DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories Vol. 2 by Bill Finger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


After the previous Superman dominated volume of "Imaginary stories," this book returns with a set of stories that focus exclusively on Batman, playing on the popularity of that character. These stories come without an Introduction and the stories are far below the best of the previous book.

The book kicks off with a 1959 story, "The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman." It's an 8 page piece of early Silver Age fluff about Dick Grayson marrying Batwoman Kathy Kane and it being his downfall.

We then turn to Alfred's stories from 1960-64 which take up a little less than half the book. Essentially the comic posited that the Silver Age Alfred wrote Batman fanfiction imagining what the future held for the Caped Crusader. A better Alfred story appeared in the previous volume. This volume collects the tales of the Second Batman and Robin team led by Dick Grayson and with Bruce Wayne, Jr. as Robin. The team changed the costumes to illustrate they were a different a Batman and Robin team by adding the Roman numeral "II" to the costume because why should anyone expect the artists to come up with an original costume. The original Batman has retired but has to keep unretiring himself because the new team is hapless and gets themselves into a predictament or once they're out of town. Eventually Betty Kane, Kathy's niece and the first Batgirl becomes the Second Batwoman, so Alfred wasn't the most imaginative fanfiction writer. The most enjoyable of these stories was, "The Son of Joker" which has the Joker pretending to retire to a life of gardening and both Batmans buy it. This whole series would later be the inspiration for Superman-Batman Generations by John Byrne, although he made sure to make it depressing rather than amusingly goofy.

A more interesting What If comes from World's Finest #155 which imagines a world where Superman and Batman are enemies because Bruce Wayne believes Superman killed his father. It's got some interesting twist and is a fairly good tale.

Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #89 imagines Bruce Wayne marrying Lois Lane and saving the whole secret identity revelation until after the wedding, though he did reveal it sooner than the Flash did in his real wedding. This story is okay, fun, and pretty typical for Lois Lane.

The last story in the book is from the late 1970s, "The Last Batman Story?-" is set in a near future and tells of a final case for Batman. The story is actually a great mystery with some wonderful sci-fi elements. It also features a nicely designed Robin suit that really does work for an adult Robin and makes him look like a serious superhero in his own right. My only complaint is the ending was really tacked on to make it "the last Batman case." Very little hinted that Batman was close to the point and it seemed a contrivance. So that part didn't live up to expectations, but this is still very good.

Overall, the stories are okay and inoffensive. The Silver age stuff is silly and goofy but I enjoyed it for the most part. Still, it doesn't measure to the prior volume. And it feels less like a true second "greatest stories" and more like an attempt to sell books based on Batman's current popular standing.



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