If you were keeping track of such things, DC Comics' latest Batman Day was this past Saturday. By all accounts, things went really well for comics retailers, who seem to have sold out of this week's Marvel Comics' Deadpool/Batman #1 inter-company crossover issue.

*ahem* "Clear to whom."

Yes, you read that right: The book was published by Marvel, not DC. It has been literally decades since competitors DC and Marvel agreed to put their intellectual properties in the same comic book, but, whether I agree with it or not, it is a fact of life that nothing is more important in 2025 America than the Almighty Dollar. Printing a comic with Deadpool and Batman in it is functionally the same as printing money, so of course they did.

Demand was unnaturally high for this, even considering the enduring appetite that some readers have for these two characters. I hear secondhand reports that a significant portion of buyers were new customers drawn in based on their familiarity of these characters' movie appearances. I cannot tell you how rarely that actually happens. Less surprisingly, many of these new customers bought multiple copies for speculation purposes. Comic companies have learned from past experience, and there were 20 covers to choose from. Too bad those speculating customers haven't learned from past experience the truth that few if any of those copies will outpace inflation in investment value. They'd be better off investing their money in crypto. (The currency, not the dog.)

I have no idea how many copies of Deadpool/Batman were printed. Publishers do everything they can to keep those numbers a secret these days because they're usually shockingly low, often (much) fewer than 15,000 copies. (If you want to follow along at home with a calculator, know that the average cover price is $3.99 with something near a 50/50 split between retailer and publisher.) But the recent relaunch of Batman #1 (cover price $4.99) is widely reported to have sold through half a million even before starting a second printing. Of course, that book also has 56 different covers (starting at $5.99), counting the many retailer incentive variants and event exclusives in addition to the open order and blind bag alternates. (If all those terms boggle you, please stay away from the comic book market. It's not safe for you. Frankly, It's not safe for anyone who values their pocketbook or their sanity.)

Don't worry that you might have missed out, though. There is a follow up coming from DC in November, naturally called Batman/Deadpool #1. That way they both get to be number ones! (Which they say will sell more. If They say it, who am I to question?) And this one will also have 20 covers. Isn't comic collecting fun?

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When my aunt told me I had to wear a mask to a masquerade ball she was throwing on Saturday, there was really only one option.

Beware, evildoers!

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Welcome to the 20th Annual Wriphe.com Batman and Football Month!

Twenty years is a long time. Not so long for Batman, though. He's a spry 87 years old and still fighting crime!

Not that you'd know he's an octogenarian from reading comic books. Comics have a way of sliding time so that "the past" is always no more than twenty years ago. For example, when Batman has a flashback to his college football days in 1978, it somehow looks like the facemask-free 1950s.

Batman Vol. 39, No. 304, Oct 1978

Some people will go to any length to stay young.

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For your aural pleasure.

Miranda

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McFarlane Toys recently announced a new line of Batman cowl replicas. The "replica" in the name is important, because these cowls have never been worn by the actual Batman.

My topmost bookshelf currently showcases a Golden Age Superman statue, a battery-powered Star Trek TOS starship Enterprise, a Judge Dredd badge with my name on it, V.I.N.cent, Captain Carrot, and Booster Gold inaction figures and a life-size Batman Begins Halloween pail. The red-headed stepchild there is the Halloween pail. I'm not a big fan of the Batman Begins version of Batman, and it would be nice to replace the piercing gaze of that blue-eyed plastic pail with something less horrifying.

The new McFarlane cowls represent the 1966 television Batman, the 1989 movie Batman, and the 1993 comic book Batman. I like the idea of them, but I cannot bring myself to order one. For one thing, as I mentioned, they are stiff plastic replicas. More importantly, they are only 1:3 scale.

As everyone knows, the average American's head is about 9.5 inches high. (Batman is slightly larger than the average American, so assume his head is closer to 10 inches tall, not counting the pointy ears.) That means that a 1:3 scale cowl would only fit a 3-inch tall head! The packaging says they're about 7 inches tall with stand and pointy ears. If I put a 3-inch hood on my shelf, I'm worried it won't look so much like a Batman tribute as something I stole it from a racist Smurf.

So for the time being, I guess I'm sticking with plastic Christian Bale. On the bright side, his head can hold several bags of Halloween candy, and that's not nothing.

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When I went in to my Local Comic Shop yesterday to pick up Absolute Power #3 (specifically Cover A by Dan Mora, where Batman does his best impression of Wolverine from the 1988 Todd McFarlane cover of The Incredible Hulk #340), the Guy Behind the Counter asked if I was also going to pick up Batman #152 (specifically Cover F by Nicola Scott recreating the iconic 1986 Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns #1 cover pose with Adam West's Batman from the 1966 television show).

I can hear you already. "Nope. That's too geeky for me. I'm out of here," you say. I totally get where you're coming from. You're not wrong. Godspeed to you, sir or ma'am. In point of fact, this is not the blog post that I sat down to write. Even I find myself gobsmacked by how much detail was necessary in that first paragraph just to get in the door of this particular rabbit hole. Maybe I have been reading comic books too long.

Not so long ago (in astronomical time), People In The Know used to point to high issue numbers as the unclearable hurdle turning away new comic book readers. Now every series starts over with a "Brand New Number One Issue!" every few months. But what does it say about comic book culture that even these new, lower number issues are impenetrably obtuse because of a fire hose of variant covers overtly referencing, literally, sixty years of comic book ephemera? Is there a hobby out there somewhere that doesn't wear its accumulated detritus as a badge of honor? If yes, I may be in the market for another pastime.

Anyway. The point here is that no, I did not buy Batman #152 Cover F. Its cover is printed on card stock, which, while being a sturdier paper than a standard cover (which these days is the same paper as is used for the interior pages), is $1 more expensive than the base cover price ($4.99 for a 22-page story) which is too rich for my blood in no small part because I remember when 48 pages of comics printed on newsprint cost less than a dollar.

Yes, I have definitely been reading comic books too long.

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I didn't want to buy a new phone, but the last one stopped ringing, and I cannot have a phone that doesn't do the one thing a phone is supposed to do. So I bought a new one (though not a Google Pixel: they apparently have a well-documented problem of stopping ringing which the commercials conveniently forget to mention). As always, a new device calls for new backgrounds, and these are what I am using for my locked/unlocked screens respectively:

For the record, the Superfriends on the left are by Alex Toth (with a Superman head by Curt Swan) and the Superfriends on the right are by Jose Luis Garci­a-Lopez. Always gotta have some Jose Luis Garci­a-Lopez.

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Today's Science Lesson from Batman, the Science Fan:

from "It's A Bird... It's a Plane... It's Supermobile!", Action Comics #481, 1978

If a man dressed like a bat says it, it has to be true.

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This is not the first time I've posted a panel from Detective Comics #78 (1943), and I doubt it will be the last.

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