Favorite Decade for the Bat?

[Mace Dolex]

'80s - Don Newton art, interlinked stories in Batman and Detective, lots of gritty detective stories, Batman was actually fallible and got knocked out/beaten up pretty regularly, Dick finally grows up and leaves, Talia shows up and acts all ambiguous, and of course the obvious stuff: The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke.

This is my favorite decade too as I started out reading Spanish reprints that had Don Newton and Gene Colan alternating on both books, and I have an affinity for the 70's too as it was the decade that brought him back to his roots.

[Iclifton]

My favorite is the 90`s. We got Long Halloween which is my favorite bat book and that is when the all the side characters started to flourish. Dixon had a great handle on everyone.

My favorite period ever though is the Morrison era. His run truly made the entire line feel fresh. My favorite version of Bruce, Batman and Robin(favorite comic and favorite Dynamic Duo), Miller Batgirl, Black Mirror, Red Robin and the intro to Damien. Never have I been so interested in the entire line.

[Timothy Hunter]

Are the 60s considered a "dud" decade for Batman comics? I thought the New Look revival was well received.

[MajorHoy]

Are the 60s considered a "dud" decade for Batmam comics? I thought the New Look revival was well received.

I think 1960s got hurt by the comics seeming to mimic the TV show somewhat later in the decade.

(The introduction of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl was a good thing, though.)

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: This thread/poll was originally started in May of 2014, BEFORE Rebirth and BEFORE TOM KING'S RUN.

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With 133 people having voted,

* 1990-1999 = 33 votes
* 1980-1989 = 32 votes
* 1970-1979 = 26 votes
* 2000-2009 = 23 votes
* 2010-current (which was 2014 then) = 13 votes

All decades prior to 1970-1979 still have less than ten votes each.

[Fire Angel]

Voted for the 90s and surprised its number one. I heard so much criticism for gimmicks in that decade but it had really good stories.

[MajorHoy]

Bump!
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NOTE: This thread/poll was originally started in May of 2014, BEFORE Rebirth and BEFORE TOM KING'S RUN.

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With 135 people having voted,

* 1990-1999 = 34 votes
* 1980-1989 = 32 votes
* 1970-1979 = 26 votes
* 2000-2009 = 23 votes
* 2010-current (which was 2014 then) = 14 votes

All decades prior to 1970-1979 still have less than ten votes each.

[MajorHoy]

With 140 people having voted,

* 1990-1999 = 35 votes (+1)
* 1980-1989 = 32 votes
* 1970-1979 = 28 votes (+2)
* 2000-2009 = 24 votes (+1)
* 2010-current (which was 2014 then) = 15 votes (+1)

All decades prior to 1970-1979 still have less than ten votes each.

[godisawesome]

Voted for the 90s and surprised its number one. I heard so much criticism for gimmicks in that decade but it had really good stories.

The comics world at large was a mess in the 90’s… but DC wound up kind of being on the “writers-first” side of things compared to the more “artist-first” side of things at Marvel and Image, which means that they generally handled storytelling better, especially in the Bat books with Denny O’Neill in charge.

I mean, for comparison’s sake, I’d argue Superman in the 90’s had sufficient talent in his writers pool to make those years of the Post-Crisis period have a good reputation even though they quickly started running into some of the problems with the Post-Crisis premises that separated them from the Bronze Age; Batman, having the same or even better quality of writers in the line’s writing stable, experienced exponential growth with the fewer and more profitable changes Post-Crisis brought to the table thanks to Denny O’Neill’s leadership.

Knightfall could be seen as a giant experiment to prove something to comic readers about what was wrong with the 90’s, and has a lot of resemblance to the Death of Superman arc, which was a gimmick storyline with a gimmick villain… but both arcs launched sveeral spin-off books, and Bane ultimately emerged as a genuine heavy hitter Bat-villain.

[Pete26]

I was born in 1960 so have a fond memory of watching the Series. I also loved picking up comics at newsagents.

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: This thread/poll was originally started in May of 2014, BEFORE Rebirth and BEFORE TOM KING'S RUN.
--------------------

With 146 people having voted,

* 1990-1999 = 35 votes
* 1980-1989 = 33 votes
* 1970-1979 = 28 votes
* 2000-2009 = 25 votes
* 2010-current (which was 2014 then) = 18 votes

All decades prior to 1970-1979 still have less than ten votes each.

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: This thread/poll was originally started in May of 2014, BEFORE Rebirth and BEFORE TOM KING'S RUN.
--------------------
With 150 people having voted,

* 1990-1999 = 36 votes
* 1980-1989 = 34 votes
* 1970-1979 = 29 votes
* 2000-2009 = 26 votes
* 2010-current (which was 2014 then) = 18 votes

All decades prior to 1970-1979 still have less than ten votes each.

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: This thread/poll was originally started in May of 2014, BEFORE Rebirth and BEFORE TOM KING'S RUN.
--------------------
With 152 people having voted,

* 1990-1999 = 36 votes
* 1980-1989 = 36 votes
* 1970-1979 = 29 votes
* 2000-2009 = 26 votes
* 2010-current (which was 2014 then) = 18 votes

All decades prior to 1970-1979 still have less than ten votes each.

[MajorHoy]

= bump! =
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Of the other three decades listed on the poll, we've currently got

* 1939-1949 = 3 votes
* 1950-1959 = 2 votes
* 1960-1969 = 2 votes

[Jim Kelly]

Are the 60s considered a "dud" decade for Batman comics? I thought the New Look revival was well received.

Hardly. But then there's the way people in general think and there's the way comic book fandom thinks. So maybe for comic book fandom, the 1960s were a dud. But objectively, this isn't the case.

Even though Bat-Mania ran dry after three seasons of the T.V. show, during that time sales were in the millions. There was so much Batman stuff. If you didn't know who Batman was before (and I didn't), you certainly did once Bat-Mania took off. It was truly one of the biggest things to ever happen to the character.

The comic books never really went deep into the camp trend. There were a few comics that did this, but most were relatively the same as they had been when the "New Look" began. Some more costumed villains showed up than before. But looking at the present Batman comics, the amount of costumed villains was relatively low by comparison.

I would say that the comic strip (at least in its early days) was even more camp than the T.V. show. And the Topps Batman cards (black bat series) were quite serious, even if they did feature the Joker, Penguin and Catwoman--they read like a pulp novel.

Because of the reaction against the camp Batman, we got all the changes in the late 1960s, which resulted in the early 1970s comics, which were very light on costumed villains and had some good murder mystery tales. But sales were low at that time, which may have driven a lighter approach to Batman in the second half of the 1970s.

Ultimately, extreme displeasure with camp Batman drove fans and creators to embrace a much darker vision of Batman. And the changes to Batman as the result of the "New Look" made it easier to go in that direction. Julie Schwartz had broken with the traditional Batman in 1964, making further changes possible after that.

So without the 1960s, you wouldn't have everything that followed. And I would argue that the reason the 1989 BATMAN movie did so well was because the older generation remembered Bat-Mania. The movie exploited that nostalgia while also offering something different enough that it could create new Batman fans in the younger generation. Without that double generational effect, I don't think the movies or the comic books would have done so well.