Tales of the Batman: Don Newton

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #153, 156, 165

by Don Newton

For the first time, DC Comics collects the moody Batman stories drawn by comics legend Don Newton! In these tales, Batman revisits the site of his origin story in “The Curse of Crime Alley,” takes on Maxie Zeus, a crime lord who believes himself to be a god, and wages an epic war on the League of Assassins.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Don Newton was an American comics artist. During his career, he worked for a number of comic book publishers including Charlton Comics, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics. He is best known for his work on The Phantom, Aquaman, and Batman. Newton also drew several Captain Marvel/Marvel Family stories and was a fan of the character having studied under Captain Marvel co-creator C. C. Beck.

Reviews

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

DC knows that Batman comics sell, and so they have been doing some repackaging of classic Batman material over the past few years, highlighting various creators in their own separate volumes. Don Newton is probably not so well known to comics fans today, unless they are interested in Batman comics from the late 70s and early 80s. Newton started off at Charlton Comics, where he was mostly known for drawing the Phantom, then got his break at DC where he was the artist on the revival of the New Gods, some Aquaman stories in World's Finest, some mystery tales, Star Hunters, as well as a long running Shazam! strip. It was his Batman stories, however, that allowed Newton to shine the most.

This collection spans the late 70s and early 80s and features Newton's work on Detective Comics with a few stories from Batman and The Brave and the Bold thrown in also. Written mostly by Denny O'Neil, other writers include Cary Burkett, Bob Rozakis, Michael Fleisher, and Marv Wolfman. Newton's Batman is definitely influenced by Neal Adams, and Newton had a penchant for illustrating great fight scenes. There is a fluidity to the figures on the page. You can feel their kinetic energy as Batman beats up all sort of bad guys.

The stories themselves are pretty decent. Newton co-created Maxie Zeus, and there are a number of stories with him here. Additionally, O'Neil penned a running conflict with the League of Assassins, which also featured Ra's Al Ghul and the Bronze Tiger. This story starts off with the rather half-assed murder of the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane, who was running a circus. She had just been featured in Batman Family and Freedom Fighters alongside Batgirl, but here she has a few panels with Bruce Wayne then is killed off-panel. Her murder becomes a motivation for Batman to deal with the League, but it's kinda sad Batwoman didn't get a better send off.

Other stories are rather typical Bronze ear Batman stuff. These take place before Frank Miller got his hands on Batman and ruined him, making him cheerless and almost psychotic. This Batman is capable of making a joke and of having a good relationship with Alfred, Batgirl, and Commissioner Gordon. None of the gruffness that seems to be a hallmark of the modern Caped Crusader. This volume includes The Riddler and a few minor villains, along with some murder mysteries. I remember reading most of these as a kid, especially the one tale where Batgirl is almost killed and momentarily retires. The last line in that story is still imprinted on my brain 36 years later.

Don Newton did minimal work at Marvel, but didn't seem to have a good experience there. His last assignment was to be the new artist on Infinity, Inc., the team of children of the Justice Society of America (this was pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths). Unfortunately, just 3 issues in, Newton suffered a massive heart attack and died at the age of 49. There is enough Batman material for at least another volume of his Batman stories, so I do hope DC gets around to reprinting those someday. Newton's art for the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backups have already been reprinted (including the first appearance of Ch'p), and I really hope to see all of his Shazam! art collected as well. From all accounts, Don Newton was a great guy and a hard working artist. It's a shame he didn't have a longer career, and that he's not such a common name today. His art really helped define the last days of the Bronze Era Batman.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was good enough for me to read it in one sitting, and seeing as it's a thick book, that should count for something. I didn't know Don Newton beforehand, so this collection was perfect. The stories are fun, and even though they are a product of their era, they still hold up pretty well today. They are also perfectly acceptable reading for younger readers, which is always a plus.

Also, for some odd reason, DC Comics did not include the covers to the issues collected in this volume.

[Kyle Garret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Newton had a style not unlike Neal Adams, but also reminiscent of classic EC artists like Al Feldstein and Jack Kamen. In some ways, his work is overshadowed by the better known Bat-artists of the time, like the aforementioned Adams, Gene Colon, and Marshall Rogers.

The stories here are interesting, but not entirely good. Denny O'Neil wrote the bulk of them and it's easy to forget that, despite writing some all time classic Batman stories, O'Neil was cranking out a bunch of these over a long period of time. In other words, they're not all going to be gems.

What really stuck out was the fact that O'Neil avoids the big name Batman villains, aside from Ra's Al Ghul (and one issue with the Riddler). Maxie Zeus gets a lot of attention, as does the League of Assassins.

My big complaint about this collection is that DC, for some strange reason, decided not to include the covers. Part of the appeal of these old stories are the hyperbolic covers. I suppose Newton didn't draw them, but it still would have been nice to get some context.

All in all, though, a nice collection by an underrated Batman artist.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Newton is a relatively unknown Batman these days, but he was quite prolific drawing the character in the early 80s. His art is particularly fluid and expressive with a knack for well choreographed fight scenes and unique character design that falls somewhere between realism and caricature.

