I have not read a lot of Golden Age stories about any single character. I have read a lot of reprints of various issues, but those were only single issues. It was much hard to read ten issue of Action or Detective Comics in a row. DC Comics has been releasing these books in a rather inexpensive form now, which reprints all the stories of a single character. I got this the other day, and it was quite fascinating. There was no real continuity at all, and despite ostensibly being part of a shared world with other heroes- since Batman and Superman were members of the JSA- many stories would flat out contradict other stories. Batman would say constantly "there is no such thing as magic" despite Dr. Fate, Johnny Thunder and his Thunderbolt and the Spectre existing in said JSA. And he KNEW them.
This is volume ten of these Batman Chronicles, and the stories are a mixed bag. About a third of them are well written and plotted, and third are good and the last third are a bit silly. The stories are from Detective Comics and Batman comics. We get one Joker story and one Two-Face story. I had actually read the Two-Face story, thanks to the wonderful 100 page Giants. This story actually "cured" Harvey Kent (now Dent). The Joker story was about another thug making the cops and Batman think the Joker was robbing people. This does not please Mr. J at all. DC was wise not to overexpose their villains. The rest are various thugs and some nazis. The last story introduces The Cavalier, who gets away.
The art ranges from great to good to passable. Dick Sprang and Bob Kane do the best work here.
Overall, I don't think I need more of these volumes, but this was a fun and brisk read.
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