Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Single Issue Hall of Fame: Detective Comics #485

Let me change gears in terms of Batman books. I think we can all agree that Dollar Comics are awesome. There is usually a lot of great material to be found between the covers. This one, however, sits at the upper echelon, mainly due to the amazing list of creators involved. For Don Newton fans, there are no fewer than 31 pages of his artwork. The first 20 are in a great Batman tale which sets up Bronze Tiger as a very intriguing characters. He also pencils the Man-Bat story, a character he was born to draw. I have never been a huge Demon fan, but I love it when Steve Ditko is on board and Len Wein's story is entertaining. The final two stories are worth mentioning because I think they would be unfairly dismissed by many readers and critics. The Robin story is a fairly quaint tale written by Paul Kupperberg infused with a ton of charm by Kurt Schaffenberger in his quasi-retro style. As you may know, I am a huge fan of Don Heck - an artist I think is criminally underrated. He draws women so that they have a very feminine strength and is, therefore, a wonderful fit for Batgirl. This is a solid story. Finally, we get a terrific Dick Giordano pin-up you've probably seen before with Batgirl and Robin. It is just a slice of perfection circa 1979.

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