The Black Casebook
The Black Casebook explores history, politics, philosophy, art, and more through the lens of Batman's greatest stories. Each episode delves into the deeper themes and cultural significance of the Dark Knight's adventures. The podcast offers a unique perspective on how Batman's narratives reflect real-world issues and ideas.
Episodes
Knightfall (with Collective Action Comics)
"But, at night to Mohammed, he confessed his doubts: It will not be as we dream, when those of us who survive finally get there. Corrupt politicians have already ensconced themselves. They are waiting for us—waiting for us not as brothers but as our masters. They will use us." – As told to John Berger, "Two Recumbent Male Figures Wrestling on a Sidewalk""For a moment, he a
BONUS: Year Four Mailbag!
With three years of The Black Casebook in the books, it only seemed right that we celebrate by turning the floor over to you, my beloved listeners, for our annual mailbag episode. This one has it all: giant robots, a salute to Morrowind, how to rescue Tim Drake, Berserk Korner, and all the esoteric bullshit you can handle. And much more!Please consider supporting Palestinians through a gift to the
COMING THIS SUMMER: Knightfall
Here's a teaser for something Nat from Collective Action Comics and I have been cooking up together. This summer, we'll be releasing a bonus episode for our patrons about Knightfall, the most notorious defeat of the Caped Crusader's career. I'll be writing and performing the script, while Nat produces and adds music and ambience.It's gonna be good. See you in a month or two.
Casefile #19: Strange Apparitions
Where were you when the lights went out? Like a specter from the past, The Black Casebook returns to discuss Strange Apparitions, the seminal Bronze Age story that set the stage for the modern Batman to come. Released amid the 1977 New York blackout and the crumbling postwar consensus, Strange Apparitions is a story about what happens when the lights go out—and an entire city, cast into darkness,
Casefile #18: The Black Mirror
Let's hear it for the boys. The Black Casebook returns with a deep dive into The Black Mirror, an Oedipal tale of fathers and sons that pits Dick Grayson, now in the role of Batman, against James Gordon Jr., reimagined here as a twisted psychopath. While Dick tangles with new threats popping up across Gotham, James sets an insidious plan into motion that could permanently infect the city with his
BONUS: All-In on ABSOLUTE BATMAN
Size matters. In humble appreciation for Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta's shockingly good debut installment of Absolute Batman, we're reopening The Black Casebook for a bonus deep dive into what makes this issue work so well. True, it's a comic that dares to ask, "What if big? What if big boy?" But it's also DC's boldest attempt to resurrect that old Frank Miller magic in a decade.
Please consider
Casefile #17: Dark Knight, Dark City
The city never sleeps. The Black Casebook returns with a MEGA-sized exploration of Dark Knight, Dark City, Peter Milligan and Kieron Dwyer's underrated classic about the secret history of Bruce Wayne's hometown. Lost in the shuffle of Batman's golden age, Dark Knight, Dark City revolutionized the relationship between Batman and Gotham in the course of a thrilling three-part showdown wi
BONUS: Year Three Mailbag!
As of today, Year Two of The Black Casebook is officially in the books. Thank you to everybody for your support and your questions! I hope you enjoy this long, occasionally coherent victory lap of a Q&A, and I hope you're as excited as I am for what the next year has in store for the show.
We have a Patreon!
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram
Casefile #16: Cold Days
The trial of the century. The Black Casebook returns with a deep dive into one of the most controversial eras in Batman’s recent history: the Tom King run. The former CIA officer envisioned a Gotham without hope, protected by a man without joy; and by “Cold Days,” that man is well and truly broken. "Cold Days" sums up three years of Tom King into three issues, a confession of all the rea
BONUS: Whedon's MCU with Collective Action Comics
A birthday miracle? To celebrate my encroaching obsolescence, here's a fun chat I had with Nat from Collective Action Comics about Joss Whedon's The Avengers (as well as The Age of Ultron, unfortunately) and Mark Millar's The Ultimates. Despite their superficial differences, these Gen X texts all offer unique insights into the respective pathologies of the Bush and Obama eras.
Collecti
Casefile #15: Batman Returns
A Christmas miracle. To close out 2023, we’re taking the
plunge into the kinky, gender-bending world of Batman Returns, the strangest blockbuster ever to have a Happy Meal tie-in. After the many compromises involved in making Batman ’89, Tim Burton used his newfound freedom to take the biggest swings he could imagine—and with the help of one of the most stacked casts in any superhero movie, he end
Casefile #14: The Last Arkham
From the twisted mind of Casebook Walt! We're looking back to the early '90s and the heyday of American crime with a deep dive into "The Last Arkham," the terrific arc that introduced scarified serial killer Victor Szasz alongside a new version of Arkham Asylum. In the process, writer Alan Grant raises questions about the nature of power and madness that strike at the heart of wh
Casefile #13: The Black Glove
Let's raise the stakes. This month, we're investigating Grant Morrison's brilliant, challenging Batman run through two lesser-known stories: "The Three Ghosts of Batman" and "The Club of Heroes." Besides being incredibly entertaining, these arcs can help unlock the deeper meanings that make the Morrison run such a classic.
We have a Patreon!
You can find The Bla
Casefile #12: One Bad Day: Clayface
Hoo-ray for Hollywood. We're turning our gaze to the stars this month for One Bad Day: Clayface, which might be the best Batman comic in a decade. Essentially a super-sized Batman: The Animated Series episode, the story follows the artist formerly known as Basil Karlo as he tries to carve out a new life for himself in Tinseltown. As Clayface looks to the future, we dig into his past, excavatin
BONUS: Year Two Mailbag
I have to become...more.
