Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box03): About time I landed on something good: a fast-paced, Moench / Jones Black Mask jam from what's held firm to the title of my favorite Batman run (Vol. 1, 515-552) for the last 28 years. There's something about the brazen creepiness of this run that's been unmatched in the years since – in the main Bat-book, no less: that gothic, macabre vision of Gotham ripped straight from Moench and Jones's Elseworlds collaborations; the post-KnightsEnd / Troika / Bruce Wayne's return all-black suit with yellow oval (my favorite Bat-suit; so underrated – wish it had caught on AND that there had been a settled way to draw it; even Jones gave up a couple of issues in; the B:TAS–meets–Hammer-meets-Pre-Code-Warner-gangster-films villainy (Black Mask, in particular is at his most deliciously unhinged)… I've little doubt that a good chunk of my affection for this run is how great it felt having Bruce back behind the cowl after the exhaustion of the Jean Paul period (and the brief PRODIGAL, Dick Grayson period) – that such a risk-taking and surreal creative team was picked to spearhead the post-return era is a testament to O'Neil's Bat-genius – but that affection source doesn’t change the truth that each panel is a distillation of everything I love about the character. Thank you Tyche; applause, applause, applause.