HAIL, HAIL, THE GANG'S ALL HERE and we spend an inordinate amount of time gushing about Verin because, well, she's Verin. We also have Eyes & Ears, WoT for Bros, Lini's Advice Hive, Unnotable Quotables, and WoT If, so basically this episode is amazing. You're welcome. 🫁 Black Market Lungs for Rich: https://gofund.me/8cc33948 🐦 Follow: https://twitt…

It's October, the spookiest month of the year. So, what better time to focus on the villains of the Batman universe? There are five Thursdays and we'll be focusing on five villains, all but one we haven't had a spotlight on before. The first villain is a favorite of Matt's, one who has appeared in some of the higher ranked stories on the big board:…

It's strange to think that Jason Todd has been back from the dead longer than he was actually dead now. For those of us who read Batman comics in the 90s, the death of Jason was possibly the most important moment in Batman's life after the death of his parents. But he is back, and is now a member on good standing of the Bat family. That was not alw…

Evidently the hosts of this show have personal lives? And couldn't record? So Jess made one that's all commercials. You're welcome. 🫁 Black Market Lungs for Rich: https://gofund.me/8cc33948 🐦 Follow: https://twitter.com/tarvalondark 🌈 Queerencia: https://queerencia.co/tvad 💸 Support: https://www.patreon.com/tarvalonafterdark 💬 Discord: https://disc…

Our very first Dick Grayson backer, Josh Weil, makes his return to the podcast this week, but he's not picking the stories. Instead, he has gifted his picks this month to our youngest backers, his sons, David and Alexander. They give us stories that show they love sidekicks, young butlers, and giant monsters.Robin War (Robin War # 1-2, Grayson # 15…

The gang's all here and we've got Eyes & Ears, Remedial Ji'e'Toh, we empty that bombastic Mail Sack, and Kevin brings a brand new segment to the table. It's amazing. You're welcome. 🐦 Follow: https://twitter.com/tarvalondark 🌈 Queerencia: https://queerencia.co/tvad 💸 Support: https://www.patreon.com/tarvalonafterdark 💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/s…

Batman is a loner. Except for Alfred, the Robins, the Batgirls, Signal, Batwoman and the Justice League. But before many of those characters, there was Ace the Bathound, the first of numerous Bat pets, mostly brought into the cave by Damian, another noted loner , and that club now includes Titus, Alfred the tuxedo cat and Batcow. Another noted dog …

We've talked about it for a while, and here it is. This week, Matt and Will each picked three stories that they felt were too low on the Big Board, and they discussed them again and moved them to spots they felt more appropriate. It's a lot of the creators we talk about regularly, and a lot of the stories that have served as benchmarks for lower on…

It's a celebration over here as we hit episode 150! We started out with a theme of anniversary issues, ones that were numbers leading up to 150, so a 50, a 100 and a 150. And we did do that. But somehow, we wound up with a second theme: stories where Batman trips balls. Sometimes you find the theme. Sometimes the theme finds you. We have a Shadow o…

We have Eyes and Ears, we have WoT Hot, we empty the turgid mail sack, and we talk about what we actually like about these books. You're welcome. 🐦 Follow: https://twitter.com/tarvalondark 🌈 Queerencia: https://queerencia.co/tvad 💸 Support: https://www.patreon.com/tarvalonafterdark 💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/s6NtTAx3Su 🆕 Website: https://www.tar…

Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Like, way tomorrow. Matt McThorn is back, and we are talking about the 853rd century and Grant Morrison's first DC crossover, DC One Million. It's a wild, sci-fi epic, which we all know if completely Will's jam. But you might be surprised as we talk about the core mini-series, as well as the arc of Bruce Wayne in t…

Shut up, this is not late, we don't know what you're talking about. ANYWAY, you're in for a super gay treat because Kevin is sick and Naebs is out of town (on yet another cruise, we assume), so it's just Jess and Jenny talking about which non-canon female ships they'd smash together like Barbies if they could. You're welcome. Don't forget to suppor…

