Today's episode is brought to you by Batman: Nightwalker.
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Batman is many things to many people.
He is justice, he is vengeance, he is the knight,
but most importantly, he is the world's greatest detective.
Now, it's easy to forget this in between
his high-speed Batmobile chases,
and epic slug-fests with supervillains,
but Batman at his core is a super-sleuth.
No prints here.
With superior intellect, intuition,
and some incredibly expensive gadgets,
Batman is always three steps ahead of the bad guys
because he uses deductive reasoning
to crack even the toughest cases.
So, in honor of Marie Lu's thrilling new YA novel,
Batman: Nightwalker, we're gonna run down
some of the greatest Batman detective stories of all time,
like this one.
Heart of Hush.
Whenever you ask someone for their favorite
Batman detective story, Hush will inevitably
be one of the first names mentioned, and for good reason.
It's a great story.
But while Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's 12-part 2002 story
is excellent, Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen's
sequel is a better detective story.
With the criminal known as the Black Glove
plotting to kill Batman, Hush,
AKA Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Thomas Elliot,
decides to beat him to the punch
and begins targeting people close to Batman,
which leads to kidnapping Catwoman and surgically removing
her heart, which is beyond messed up, to say the least.
With so many devious plot twists,
horrifying surgical procedures, and explosive revelations,
Heart of Hush keeps you feverishly turning the page
as you try to solve the mysteries alongside Batman
before Elliot goes full face-off.
The Black Mirror.
One of the greatest Batman detective stories
happened when Bruce Wayne wasn't Batman at all,
in fact, it was Dick Grayson under that iconic cowl.
Like many great Batman stories, this was all about family.
In this case, the Gordon family, as Commissioner Gordon's
son, James Gordon Jr., returned to Gotham as a brutal,
psychopathic murderer stalking the streets.
Dick finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse
with James, and Barbara Gordon's life is on the line.
With everything from poisoned babies
to deep-seated family crises, The Black Mirror packs
a serious punch both physically and emotionally, but its
twisting mysteries are what makes it one of the best.
Time and the Batman.
For Batman's landmark 700th issue, Grant Morrison
and a murderers' row of talented artists wove a sprawling
mystery stretching across space and time,
to feature Batmans of different eras, like Bruce Wayne,
Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, and even Batman Beyond,
Terry McGinnis, solving crimes in their respective eras.
In order to show that no matter what, no matter when
crime may happen, no matter where villains may lurk,
a Batman will always be around
to crack the case and save the day.
So if you haven't read this one yet, get a clue,
and discover why Batman isn't just the world's greatest
detective, but the world's greatest superhero.
Broken City.
Tragedy is in Batman's DNA.
For better or worse, murder is what defines Gotham City's
Dark Knight, and his quest to prevent
what happened to him from happening to anyone else.
It's what drives Bruce Wayne and his one-man war on crime.
So when Batman finds himself investigating the murder
of a young boy's parents, in a case that feels remarkably
and horrifyingly similar to his own parents',
it sends him hurtling down a corridor of regret,
introspection, and unbridled anger
as he examines his own life choices.
And to make matters worse, a pair of killers
had been following his every move,
just waiting for Batman to slip up.
Now, there's no crying in baseball,
but is there room for it in crime fighting?
That's just one of Broken City's many exquisite mysteries.
Gotham by Gaslight.
Do you like your Batman stories with a Victorian twist?
Well this classic Elseworld story takes place in a
19th century version of Gotham City,
where one of the most infamous serial killers of all time
is on the loose, Jack the Ripper.
Having relocated to Batman's hometown,
the Whitechapel murderer is stalking the streets,
and to make matters worse, Bruce Wayne is
accused of Jack the Ripper's crimes,
and has been sentenced to be hanged.
Will Gotham's vigilante pay the ultimate price
for crimes he didn't commit?
Only time will tell, but in the meantime, those are
gonna be some seriously sweet steampunk goggles.
The Long Halloween.
Thank your lucky stars the holiday season has come and gone,
because reading The Long Halloween on an important day
of the year might send a shiver up your spine.
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's creepy noir unfolds over the
course of a year in Batman's life as a masked vigilante.
While mob boss Carmine Falcone hires all manner of
supervillains like Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and the Riddler
to stop Batman, the Dark Knight has his hands full trying to
solve a series of murders that only happen on holidays.
It's a literal race against time as Bruce must figure out
who's trying to wish Gotham a happy hollislay,
before another body's added to the pile.
And if you manage to solve the mystery
before Batman does, well, just consider that
an early Christmas present to yourself.
And those are some of the greatest Batman detective stories
of all time, but tell me, what are your favorites?
Let us know in the comments below and be sure to give me
a mysterious thumbs up while you're there.
Now, be sure to like and subscribe or else you might miss
next week's show about the story of a wealthy orphan
turned vigilante crime fighter who takes on his
greatest nemesis yet, eating McDonald's
for a month, in Batman v Super Size Me.
Until next time, keep on digging.
(mysterious music) Special thanks to
Batman: Nightwalker for sponsoring today's episode.
Written by number one New York Times bestselling author
Marie Lu, this suspenseful action-packed YA novel
gives fans a never-before-seen origin story for Batman.
Join Bruce Wayne as he turns 18,
inherits his family's fortune, and becomes Gotham City's
most underrated detective, helping solve
the crimes that no one else can,
while using his wits and wiles to save the day.
With a sinister group known as the Nightwalkers
terrorizing Gotham City's elites, Bruce Wayne
works undercover in Arkham Asylum to sleuth out
who's really behind the brilliant crimes
before Gotham City is brought to its knees.
Batman: Nightwalker, available wherever fine books are sold.
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