The Further Adventures of Batman Volume 2: Featuring the Penguin

The Further Adventures of Batman #2

by Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Contributor), Steve Rasnic Tem (Contributor)

Book by Greenberg, Martin H.

Genres: Batman, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Comics, Superheroes, Dc Comics

425 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.

For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.

Reviews

[Craig]

This is the third volume of Batman stories that Martin Greenberg edited to capitalize on the popularity of the Batman film series in the '90s. (It's actually third even though the title says second because the true second was titled The Further Adventures of the Joker.) Greenberg did a good job of selecting writers from both the science fiction and mystery genres, as well as presenting different facets of this character who'd frequently overlooked. My favorites in this one were by Nancy Collins (the only writer represented who was also particularly noted for work in comics), Max Allan Collins, Steve Rasnic Tem, and William F. Nolan. Grab your bullet-proof umbrella...

[Derek]

Quite a fun collection of stories from a long time ago. There's something about the Penguin that seems to work particularly well in prose. Good writers can get into his head and present him with a clarity that can be tough to achieve in the comics, where readers are naturally distracted by his somewhat absurd appearance and mannerisms.

There can be surprising depth to the character of Oswald Cobblepot and these stories, for the most part, demonstrate that.

[Exanimis]

I had the feeling that these were rejected stories while reading this, as if each story had something that kept it from being published in the comics.

[Michael]

The Penguin has always seemed to be a dumb bad guy to me.
This book proves me wrong.
The book looks at The Penguin as not just smart, but also a nearly worthy foe.
Stories that stand out are "Fat Tuesday", "Brothers", "Robber's Roost",
"Vulture: A tale of the penguin", "Reformed", "Going Straight", and one where abused and homeless children are vanishing off the streets...but why would the penguin care?
We even look into Penguin's troubled past, when he seems to be killing off old members of a gang that used to bully and torment him for years.

Give it a read, it's better than you'd think.

[Liriope]

It's been years since I read this, but I remember the stories being pretty good (and I wasn't even a Batman fan yet x3)

[Kevinjwoods]

Interesting but too often follows the pattern of The Penguin escapes/released from jail, appears to be going straight, Batman suspects otherwise and is proved right.