The Triumph and Tragedy of Batman in The Bronze Age of Comics
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ค. 2024
- This was going to be my last video
Patreon ► / salazarknight
Outro music: "Terminus" by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Music by TH-cam Audio Library, purecomposition and Karl Casey @WhiteBatAudio
Chapters:
00:00 The Dark Knight's Bronze Age
01:51 As Knight Follows Day
06:07 Neal and O'Neil: Dark Avengers of The Night
09:11 Leather Wings and Demon's Head
12:41 Revisited Rogues
17:38 Wanted: Creative Teams
20:46 In Search of a Hero
24:27 Triumph and Tragedy
28:32 Mission "Save Batman"
33:23 Gerry Conway and The Robin Dilemma
38:18 Doug Moench: Nocturnal Affairs, Dying Knight
42:00 Resurrection Knight - บันเทิง
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Finally someone gives the bronze age era of Batman the attention that it deserves.
Salazar always have.
It's my favorite
The Bronze Age Batman is often forgotten when it comes to talking about his comics history, barely mentioning some stories or creators. The cartoons Batman was in didn't help his reputation, either, and only until 1986 did everyone take Batman seriously through Frank Miller's The Dark Knight. However, Batman returned to his dark roots 16 years prior to that 4-issue miniseries; he just didn't have the commercial popularity he deserved.
The Bronze of DC is when I started collecting comics, and by the end of the Bronze Age I was in college and exclusively buying only independent published or foreign graphic novels (by the 1990s I felt DC and MARVEL were putting out garbage. So Bronze Age is the only era I know for Batman.
This is my favorite era of Batman. Not only was it my personal golden-age, I love the character as a heroic detective, versus the dysfunctional psychopath that he portrayed as today.
This video is by far your best revisit of old material. The Bronze Age is, as you said, criminally underrated, particularly I think Gerry Conway's run in the comics.
Jim Aparo also
@jimpatterson1111 absolutely. He might be my favorite Batman artist.
It's a shame that Monech's Pre-Crisis run hasn't been fully collected 😔
Its a shame Bronze age Batman's hasn't been collected. And Honestly, it's a shame all of Batman and Detective comics hasn't been collected in general too.
I love this! I started reading Batman when I was 7 and I’m now 56. So much great history and wonderful story and art. I will never forget it. Thank you for this!
And there goes the Bronze Bat. Now the entire classic run of Batman has been completed and modernized. It's amazing too see how much you have improved in your editing skills although I miss Adrian Von Siegler's music in the background. Congratulations Salazar for your hard work and dedication for this channel. As I always say, you are THE Batman channel on TH-cam.
And thank you for all the years of support!
@@SalazarKnightI do gotta ask. Do you plan to update the 90s era? (The dark age I think is what it’s called)
I second this.
I would really appreciate if you'd make another video detailing the next Batman phase past 1985-6ish. Your videos are very important to tell the real story of Batman from the publishing perspective and a lot more ground needs to be covered!
What an amazing video! I don’t think there can be a more comprehensive look at the Bronze Age for Batman. Truly a special time for the character, and despite its legacy remains underrated.
Englehart did amazing work on Detective.
Bronze age is peak Batman. The era’s mixture of kung-fu mania, horror and detective crime thrillers was influential to Batman. He was actually allowed to be a the a super genius polymath scientist, master inventor, master tactician and the world's greatest detective. He was also actually allowed to be a grandmaster-level combatant one-man army due to the impact of Bruce Lee. He was allowed to hold his own against Bronze Tiger, Lady Shiva, Richard Dragon and Ra’s Al Ghul in this era as well even if he lost some.
This era also gave us some of the best mystical/cosmic horror elements that are a staple for his character. Ra’s Al Ghul, Lupus and Kobra Cult are just some that I can think of right now that fit here.
Outside of being a founding member of the Justice League and some of the things with Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder. Batman should have never left the Bronze Age.
The bronze age really is the most unique and underrated era of batman truly revolutionary to the comics industry as a whole
This was my era of Batman when I was a kid. I got back to collecting comics briefly for about a 5 year period from 2010-2015. BA Bats, especially anything done by Neal Adams were my primary collecting targets Love the 100 pagers from the early 70s as well, which is about where I stopped it at. Once I got all the Adams books, which was both covers and interior art, I pretty quit. Don't collect today, but I still have all these books which I still enjoy.
