The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The late 80s/early 90s weren’t the best of times for superhero comics. They really weren’t. Too much showboating and not enough craft saw artists became superstars, often for cranking out hyper-exaggerated mockeries of comics, full of splash pages, ridiculous anatomy and no feet.

But in the midst of all this was Batman Adventures. In a superhero world I no longer enjoyed it was a bright light of beautiful, simple, perfect comics. Based on the Bruce Timm Batman Animated series it swiftly became the best and then the only superhero series I could look at during those dark days.

And here’s one very big reason why:

Mike Parobeck’s art was sublime. Pretty much adhering to a maximum of 4 panels a page, he was a storyteller without compare whose work looked so simple and so clean but held within it so much to marvel at. Sadly Parobeck died in 1996 at the far too young age of 30, but, along with writer Kelley Puckett, Parabeck’s work on Batman still ranks up there as some of the best Batman stories I’ve ever read.

(There’s a series of four Batman Adventures comics by Puckett and Parobeck to view at the Grantbridge Street blog. After that you’ll definitely be wanting to go legit and buy the collections)

However, my absolute favourite Batman Adventures book came along a little later, in 1994, but stuck with the Batman Adventures line. This was Batman Adventures: Mad Love by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. And it’s still my all time favourite Batman tale. You can keep your Dark Knight Returns and your Year One, you can have all the laughing fish you want, I’ll take this above all others.

Mad Love was the sad tale of Harley Quinn, desperately in love with her boss The Joker, willing to do anything for him, endure anything, just to get him to notice her…..

But he never did, which is why she hatches the plan to capture Batman, to give her love the one thing he’s never managed to get for himself. Surely Mr J would love her then? Ooops, maybe not…..

Funny, marvellous superhero action and touching as well, Mad Love was everything you could ever want in a Batman comic. It’s one of my all time favourite superhero tales.

Mad Love is available as part of a gorgeous hardback collection of Batman Adventures comics; Mad Love And Other Stories. Buy it and you’ll see that I’m right.