The stories in this volume are hit and miss, falling more on the hit side. Taken from the years 1979-1980 they're perfect examples of the early bronze age Batman. Not the gritty sociopath of Miller and his lesser imitators, nor the goofy camp of the silver age, this Batman is portrayed as a fallible human at the peak of his conditioning that takes as many punches as it gives, and remains grounded in dark, but believable, crime stories.

I highly recommend this collection to Batman fans interested in a version of the character mostly overlooked in the last 30-odd years. Particularly if they are fans of Batman: The Animated Series, which clearly draws heavily on this era for their version of the character.

[Andrew Kunka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book a higher rating, as it does contain some of my favorite Batman stories, but there are a few turkeys in here, and Newton was occasionally saddled with a bad inker (Dan Adkins seems to be the best suited to his style). The stories by Denny O'Neil that feature Maxie Zeus and Ra's al Ghul are classics that have long needed reprinting. And Gerry Conway's "A Bad Night in Baja," which closes the collection, is a nice homage to The Spirit. Don Newton was a great Batman artist: his fight scenes are well-choreographed and dynamic, and he drew Batman with a realistic, athletic physicality. Batman gets injured a surprising amount in these stories, and Newton was effective at depicting Batman struggling through the pain and finishing the job.
I hope the "Vol. 1" in this title means that more collections are on the way--some of the later collaborations with Gerry Conway are really good.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THIS is a proper reprint collection! Hardcover, thick glossy paper, and vibrant colors that accentuate the artwork of a master artist who was taken from us far, far too soon.

Don Newton is right up there with Jim Aparo and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez in the pantheon of truly good DC Comics artists from the seventies and eighties. Newton's pencils straddle that line between cartoons and photo-realism, never forgetting the boldness that is needed for comic book art.

This volume collects a big chunk of his work on Batman, with a few issues of the main title, a trio of tales from Brave and the Bold, and a mess of storylines from Detective Comics, with the Maxie Zeus and League of Assassins stories represented completely.

Here's to hoping that DC comes out with a similar volume of Don Newton's work on Shazam in World's Finest Comics!

Definitely recommended!

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

These artist-centric collections are a hit or miss affair, often not reading well at all. Fortunately Don Newton did a consistent run on Detective Comics, giving us a nice slab of latter day Bronze Age goodness. Aside from the colossal blunder of inserting Batman #328 in between Detective Comics #494 and 495, a two-parter with a cliffhanger no less, this reads just fine. If you like late '70s/turn of the '80s superhero comic books then you will like this. Those expecting the torture porn, boobies, and/or swearing found in many modern superhero comics will be disappointed.

Don Newton's artwork is the focus of this book, and I was completely unfamiliar with his work prior to reading it. He has solid storytelling abilities and clear layouts, sometimes looking like early Frank Miller. In other words, slightly polished, slightly rough-edged but solid work. Nothing I would call great. Was Newton a Batman fan favorite or something? I did a few minutes worth of research and learned that he passed away at the relatively young age of 49.

The Bob Rozakis-penned stories suck, but the Denny O'Neil, Marv Wolfman, and Michale Fleisher ones are of course solid and well written. The Curse Of Crime Alley from Detective Comics #483 is one that really works. In that story, Batman returns to the once-fashionable neighborhood where his parents were gunned down in front of him as a child. He returns once a year on the anniversary of their death to visit Leslie Thompkins, the woman who came to his aid when his parents were shot. While there he gives a beat down to the vermin who have turned this once nice area into a ghetto and stumbles upon a bigger scheme: Mister Zeus, a crime lord with delusions of grandeur. That's actually an understatement. He believes that he is a Greek God, and his delusions prove amusing. He goes on to plague Batman (I refuse to use the term “Bats”, as it sounds retarded) for several issues afterward. Great, highly entertaining stuff.

Along the way we have other great stories, like the ones where Batman fights General Scarr, the Riddler, the Crime Doctor, and sort of teams up with the Man-Bat. One thing that I really appreciate as an adult but would have probably hated as a kid is that Batman is a normal human in Olympic-level shape with gadgets who relies on his brain to help when he is physically outclassed. I was a Marvel kid and thumbed my nose up at the Distinguished Competition, so I read these books free from nostalgia or other emotional involvement with the characters.

My favorite story in this book is Murder On The Mystery Ship from Detective Comics #496. There is a party aboard a cruise ship sponsored by John Carlinger (not Carpenter, see?) honoring the legends of Horror films. Basil Karlo (not Boris Karloff) was the greatest of them all, until his mind snapped when they were remaking a movie with a role he was famous for without him. He assumed his recent role of Clayface in real life and went on a killing spree. This origin story occurred way back in Detective Comics #40 in 1940 but is referenced here. He is now residing in Arkham Asylum when he reads the news of this theme cruise honoring the legends of the industry. Enraged that they didn't even invite him, he kills the nurse who came to administer his medication and escapes, finding his way to the ship. There's a really cool twist ending that I am not about to spoil for you. DC Comics seem to be darker and have a lot more murder in them than Marvel did at this time. I say this not as a pro or con, merely making an observation.

