Batman: 80 Greatest Ever Moments

54. Babs Makes Her Comeback - Oracle: Year One

Oracle Year One
DC Comics

Although Barbara Gordon didn't make her post-Killing Joke comeback within the pages of Batman (readers would have to follow Suicide Squad to witness the pleasure of seeing it first hand), come the late nineties and she was once again an integral part of Batman's supporting cast.

Oracle: Year One aimed to bridge the gap between TKJ and Babs' return to the superhero community, and its' one well worth reading.

[EP]

53. Batman Faces The Ripper - Gotham By Gaslight

Gotham By Gaslight
DC Comics

Before Hellboy entered the scene in 1993, writer and artist Mike Mignola was busy at work over at DC Comics. He did the covers for A Death in the Family, and pencilled the entirety of Jim Starlin's Cosmic Odyssey, where he got to handle an all-time great Batman moment where the character punched a New God square in the jaw.

However - and this is even when taking into account the brilliant Batman/Hellboy crossover comic too - Mignola's best Batman moment has to be Gotham by Gaslight.

Mignola and Brian Augustyn's Elseworlds tale brings Batman to the nineteenth century in the wake of the Whitechapel Murders. Jack the Ripper, the infamous figure responsible for the killings, has seemingly relocated to Gotham, and it's up to Batman to track him down. It's a great story, and one of the most successful reimaginings the character has seen.

[EP]

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.

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I like my comics like I like my coffee - in huge, unquestionably unhealthy doses.