I have heard it said that every writer has a Batman story they want to tell. Only a few get to tell them. And sadly not all of them are great. This week we're reading three stories from writers not usually associated with Batman, Harlan Ellison, Eddie Campbell and David Lapham. And, well, none of these really are going down as central to the canon.…

For the first time in a very long time, this week was supposed to see the publication of a collection of Marvel and DC collaborations, so Will and I decided that this would be a good time to read some of that. But these are big omnibuses, so as is often the case, they have been delayed. But we here at BatChat aren't following suit. We planned this …

Gotham is a city of shadows. A city where good and evil blend together. It's a city made for Noir storytelling. And while some Batman stories have some elements of a Noir, most are very much superhero stories. But to tie-in with the 40s themed animated series, Batman: The Caped Crusader, debuting this week, and because Will has wanted to do this ep…

Over his thirty plus year career in comics, Archie Goodwin racked up a lot of accomplishments. He wrote horror stories for lots of Warren Publishing's anthologies. At DC, he wrote Detective Comics, Manhunter (more on both of those later), and was the editor behind Batman: Black and White, the early issues of Legends of the Dark Knight and James Rob…

We're back from WoTCon and we will absolutely not shut up about it. We've got Eyes and Ears, Belladonna the Busty Bard finally shows up after however long, we see the Light with Truth Defense Dispatch, learn how to fight with ASMR Sword Forms, and just generally have a really great time. You're welcome. Jess's husband is fixing to get a lung transp…

Generally speaking, the episodes we do here are carefully curated. We try to take a theme, a character, and thoroughly dig through the 85 years of Batman stories to find the ones that best fit that theme. But then there are the weeks where Will just picks three random books off his bookshelf and wants to cover them, and Matt just says sure.Batman '…

We've all seen the memes and the jokes: Batman's real super power is his wallet. Batman has, historically, been from the moneyed class, and that's how he gets all those wonderful toys. But what happens when Batman doesn't have all that cash? That's what friend of the show, Patreon backer, and financial adviser Abigale Heartbalm wanted to look into …

Batman works outside the law pretty much all the time. And while he often runs afoul of civic authorities in Gotham City, it's surprising how rarely he winds up in the crosshairs of the feds (well, we're just starting Absolute Power in the main line, but again, exception that proves the rule). But it has happened a few times, and since this episode…

Jenny's not here and it's scary. We have Eyes & Ears, Lini's Advice Hive, a brand new ASMR segment, some other stuff, and we do a deep dive into Moghedien. You're welcome. 🫁 Get Jess's husband new lungs: https://gofund.me/626fff59 🛫 Send Jenny to WoTCon: https://gofund.me/8e5d0bbf 🐦 Follow: https://twitter.com/tarvalondark 🌈 Queerencia: https://que…

There are some stories that read a very different ways after certain events. Who would have thought that these innocent little stories about Batman involved with plagues would read so differently after a global pandemic. Patreon backer and friend of the show John Wickham joins us to talk about the 90s crossover "Contagion," a fun little 80s one off…

Friend of the show and Patreon backer Josh Weil decided to take up a challenge: come up with three stories that he thought could make the top 50 of the Big Board. And gotta, say, with no spoilers, he did a pretty good job. We see Bruce Wayne mourning the loss of his son, Batman and Catwoman taking a post-engagement trip and Nightwing taking fight.U…

We've got Eyes and Ears, WoT for Bros, Small Talk, and WoT If, plus we talk about Chuck Norris, Seanchan Barney, the time Jenny doxxed herself in a Jeri Ryan fan chat room back in the day, and the funniest moments in the Wheel of Time. You're welcome. 🫁 Get Jess's husband new lungs: https://gofund.me/626fff59 🛫 Send Jenny to WoTCon: https://gofund.…

We’re in the heart of June, which is Pride Month, so BatChat is joined by the hosts of the Gotham Outsiders podcast to talk about three stories featuring the queer residents of Gotham. Kate Kane’s origin is revealed, Tim Drake comes out, and animated Harley and Ivy go on a road trip. Oh, and towards the end, Will does his Matt impression, something…

