Batman 80-Page Giant 2010 #1

Overall: As you can probably tell from the title of this post, this comic encompasses 80 pages and 7 stories, so there's really no way I can give any kind of in depth review for this comic. Instead I'll give a quick(VERY quick)rundown of each story. Story #1 stars the Joker as he butts heads with a TV psychiatrist who was called in to diagnose Joker's condition(or lack thereof). Story #2 deals with the Riddler being blackmailed into stealing a statue from a heavily guarded museum, while story #3 is about the Calendar Man and gives some insight into what turned him into a villain. The forth story deals with the Gotham City equivalent of the Mythbusters, who are searching the sewers for a crocodile, but instead come face to face with Killer Croc. Story #5 is about the Scarecrow as he attempts to analyze Batman and figure out what scares/drives the Dark Knight. The sixth story is about Batman, but that's about as much as I could understand about that one... And the final story stars Humpty Dumpty who is presented with Two-Face by the Joker on Humpty's birthday and tasked with “fixing” Two-Face.

So seven stories... And you know what, with the exception of the Batman one, they were all very good to great! Let me tell you, I was expecting NOTHING from this comic. Literally nothing. Upon opening it and looking at the stories, characters and creative teams as listed in the table of contents page, I was a bit distressed when I didn't see a single writer I recognized, and a bit annoyed to see that the Calendar Man and Humpty Dumpty had received stories in this issue. But when I was done, I was left amazed! Hell, I even enjoyed the Calendar Man and Humpty Dumpty stories, and normally I hate those characters! My favorite of the bunch was either the Scarecrow story, which had Scarecrow using a new fear gas concoction to force Batman to face his greatest fear/regret/disappointment. After Bruce is tormented by the images the fear gas shows him, he finally breaks down and says that everything was all his fault, which leads to Scarecrow deducing that Bats had suffered a childhood trauma, and couldn't come to terms with it. Yes, the story ends with Scarecrow being beaten by Bats, but it leaves Scarecrow happy and almost victorious, since he had discovered a new piece of the Batman puzzle. I'm telling you, I was expecting a bunch of hastily written garbage stories, but instead I got polished, interesting and at times brilliant tales. Sure the cover price of this one was $6, but after reading it, I'd happily pay that price again with no problem. Awesome stuff.

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.This comic even has Two-Face punching the Joker in a Humpty Dumpty story! It TRULY has it all!