Episode 81 – Happy Christmas 2023

Welcome back to The Overlooked Dark Knight, the podcast that shines a light on Batman stories hardly anyone talks about!

It’s Christmas time, so Andy and Mike thought it would be fun to look at not one but two Yuletide themed Batman stories. Or, at the very least, two stories that take place at Christmas. First up is Brave and the Bold #184, where the Huntress of Earth-2 crosses over to Earth-1 to spend the holidays with her Uncle Bruce and ends up helping Bruce through a crisis of faith when it comes to light that Thomas Wayne might have been a criminal!

Spoiler warning…he wasn’t.

Then they look at a story from DC Special Series #21, which featured early Batman work from Frank Miller. Batman is investigating some criminal activity and ends up having to save an ex-con who has had a change of heart because of his job as a department store Santa. There’s also something about a star that was a running theme through that special. Mike also nearly ends the show when Andy makes a comment about All-Star Batman and Robin.

Below are the covers and select pages from the comics covered in this episode.

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

The opening and closing theme for the show the time out was “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Next Time: No clue!

Episode 80 – The Joker: Devil’s Advocate or The People vs Jack Napier

Welcome back to The Overlooked Dark Knight, the podcast that shines a light on Batman stories hardly anyone talks about!

This time out Andy and Mike take a look at the 1995 graphic novel Joker: The Devil’s Advocate. Written by Chuck Dixon with art by Graham Nolan and Scott Hanna this story explores what happens when the Joker is finally put on trial for his crimes. The problem? Batman doesn’t believe that the Joker is behind the murders he is being tried for. The hook? Batman’s right. The guys talk about the writing, the art, and the deeper ideas explored in this story up to and including captial punishment. After that Andy and Mike go through your feedback from previous episodes!

Below are the cover and select pages from the book discussed during this episode.

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

The opening and closing theme for the show is Superhero Intro by Stringer Bell and taken from the royalty free site Pixma Bay.

Next Time: The guys celebrate Christmas 2023!

Episode 79: Please Hama, Don’t Hurt Em

Welcome back to The Overlooked Dark Knight, the podcast that shines a light on Batman stories hardly anyone talks about!

In this exciting episode Andy and Mike talk about the very brief seven issue Batman run written by Larry Hama. It was the dawn of a new age in Gotham. No Man’s Land was over, a new century was beginning, and the Batman titles underwent a seismic creative shift with newer writers either taking on over taking over the exploits of the Dark Knight. Novelist Greg Rucka was writing Detective Comics. Devin Grayson, plucked from the cream of the fan fiction crop, took on new title Batman: Gotham Knights. But what about the flagship title Batman? Well, that fell to veteran writer and editor Larry Hama. Best known for his work on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Wolverine, Hama jumped over to DC Comics to write one of their best known and most popular characters. It seemed like a good fit. Hama was known for world building and writing action packed stories with clever dialogue.

So why did his run last only seven issues?

Andy and Mike talk about all seven of those issues and try to answer that question by looking at Batman issues 575 to 581. They talk about characters such as Banner and Orca and the themes that Hama seemed to be exploring as well as the style of his writing, which didn’t seem to mesh with the new Batman ethos. They also talk about the art by Scott McDaniel where a rare disagreement between the hosts breaks out in a fierce, no holds barred, two men enter, one man leaves Thunderdome battle.

Actually, it’s a mild disagreement. That’s all.

Below are the covers from the books discussed during this episode.

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

The opening and closing theme for the show is Superhero Intro by Stringer Bell and taken from the royalty free site Pixma Bay.

Next Time: The guys talk about The Joker: Devil’s Advocate!

Episode 78 – The Ultimate Bat Library

Welcome to the seventy-eighth episode of The Overlooked Dark Knight. The is a non-index index show where the hosts, Andrew Leyland and Michael Bailey, look at Batman comics that rarely, if ever, get talked about.

This time out the guys are taking requests…or at the very least a request…and talking about what books they consider to be part of an essential library of Batman collected editions. What was the criteria that Andy and Mike set up for themselves? What books did they both pick? What are the most obvious choices and which choices are out of left field? Listen and find out already!

No images this time to keep their choices a surprise!

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

If you want to subscribe to the show here’s the RSS Feed and the Apple Podcast link.  If you use iTunes please leave us a review.  Not only will we read that on the air like the other feedback but it really helps the show out.  The show is also available on Audible and Spotify.

The opening and closing theme for the show is Superhero Intro by Stringer Bell and taken from the royalty free site Pixma Bay.

Next Time: Andy and Mike take a look at the original graphic novel The Joker: Devil’s Advocate!

The Overlooked Dark Knight At The Movies Presents…The Flash!

Welcome to the first installment of what Mike arbitrarily decided to call The Overlooked Dark Knight At The Movies! This is an occasional show where instead of talking about Batman stories people hardly ever talk about they will talk about Batman movies and television shows that everyone has probably already talked about. Sometimes it will be a commentary and sometimes, like this time, it will be a general discussion of the film or show.

