Azrael first appeared in the 1992 series Batman: Sword of Azrael as Jean-Paul Valley.
He then became a supporting character in the monthly Batman titles, eventually taking over the role of Batman through the “Knightfall,” “Knightquest,” and “KnightsEnd” story arcs. One of the creators, Denny O’Neil, admitted to having difficulties with Azrael’s transition from villain to hero: “If I’d known he was to become a monthly character, I might have set him up differently … The problem is that I had to turn a bad guy into a real hero, not just an anti-hero or lead. It’s possible to do that, but it’s difficult to retain the original characterization. You almost have to change his personality.”
Based on Batman: The Animated Series, the first series ran for 36 issues, 2 annuals, and 3 specials (Mad Love and Holiday Special, which were both adapted into episodes for The New Batman Adventures, plus an adaptation of the Batman: Mask of the Phantasm movie). The first annual introduces Roxy Rocket, who would later appear in The New Batman Adventures episode “The Ultimate Thrill” and the Superman: The Animated Series episode “Knight Time”. Most of the issues were written by Kelley Puckett, and illustrated by Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett, though Ty Templeton did the writing and art on a few issues. Mad Love was written by Paul Dini and illustrated by Bruce Timm, while the holiday special was written and illustrated by a number of creative people who had worked on the animated series, including Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Glen Murakami, Dan Riba, and Kevin Altieri.
DC Comics ended the DC Rebirth branding in December 2017, opting to include everything under a larger DC Universe banner and naming. The continuity established by DC Rebirth continues across DC’s comic book titles, including volume 1 of Detective Comics and volume 3 of Batman.
Detective Comics #1 vol. 2 (Nov. 2011) is the relaunch of Detective Comics. Story by Tony Daniel; art by Tony Daniel and Ryan Winn. The first issue of the relaunched Detective Comics has received six printings, second only to the relaunched Justice League which had seven printings.The series seventh issue was also DC Comic’s sixth highest selling digital comic, ranking above many other series in the Batman category.Scott West of Sciencefiction.com gave the series’ third arc a positive review, stating that “After last month’s disappointing ‘Night of the Owls’ tie-in issue, it’s nice to see ‘Detective Comics’ getting back to where it should be… good detective stories.”The relaunched Detective Comics received the award for “Best Series” at the 2012 Stan Lee Awards. The series’ first collected edition would reach the number one spot on The New York Times Best Seller list in the category of “Hardcover Graphic Books”.
World’s Finest featured Superman and Batman team-ups until issue #197. Noted Batman artist Neal Adams first drew the character in an interior story in “The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads” in issue #175 (May 1968). The title briefly featured Superman teaming with heroes other than Batman in the early 1970s beginning with issue #198 (November 1970). That issue featured the first part of a two-issue team-up with the Flash. The series reverted to Superman and Batman team-ups after issue #214, initially with a unique twist, featuring the children they might one day have, Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. These characters, billed as the Super-Sons, were co-created by writer Bob Haney and artist Dick Dillin in issue #215 (January 1973).
DC Special Series was an umbrella title for one-shots and special issues published by DC Comics between 1977 and 1981. Each issue featured a different character and was often in a different format than the issue before it. DC Special Series was published in four different formats: Dollar Comics, 48 page giants, digests, and treasury editions. Neither the umbrella title nor the numbering system appear on the cover; the title “DC Special Series” appeared only on the first page in the indicia. Most issues featured new material, but eight issues were reprints of previously published material.
DC Special Series #7 FN+ $6
DC Special Series #8 FN-VF $10
DC Special Series #15 -Batman Spectacular F-VF $19
Superman/Batman was a monthly series published by DC Comics that features the publisher’s two most popular characters: Superman and Batman. Superman/Batman premiered in August 2003 and was an update of the previous series, World’s Finest Comics, in which Superman and Batman regularly joined forces.
Superman/Batman explored the camaraderie, antagonism, and friendship between its titular characters. Jeph Loeb, the series’ first writer, introduced a dual-narrator technique to present the characters’ often opposing viewpoints and estimations of each other, which subsequent series writers have maintained. Before the 1985 limited seriesCrisis on Infinite Earths, the two iconic characters were depicted as the best of friends. Frank Miller‘s landmark series The Dark Knight Returns was the first DC story that depicts the heroes at odds with each other, as opposed to pre-Crisis incarnations. This dynamic became DC Universecanon with John Byrne‘s The Man of Steel, a Superman reboot published in 1986.
Legends of the Dark Knight 100-Page Super Spectacular was an ongoing comic book featuring Batman stories by many different creative teams. All the stories were intended to be “continuity free” and do not fit into the canon of any of the mainstream DC universes (Prime Earth, New Earth, Earth-One or Earth-Two). This series was digital first, meaning the stories were first available online, and then later published on paper in this series.
Legends of the Dark Knight 100 Page Super Spectacular #2 NM $10
EHT Comics 