"BATMAN-IN-COMICS"
"BATMAN-IN-COMICS"
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REVIEW: LOTDK, 197 & 198
In essence, I can’t recommend this book highly enough to those new to comics and those not wanting to commit to the sweeping cross-title storylines of the other DC books.
The current arc for the book, the one before the landmark 200th issue, tells the story of Erik Webber. Webber is smart, or at least he believes he is smarter than the cute “crossworld puzzle” group that usually does not succeed in the Gotham criminal market.. After a botched armored car heist and a close encounter with a Batarang, Webber finds himself in prison for seven years. Naturally, The Dark Knight is to blame for all of this, and equally to blame for the pathetic life Webber finds for himself once released. Throw a tenuous tie between his Batarang injury years earlier and an inoperable brain tumor, and a new member of the Rogue’s Gallery is born.
Weber spends much of the first two issues in this eventual three-issue arc feeling sorry for himself, or engaging in mass acts of vandalism. He doesn’t come off as a particularly interesting villain, but as LDK usually proves, the less interesting the villain, the more interesting Batman becomes. One uniquely frightening aspect of Webber’s character is that in order to get The Darknight Detective’s attention, when vandalism proves insufficient, he declares a war on Batmania, making sure that only those sporting bat-gear are punished for the crimes of their hero. Be warned, Bat-fans, Batman wears a large symbol on his chest, like a target for a reason: he can afford plenty of Kevlar.
The writing, aside from story development is more or less strong. Batman and his dialogue is crisp and to the point, as The Batman ought to be. There are a couple of attempts at humor that don’t play out well, but ultimately if your name isn’t Lorenzo Semple Jr., then humor and the Bat don’t necessarily mix.
The art in this arc is particularly striking. It possesses, not unlike it’s writing, a very gritty, yet simple style, reminiscent of art common to the Batman books of the eighties. In fact, and this may be wishful thinking on my part, but in certain panels there seemed to be an almost Keaton-esque aura to Batman’s face, perhaps as a wistful nod to a bygone era of the Bat.
In the end, the first two installments of “Blaze of Glory” are a fine addition to the LDK line. It tells an uncomplicated story, straight and to the point. One needs no knowledge of what has been happening in the Batman universe recently to enjoy the story, and this is what makes LDK the book of choice for both serious Bat-fans, and the casual reader.
Legends of the Dark Knight, Issues 197-198
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In lieu of a bio, I will tell you a story. When I was five, during the summer of 1989, and Batman was not just that funny little show from back in the sixties, it was a way of life. My parents had bought me a Batman flashlight, one with the bat-signal painted on the lens. Great! I thought. Commissioner Gordon uses a bat-light to get in touch with Batman, ergo this is how I’ll finally get to meet the man himself. I would take the flashlight out into the backyard, and point it at the night sky. The great bat-emblem would over-take the moon, Batman would come, and we’d go play in my sandbox or something.
I went outside and turned on the flashlight. The bat-signal was nowhere to be found, and Batman didn’t come. I came in and told my parents that Batman had to go fight a crime somewhere, but I knew. I had figured it out. Batman was not real; he was imaginary. I’ve been trying to recover from this realization ever since.
The point of this story? It doesn’t matter who I am, it merely matters that I’m like you: I am a Batman fan.
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First, I’ll give you a little background on LDK and why it’s a good casual read. The book was first issued in the summer of ’89, for DC to capitalize on the popularity of some film, the title of which I cannot recall. LDK is a bit more of an anthology series, in that it contains independent story-arcs that don’t necessarily conform to the current story-line, style, or even continuity of the other Bat-books. Originally, the stories were told in a graphic novel, with a five part story under one creative team, and then the next five issues being a completely different story under another creative team. LDK briefly, during the “No Man’s Land” era conformed to the storyline depicted in the rest of the line, but shortly thereafter returned to the previous format, although arcs now vary in length from one issue to the customary five.
Other interesting aspects of the plot are Batman’s use of the rest of the Rogue’s. Automatically thinking that one of them is responsible for the recent crimes in Gotham, Batman “drops by” Arkham Asylum for a visit with the Joker, taking pages right out of both “The Killing Joke” and Silence of the Lambs, taking more from the latter than the former It’s a fun scene for those Joker-fans out there (myself included) and makes me think that if Mr. J is indeed in both of the upcoming Begins sequels, his role in the third film should be not unlike the scene in issue #198.
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