. It goes without saying that it collects all of the Batman comics that Marshall Rogers did the artwork for, including Steve Englehart's 2005 miniseries, Dark Detective. 

Then in 2020 the entire storyline was collected in its entirety in Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart. This was a trade paperback that collected every Batman comic that Steve Englehart wrote from the '70s through to the 2000s with Dark Detective. This trade is probably the easiest way you could get your hands on this storyline, since Strange Apparitions hasn't been collected on its own since the original trade came out in 1999, and that original trade has been out of print for many years. If you haven't already own the original trade since 1999 of course. And if you don't own either trades, you might get lucky and find the 1999 trade for a decent price at a comic book sale or convention the way I did two weeks ago. 

Overall this was a great read. If you're a Batman fan and have never read '70s Batman comics, this storyline is a great entry point into the era. Especially if you're a fan of Batman: The Animated Series. '70s Batman comics are some of my favourite Batman comics besides the ones I grew up reading in the '90s. I highly recommend reading Strange Apparitions.

Alright my friends that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more reviews and other posts. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.