Batman #253 - Batman/Shadow crossover; Good Story? 0

[NoMan]

Always wondered. Never read it. Thanks!

[Martin Sinescu]

As O'Neil Batman stories go, I'd give it maybe 2.5 out of 5 stars. It's not bad for what it is and worth a read. It does have a neat atmosphere of mystery to it, but it's also pretty trite like a Scooby Doo Adventure. If O'Neil had been given more than just one issue to work with, he could've really stretched his legs and developed things more, so the story suffers due to its brevity. You could tell he relished pairing the two dark sleuths in one adventure and it was an interesting contrast of styles between the two, I think Denny just didn't have enough room to tell a plausible tale or one with enough depth to really absorb the reader (like the Ra's epic). 

The ending was also a little 

Spoiler

The Shadow congratulates Batman and commends him for solving the case even though Batman mistakenly deduced that Lamont Cranston was the ringleader of the crime ring (not only was he not, he was, of course, the Shadow). Batman never figured it out until he accidentally bumps into the real mastermind who just blurted out that he was the crook... talk about a gift). What's even more ridiculous is that The Shadow seems to have tailed Batman through the whole adventure just to test Batman to see if was as good as he'd heard, thus setting up a sort of "passing of the torch" from one dark avenger to the other.

So, yeah, it ain't exactly The Big Sleep. Mostly I think it was a platform to promote DC's upcoming Shadow's series. Again, it's not awful or even bad, but not O'Neil's finest hour, either. I mean, he just wrote The Joker's Five-Way Revenge two issues prior, so this one was a bit of a drop-off in quality. 

[Readcomix]

On April 8, 2018 at 5:28 PM, Martin Sinescu said:

As O'Neil Batman stories go, I'd give it maybe 2.5 out of 5 stars. It's not bad for what it is and worth a read. It does have a neat atmosphere of mystery to it, but it's also pretty trite like a Scooby Doo Adventure. If O'Neil had been given more than just one issue to work with, he could've really stretched his legs and developed things more, so the story suffers due to its brevity. You could tell he relished pairing the two dark sleuths in one adventure and it was an interesting contrast of styles between the two, I think Denny just didn't have enough room to tell a plausible tale or one with enough depth to really absorb the reader (like the Ra's epic). 

The ending was also a little 

  Hide contents

The Shadow congratulates Batman and commends him for solving the case even though Batman mistakenly deduced that Lamont Cranston was the ringleader of the crime ring (not only was he not, he was, of course, the Shadow). Batman never figured it out until he accidentally bumps into the real mastermind who just blurted out that he was the crook... talk about a gift). What's even more ridiculous is that The Shadow seems to have tailed Batman through the whole adventure just to test Batman to see if was as good as he'd heard, thus setting up a sort of "passing of the torch" from one dark avenger to the other.

So, yeah, it ain't exactly The Big Sleep. Mostly I think it was a platform to promote DC's upcoming Shadow's series. Again, it's not awful or even bad, but not O'Neil's finest hour, either. I mean, he just wrote The Joker's Five-Way Revenge two issues prior, so this one was a bit of a drop-off in quality. 

+1, completely concur. Just read it for the first time myself within the last week or two.

[Ken Aldred]

On 08/04/2018 at 10:28 PM, Martin Sinescu said:

but not O'Neil's finest hour, either. I mean, he just wrote The Joker's Five-Way Revenge two issues prior, so this one was a bit of a drop-off in quality. 

Yup. That's pretty much the benchmark against which it'll be judged.

Average at best for its time.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Ken Aldred