This time out the guys decided to talk about 2023’s The Flash. Why? Because despite being a movie that is ostensibly about a character named the Flash there was a surprising amount of Batman in it. To be fair, Andy wasn’t going to watch this movie at all, but Mike felt he had to because he will be discussing parts of it at DragonCon this year and not watching the movie and doing so would have felt weird. Andy, being the good friend he is, decided Mike shouldn’t suffer alone, so he too watch this movie and boy did they have thoughts about it.

Not all good ones.

Primarily not good ones.

Over the course of this spoiler filled two hours Andy and Mike talk about this film from all angles. The special effects. The action set pieces. Ezra Miller’s performances. The various Batmen that show up. Wonder Woman’s appearance. Why Supergirl is probably the best part of the movie overall. Comic book films in general. This conversation has it all.

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

The opening and closing theme to this show is titled Epic Heroic Cinematic Trailer by Alex Kizenkov obtained royalty free from Pixabay.

If you want to subscribe to the show here’s the RSS Feed and the Apple Podcast link.  If you use iTunes please leave us a review.  Not only will we read that on the air like the other feedback but it really helps the show out.  The show is also available on Audible and Spotify.

Next Time: Andy and Mike pick out the Batman trades and hardcovers that they would put in an ultimate Batman library.

Episode 77 – The Penny Stocks of Villains

Welcome to the seventy-seventh episode of The Overlooked Dark Knight. The is a non-index index show where the hosts, Andrew Leyland and Michael Bailey, look at Batman comics that rarely, if ever, get talked about.

This time out Andy and Mike once again stick to their mandate (which is becoming something of a habit lately) and talk about a seemingly random issue of Batman that Mike picked out for a specific reason. Why did he choose Batman #336? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out but the guys sure do have a fun time talking about this issue. You have a C level villain trying to take advantage of Z level villains and Batman taking them all on. It’s just so good.

Then Mike (for reasons that make sense in the episode) asks Andy but what it was like buying comics in the UK in the late seventies and eighties and then goes into his own formative comic buying experiences. The conversation continues in that direction for the back half of the episode and you get to learn more about the hosts when they were lads and these were all fields. Mike also analyzes Andy’s reading habits and why he chose the DC books he read despite being more of a Marvel fan.

Below is the cover and select pages from the comic discussed during this episode.

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

If you want to subscribe to the show here’s the RSS Feed and the Apple Podcast link.  If you use iTunes please leave us a review.  Not only will we read that on the air like the other feedback but it really helps the show out.  The show is also available on Audible and Spotify.

Next Time: Andy and Mike pick out the Batman trades and hardcovers that they would put in an ultimate Batman library.

Episode 76 – JLMay 2023: Brave and the Bold #1

Welcome to the seventy-sixth episode of The Overlooked Dark Knight. The is a non-index index show where the hosts, Andrew Leyland and Michael Bailey, look at Batman comics that rarely, if ever, get talked about.

This time out Andy and Mike are participating in the yearly podcasting crossover JLMay! Not only are they participating in it they are ones getting the party started. The subject this year is the 2007 Brave and the Bold series, which, shockingly, wasn’t a Batman team-up book. If this book had come out a year or so later it probably would have been. This iteration of Brave and the Bold served as more of a DC Universe book by mixing and matching heroes and villains to tell a larger story. At least that’s what the book did for the first twelve issues.

In this first issue Batman and Green Lantern team-up after each of them discovered a dead body which, shockinly, was the same man. The guys talk about Mark Waid’s ability to write a good Batman mystery story and add little flourishes of character that make the story come to life. They also discuss the awesome George Perez artwork as well as how this series fit into the overall DC Universe of the time. After that, they go back thirty years and look at Brave and the Bold #134, which also featured a team-up between Batman and Green Lantern and deals with GL defecting to the communists and Batman having to deal with that, which is odd because apparently comic books only recently started getting political.

(Stares at camera)

Below are the covers and select pages from the comics discussed during this episode.

Below are links to the other shows participating in this year’s JLMay!

• Dial F for Flanger
• The Bat-Pod
• L.E.G.I.O.N.P.O.D.cast
• The Legion Project
• Teal Productions
• Wright On Network
• Justice Trek
• Popculture Affidavit
• It All Comes Back to Superman
• Long Box Crusade
• Resurrections An Adam Warlock & Thanos Podcast
• Married With Comics
• Superman in Crisis
• The Lanterncast
• Podcast of OA
• JLI Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast
• Rolled Spine 
• Weird Warriors
• Magazines & Monsters
• Once Upon A Geek
• Head Speaks
• Coffee & Comics
• Aquaman & Firestorm: The Fire & Water Podcast
• Waiting For Doom
• Fanholes Podcast

Andy and Mike want your feedback on this episode so they can read it on an upcoming show!  You even have options in how you leave your feedback.  The most direct way is to leave a comment right here on the site.  You can also send all questions, concerns, fears and trepidations to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com.  Then there’ the Facebook page, where you can also leave a Batman related question for Andy and Mike to answer at the beginning of the show.  If you talk about this show on the social medias please include a #overlookeddk so the guys know where to find it.

If you want to subscribe to the show here’s the RSS Feed and the Apple Podcast link.  If you use iTunes please leave us a review.  Not only will we read that on the air like the other feedback but it really helps the show out.  The show is also available on Audible and Spotify.

Next Time: It’s Mike’s turn to pick a random Batman book to talk about and his choice was Batman #336!