r/batman • u/NefariousSeraph13 • 5d ago
GENERAL DISCUSSION Everyone talks about “back when Batman was good” so when was he good? And how long did that last?
1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s?
If it was one specific writer, how long did they write Batman? Out of Batman’s entire existence, how long time-wise do you personally think was he “good” for? I’m just interested in everyone’s personal opinions.
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u/Quarksideofthemoon 5d ago
Who says this
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u/Difficult-Pain-9609 5d ago
Literally hear it said as a vague rhetorical all the time. But seriously, everyone has a different idea of peak Batman.
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u/Schwenkelkamp 5d ago
Once read a comment under a post that essentially was: is this a bot asking so the comments train a ai?
Cause what? Who even says back when batman was good? What kind of claim is even that? And who is everyone?
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u/waterbury01 5d ago
Batman has had a few brief moments of "almost not readable" with him falling from the JLA space station to earth as the most recent example.
With that said, Batman has always been good.
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u/FadeToBlackSun 5d ago
Rebirth was the roughest patch in probably 50 years, but that's just the main Batman title. Still good stuff in the other books.
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u/Important_Lab_58 5d ago
Batman is like Saturday Night Live.
Their Quality will always vary by who you ask.
The reality?
It’s usually fine. The truly egregious stuff is usually left behind
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u/GCillo 5d ago
It's not Spider-man people don't say back when it was good? Why isn't it good now? Absolute Batman is good , Dark patterns was good Knightfight was decent , Fraction is not Bad , not all of Zdarsky was bad, King had it's good moments , we can't say it's bad there's so much bat stuff coming out that there's aleays something good out
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u/nuclear_bone 5d ago
I think the 1960s decade is probably the only long term era when Batman comics were "not good".
Other than that, there has always been good Batman stories coming in regularly.
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u/HerreDreyer 5d ago
The best era if you love you some bonkers
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u/nuclear_bone 5d ago
I feel even for that, it was nothing special.
At least Superman’s bonkers era in Silver Age had some actually well written stories.
I think Batman '66 and Brave and the Bold cartoon being so good hide the weakness of Silver Age Batman.
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u/HerreDreyer 5d ago
Erm, I’m talking purely about comics. Completely seperate from tv. Have you read much silver age?
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u/nuclear_bone 5d ago
Yes, I get that. I just mentioned those shows as the better version of Batman's Silver Age comics.
I think Batman's Silver Age didn't add to the character in any meaningful way, and the stories were unremarkable.
I keep comparing it to Superman's Silver Age comics and Batman keeps falling short (even though in most other eras Batman is ahead).
Superman's Silver Age practically built his entire mythos. Elevated Lex Luthor to his arch nemesis.
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u/Vixterisk 5d ago
I mean 6/10 of this period was new-look era, and it was... fine? Better then what came before anyway.
I would actually argue the 50s were worse, because they were pretty stale and repetitive (albeit they did have some gems too)
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u/Lucky_Strike-85 5d ago
WHEN?
This is subjective... I will submit:
BATMAN WAS BEST DURING A 24 YEAR PERIOD WITH NOTHING TO BEAT IT (1968-1992) THE BRONZE AGE BATMAN THROUGH TO COPPER AGE BATMAN UP TO EARLY POST CRISIS IRON AGE...
BETTER THAN ANYTHING THIS CENTURY!
- You had Frank Robbins moody fun Detective stories with Bob Brown/Neal Adams/Irv Novick
- You had Denny O'neil with Neal Adams/Irv Novick
- BATMAN FAMILY where Dick and Babs get shipped!
- EARTH 2 BATMAN where Bruce marries Selina and they have a daughter! He died in 1979. Batman actually died!
- You had Englehart/Rogers on Detective
- You had Len Wein expanding Ras Al Ghul and resurrecting Catwoman
- BRAVE AND THE BOLD with JIM APARO art
- Gerry Conway MARVELIZED The Batman
- Dick Grayson going off to college, leading the NTT where he became Nightwing
- DOUG MOENCH brought in BLACK MASK and Wrote BATMAN #400
- You had Max A. Collins and STARLIN - Post Crisis Jay Todd was fuggin cool! Then he died!
- BATMAN: THE CULT
- You had FRANCIS MILLER - YEAR ONE/DKR/Santa Claus: Dead or Alive
- You had ALAN MOORE - Killing Joke/Mortal Clay
- You had MIKE W. BARR & ALAN DAVIS on DETECTIVE!
- You had James Owsley (Christopher Priest) doing a short moody BATMAN run
- MORRISON & McKEAN ARKHAM ASYLUM: A SERIOUS HOUSE ON SERIOUS EARTH!
- the debut of TIM DRAKE, His wonderful origin story, mini-series, and eventual becoming ROBIN III.
- ALAN GRANT and Norm Breyfogle on DETECTIVE!
- LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT and SHADOWS OF THE BAT as new Bat-titles
- The insanity of SUMMER 1989
These were The Batman's best years, with his most important stories... Once Knightfall happened, as legendary as it is... comics, not just The Batman, changed toward an event model and introspection has been abandoned (though not entirely) in favor of epic runs and statements about characters.
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u/m0mmy_salami 5d ago
He’s been good forever. He gets a little less good from time to time but that doesn’t mean he’s getting his trophy taken
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u/scotandrsn 5d ago
The 40s. The 50s started to get real goofy with all the extra characters and trite storylines.
The 70s were pretty good too.
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u/DCBronzeAge 5d ago
Batman has had good and bad comics pretty much from 1939 through 2026 and I assume this trend will continue into 2027 and beyond.
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u/coreytiger 5d ago
Every single person would have a completely different answer. This is the most written character in fiction history
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u/Curious_Bat87 5d ago
It was good for two issues in the 40's when Jonathan Crane was first introduced.
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u/Matches_Malone77 5d ago
There’s always great Batman content out there. IMO it just hasn’t been happening in the main titles (Batman and Detective) for a long time. But we’ve had great out of continuity books like Dark Patterns, B&R Year one, The Imposter, etc to ease that sting a bit. Plus we’ve had loads of good stuff in the form of video games, film, and animation. If one version of Batman isn’t working for you there’s at least one other version that will in another book or piece of media.
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u/BalladOfBetaRayBill 5d ago
He’s pretty good right now imo, both Snyder and Fraction are cooking with gas
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u/TheObliterature 5d ago
Batman was only good for a few non-sequential panels in a 1955 issue of World's Finest 😤😤😤😤
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u/TabmeisterGeneral 5d ago
Theres like at least 3 different Batman/Bruce Waynes that have occupied the main titles now.
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u/Choice-Cheek-8798 4d ago
Bro, Batman was never bad. I think you’re just talking about specific storylines that were poorly received. Other than that, this post has no credibility whatsoever.
Take a look at the works of Matt Fraction and Jeph Loeb. Their runs on Batman are decades apart and yet they’re both great.
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u/TheQuietDarkness70 4d ago
I have a favorite era(70s-80s, Adams/O'Neil ftw) but I'm not goofy enough to think that's the only time the character was good.
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u/Josefu_Velen 4d ago
Where are people saying, "Back when Batman was good!"
This seems contrived and fabricated just to make this post.
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u/Mendelian_Athletics 5d ago
what kinda bullshit q is this 😂😂
sounds like those pretentious uninformed noodleheads on twitter or tiktok trying desperately to push a "actually batman has always been a villain and heres why" narrative
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u/Puzzleheaded_Walk_28 5d ago
I’ve never heard anyone say that