We're 100 episodes old, suckers! This episode has EVERYTHING. Well, it has some of the usual stuff. But there's also a Big Surprise™️ and you're just gonna have to listen to find out what it is. It's definitely NOT a special guest, and that special guest is definitely NOT Brian. Why would we even do that. You're welcome. 💯 This is all the shit we w…

We're joined this week by our newest Dick Grayson tier backer, Matt McThorn, who wanted to talk about series released under DC's mature readers (mostly) super-hero imprint, Black Label. We have the infamous debit book of the line, where Batman goes full frontal, a story of the Joker driving his therapist insane (not that therapist, another one), an…

Yooooooooooooooo! We've got Eyes and Ears, we engage in some Small Talk, Jenny has some WoTHot takes, and Naebs is bringing the new segment this time. And then we have a nice, long, rambling chat about the Horn of Valere. There's also a weird amount of Barney discussion. The dinosaur, not the guy from season 1. You're welcome. PS: Jess's husband is…

I was going to try to come up with something funny and misleading to make it seem like we were talking about the Marvel character Venom for this intro, but my brain isn't coming up with anything. This week's episode is about Bane, the man who broke the Bat, and does indeed spend a lot of time interrogating his relationship with the drug that powere…

The Joker has wreaked unspeakable trauma on Batman over the years of their rivalry. But there is one man who he has possibly hurt as much, if not more: Jim Gordon. The Joker and Gordon's relationship goes back as far and Joker and Batman's, and Joker has often focused on Gordon. This week, we look at three of the encounters between Gotham's top cop…

For those of you out there who back the BatChat Patreon, you have heard Matt & will talk about all manner of Batman media: movies, episodes of animated series and live action TV, narrative podcasts. And this week, we're taking that energy, but swapping it around so we can talk about the comic adaptations of three of the highest ranked stories on th…

Hey, we're all here! We've got Eyes and Ears, we empty the mail sack, we engage in some Small Talk, and Jenny brings a new segment to the table. And since we're all present and accounted for, we have a nice long debrief about JordanCon, and how awesome the WoT community is. It's a real love fest in here. So gross. Anyway, you're welcome. PS: please…

Matt here, and I am going to be writing in the first person for this one. When I started this podcast, I don't know what I was expecting. Will and I had been writing the BatChat column for a while. Dan Grote and I had been recording the ComicsXF Interview Podcast (then WMQ&A) for quite a bit longer. I just wanted to talk Batman some more. I didn't …

Kevin had to parent again, which is frankly preposterous. We chat a bit about JordanCon, Naebs' video color is WAY off, we do some sketches probably, and we get another entertaining story from Jenny's youth. Have you donated to Jenny's WoTCon GoFundMe yet? Do it again. You're welcome. 🛫 Send Jenny to WoTCon: https://gofund.me/8e5d0bbf 🐦 Follow: htt…

We swear that Kevin is still a co-host on this show. We've got Eyes & Ears, some news, some other stuff that Jess can't remember because JordanCon made her brain shut off and she's posting this like two weeks late. Also, donate to Jenny's WoTCon GoFundMe. Also, come to WoTCon. You're welcome. 🛫 Send Jenny to WoTCon: https://gofund.me/8e5d0bbf 🐦 Fol…

Having multiple heroic identities is not something unique in the Bat family. Pretty much everyone has had more than one except for, well, Bruce Wayne. But Stephanie Brown has had three very distinct identities that all very much signify different things about the character. And as we have covered some of the worst stories about her, we only thought…

It's time to celebrate! Matt's other show, The ComicsXF Interview Podcast, reached episode 300 this week. And so for that celebration, that show's co-host, the first ever BatChat guest, Matt's best friend of over 30 years, ComicsXF editor-in-chief Dan Grote is joining BatChat again. We are talking stories from three creators who have been interview…

