Fri 9 Oct 2020
Reviewed by Ray O’Leary: MARTIN H. GREENBERG, Editor – The Further Adventures of Batman.
Posted by Steve under Comic Books, Cartoons, Comic Strips , Reviews[6] Comments
MARTIN H. GREENBERG, Editor – The Further Adventures of Batman. Bantam, paperback original, 1989.
In connection with all the recent Batman hype, someone had the bright (and, I think, interesting) idea of having various writers of genre fiction try their hands at writing a Batman adventure. For the most part, alas, the Batman comes across as little more than a Comic Book character.
This collection of fourteen stories by fifteen authors opens with Robert Sheckley’ s “Death of a Dreammaster,” which peters out after a promising premise. It’s followed by the two best stories in the book: Henry Slesar’s “Bats,” in which Batman has seemingly gone crazy, and Joe R. Lansdale’s “Subway Jack,” about a serial killer murdering bag ladies on the subway.
Unfortunately, the rest of the stories, except for occasional high spots in Mike Resnick’s “Neutral Ground†and Edward Wellen’s Riddler story “Wise Men of Gotham†are pretty much ho-hum at best.
Contents:
1 • Death of the Dreammaster • novella by Robert Sheckley
69 • Bats • novelette by Henry Slesar
101 • Subway Jack • novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
139 • The Sound of One Hand Clapping • short story by Max Allan Collins
159 • Neutral Ground • short story by Mike Resnick
165 • Batman in Nighttown • novelette by Karen Haber and Robert Silverberg
191 • The Batman Memos • short story by Stuart M. Kaminsky
207 • Wise Men of Gotham • • novelette by Edward Wellen
247 • Northwestward • [Black Widowers] short story by Isaac Asimov
267 • Daddy’s Girl • short story by William F. Nolan
285 • Command Performance • novella by Howard Goldsmith
343 • The Pirate of Millionaires’ Cove • short story by Edward D. Hoch
363 • The Origin of the Polarizer • novelette by George Alec Effinger
393 • Idol • short story by Ed Gorman
October 10th, 2020 at 9:19 am
I don’t think comic book stories work well in prose form. Maybe it’s because you see all of the silliness behind them, or maybe the authors try to make too serious the adventures of silly characters.
In any case, if the bunch of authors included in this book can’t manage to do it, then no one can.
October 10th, 2020 at 6:21 pm
Lawrence Block did a good one, but I’m not sure if it is in this or one of the other Batman anthologies they did after this. Is this the one with the Asimov story in it?
As for prose versions of Superheroes I recommend to anyone Tom de Haven’s Superman novel which is as good as it can be done.
Andrew Vachss, not a big favorite of mine, did a good Batman novel as well, and Ted White did a good Captain America novel for Bantam.
Granted, most of them are for fans only.
Dick Tracy got an anthology like this as well, and I would point out Ron Goulart and William F. Nolan did well by FLASH GORDON and THE PHANTOM in a series for Avon.
I’m not sure it is any bigger a stretch than Doc Savage or the Spider really.
October 10th, 2020 at 6:29 pm
The only one you mention that has come close to working for me is Ted White’s Captain America novel. And for what it’s worth, I can no longer read Doc Savage, and I never did finish a Spider novel, as much as I wanted to. That’s just me, though. I know all of the above have their fans.
October 10th, 2020 at 6:31 pm
PS. For those this applies to, I can read and enjoy the comic books and comic strips just fine.
October 10th, 2020 at 7:40 pm
For what it’s worth, when writers have asked my advice about creating pastiches of famous characters or writers, I’ve told them it’s a bad idea. Instead, they should create their own characters!
I generally don’t like reading non-Doyle tales about Sherlock Holmes, etc.
October 11th, 2020 at 8:38 am
When the non-Doyle Holmes stories first came out, I gobbled them up as fast as everyone else. Then came the deluge!