In 2019 Shelfdust asked over a hundred comic book critics, podcasters, vloggers and commentators to pick their personal, subjective favourite ‘first’ comic book issues of all time. From their choices we counted down the top fifty entries, which you can find here! But we’re not leaving it there. Now the list is over and we know which comics made the list, we’ve invited critic and podcaster Matt Lune to host a weekly show right here on Shelfdust! Each week Matt will be sitting down with a different comic critic to look at every comic which charted into the top fifty, one issue at a time.
This week it’s time to jump onboard the floating Batmobile, as we look at the comic which ended up in 21st place: Batman & Robin #1 by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Alex Sinclair and Pat Brosseau!
A burst of vibrant energy following some fairly dark and sinister storylines, Batman & Robin harkened back to the brightest times of Batman as it followed Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne’s new adventures. The elements of melodrama and suspense present from Morrison’s previous run are still in place to an extent, but the story has swivelled round to give them a more comical, over-the-top spirit. It’s a really entertaining comic, and just the thing that the Batman franchise needed at that time. This week Matt is joined by special guest Nola Pfau to talk all about it!
The episode can be found here. If you like Spotify then head here, or you can find it on Apple by searching for Shelfdust Presents. For a direct download, you can get your hands on the episode here!
Come back next week….. as Matt will be talking to Chloe Maveal about Justice League #1!
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Nola Pfau is the Editor-in-Chief for WomenWriteAboutComics, as well as a frequent contributor to the site as a writer – for more of their writing, check out the work under their byline. You can also find Nola on Twitter here!
Matt Lune is a critic and podcaster who has written for publications including PanelXPanel, The MNT and Multiversity. You can find him on Twitter here!
This podcast is made possible thanks to the Shelfdust Patreon page! To find out more, head to our Patreon page here!
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