Year One of The Black Casebook is a wrap! Let's celebrate a year of hard work, announce some plans for Year Two, and answer a slew of questions from Listeners Like You.
We have a Patreon!
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram @blackcasebookpod, and you can write in to blackcasebookpod@gmail.com to share any Bat-thoughts y
Casefile #11: A Death in the Family
I'm not mad, just disappointed. This month's casefile digs into one of the most notorious Batman stories out there: "A Death in the Family," which for more than 15 years marked the last appearance of the maligned second Robin, Jason Todd, courtesy of fan bloodlust. We follow the winding path of Jason's character history and Jim Starlin's Batman run to figure out whether t
Casefile #10: The Dark Knight
This is a big one, folks. What better way to kick off 2023 than with a deep dive into The Dark Knight? Christopher Nolan's take on The Empire Strikes Back captured the accelerating pace and constant anxiety of the War on Terror, all while gesturing toward--for better and for worse--the Obama era to come. There's also a really badass truck flip.
We have a Patreon!
You can find The Black Caseb
Casefile #9: Night of the Stalker/Deja Vu
It is happening again. For our last casefile of 2022, we turn to what might be, pound for pound, the two best Batman stories ever written: 1974's "Night of the Stalker," by Steve Englehart, Sal and Vin Amendola, and Dick Giordano, and its 2005 remake "Deja Vu" by the late, great Darwyn Cooke. Despite being less than 30 pages combined, these two stories contain the very essence of the Dark Knight,
Remembering Kevin Conroy
A few words on the late, great Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman and a hero in his own right.
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram @blackcasebookpod, and you can write in to blackcasebookpod@gmail.com to share any Bat-thoughts you have. We also have a Patreon.
Music by Black Plastique.
Casefile #8: Batman vs. Predator
IF IT BLEEDS, WE CAN KILL IT. For our special Halloween episode, we're taking a look at Dave Gibbons' and Andy and Adam Kubert's Batman vs. Predator in all its '90s glory, a book that--against all odds--turned out to be one of the best Batman comics of the decade.
We have a Patreon!
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram @blackcasebookpod, and you can write i
Casefile #7: Year 100
This week, we're going back to the future, as the Dark Knight wages a crusade against a fascist police state in Paul Pope's Batman: Year 100. Released in 2006, Year 100 is a window into the anxieties of the Bush years, as well as a thrilling starting point for exploring urban legends, folk heroes, and cyberpunk as methods for resisting authoritarianism. Oh, and I work some Shakespeare in there, to
Casefile #6: Batman: White Knight
Well, they can't all be winners. This time, we're covering White Knight, Sean Gordon Murphy's revisionist take on Batman and the structural nature of crime in Gotham City. In the process of carving this turkey, we explore the place of "realism" in superhero comics, along with the Freudian and Gothic trends that have been a part of Batman's story from the very beginning.
We have a Patreon!
You can
Casefile #5: The Court of Owls
The Black Casebook returns! This week, we're covering a modern classic: The Court of Owls, the debut story of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's legendary run on Batman. This casefile has everything: cosmic horror, Satanic churches, bat psychology, Arthur Schopenhauer, and more, all to parse out what the Court of Owls metaphor really means.
Patreon!
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackca
BONUS: Bat-Politics with Collective Action Comics
Way back in March, I sat down with Nat Yonce of Collective Action Comics to discuss the politics of Batman, both in specific incarnations like Year One and the Dark Knight trilogy and as an American cultural symbol. Does Batman always have to be fascist? The answer may surprise you.
It was a hoot and a half, and I hope you enjoy this Twilight Zone-style peek at a parallel universe where The
Casefile #4: The Saga of Ra's al Ghul
The Batman goes global this week as we explore the Orientalist framework supporting Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ classic, if problematic, Saga of Ra’s al Ghul. Underneath Adams’ genre-defining artwork and O’Neil’s boy’s-adventure storytelling is a West vs. East dichotomy older than the Demon's Head himself.
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram @blackcasebookpod,
Casefile #3: The Long Halloween
The Bat goes noir. This week, we're delving into one of the most iconic and tragic Batman stories ever created: Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween. We explore the historical roots, artistic method, and psychological fatalism of the book, situating it alongside L.A. Confidential and Fargo as one of the great '90s neo-noirs.
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Inst
BONUS: The Batman Returns!
Just a little old-fashioned speculatin' on where Matt Reeves and co. could go with their Batman sequel, now that it's been officially announced. Will the Court of Owls be unveiled as the power behind the throne in Gotham City? Have the scars left by Chris O'Donnell healed enough to bring Robin into this universe? Let's find out.
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagr
Casefile #2: The Batman
Time to give Matt Reeves his flowers. This week, we're diving into the characters, themes, and cinematic style of The Batman (2022), which might be the Caped Crusader's finest live-action outing.
ALSO: You can listen to my interview with Collective Action Comics about the politics of Batman by joining the CAC Discord server here.
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and
Casefile #1: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
Hey, you gotta start somewhere. One of the most controversial and challenging stories in the Dark Knight's canon, Arkham Asylum is also one of the most important. Batman's all-time bad trip is a different kind of Year One, a skeleton key of ideas that can unlock new meanings in every other Batman story.
You can find The Black Casebook on Twitter @blackcasebook and Instagram @blackcasebookpod, and
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