Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman Volume 1

Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman Volume 1 by Marv Wolfman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tales of the Batman: Marvel Wolfman Volume 1 collects Detective Comics #408, Batman #328-335, 436-439, The Brave and the Bold #167, World's Finest Comics #288, The New Teen Titans #37, and Batman and the Outsiders #5.

I've been digging these artist and writer Batman Best Of books for a few years now. This one dropped to $20 one day so I finally grabbed it.

Marv Wolfman has never been a favorite of mine outside of The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Most of the time, I think he's average writer at best. However, he crafted some readable Batman tales in his day.

For my money, the New Teen Titans / Batman and the Outsiders story and The Lazarus Affair were the best, although I wish The Lazarus Affair didn't have a title that spoiled who the mastermind was. Then again, with Talia involved, the Demon's Head is never far behind.

There's an all-star team of artists on this - Jim Aparoo, Irv Novick, Neal Adams, Dave Cockrum, George Perez, Don Newton, and others. Pat Broderick also does Batman: Year Three and somehow I'm not a fan of what he did, which is strange considering how highly I think of his work on Captain Marvel and Captain Atom.

While it wasn't the most enjoyable tale, Batman: Year Three was probably the best written, dealing with Batman's trauma over Jason Todd's death while rehashing his early relationship with Dick Grayson as Nightwing tries to pull him back from the brink.

Marv Wolfman isn't one of my favorite Bat-writers but Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman Volume 1 is still a decent collection of Batman stories. Three out of five stars.

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