What’s your favorite Batman comic book issue of 2017?
If you’ve been following Dark Knight News all year, you’ll see that we do our best to cover every book containing Batman and characters from his world. Each week, we tap into the adventures of the Dark Knight in Batman, revisit his crew coming together in Detective Comics, join the team in Teen Titans and more. As the year ticks away toward its end, we thought we’d look back and choose a few of our favorite issues of the year. As you can imagine, it was a difficult task and we had a great variety of options. However, below is our final answer, and again selects issues, not arcs or books (minus one rebel).
Journey onward reader!
Steve J. Ray, News Writer and Reviewer
“If I had to pick one, single issue it would be Batman/TMNT Adventures #5.
The whole series was absolutely terrific. It had Batman being awesome, and Dick Grayson as both Robin AND Nightwing. We saw the Turtles hero worshipping the Dark Knight, and crushing over Batgirl.
I’d pick issue #5 in particular because of three incredible pages. There’s a double page-spread where artist Jon Sommariva recreates the opening titles of the superlative Batman: The Animated Series, but with Michaelangelo in the starring role. He’s there in full cape and cowl as Bat-Turtle, he almost gets run over by the Batmobile, jumps at the thunder and lightning, and socks it to the bad guys on the rooftops.
It’s both a terrific tribute and a huge amount of fun.
The last page of that issue, showing Jonathan Crane designing his Hangman version of the Scarecrow costume is also a huge source of joy for me.
I loved that series so much that I’ve since become friends with, and even had the honor of interviewing the writer, Mathew K. Manning.”
Eric Lee, News Writer and Reviewer
“My nomination for the single best Bat-issue is the recently released Batman #36. The issue guest-stars Superman facing a very mundane, human problem: congratulating his best friend on his engagement when the Batman awkwardly ‘forgets’ to call. The drama is so trivial, which makes it funnier when Superman’s wife reprimands him for not talking about his feelings with Batman. It’s hilarious, it’s tightly plotted, and has a fun twist in the end. This is Tom King at the top of his writing game.”
Chris Foti, News Writer
“Batman #36 purely for the scene of Batman talking to Catwoman about Superman while Superman talks to Lois about Batman. It shows just how alike these two characters are and how much respect they have for each other and ends with them meeting in a humorous way. If only a movie could just capture that magic on film.”
Read Eric Lee’s full review of Batman #36 here.
Kevin Gunn, Editor-in-Chief
(Kevin had difficulty breaking up an arc, so we get to bend the rules for him in this case)
“I did get to read the Super Sons arc about the boy who kidnapped his own family. I love that DC is breathing new life into the concept of “Super Sons” for a new generation of readers. My colleague Steve J. Ray might remember “Clark Jr.” and “Bruce Jr.” as fondly as I do, only we saw them on their second run. Again, I like what DC has done so far with the series. I hope I will have an opportunity to read more!”
Sharna Anrahs, News Writer and Reviewer
“Hehe, to be completely honest my favorite issue of all time just came out, Batman #37:
Clark is wearing glasses while putting on Batman’s cowl. OMG I could just die of laughter.”
Read Eric Lee’s full review of Batman #37 here.
Ryan Lower, Review Coordinator
“This was an easy decision. After all of the comics I’ve read this year, White Knight came busting in and smacked them all out of the way. Sean Murphy is crafting a tale for the ages. It’s dark, intelligent, complex, fun, emotional and surprising. Aside from the awesome story, his art is stunning. He’s including so many great nuggets for Batman fans in every issue, and it all starts with issue #1. He opened the story with Joker driving the Batmobile, and the Dark Knight in Arkham. THAT’S HOW IT STARTS! His Jack Napier is evil, mischievous, and may be the smartest person in Gotham. His Bruce/Batman is angry, exhausted and suffering a deep loss. Batman: White Knight is going to go down as one of the greatest Batman stories (I’m banking on it) and it wouldn’t have received the (much deserved) attention its getting if issue #1 wasn’t the knockout that it was.”
You can read Sharna Anrahs’s full review of Batman: White Knight #1 here.
There you have it. While it seems we’ve leaned toward issues from the latter half of the year, Batman books have been killing it all year.
What about you, loyal reader. Do you agree with our list? What was your favorite?
Get to the comic shop next week and we’ll do this again in 2018.