As a Bronze Age Batman connoisseur, I appreciated those stories when they came out and never really understood the trashing that this era got. Dark Knight Returns is a great finale representing Batman's life experiences as what turned him into the cynical, driven hero he is. I never looked at him as being that way his whole career, which is mostly how the modern comics portray him. The post-Crisis Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo & Alan Grant Norm Breyfogle comics were very enjoyable, but after those runs ended, I found very little joy in reading Batman(but I still bought them!) You did cover the Gerry Conway run, but I would add that Detective #526, is as good of an issue as Batman #400 in the Anniversary category. Did you ever cover the Batman Power Records from that era? The cover art is fantastic and the Book & Record sets had Neal Adams art on original stories.
This was TRULY excellent. Great job.
Neal Adams is iconic, and I have this era to thank for the creation of my favorite Batman villain, Ras Al Ghul.
A terrific love letter to the era which put the DARK in Batman's " Dark Knight " nickname. Thank you for another great video!
This was fantastic. A fitting tribute to an unsung Batman.
Batman animated perfectly captured the bronze age more or less. Only Slightly more family-friendly without losing its integrity so I give that cartoon a lot of credit.
Which makes sense since that we likely the era the batman animated series created grew up in
I started reading Batman during the Bronze Age and it was a great ride - thanks for drawing attention to this important era in the Batman mythos! 🦇🦇
This was very interesting. It's still sad that, outside of the most famous storylines, significant parts of the Bronze Age era are still not well collected. Which makes your video even better for those who, like me, didn't personally experience this part of Batman's history in comics.
What a way to celebrate batman day.
I think I’m becoming slightly addicted to this channel. Really great stuff!
I got a few of the major O’Neal back issues of Batman as a kid, and this era means so much to me and the character himself.
It frustrates me how many claim miller saved Batman while he was doing relatively fine for two & a half decades.
Frank Miller didn't save Batman, he ruined him. Dennis O'Neil's version was totally different to the post-crisis one.
@@Ian-hj4yt- How did Miller ruin him?
@@matthewschwartz6607 He made Batman too dark and edgy. Would have worked better if his vision had remained an elseworlds/alternate reality as it was originally supposed to be. Making his Batman the standard version, with almost every other writer that came later following the same formula, was one of the biggest mistakes DC has ever made. Also, Frank Miller is a right-winger...
@@Ian-hj4yt Lol. Who cares if Frank Miller is right wing or not, there are other comic book creator who are communist and anarquist and so what. The important thing is the work, and Frank Miller was one of the best ever, specially in the 80s. However the Dark Knight Returns should be taked as an elseworlds, no question about it.
@@mahmudmurad4655 And Year One shouldn't be considered the only Batman origiin that matters. I much prefer The Untold Legends of Batman, for example
Thank-you for mentioning Man-Bat; he is an amazing character with huge potential still left in him. Yes, I wish they would integrate some more Leslie Thompkins in contemporary Batman.
The greatest era of Batman ever! Great runs all around! Plus some great artists like Marshall Rogers!
I thought that Goodwin’s Manhunter was considered a classic.
I loved Manhunter!
