Worst Batman graphic novels

[Fambo Number Mive]

I think the worst Batman graphic novel has to be All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, with Batman acting like a kind of drill sergeant to Robin and eager to kill criminals. Although it can be a so bad it's good read, making it entertaining to pick up from time to time.

What are your least favourite Batman graphic novels?

[kalowski]

I think the worst Batman graphic novel has to be All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, with Batman acting like a kind of drill sergeant to Robin and eager to kill criminals. Although it can be a so bad it's good read, making it entertaining to pick up from time to time.

What are your least favourite Batman graphic novels?

Is this Frank Miller? Think I had this and it had a ludicrous big breasted woman (maybe Batgirl?) at the start and I just thought "Fuck off, Frank..." I gave it away.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Yes, Frank Miller.

I also really didn't like the Killing Joke, found the whole bit with

Spoiler alert

Batgirl

[close]

too grim and disturbing. I find a lot of Joker Batman stories just too bleak, I know Joker isn't meant to be likeable but I just find him a really sickening, horrible person. Joker: DC Black Label Edition Joker is told from the point of view of one of his henchmen and Joker is vile in that, they break into a house and murder the couple inside just because they can. 

I feel the Joker is a bit overused really and would like to see some new and exciting Batman villians brought in. Maybe reinvent villians like Clock King for a more adult audience.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Hush. Here's why: It's wank.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Hush is on Kindle Unlimited so I'm having a flick through it and I'm at the page revealing Batman has at least eight different Batmobiles in his Batcave, one Batman 1966 style, one Batman Forever style etc. Eight Batmobiles seems a bit ridiculous really.

[Mr Vegetables]

For me it is that Batman/Dial H for Hero story by the Babylon 5 man where a small boy's actions end up killing a homeless man, and Batman says something like "it's okay; it was only a homeless man!" I feel a story will have to be pretty bad to top that

[Mister Six]

For me it is that Batman/Dial H for Hero story by the Babylon 5 man where a small boy's actions end up killing a homeless man, and Batman says something like "it's okay; it was only a homeless man!" I feel a story will have to be pretty bad to top that

Haha, what!?

[Oh, Nobody]

For me it is that Batman/Dial H for Hero story by the Babylon 5 man where a small boy's actions end up killing a homeless man, and Batman says something like "it's okay; it was only a homeless man!" I feel a story will have to be pretty bad to top that

WHAT

[kalowski]

I like The Killing Joke and I remember liking Hush, although it was ages ago I last read it.
No idea what the fuck that "it was only a homeless man" story is!

[BlodwynPig]

Don't worry it's not real

[madhair60]

Hush. Here's why: It's wank.

Yep.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Yes, Frank Miller.

I also really didn't like the Killing Joke, found the whole bit with

Spoiler alert

Batgirl

[close]

too grim and disturbing.

Even Alan Moore finds The Killing Joke a bit distasteful now so you're not alone.

I haven't read enough Batman graphic novels to judge, but I remember when All Star Batman and Robin came out and was widely mocked both for "I'm the Goddamn Batman", Vicky Vale's talking ass-cheeks, and Robin's reaction to Batman calling his car "The Batmobile" ("That is totally queer"). I recently watched a YouTube review of the first ten issues and sweet Christ this comic was terrible:

[Small Man Big Horse]

Haha, what!?

WHAT

I'd not heard of it before but a quick search suggests this is the comic in question:
https://wtfdccomics.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/omg-dc-the-brave-and-the-bold-27/#:~:text=Michael%20Straczynski%20took%20over%20the,is%20pretty%20good%2C%20too).

[cosmic-hearse]

'A Death in the Family' - Robin gets killed via a reader phone vote gimmick, followed by a litany of anti-Arab racism (culminating in the Joker becoming an Iranian ambassador - which must have been a Multiverse Iran as they speak Arabic rather than Farsi).

[Mister Six]

I'd not heard of it before but a quick search suggests this is the comic in question:
https://wtfdccomics.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/omg-dc-the-brave-and-the-bold-27/#:~:text=Michael%20Straczynski%20took%20over%20the,is%20pretty%20good%2C%20too).

Yeah I found that blog and then skimmed the issue itself. Mr Vegetables isn't giving an accurate rendition.

A kid finds the dial, which gifts whoever holds it with a random superhero identity. He freaks out and throws it away. It gets picked up by a Joker minion who's on the lam and despairing at the direction his life has taken. He gets Superman-type superpowers and does a bit of a face turn, rescuing some people and doing good, but eventually being killed.

Batman figures out the kid had the dial before, and tracks him down. The kid says the dial gave him psychic powers that let him see the future, and they showed him that whoever used the dial next would die.  He panicked and threw it out because he didn't want to die himself.

Batman says this dude was a career criminal who would have died eventually anyway - at the hands of cops, crooks or the Joker himself - but finding the dial at least let him go out having made something of himself.

It sounds pretty cold, but I think the idea is that Batman is trying to stop this kid from being eaten up with guilt (even though, really, he knowingly doomed a stranger).

