Good to see where Batman began, but not much else.
Batman: Chronicles offers every Batman story in exact chronological order, together in different volumes.
Obviously, this is Volume 1 which means that we see how Batman started and where he began. It's suprising to note that the original Batman character is not too different from how he is today, instead of that campy weirdness he is known for from the TV show. Unfortunately, the stories presented here don't hold up today as they would have all those years ago.
The first illustrations of Batman look a bit weird sometimes too, especially in the first couple of issues where his cowl is ridiculously oversized and his ears stick out in a funny way.
The writing isn't especially gripping, and there were only a couple of stories that stood out such as those featuring The Monk, Dr Death and of course the first appearance of our favourite clown, The Joker.
Oh yeah, and it's funny to see how Batman changes gradually, especially when Robin comes into the picture. We see are fairly silent character slowly change into a quip happy patriot when Robin appears.
Still, in spite of everything Batman: Chronicles offers all the Batman stories for collectors, and some of the stories make for a great quick read. Overall, I would recommend it to collectors or if you're into this sort of thing, but otherwise I'd spend my money on other things. But Joker does have an awesome debut, I'll definately give it that.
STORIES- 5.5/10
PENCILING- 6/10
COLORING- 6/10
RE-READABILITY- 5/10
OVERALL- 6/10