The 1970's is seen as a decade of paramount importance for the Caped Crusader, with writer Denny O'Neill and artist Neal Adams' interpretation of the character generally being credited with rescuing Batman from 1960's camp and restoring him to the status as the dark creature of the night we know today. Their run included the creation of Ra's al Ghul and the classic Joker story 'The Joker's Five Way Revenge' in 1973. These stories are rightfully held up as definitive but could lead many to believe that the '70's was entirely O'Neill and Adams territory, which isn't true. In 1977, writer Steve Englehart began a run on Detective Comics that is also seen as the 'definitive' Batman. Teamed with artist Marshall Rogers for #471 - 476, Englehart delivered superior Batman stories featuring villains such as the Penguin, Deadshot, Hugo Strange and a new creation, crime boss Rupert Thorne and also one of Batman's most famous love interests, Silver St. Cloud. #475 also gave us the classic Joker story 'The Laughing Fish' and even though Englehart and Rogers were only teamed for six issues in total, their influence on Batman creators since far outweighs the small output of their run. Englehart actually wrote two other issues before Rogers joined him, and Rogers pencilled three more after Englehart left, but all of these stories have been collected as 'Strange Apparitions'. These stories are severely underrated, an indication of which is that the trade paperback has been out of print for a number of years, meaning that it now costs a pretty penny to buy a copy (let alone trying to track down the single issues). DC would never let Year One go out of print for example, and yet many observers credit Strange Apparitions with similar importance. It's influence is clear to see in the Batman animated series, which directly adapted The Laughing Fish for one episode, and featured Rupert Thorne as it's recurring crime boss, not Carmine Falcone from Year One. Englehart also asserts that Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie owes a debt to his stories and says that he was brought in to write a treatment for the script whenever two other writers were floundering. Regardless of this, Strange Apparitions is clearly one of the most important, yet underrated, Batman stories ever. What other classic, yet forgotten, Batman stories have we left out? Sound off in the comments below!