It's a bit weird, but not as mental as Mr Vegetables made it sound.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

got arkham asylum after the videogame and i thought it would be exciting adventures of hte World's Murder Detective dealing with his colourful rogues gallery in a creepy lovecraftian asylum setting. i was imagining something like a more gothic version of that Animated series ep where they're all talking about how they nearly killed the Batman

i thought it was SHIT. i prefer Frank Miller where he's just dirty harry but with dementia

[13 schoolyards]

I honestly like All-Star Batman and Robin - all the drill sergeant stuff early on actually is going somewhere (solo Batman is a pratt, and he needs a Robin to keep him from vanishing up his own arse), so at least there's a point to it, though I agree that late-period Miller is an, uh acquired taste.

I took another look at Arkham Asylum (the Morrison one) when they did the remastered reprint to see if it was worth an upgrade, and it wasn't much good. I really like the art, but I believe Morrison originally wanted it drawn in a more realistic style and I can see how that would have helped it a lot. Gothic, Morrison's other Batman story from around that time is well worth tracking down though.

I remember reading Batman: The Cult when it first came out, mostly because DC were pushing it as being their next big Bat-book after DKR. Four issues, Batman fights a cult, they beat him up, so he builds a tank and fights them again. Bernie Wrightson on art, so the tradition of great artists coupled with shit bat-scripts is a long and proud one

*edit*, Video Game Fan 2000 and I clearly on the same page there

[Senior Baiano]

I know Joker isn't meant to be likeable but I just find him a really sickening, horrible person.

Harsh

[Huxleys Babkins]

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart,

I just thought "Fuck off, Frank..." I gave it away.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

A Death in the Family isn't great, no. I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the people that wanted Jason Todd to get his head stoved in, though. He's a right little shit.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I suppose we should be thankful that the powers that be didn't let Frank Miller make Holy Terror a Batman story, though it is in all but name really. Awful stuff

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Batman Cacophony was rubbish. I didn't like Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? very much either, though I don't know what the general consensus is.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Does Battle for the Cowl count? Also I can't remember which is which between War Crimes and War Games but one of them is defo not good. Perhaps neither of them are considering I can't remember either of them.

Edit: christ, four posts in a row? I look deranged

[Dayraven]

I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the people that wanted Jason Todd to get his head stoved in, though. He's a right little shit.

One thing about him is that he went through two versions — the pre-Crisis one that was just Dick Grayson mark 2 (complete with circus parents), then the post-Crisis revamp who was the right little shit.

The second one is the one people remember, but only lasted about 20 issues each of Batman/Detective Comics compared to about 50 for the first.

(Sorry for the pedantry, I've been reading some of this stuff on DCU Infinite.)

[Senior Baiano]

I didn't like Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? very much either, though I don't know what the general consensus is.

I liked it, the Penguin turning the tables on Batman and Robin by threatening to tell them the score of a Gotham Knights game they're planning to watch on delay

[13 schoolyards]

Batman Cacophony was rubbish. I didn't like Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? very much either, though I don't know what the general consensus is.

Oh yeah, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader is arse. Still can't understand why it even exists - Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow was written to wrap up the old Superman continuity before the first Crisis wiped the slate clean (and was written by Alan Moore, who clearly loved that old tosh), whereas Neil Gaiman isn't exactly known for being a Bat-fan, or even writing decent Batman stories.

I guess he did write that one Riddler story, but it's not like anyone was sitting around going "yeah, The Dark Knight Returns didn't really have enough of an impact as a final Batman story, let's have a whimsical take about the power of stories instead"

[Magnum Valentino]

Was it designed to tie in with Batman RIP? Published at a similar time wasn't it?

My vote probably goes for Hush, too. In terms of a big, famous and easily available one, obviously there are tons of shit New 52 collections, things like David Finch, some of the Snyder Capullo stuff etc

[13 schoolyards]

Was it designed to tie in with Batman RIP? Published at a similar time wasn't it?

Yeah, that would make sense. It'd make even more sense if anyone at the time thought DC was really going to kill off Batman (at least with Moore's Superman story, that really was the end of *that* version of Superman).

I'm trying to think of a worse one than Hush, but there's nothing that comes to mind that really hits that shit spot of rubbish non-story and a big name artist that means DC keeps on reprinting it in bigger and fancier editions.

Did anyone ever read Batman: Odyssey by Neal Adams? Supposedly that was pretty out there

[Magnum Valentino]

Did anyone ever read Batman: Odyssey by Neal Adams? Supposedly that was pretty out there

I did, but I can't remember it. It was in the big Neal Adams omnibus that came out years ago. I remember thinking it was at least good craic (like All-Star), but still rubbish, unlike Hush, which has no idea it's rubbish but also includes a Lois Lane who realises that 'therapist' contains the words 'the rapist' like an IDIOT.

To be honest even the dreadful ones LOOK good. Hush has nice art, and the other Loeb books are absolutely gorgeous with that Tim Sale art, particularly on the right paper like in the Absolute editions. Those are a real treat.

I suppose the Kevin Smith ones that include the revision that Batman pissed himself during Year One's celebrated "gentlemen..." scene and various imaginings about his sex life with Silver St Cloud have to be THE worst, don't they? Because of COURSE THEY DO.

[Deskbound Cunt]

Dark Knight: The Master Race.

I loved the Miller bits- totally bonkers- but the rest was boring as shit. Finished it and took it straight to Oxfam in a grumpy mood.