While I have severe reservations about picking up the theoretical Volume 2 based on the subpar production values of this book (scroll down), I probably will pick it up if it ever comes to fruition since this was a decent read.

There are no issue covers included in this book. At all. When DC does an artist-centric collection, they make sure that nothing that the artist did not do was included, issue covers as proper chapter markers be damned! Of course, using this philosophy DC should have blacked out all of the word balloons, since Don Newton didn't write those, either.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a great Batman fan, I should like him a lot more than I actually do but there is something about him that just doesn't pull me into his stories. This doesn't stop me buying and enjoying Batman tales at various times. I picked this up really cheap because I remembered liking Newton's art.

This is a collection of average tales from the streets of Gotham. They are not bad by any stretch but they also will never be considered classics either. Though I have to say I do really like the character of Maxie Zeus, someone I had never heard of before.

My biggest problem with this collection though is the strange arrangement of some of the issues. A couple of times we get a cliffhanger story in Detective Comics only to then jump into a short story from Batman before coming back to the second part of the Detective story. I can see that DC were trying to put them in the order they were originally printed but would it really matter that much?

Still it is a minor complaint and I did enjoy some of these stories.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle of the road rating for me. I remember many of these stories from back in the day when I collected the titles they came from. I was never a huge Newton art fan - his work reminds me a lot of Gene Colan.

[Robert Kimberlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection. Some really good writing and the art was great. Don Newton was marvelous. I believe Dan Adkins was his best inker but Bob Smith and Frank Chiaramonte and Dave Hunt were good too.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d never heard of Don Newton before. But it turns out he drew dozens of Batman comics during the 70s and 80s, on just about every title: Detective Comics, Batman, Brave and the Bold, Batman Family. Like the equally reliable Jim Aparo, Newton’s art is great: fluid panels, dramatic action, emotional facial expressions. This book, collecting his first 22 Batman issues, is a good showcase for his art. And the stories themselves are decent.

Some notable issues are collected here. Debuting in Detective Comics 483 is the delusional criminal mastermind Maxie Zeus. He’s a mobster who believes himself to be the literal god Zeus: he dresses like him, calls his henchmen by Greek names, and won’t fight Batman himself because “mortals are beneath him.” All told, he has a fetish for Greek mythology (he was a former Greek professor, after all). I like him as a villain, but feel he’s not campy enough, unlike fellow professor-gone-mad, King Tut. In any event, Maxie makes four appearances, in which he attempts to carry out a series of lofty crimes.

This book also collects three League of Assassins-centric issues, previously seen in Tales of the Demon. Bronze Tiger, Kathy Kane (the original Batwoman, who dies in Detective 485), Sensei, Ra’s al Ghul, and Talia all show up. The action in these issues is stellar, thanks to Newton’s tight pacing and paneling. The two fights between Batman and Bronze Tiger are particularly exciting, and I like the ending to Detective 490 which deepens Batman and Talia’s relationship.

The rest of the issues are fine, if unmemorable. Batman teams up with Red Tornado and Doctor Fate to solve a pair of Gotham-centric conspiracies, visits Leslie Tompkins in Crime Alley, and stops such baddies as Riddler, Crime Doctor, and Golden Age Clayface. So, on balance, not a bad collection. The stories offer little in the way of surprise, but Newton’s art carries them through.

Stray observations:

Jim and Barbara Gordon take center stage in respective stories. “A Tale of Times Past” sees the Commissioner encountering an acquaintance from his early GCPD days. In a two-parter from Detective 492, Barbara considers retiring her cape and cowl after narrowly escaping death as Batgirl. She doesn’t, of course, and goes out to help Batman escape the military-obsessed crime lord, General Scarr.

There’s one moment in Detective 492 that stood out to me. Jim is talking to Barbara about Batman – his determination, his will. His speech is superimposed with Batman taking out criminals. It’s like a big movie moment, with rising music and rising tension; Newton’s layouts and framing really elevate the power in Gordon’s words.

My favorite quote, from Commissioner Gordon, also comes from this issue: “I wonder sometimes if his mask is only a defense against becoming involved with people. I’ve known him for years, yet sometimes I think I don’t know him at all.”

[Chris W · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Enjoyable collection of stories starring Batman and lesser villains. Don Newton is a great article who excels at the fight scenes, making Batman look like a truly proficient martial artist. Also the absence of major villains makes it refreshing to read. The writers don't rely on Joker, Scarecrow, Two Face, Or Penguin for the billionth time. Rather the League of Assassins takes center stage, Bronze Tiger, Maxie Zeus and small villains get their shot at Batman. Also Batman isnt all brooding, he does have some humor and wit to him and even shows a softer side with one of the villain's daughter which is also refreshing to see.
Overall good collection of stories, not the best but definitely enjoyable.