The 80s were a very mixed bag for me. They started off great with Wein and Simonson's "Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker" and then went downhill fast. Too much of the decade was dominated by Doug Moench's scripts and art by guys like Gene Colan and Tom Mandrake, neither of which appeal to me. Batman turned into a vampire, lauched an endless series of BORING romances with Selina Kyle, Vicki Vale and Nocturna and in just about every respect became what Frank Miller termed "fat and happy," a too-comfortable, generic superhero type who desperately needed the Dark Knight series as a kick in the pants.
As a huge fan of Doug Moench's incredible MASTER OF KUNG FU, I do seriously agree with you about his later works...it was like he made a conscious decision not to ever be excellent ever again. Of all the seventies Marvel writers (Mantlo, Englehart, Wolfman) his later stuff was the worst.
Though I have to disagree with you about how stylish Gene Colan's art was; he brought the old TOMB OF DRACULA spit and polish atmosphere to the Bat-books, and Englehart and Rogers showed that Batman is well off with atmosphere.
As for Jim Starlin...a serial killer foe like Abattoir (comics increase your WORD POWER!) would be interesting provided he was given a decent story, preferably one involving the Bat-Copter. He lacks the panache of someone like Signalman, but both stories have a different focus, and there was something neat about the idea of a crime where a man eats the hearts of a thousand white doves (TEMPLE OF DOOM, eat your heart out).
Whaaa? I didn't cuss at all, actually this message board is rigged so that cuss words are automaticlly censored, if it misses any, I will delete them when I catch them, tell your dad that this is a family site and proud of it! All the words that I used in that post could be use in any Disney cartoon, so relax. You have nothing to worry about.
Listen to this guy, squirt. Man, does the language thing ever get my goat. Like Red Foxx, I have a filthy soul.
Anyway, complaining about language...on the
internet? I thought the internet was one gigantic 24/7 German Sex Club.