Editor's Desk 
With a new, improved Facsimile Edition out this week, we look back at what readers thought in 1973…
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UPDATED 9/7/26: The Batman #251 Facsimile Edition is being re-released this week. Perfect time to reprint this piece, which first ran in November 2020. Plus, also hit up BATMAN #251: Towering Evidence the Bronze Age Is the True Golden Age. Dig it! — Dan
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Hey, we all know that 1973’s Batman #251 — The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge! by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams — is an outright classic and one of the greatest Batman stories ever. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best single issue in the Caped Crusader’s history — and I’m not alone in thinking that.
But it’s always fascinating to see what contemporary readers thought about a comic that has been lionized for nearly 50 years.
Well, jump ahead to Batman #254 and you’ll see what the fuss was about when the Clown Prince of Crime returned to Gotham after a years-long hiatus.
Right on:
Almost universal praise, though reader Michael Sloan — where is he now, I wonder — was a bit all over the map.
But hey, they had hot takes even then.
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MORE
— BATMAN #251: DENNY O’NEIL and NEAL ADAMS on Bringing Back THE JOKER. Click here.
— How Fans Reacted WHEN ROBIN LEFT FOR COLLEGE. Click here.
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