NML Crossing, Episode 073 – Batman Chronicles #17 (1999)
NML Crossing, Episode Seventy-Three
Batman Chronicles #17 (Summer, 1999)
“Little Bat Lost”
“Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out”
“Identity Crisis”
Writers – Scott Beatty, Dafydd Wyn, Chris Renaud
Pencils – Pascal Alixe, Eduardo Barreto, Graham Nolan
Inks – Wayne Faucher, Bill Sienkiewicz
Colors – Rob Schwager, Ian Laughlin (or) Pam Rambo, Noelle Giddings
Letters – Willie Schubert, John Costanza
Edits – Vincenzo, Gorfinkel, Illidge, Carlin, O’Neil
Cover Price: $2.95
A trio of tales to continue fleshing out No Man’s Land. Today we’re going to invade an unaligned neighborhood to make some Bat-tots, broadcast some Public Access Television, and finally figure out Batman’s secret identity! It’s a good time as always on this Mark of Cain-Eve!
NML Crossing on Youtube
I always liked Man-Bat. And my recent trek through the Bronze Age Batman Family title shone the light on some solo Man-Bat stories I had never read. Seeing the Langstrom family was like visiting an old friend. It was a nice look at just what a mother is willing to do to protect her children. I enjoyed this.
The TV story up second added to the tapestry of life in the No Man’s Land. All the stories have focused on turf wars and the big bads of Gotham. Seeing the smaller slice of life bits of the teacher and the woman with the orphans shows us more of what life is like for the average person. It’s nice to see how life continues on with average people trying to bring normalcy to the No Man’s Land. These are the people that Gordon and Batman are fighting to protect. They shouldn’t be forgotten while all the big battles happen around them.
For the third story it was nice to see Crock looking more like a human with scaly skin than a walking crocodile. I’m not a fan of the modern interpretation of Crock with the protruding snout. He looks too much like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Tuttles character with the extended snout. Other than that it was, just like you said, a modernized version of the classic Silver Age story. Poor Dr. Whatshisname was destined to die as soon as he saw Bruce’s face. A tale as old as time.
All in all a pretty enjoyable trio of tales. Since the beginning of No Man’s Land I can’t say that I’ve been let down by Chronicles at all. Not necessary for the story at its core, but it greatly enhances the overall story.
I’ve been back to reading the old CIOIE blog posts again, in order from the beginning, continuing from where I had left off. I knew I was stuck on a tale of the Super Sons from World’s Finest. Not sure how much further I got after that so I just made the next issue after that my starting point. It’s fun for me to not just read the posts, but the comments as well. Every now and again I see a comment from Reggie and it makes me miss him. (And I didnt even know him.) He may be gone but he is not forgotten. And his work lives on after him. The Cosmic Treadmill and Weird Comics History are his legacy and continue to allow new people to discover him and his passion for comics.
I agree that even though I like batman year one. I do not like the dark knight returns. I have read it and understand why people enjoy it but it is just not for me. Despite that, I have read all of it’s sequels thinking the series might get better but instead it just gets worse every sequel. I did not enjoy all star batman and robin either.