Readers who placed a high priority on continuity were never fond of Haney’s writing, but now Batman has been shoehorned into hundreds of different stories perhaps his approach can be viewed more charitably. Mike Sekowsky’s art teaming Batman with Wonder Woman is a very different style, but also noteworthy.
His best? The second Deadman story in which Deadman’s trying to kill Batman, and Adams pulls out all the stops. Adams draws a lithe, athletic Batman jumping from the pages where the panels are still four sided, but slashed diagonally at the bottom for greater effect. The appointment of any regular artist would have been a giant step forward, but Haney being blessed with the immaculate storytelling of an ever improving Adams is monumental. The first is Haney realising he can fit Batman into crime stories, at which he’s far better, and the second is Neal Adams drawing them. The first half of the collection is passable at best, and feeble at worst, although if you want to see Batman spanking a drunk woman, this is the place to come. The best is Carmine Infantino on a Flash team-up, then modern, now retro-futurist. The quality isn’t helped by artists either working below their best, and some whose style is now very dated. These stories date from the era of the Batman TV show, and while not slipping into parody, the tone of the show has its influence. His earliest contributions feature big name guest stars who forced him to write superhero stories, which removed him from his comfort zone.
That’s where this collection picks up, and it’s a book of two extremely contrasting halves.īob Haney writes all but one story and takes some time to find his feet. In 1965 DC began teaming their heroes in pairs in the long-running The Brave and the Bold title, and after a period of almost random presentations (available as The Brave and the Bold Team-Up Archives) the format of Batman meeting another hero was instituted.
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