This week, one of the defining writers of DC Comics in the 80s and early 90s will turn 75 years old. John Ostrander has a storied career over more than 40 years. He created an indy hit with his creator owned mercenary, Grimjack, and wrote some of the best received Star Wars comics ever. His work at DC includes The Suicide Squad, the Spectre, Martia…

It's been a while, but we're back reading the three series/runs that we have been following (mostly) in order. In No Man's Land, both Batman and Jim Gordon make some choices that definitely won't come back to bite them on the butt. In the Morrison run, they investigate ethics in vigilantism and Jason Todd's hair color. And in Injustice, well, thing…

The law of diminishing returns is often true. It's like that movie with Michael Keaton, Multiplicity (see, already brought it around to Batman!), the more times you tell a story, the more diluted or off it becomes. We have seen this proven wrong a few times: the newest versions of the Monk, the Monster Men, and the first Batman/Joker confrontation …

We're back! Our long national nightmare is over! Kevin overslept though, so there's that. We've got Eyes & Ears, WoTHot, we empty the mail sack, we forget to do a new commercial...we are very good at podcast. Also, donate to Jenny's GoFundMe so she can come to WoTCoN! You're welcome. 🛫 Send Jenny to WoTCon: https://gofund.me/8e5d0bbf 🐦 Follow: http…

Josh Weil is back, and he's bringing his favorite character with him. It's time for Batman to team up again with Ollie Queen, Green Arrow. We're reading the classic Haney/Adams story where Ollie grows his signature facial hair, a team up that also includes the Question, and some questionable content involving Poison Ivy.And just to be clear, the pr…

Comic books are, by their very nature, a blended medium. They are a synthesis of words and pictures, and the best ones exist in a space where the two are speaking the same language. Podcasting is an aural medium, told entirely through words and sounds. That is all to say that it's not always easy to blend the more visual nature of comics with podca…

We've read a lot of great comics for this podcast. Tonight? We are not doing that. Tonight we are reading three stories that were on the document of possible episode topics marked as "Three Stories that Matt Remembers Hating." And Matt's taste has apparently has not changed much since he first read these, because this is, far and away, the lowest r…

Naebs left us for dead again ("I have a job" he says), but we actually did pretty okay without him. So welcome to The New TVAD starring everyone but Naebs. Please to enjoy Lini's Advice Hive, Small Talk, WoT Hot, and some other stuff probably. You're welcome. 🐦 Follow: https://twitter.com/tarvalondark 🌈 Queerencia: https://queerencia.co/tvad 💸 Supp…

"Jason Todd was dead. There is no doubt whatever about that." Sorry, now that I have used that expensive English degree to paraphrase Dickens, we can get on with this intro. This week, we're returning to stories featuring Jason Todd, including one of the biggest Batman stories that we haven't covered yet. See Post-Crisis Jason meet Dick Grayson for…

It's winter here in the US, and it is cold (well, it should be anyway. Damn climate change). And who is colder than Victor Fries, the villain known as Dr. Freeze. Wait, it's Mr. Freeze? Isn't he at least a Ph.D if not an MD? So Dr. Doom can call himself a doctor with his honorary degree from Latveria U, but Freeze is just a mister? Well, that's som…

Of all of Jack Kirby's creations at DC, the Fourth World is probably the most well known, the most expansive, and the most ill used by other creators over the years. Some really get the wild cosmic and Shakespearean vibe the King of Comics was putting down. Some don't and just try to make the New Gods just any other team of super heroes. And becaus…

We're back! Naebs has recovered from the plague, Jess has a 5-day headache, Jenny is harassed by that song clip (you know the one), and Kevin is charming. There's Eyes and Ears, Mail Sack, WoT Hot, and Kevin wrote something that we can't remember now because tbh that was like 2 days ago. You're welcome. 🐦 Follow: https://twitter.com/tarvalondark 🌈 …

It's Valentine's Day week, and I may or may not have forgotten about that when I was scheduling episodes this year. Fortunately, ComicsXF writer and friend of the show Tony Thornley picked some stories that work pretty well for Valentine's Day. You see, these are all about love: brotherly love, romantic love, and the love between best friends. We'r…