Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 22, 2025 | 2 comments

With THE LONG HALLOWEEN waiting in the (bat)wings…

This kinda flew under the radar this week: DC announced a new, scripted podcast series that will adapt some of the Dark Knight’s best-known stories — kicking off April 2, 2025, with Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s four-part Batman: Year One.

DC High Volume: Batman, a partnership between the publisher and Realm, will feature “essential Batman comic stories,” according to DC.

The series will have new episodes every Wednesday, with the first two — 1986’s Batman #404 and #405 — going live April 2. The eps will be available anywhere you get your podcasts and on DC’s YouTube channel.

Here’s the cast — and a tease for The Long Halloween — straight from the DC/Realm press release:

After traveling the world for over a decade following the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City to find crime and corruption running rampant in the place he calls home. Realizing Gotham City needs a hero, Bruce dons the cape and cowl for the first time, becoming the Batman.

If Batman and new allies Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent succeed in removing the criminal heads of Gotham City, who will replace them? A new face of villainy may appear, leading to a Long Halloween full of costumed criminals.

The cast of DC High Volume: Batman features Jason Spisak (Young Justice, Arcane) as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jay Paulson (Mad Men, Catch-22) as Lt. James Gordon, Reba Buhr (Next Gen) as Catwoman/Seline Kyle, Adam O’Byrne (AMC’s Interview with the Vampire) as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Mike Starr (Goodfellas, Ed Wood) as Carmine Falcone, Simon Vance (Bring Up the Bodies, Rod: The Autobiography of Rod Stewart) as Alfred Pennyworth, Dan Gill (Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension) as The Joker, Jesse Burch (Fall Out: New Vegas) as The Riddler, Michelle Lukes (Alexander, Strike Back) as Poison Ivy and Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma) as The Penguin.

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A few thoughts:

— Batman: Year One is a fitting start. Not just because it’s an origin story and one of the two or three greatest Batman stories ever told, but because it lends itself really well to the format. It’s noir, it’s intimate, it’s a human drama. I wouldn’t see, say, the operatic The Dark Knight Returns translating so well — though I imagine if the series is successful the producers will not be able to resist. (Same with Hush for that matter.)

— Pushing it directly into Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween makes perfect sense too. It’s a much better follow-up to Year One than Batman: Year Two was, and it has a natural segue to Loeb and Sale’s Dark Victory, which introduces Robin and was similarly superior to Batman: Year Three. Plus, like Hush, DC is all about The Long Halloween right now.

— I like how they just snuck Kevin Smith’s name in there. As if he’s not the biggest name in the cast. (I’m a big Mike Starr fan, by the way. Saw him waiting for a subway once. It was cool.)

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MORE

— 13 PANELS That Capture the Brilliance of BATMAN: YEAR ONE. Click here.

— The TOP 13 BATMAN Countdown: BATMAN: YEAR ONE. Click here.