Collecting Batman #432-439, #443-444 and Batman Annual #13.

Batman #432 is written by Christopher Priest (as James Owsley) and illustrated by Jim Aparo. Batman teams-up with a private investigator to find a ten-year-old boy kidnapped seven years prior.

I never know that James Owsley/Christopher Priest ever wrote for DC. To tell you the truth, all I really know about him is that he had a well-received run on Black Panther for Marvel and used to be editor of the Spider-Man books until he was fired due to behind the scenes politics. Any way, this was an okay issue. I guess it showed that Batman doesn't always have to fight brightly dressed super-villains.

The story from Batman Annual #13 is written by Christopher Priest (as James Owsley) and illustrated by Michael Bair. When evidence is unearthed that could exonerate a man on death row, Batman is forced to break Two-Face out of Arkham Asylum to solve the crime.

I always like stories when heroes are forced to team-up with villains. Two-Face is a great villain for this story because he used to be good friends with Batman back when Harvey Dent was still District Attorney. Batman seems to be breaking the law a lot in these past two issues as well. First it was breaking in an stealing the FBI's files, now he is busting Two-Face out of Arkham so they can have a buddy cop adventure together. There is a suggestion that Batman's mind hasn't been in the right place since Jason Todd was killed, so maybe that has something to do with his willingness to break the law.

Batman #433 is written by John Byrne and illustrated by Jim Aparo. Police officers investigate a tip and find a dying Batman strung up as if crucified. Batman's enemies and allies alike try to adjust to the news that Batman is dead.

It was good to see John Byrne writing Batman. Everybody kows him for his reinvention of Superman and a run on Wonder Woman, but it was good to see him do some work on the one remaining member of DC's Trinity. I wonder if this was mean to be a fill-in. It seemed like Batman didn't have a regular writer round about this time. Or writers didn't stick around for long, the did one story arc and then moved on to something else. It was a pity that Byrne wasn't on art, but Jim Aparo makes a fine consolation. He's one of my favourite Batman artists after all.

Batman #434 is written by John Byrne and illustrated by Jim Aparo. With the real Batman on a case in Paris, the bodies of men dressed in Batman costumes continue to pile up.

Now this is an interesting mystery. Why is somebody killing men dressed as Batman? It's up to Commissioner Gordon to solve the murders as the real Batman is elsewhere. Somebody is sending letters to the top people in various fields and getting them to dress up as Batman before bumping them off. The trail leads Gordon to Bruce Wayne, but instead of implicating him of the murders, it turns out that Bruce is the next target. Of course, Bruce can't get out and investigate as Batman because the police are intent on protecting him.

Batman #435 is written by John Byrne and illustrated by Jim Aparo. Batman tries to discover the identity of the killer murdering people dressed in Batman costumes before the body count increases any more.

It turns out that the murdered men all had a link to Bruce Wayne. They all trained Bruce when he was preparing to become Batman. The killer is one of those same experts, the one that was seemingly blown up, but he faked his death. He recognised Batman using one of his explosive techniques and became paranoid that Batman's enemies would target him to get at Batman.

Batman #436 is written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Pat Broderick. Somebody is eliminating Gotham's mob bosses, and Batman keeps arriving too late to stop the murderers. Meanwhile, Tony Zucco (the man who killed Dick Grayson's parents) is up for parole.

These issues are part of the Batman: Year Three story line. As you can tell by the prominence of Tony Zucco, this story line is all about Dick Grayson becoming Robin. Dick comes back to Gotham because he is worried about Bruce since Jason Todd was killed. We get a bunch of flashbacks about Tony Zucco's early life as well as Dick's. It is also revealed that Zucco was sent to the same orphanage that Dick was before Bruce Wayne took him in. During one of the flashbacks there is an appearance from a little boy called Tim. I'm not sure if Marv Wolfman planned for this to be Tim Drake all along, but I still think it's a neat bit of foreshadowing.

Batman #437 is written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Pat Broderick. Nightwing arrives back in Gotham after hearing that Batman may be losing his mind. However, Batman may not be willing to talk.

Batman gets caught in an explosion meant for one of the mobsters, but Nightwing is there to help dig him out. Batman isn't exactly grateful for the help. I don't remember what caused Bruce and Dick to part on such bad terms, but you would have though he would be a bit more grateful for his life being saved. Things seem to be even worse back home. Bruce has taken down all of Jason Todd's pictures and seems to be in denial about Jason's death.

Batman #438 is written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Pat Broderick. Batman and Nightwing separately discover that Tony Zucco is getting paroled and suspect that he is connected to the mob killings.

Batman can't be reasoned with and Nightwing is full of anger and resentment over it. Dick still doesn't know that the man responsible for the deaths of the murders is going free and Alfred is forced to take care of things himself. I don't know whether I like the idea of Alfred planning to kill Tony Zucco or not. I don't have any problem with Alfred kicking butt, I love it when he proves that he is more than just a butler, but I'm not sure that it involves him killing.

Batman #439 is written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Pat Broderick. When Tony Zucco is killed, Gotham's criminals fall over themselves to get their hands on a book that contains incriminating evidence about their criminal activities.

Zucco is using his book to blackmail all the other mob families. They can't do anything against him in case he leaks information about their criminal activities. He is also the one responsible for wiping out the top-level monsters so he can take over the Gotham underworld. It turns out that Zucco hid the book in the old orphanage where he was sent to. The orphanage is due to be torn down and now all the criminals are scrabbling to find the book.

There is a gap in the issues collected here as Batman #440-442 were part of the A Lonely Place of Dying storyline that crossed-over with New Titans. Those issues were collected in the A Death in the Family trade. The storyline introduced Tim Drake, who would go on to become Robin after the death of Jason Todd.

Batman #443 is written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Jim Aparo. Batman takes on a criminal mastermind named Crimesmith, who plans robberies for other criminals to commit.

Tim Drake is still in this issue, but he hasn't become Robin yet. Of course, he can't be Robin yet because his parents are still alive. The Drakes are away a lot and Tim ends up staying over at Wayne Manor any way. This story isn't about Tim though, it's about this Crimesmith guy. I guess the common criminals in Gotham are so dumb that they need somebody else to plan crimes for them. Either that or become henchmen for Batman's rogues gallery and there's no guarantee that they would ever survive a job like that seeing how fond Batman's villains are of killing henchmen.

Batman #444 is written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Jim Aparo. Batman battles through the Crimesmith's booby-trapped lair to stop the villain's latest scheme.

The Crimesmith deals with squealers quite harshly. He has all of the criminals he plans crimes for implanted with some sort of device that burns them from the inside. There is also a subplot about Wayne Technologies losing a government contract because of allegations of Bruce Wayne being a spy. I don't remember seeing anything like that happening in any past issues, so maybe it happened in an issue of Detective Comics or similar. I don't know what other Batman comics there were at this time. I am a sucker for death-traps, so it was a joy to see the Crimesmith's toys, from phosphorus mines in the floor to laser traps.

This collection also includes profiles on Batman, the three Robins (Dick, Jason, Tim), Alfred, Commissioner and Barbara Gordon, and Vicki Vale. The information on most of the people featured was pretty standard, but it was nice to learn more about Vicki Vale. It's a pity there wasn't more information about Batman's other love interests.

This was an okay collection of stories. They weren't particularly boring, but I doubt they will stay long in anybody's memory after they have been read. I don't know if the Batman: Year Three offered anything new to Dick Grayson's origin story. Maybe the shared history he had with the man who killed his parents? It wasn't quite as much of a drastic reinvention of an original as Batman: Year One was.

My rating: 3 stars.

Next time: Captain Marvel- Monica Rambeau