Great video as always and an excellent summation of the Bronze age. I'm only a passing fan of the comics, but I often bought a Batman comic on the way to school as a young kid. It was in the 1981/82 era - and Jim Aparo was most often the artist and it forever influenced me. The stories around this time had an edge to them, an uneasiness and almost a dark absurdity to events. Batman rarely felt in control of his surroundings, instead finding himself in a strange dimension, battling to get back to normality. I preferred 'Brave and The Bold' as Batman would team up with some other iconic hero like Green Lantern or Hawkman but then he'd have an odd pairing with a villain or weird one-off characters like Nemesis. I vividly remember what would be considered 'lesser' Batman adventures looming large for me. Riddler in 'The Death of Batman', Detective Comics 'I of the Beholder' and perhaps the one that stuck most with me - Brave and the Bold #182 'Interlude on Earth-2' - as a child it introduced me to the concept of infinite earths, it also had a moody, rainy setting and Earth 2 was bleak where the original Batman was dead and no one trusted this new imposter Earth-1 Batman. The people closest to the Dark Knight saw this incarnation as a phantom, something unnatural and a reminder of someone who had left them and that they had failed to save. It was a disarming story for a kid to read especially with Dick Grayson being so cold and hostile toward him. And it made you relate even more to Batman because you had been on the inter-dimensional journey with him and were struggling to decode the mystery of what had happened (and how he could get back to Earth-1). The Bronze age art is my favourite of any era. It has the darkness of the stories and the noir influence but also the bright colours on the covers. It will always hold a place for me and showed me a different world as a kid from the safeness of Batman 66 tv series which was the only Batman stories I'd consumed up until that point.
Great rundown! While the Bronze Age isn’t quite my favorite Batman era, it’s certainly one of the most interesting and important periods in the character’s vast history. A lot of underrated stories here!
This was great. I started collecting comics around 1971 and this was the era I collected the most. I remember when that Anniversary issue came out in the comic shop I worked at at that time. It was mostly ignored by the Marvel-ites and the DC Dudes picked it up because it came out during the same era as "The Dark Knight Returns" and it had Frank Miller's name on it.
Happy Batman Day, dude. The Bronze Age definitely returned Batman to his original dark roots. And I always love monster stories since The Mad Monk.
Happy Batman Day to you too!
@@SalazarKnight 🦇
I had Untold legends of Batman as a kid. And i remember telling people that the original Batsuit was Thomas Waynes (as shown in that story) and people constantly told me that i was making things up. It really got under my skin as a 7 year old. It wasnt my fault i had read more batman than my uncles and kids at school.
This is era contains my favorite artists to ever work on Batman: Jim Aparo, Don Newton, Marshall Rogers and Neal Adams.
Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Joe and Adam Kubert and Gene Colon are my favorite Bat artists. Years later, I learned to truly appreciate the more abstract Alan Davis and Bill Sienkiewicz too.
@@juniorjames7076 Agreed! I absolutely adore Alan Davis' comic art. And one of the joys of reading the early Moon Knight comics is watching Bill Sienkiewicz evolve as an artist.
22:11 - This is a great dive into the history of Batman. But note that there is no such thing as a "platonic romance", as "platonic" means non-sexual.
Man I am SO glad your channel got recommended to me. I’ve been catching up on your stuff since you’re silver age Batman video dropped. Great stuff. This one is also great. really good way to finish off the golden-bronze age video trilogy
Amazing video! In the conclusion, you spoke about how the appreciation for these stories came decades later. The way you described it, I really felt the significance of Batman's time in the bronze age. In addition, I know how significant this video is for your channel. Thinking about both of these things as the music swelled at the end of the video actually got me emotional. Thank you for making this series! Congratulations on finishing this video trilogy!!
Best era of Batman.
Bronze started out with a spooky edge. Lots of blackcasebook stories.
As someone that doesn't read comics i always find out something new and awesome from these videos, awesome job Salazar and Happy Batman Day 🤘🔥🦇🦇🦇
Happy Batman Day to you as well, friend!
@@SalazarKnight Thanks dude !
Same, I just don't have access to many comics and have trouble enjoying the medium, but I love hearing about them through videos like these. Especially Salazar who gives overviews, breakdowns, and both real world and in-universe histories in a way I enjoy unlike other people I've watched.
I really enjoyed the 1970s Batman stories written by David V. Reed. Vastly underrated by fans.
You’re really good at this! Great work!
That was a great video. Thanks for documenting this and thanks for noticing that Batman number 400 was the final issue of the bronze age which I explain to many people who don’t understand. Excellent job!👍🏼
For Me it will always be Jim Aparo.... God rest his soul
Excellent video! The Bronze Age was my era of comic books, as I started reading them in 1974 when I was about seven years old. Batman soon became my favorite, probably because of his previous television shows, but the comics version was intriguing because it was so different. I liked his interactions with other heroes in The Brave and the Bold, Justice League of America, and World's Finest. I liked that he had two titles dedicated to his solo adventures, and was pleased when Batman Family debuted because it showcased some otherwise neglected characters.
