Quote:
the G-man said:
Uh...actually...I liked that Joker story with Batman thinking about the Marx Brothers .... \:\(



Well, I liked it too, but I found this particular part of the story a little goofy.
I thought the scene where Bruce Wayne started laughing uncontrollably at the funeral was creepy and well done.

And I enjoyed O'Neil's stories for THE JOKER comic book series, which began about 6 months after this story in BATMAN 260 was published.
Here's a link to a topic where the JOKER comic was discussed:


  • Has anyone read the 1975 JOKER series ?
    HERE


I don't know if you saw me post it earlier, but the Dennis O'Neil runs in BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS from 1970-1975 are my favorite era of Batman stories. That's roughly BATMAN 216-266, and more scattered scripts in DETECTIVE COMICS 395-481.
When O'Neil wasn't scripting, Frank Robbins usually was, and I found Robbins' stories equally enjoyable. Particularly the Man-Bat stories in DETECTIVE 400, 402, 407, 429 and others. Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Archie Goodwin also gave a similar consistency to the character.

We're ripping a lot in this topic on Bob Haney, but I enjoy his B & B stories too. Especially from issues 79 to about 130.


But whether with pencils by Neal Adams,Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano or whoever, these were great issues, and O'Neil for my money had his finger on the pulse of exactly what Batman is about.
BATMAN was portrayed as an intelligent and relentless detective, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
And in addition to being a master detective, he was a master of diplomacy, who played well with others, instead of the driven, tormented intimidating jerk, who is now much more abrasive and confrontational, as he's mostly been portrayed for the last 15-20 years.

After his BATMAN and DETECTIVE runs, O'Neil also did some good stories with Michael Golden and others, in BATMAN FAMILY from 1977-1980.