*DC: While it’s not strictly accurate to say that this game-changing issue was solely responsible for the transition to the ‘Dark Knight’ iteration of Batman – he had been becoming more serious in the preceding few years – this definitely distilled all the elements which would become the template for the Batman as we now know him. By Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, this tense murder mystery draws the reader in from the stunning cover, and keeps the tension mounted high as the Joker, stripped of the lingering miasma of the TV series, transformed from a buffoon into once again a top-ranking menace. One of the best comics of the 1970s, by almost everyone’s assessment – even folks who think both the Joker and the Batman are horrendously overrated (writer raises hand) think this one’s a cracker! This mid-grade pence-stamped copy has nice colour and gloss. The pence stamp is placed, as it always inevitably is, over the playing card. Staples are tight and firm, pages are off-white to cream. There is a touch of white spine where the cover is printed slightly to the right of centre (a printing effect rather than wear), and a 7 cm colour-breaking vertical crease right by the spine, probably from reading.
PICTURED: BATMAN #251 VG+ p £215