My interest in comics buying waned and waxed over the next several years but I do have fond memories of many of the stories and characters mentioned in this video. I loved the reprints and had a fondness for the Golden Age of Batman, and hated that he was killed off without having any interaction with his Earth-One counterpart in an actual comic.
Thank you for making this.
What did you think of Batman and the Outsiders. Although Brave and The Bold was my favorite book at the time, I was very excited to be at the ground floor of a new team book series led by my favorite character. I was in the 4th grade at the time, and every issue of BATO #1 had sold out. I found a kid in my schoolyard who had a copy and I traded him an issue of The Defenders (guest starring The Avengers and The Squadron Supreme) for it.
@@juniorjames7076 The Outsiders debuted at a time when I wasn't reading comics regularly (one of those periods when my interest waned). JLA and B&B had been two of my favorites, so one of them going away while one of them lost Batman did not rekindle my interest. Metamorpho was one of my favorite minor characters, and I had not read anything with Black Lightning at the time. The others were all new characters to me, and I didn't have time for strangers in my comics (except Phantom Stranger, of course!).
I wish there had been someone else in my neighborhood who liked comic books. For better or worse, it was just me, DC, and Marvel in the privacy of my room.
You are slowing becoming “the” Batman comic channel.
Your stuff is amazing! Thank you for all your hard work on it!!
Batman #400 with Man Bat was perhaps the forst comic i read, well listened to actually as i had the vinyl version of it.
As a six, seven year old, I'd listen to ot with all thr haunting squeaks and screeches coming from Man Bat. It was dark and haunting. I grew up in a farm house which had an sttic that was closed off, colonized by bats that every now and then would snesk onto my bed room at night. My dad would catch it (after much cussing and effort) and id see ut up close in the jar.
Bats no doubt implanted darkly onto my psyche and likely has never left
These videos are great. So informative and digestible. It's so crazy to think that Batman basically struggled constantly for literally half his existence despite the highs that are in every era. Things that are now essential to the mythos completely taken for granted back then.
Great one man. I immediately downloaded the video. Always awaiting your analysis 👍👍
Thank you!
I hope the James Gunn DCU Batman looks like Neal Adam’s Batman. Give us the the blue and grey!
I finally read Strange Apparitions last week, it’s incredible! Gonna dove into some of the other stuff you mention in this video soon. Happy Batman Day!
I'll always have a nostalgic soft spot for the Bronze Age Batman. I had read some comics when I was younger, but the comic book bug really got me in the summer of 1978, when I turned 13. I started buying and reading comics regularly, starting with the various Batman comics: Batman #304, Detective Comics #479, The Brave and the Bold #143, and Batman Family #19. So even if David V. Reed isn't considered one of the better Batman writers, I liked what he did. That year they also came out with Dynamic Classics #1, which reprinted the classic O'Neil/Adams story The Secret of the Waiting Graves (plus the first Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson Manhunter story as a bonus!), and The Batman Spectacular, which had stories by David V. Reed and Denny O'Neil, plus wonderful art by Mike Nasser/Joe Rubenstein, Michael Golden, and Marshall Rogers. It was truly a *spectacular* issue for Batman stories!
I couldn't afford to keep buying all the comics I wanted to, and by 1985 and the Crisis, I had pretty much stopped buying most comics on a regular basis. Len Wein wrote solid but unspectacular stories, and I never cared much for writers like Doug Moench or Jim Starlin on Batman. And while I generally like Gene Colan and Don Newton, I didn't think they were at their best on Batman. Jim Aparo was great on Batman, and Irv Novick was often good, but few could match the gorgeousness of Michael Golden's Batman.
