The Further Adventures of Batman #1

[The Further Adventures of Batman: Fourteen All-New Adventures of The Caped Crusader -- Edited by Martin H. Greenberg. Kyle Baker (Illustrator) / [Paperback, 1989 / ASIN: B0027WKF4A] '-' Batman is fifty! To celebrate this anniversary, sixteen of today's greatest writers have joined together to bring an anthology of all-new Batman stories. Timed to coincide with Warner Brother's new Batman movie...
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[Amazon Customer Reviews]: "Talented writers not known for comic. Some really capture the character and have decent plot & pacing. Others ... not so much!"
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This collection of 14 stories will have something for those who prefer Batman stories dark and gothic to those who enjoyed the cheesy comics and TV series of the 60s and 70s:

1) 'Death of the Dreammaster' by Robert Sheckley (Bruce Wayne starts seeing his dead enemies alive and must uncover if they're real or not) - apart form a very shocking and gruesome first scene, this story is mostly OK, well written, but nothing exceptional.

2) 'Bats' by Henry Slesar (after Robin's death, Batman apparently goes bats) - told by Alfred and it's pretty good.

3) 'Subway Jack' by Joe R. Lansdale (Batman must stop a demon-possessed serial killer) - this one's a paranormal story which is not my personal favorite for Batman stories (I prefer him dealing with realistic enemies), and it's quite dark and gothic, and made up of something like a comic script, diary and case files entries and some parts are told from Gordon's point of view.

4) 'The Sound of One Hand Clapping' by Max Allan Collins (Joker falls in love with Mime, a pretty criminal) - this one reminded me a lot of the Batman Animated series, especially Joker, even though this story was written a few years before the series aired. Reads like a 20-minute episode too.

5) 'Neutral Ground' by Mike Resnick (heroes-and-villains outfitter Kittlemeyer has a few customers) - a very short story (just 5 pages), but one of the best in the book, although it will be more interesting for those better familiar with Batman and his adversaries.

6) 'Batman in Nighttown ' by Karen Haber and Robert Silverberg (a Batman-clad thief robs Wayne's guests)- well-written, but some of the plot twists made me wince. More of Bruce's life as Wayne rather than Batman was interesting though.

7) 'The Batman Memos' by Stuart M. Kaminsky (a Hollywood studio is looking into making a movie about Batman, when one of their actresses goes missing) - my favorite of the whole anthology. A very realistic and entertaining story, written entirely as a collection of memos between the studio executive and some of his colleagues, also Bruce Wayne who's mediates between the studio and Batman, a psychiatrist presenting Batman's psychological profile, and the studio's lawyer firm. Definitely recommended.

8) 'Wise Men of Gotham' by Edward Wellen (the Riddler again) - nothing special, reminds the Batman comics of the 80s.

9) 'Northwestward' (Black Widowers #61) by Isaac Asimov (the Black Widowers interview a man called Bruce Wayne who has a comics character named Batman based on his life) - A crossover with the Black Widowers series. Despite the big name, I just didn't care for this one. A lot of characters are from the BW series, and I've read only one BW book a very long time ago, didn't particularly liked it and don't remember much, so I didn't know who the interviewers were and that was confusing. No tights and capes here either.

10) 'Daddy's Girl' by William F. Nolan (Robin meets Joker's daughter) - mostly a Robin story and quite predictable. Style is as in 60s-70s comics/Tv (no deep plot, a damsel in distress, including insta-love, evil robots, sound effects and all). Won't miss anything if you skip it.

11) 'Command Performance' by Howard Goldsmith (Dick Grayson vs. a hypnotist who makes teens to steal for him) - another Robin (albeit out of costume) story, although a better written and not cheesy like the previous one.

12) 'The Pirate Millionaire's Cove' by Edward D. Hoch (modern pirates steal from rich yacht owners) - without depth and quite predictable too.

13) 'The Origin of the Polarizer' by George Alec Effinger (just what it says in the title - a guy supplying Wayne electronic parts figures out his secret identity and gets carried away trying to best Batman out) - despite the not-so-original premise this one is quite well written and really interesting. Before you read this one, I advise to look up the term 'plasmonics' if you don't know what that is.

14) 'Idol' by Ed Gorman (a psychopath, as in killing-his-mother-psycho, tries to kill someone who he think is an impostor of himself) - I really don't know what this one is doing in this collection. If it's wasn't included in an a collection of Batman stories, you'd never tell it had any relation to Batman. Including this story as the last one, left a bad taste. I'd recommend reading this one first, if at all, and then getting on with better and more Batman related stories'.'
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"Good Collection of Batman short stories -- This short story collection features all of the classic Batman elements - Bruce Wayne, Robin, the batcave, batmobile, the Joker, the Riddler, batman as the detective, and a classic 50's batman story. Some of the better stories are "Death of the Dreammaster," a decent story that features a batman character who seems pulled from the recent Christan Bale movies. "Bats" is good and feature the detective/mystery-solving themed Batman. Others of my favorites are "Northwestward" (a "Black Widowers" short story - which is an Asimov detective series), "Neutral Ground," "The Batman Memos," "Idol," and "The Sound of One hand Clapping"- a story that features a very true-to-character Joker I felt"....

Aventura / Contos / Crime / Distopia / Ficção / Ficção científica / Literatura Estrangeira / Romance policial / Suspense e Mistério