Category Archives: GOTHAM CITIZENS

Spotlight on Slam Bradley

The Dark Knight isn’t the only detective in Batman comics. In fact, having finally read last year’s six-part mini-series Gotham City: Year One, my mind has been on the astounding significance gained by one of the oldest detectives around: Slam … Continue reading

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On Blackgate Penitentiary

Prison stories are basically their own genre, what with the dangerous, claustrophobic environment, the parallel rules of life in a world of outlaws, full of both comradery and suspicion, and the occasional trope of elaborate escape plots (which are kind … Continue reading

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Yet another long post about Batman’s humorous villains

Gotham Calling’s 400th post! This is the kind of benchmark I usually celebrate by spotlighting oddball members of Batman’s rogues gallery who don’t get enough love. While the Dark Knight has some of the most popular rogues out there, Gotham’s … Continue reading

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On the periphery of Batman’s rogues’ gallery

This is Gotham Calling’s 300th post! I usually take these occasions to celebrate the richness and weirdness of Batman’s extensive rogues’ gallery, which includes all sorts of odd criminals, ranging from iconic characters like the Joker and the Penguin all … Continue reading

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Places to visit in Gotham City

If you happen to be passing by Gotham City and are only around for a day or a night, make sure you use your time wisely. There are plenty of monuments worth checking out, but among the most original ones … Continue reading

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The despicable pre-Crisis Man-Bat

Man-Bat isn’t one of the most inspired concepts in Batman comics. Taking to the extreme the notion that great villains are an inversion of the heroes, Man-Bat’s name is a literal reversal of Batman’s… As for his origin, it’s just … Continue reading

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On prison breaks

Part of the general appeal of superhero comics is seeing how different creators face the challenges posed by the tight formulas. Some writers and artists manage to work their way around genre restrictions, others hang an amusing lampshade on them, … Continue reading

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On giant cash registers

To celebrate eighty years of stories featuring the Caped Crusader, each day of this week I’ll be highlighting something I find especially neat about Batman comics.  Today, let’s look at over-the-top action scenes set among giant props. Batman #185 Batman … Continue reading

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On Gotham City’s beat cops

According to Mike’s Amazing World, the very first Batman tale came out eighty years ago this week, in Detective Comics #27. I figured I should mark the occasion on this blog with something different, so this week I’m going daily … Continue reading

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The looks of Vicki Vale

          Among the fascinating things about Batman comics is the fact that, because they have been going on for eight decades, you get to trace social and aesthetic evolutions on all sorts of fronts. One of those fronts is the … Continue reading

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