Despite been only three main ages, batman had many more versions
Earth 2 Batman:
- The Vigilante (first years)
- The Cape Crusader (post Robin)
Earth 1:
- The Family Sci-Fi Hero (Silver Age, bassicly the same as Post Robin but different universe and definitly more silly)
- The Detective (Mid Silver Age)
- Worlds Campiest Detective (Post tv series)
- The Dark Knight Detective (Bronze Age)
- The Double-Life Authority (End of Bronze Age)
This is so interesting, specially since there's one more version of Batman post Killing Joke as the equally traumatized Batman, which completely erases the existence of Bruce Wayne
This character has so many layers and versions it's hard to keep track
The bronze age of Batman were halcyon times for the character and creative teams. This is the era of the Bat I grew up with and got me hooked on comics. I 😀👍
Same here!! It actually left an impact on me. I wanted to be perfect athletic shape, learn foreign languages, travel, be well read and as knowledgeable as possible on different things because of Batman. Sounds silly, but this fictional character inspired me.
Terrific video as always, keep it up, much love.
This was a great documentary. I wish you could make one for other characters but I’m so happy to get your videos on Batman!
Incredible video, I gotta get my hands on these Bronze Age comics now!
This video is a masterpiece
Jim Apeo is my favorite Batman artist.
Some amazing artists worked on Batman during this time period.Criminally ignored was Marshall Rogers run on the title.
Really great video, very well made, entertaining and educational.
Artwork presented in this video is breathtaking
Dude you left me speechless
Wow just Wow thank you so much for making this video this was an amazing experience to witness, thank you
Fantastic research! This video was great.
Really digging the documentaries brought by this channel
I discoverd this channle not long ago i wached all your videos and learnd a lot about batman always a plesure to wach your videos
I was always curious about Bronze Age Batman
The only correction I have to make, is calling Christopher Lee a legendary actor.
That man was a legendary EVERYTHING!
I'd like some proper complete collected editions from this era. I'd buy them
This is the era of Batman that raised me! Ha 1981 - 1988. In this era, Batman could be involved in some dark, creepy supernatural story (getting bitten by a vampire, stopping a Satanic cult), or solving a mystery that takes him half-way around the word (in one page he's interrogating a hoodlum in Suicide Slum, on the next page he's picking up clues in the backstreets of Istanbul, Turkey or Budapest, Hungary....and speaking fluent Turkish or Hungarian!!!), and finally going up against supervillains by teaming up with someone in Brave and The Bold. In this era, you got to see three faces of Batman, all intertwined- Detective/Scientist, Demon fighter, World Traveler, Superhero. I loved Brave & the Bold, but the new Batman and the Outsiders ('83) was the highpoint of my childhood collecting years! For the first time I was there for the beginning of a new book and Mike Barr and Jim Aparo were my favorite writer and artist team, 2nd only to Gerry Conway and Gene Colon. Unfortunately by 1988/87, maybe its because by then I was in high school and moving away from comics but I felt Mike Barr was running out of ideas, writing uncharacteristically corny stories. By 1990 I was in college and had lost interest Marvel & DC (mainstream comics had decline in quality), and was buying exclusively independently published and Foreign graphic novels.
I'd say 70s to late 80s. Frank Miller ruined Batman in the comics and Tim Burton ruined him on screen
@@Ian-hj4yt Honestly I can't blame Frank Miller, that graphic novel series was groundbreaking when it came out. DC and Warner Bros. ruined Batman by the mid 1990s, and I haven't brought a Batman comic since the 1992.
@@juniorjames7076 Where and why exactly do you think Batman was ruined?
The Batman I knew (early '80s to early '90s) was fundamentally a gothic loner. Even when he was the leader of The Outsiders he was till a loner (which is why the team broke up!). Anti-social, stoic (non-emotional) and rarely smiling/laughing (never really vibed with the Justice League and even in Brave and The Bold he kinda disliked teaming up with other heroes; 70% of his adventures were dark, at night, frequently supernatural or usually a difficult complex mystery. And.....no armor, no powers- just him, his body and his brains. By the 2000s this Batman I just described was long gone. 10 Different Robins and a bunch other Bat related characters, the movies made him into a dark Iron Man full of gadgets (he never used a lot of gadgets and tech in the 80s), and lots of ridiculous stories uncharacteristic of his ethos......hey it's just my opinion but this current Batman is not for me.
Batman #400 comes off like the plot to an Arkham game.
Going off on a slight tangent, despite the Hays code, incredible filmmakers from Hitchcock to Ford made some of the most compelling films of all times. Sometimes, rules can help creatives produce more compelling content.
