[Batman]

Neal Adams





vs.

Jim Lee





Two guys whose (arguably) best covers both feature Batman and a scimitar!

Mini-bios, in case anyone's just joining us.

Neal Adams's noir-ish photo-realistic style caused a revolution in Batman art in the late 60s and early 70s. He is also well-known for his "socially relevant" run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow. He is considered a legend in his field.

Jim Lee's acclaimed run on the "Hush" storyline in 2003 gave the Batman line a huge boost and is still the best selling comic of the decade. He is probably the most popular comic book artist today. He is also well known for his run on The X-Men, the best-selling comic book in half a century, and for being one of the co-founders of the creator-run Image Comics. He is currently working with Frank Miller on the All-Star Batman and Robin comic.

[salmonjunkie]

This one's even tougher than Miller/Sale for me.

[Stu]

Is the sword actually stuck in his chest in that Adams cover? Or does it just look that way because of the angle.

[Batman]

Well, I think it's supposed to be ambiguous, so you don't know what's happened till you read the story. But if you don't mind being spoiled:

S
P
O
I
L
E
R


I believe the sword has been stuck in the sand beside him because Batman has been apparently killed by a scorpion in the middle of Ra's and Batman's duel. But Talia sneaks him antidote, which leads to this:

[Stu]

"Neither! I'm the Goddamn Hairy-Chested Love God Batman!"

[Batman]

Aparo vs. Sale has a lot more votes than this Showdown. I know that in Thai's case it's just 'cause he can't decide, but I'm afraid that others might be under the impression that there's only one poll open right now.

Nope, there are two. Come vote in this one as well!

Neal Adams! Jim Lee! Two fine artists--pick one!

[Pun]

Serge, what did you think of Lee's run with WildCATS? I liked it a lot, but many people I talked to just thought it was his rip off of the X-Men.

[Batman]

I stopped reading Lee long before that. X-Men #1 was the last comic book I bought for a loooong time. (mta: That's an exaggeration caused by poor memory. But I cut back quite a bit after X-Men #1, I never read any Image save for the first few issues of Savage Dragon, and have never bought an X-book since.) Didn't get back into comics till I happened upon Preacher. Didn't read anything by Lee again till "Hush."

I like Lee, but I don't love him. And I think he should stay very, very far away from any typewriters.

[Batman]

It's tied up, and I'd love to see Adams pull this off, so I'm going to do come campaigning. A smaller version of the Adams Cover Cavalcade, this time only with the most impressive ones:

[Boer the Heavy Metal Gnome]

I don't know that much about Batman comics so I just voted on the artwork. I voted for Jim Lee and here's why:

Take a look at that first cover. Batman is laying on the ground. He still has his cowl on and he still has his pants on without his utility belt. Now look at the costume the other guy is holding. It's the complete costume minus the cowl, but including the utility belt. To me that's just stupid. It doesn't make sense. Does Batman have multiple costumes where sometimes the pants are attached and sometimes they're not? And even if he has a costume where the pants are attached, Why would the utility belt be atached to the costume and fastened? It just looks really stupid to me at the only thing I think when I look at it is that the guy is a great artist but he pays real shitty attention to details.

But like I said, I don't know anything about Batman comics so maybe there's an explanation.

[Batman]

Absolutely, there's a good explanation. You looked at that cover and your rational brain was somehow not overcome by the "cooooool." You're overthinking this.

[Stu]

Jimothy Lee Covers Mini-Cavalcade





Some interior:









I love how Lee depicts Gotham:

(note the name of the expressway )

[Batman]

Man, I was looking all over for better Jim Lee Batman interior art to use. Thanks.

Of course I can't find much by way of decent Neal Adams Batman interior art either. Most of it's that awful re-colored crap.

This one is original:


This one was retouched, but not totally wrecked for once:


I wish I could find the original Batman/Ra's swordfight to counter the one you posted, but no luck so far.

[Stu]

Is that all O'Neill and Adams did on their batman run, stories about Robin "dying"?

[Batman]

I assume you're referring to the panel of Robin getting shot and that one weird cover where Robin disintegrates in Batman's arms?

The panel with Robin getting shot, though it's teased for a few pages that he might have really been shot, it's revealed pretty quickly that he was actually shot with a tranquilizer and kidnapped, which leads in to the very first Ra's Al Ghul storyline. He claims that Talia was kidnapped by the same people and they need to work together to find them. This is one of the greatest classic Batman storylines ever. Right up there with "Year One" in my opinion.

The "disintegrating Robin" cover, I have no idea. But Adams drew a lot more covers than stories, so I doubt that that was an O'Neill/Adams storyline at all.

[Stu]

Yeah, I just keep seeing all these covers with the recurring theme of "I killed Robin!"/"a Robin dies!"/"Haha, Batman! I killed Robin! What you gonna do about it?"

[Batman]

I was half right. I checked at comics.org and Adams did do the interior art for that issue. The script was by Wolfman and Wein though, and was called "The House that Haunted Batman." So I guess it was a deal where Batman was faced with a bunch of horrifying illusions, and disintegrating Robin was one of those.

[Batman]

This was the period after Dick goes away to college, and before Jason first crops up.

The only Robin appearances in this era are that Haunted House story where he's just an illusion and the Ra's storyline where he gets kidnapped.

And then after issue #234 he starts getting cover credit again, but it's not because he's joined back up with Batman, but because they started a back-up feature for his solo adventures. The one cover with the grim reaper taking a swing at Robin is just a case of Main feature/backup feature crossover. I have that story, "Night of the Reaper," in one of those Giant-Size "Best of DC" books. It's a really good one.

[Stu]

I have that story, "Night of the Reaper," in one of those Giant-Size "Best of DC" books. It's a really good one.

The Reaper as in Gotham's original vigilante, from Batman: Year Two?

[Batman]

Nope, completely different character. This guy was a survivor of the Nazi death camps who went around finding Nazi war criminals in hiding, then dressing up as the Grim Reaper and murdering them. But the heroes don't know that, not knowing about his background or that of his victims, he appears to be a really spooky murderer scything apparently-perfectly-innocent old dudes.

They do such a good job of making the character really chilling until the big reveal, and then he becomes such a tragic, sympathetic figure in the end, it's all very nicely done.

[salmonjunkie]

I remember loving Jim Lee's X-Men work, and while WildCATS looked cool, it was pretty lame. Then I stopped reading comics for a long time. I remember thumbing through his Avengers work during the Heroes Reborn storyline and was pretty unimpressed. Lee's work on Batman: Hush is very good, and I think he's improved as an artist, while still having a signature look.

Neal Adams - damn. That's some good stuff. It's as iconic as Aporo's work.

Ok. I've made my decision.

Jim Lee. Because he's a nice guy.

[Batman]

Man, you had me going there with the faint praise for Lee and the not-so-faint praise for Adams. I thought you were voting for my guy.

I have no doubt that Lee is indeed a very nice guy.

[Stu]

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J37z5gTTUfw
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MFAPcSbq-_c
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2qp00uG2IzU

[JayBee]

This is ultra tough for me.

I'm taking the old timer, just for the iconic nature of his stuff. Also, very little gigantic pecs and abs.

[Stu]