A review by librarimans
Batman: The Black Casebook by Dick Sprang, Ed Herron, Edmond Hamilton, Bill Finger, Grant Morrison, Sheldon Moldoff, Lew Sayre Schwartz

4.0

On its own this is an odd collection of vintage Batman stories. Taken from the 50s (which is often considered the forgotten age of Batman due to the sci fi nature of the stories), there is nothing obvious to connect them. However this book is more than the sum of its parts. Curated by Grant Morrison, this collection of stories is the basis for much of his run on Batman. When he set about to craft his run with the character, he did it in a way no other creator had before: he plotted it out so that every Batman story that came before him was one long continuity and actually happened to Bruce Wayne and examined how that would affect his psyche. The oddest of the stories were contained in the Black Casebook, hence the name of the collection.

If you're a casual Batman fan you can safely skip this and not miss much, but if you're a fan of Morrison's run, then this is a great supplement to better understand his motivations and inspiration.