The 70's may have saved Batman but for me it wasn't until the late 70's until Batman stories found the right vision. At least in Batman and Detective Comics titles. Here and there were some good stories early on in the decade but for the most part, the stories were pretty dull. Very basic ghosts and villains. Where the 60's (generally) got too silly and lost any sort of reality at all, the 70's lost the fun and super heroics that makes Batman interesting. In other words, there was a complete 180. But around '78 and into the 80's, the stories found the right blend of superhero and down to earth character drama.
This is very intresting,I always wanted to learn about this era of Batman comics.
I had no idea how much Denny O'Neil added to Batman!
Great video man.
Salazar, great work. I'm glad I found your channel
Thank you and please, call me Sal :)
@@SalazarKnight pleasure to meet you Sal
Boy! Beuatiful, perfect! I loved this video! Thanks forever ! And beware forever !
This is all great man. Thank you
I am disappointed that they needed a cartoon in order to bring back THE JOKER !
He was always Batmans arch nemesis !!!
Archie Goodwin looks exactly like Jim Gordon.
I am glad (no matter the problems) The greatest villain in fiction , was the first villain to get a comic series.
Beautiful ending.
When Comics were inexpensive and fun to read! A great era!.
Fantastic video!
Awesome another classic Batman video
Great job 👍
Fantastic historical summary thank you! 😎👍
Pretty nice video. Been getting into some of the bronze age era Batman comics lately, and I absolutely can see why this would become the most definitive take on the Dark Knight that'd be the blueprint for future stories.
Doesn't really seem like a blueprint. Frank Miller and everyone who came later over exagerated everything.
@@Ian-hj4yt
Touche. Still, this era did heavily inspire the '89 movie and especially BTAS. The cartoon in particular did adapt a bunch of bronze age era comics too, like The Laughing Fish and The Ra's Al Ghul Saga.
@@stainedclassv0114 Yeah, you're right about BTAS. But i don't see an influence of the bronze age comics in the 89 movie. In fact, Burton stated that the only stories he read were The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. I feel like BTAS tried to be a mix between the Burton movies (which are more post-crisis in style) and the classic stories from the golden, silver and bronze ages.
The biggest tragedy of Bronze Age Batman? Richard Chamberlain was never cast as a live action Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 70s. A google image search easily proves this.
This was a great video!
i would love to see a video where you break down what is in your opinion the best reading order for batman
Another amazing video by Batman's greatest fan.
Will you ever do videos about the best stories about Batman's rogue's gallery? At least for the big names like Penguin or Two-Face?
It's not in my plans at the moment, but maybe someday. Thanks for writing!
This video is amazing!
Fantastic video about an amazing era
Amazing video, congrats
This was my favorite period of being a Batman fan, even with a few questionable stories I still think it was the high point of the character.
Kinda wish there was a few compilation books or reissues of books from this era.
There is an Art of Gene Colon, the Batman Years ('82-'84) ominibus I saw published a few years ago.
There were 3 volumes of “Batman Illustrated By Neil Adams” a few years back, might be able to find em’ still….
People are forgetting that the aunt Harriet character was created just like the first Batwoman. It was dispel the gay rumors that was plaguing, the characters of Batman and Robin. it was the same reason that the character of Barbara Gordon Batgirl was created in 1967,
And it’s still plagues him today since he’s always surrounded by little children
Really love your Batman content. Hope you keep going to current.
I'd love to see you have a turn writing Batman comics. I'm sure being the writer of Batman is one of the most coveted positions in comics, but after following your channel for years it's evident you have the passion, talent, and tenacity to do excellent work.
Thank you. I think it's kind of an impossible dream at this stage, but I truly appreciate the kind words.
I absolutely LOVE this era of Batman
The Archie Goodwin run wasn’t well-liked or respected ? I thought that he was one of the best writers .
That Superman vs Muhammad Ali comic is incredible. Had it as a kid and wish I still had it. I remember there was one those numbered silhouette pictures inside the comic that listed all the people in the crowd. Really cool comic. Big comic too, size wise I recall.
Excelent video 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