A Comic A Day # 5 -- Legends of the Dark Knight # 1

Woo!  Batman!   Also, joining us today, is a guest reviewer, the lovely Mrs. W!  Her review will be after mine.   I thought it would be interesting to get an "outsiders" point of view every now and then.  So, without further ado . . .

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight # 1

We open up with a young Bruce Wayne teaming up with a bounty hunter to catch a criminal in the northern Alaska mountains.   However, the criminal gets the better of them, kills the bounty hunter, and attacks Bruce.  Bruce outsmarts him and fights back, but the criminal falls to his death and takes Bruce's coat and supplies with him.  Delusion, freezing, and exhausted, Bruce nearly dies, but is rescued by some Indians.  They tell him the story of healing and he eventually recovers.   He leaves Alaska and returns to Gotham to start his war on crime.  His first night goes wrong (as detailed "Batman: Year One"), but his second one goes well.  He attacks some thugs breaking into Leslie Thompkins clinic and proceed to try and kidnap a pregnant woman.  Batman stops them, but the women calls Batman "Chubala!" and kills herself.  But why?

***

My Review:

I really enjoyed the issue.   It serves as an excellent bridge between Wayne's pre-Batman days and his career as a crimefighter.  The story takes a moment to touch on the origins of Batman, and does the right thing by not pounding away at all the overly familar imagery (thanks in part to Frank Miller, whose "Year One" takes place within the general timeframe of this one).

This issue mainly serves as set-up.  We see Bruce's beginnings, his endeavors to be the Dark Knight.  We see him become the Batman, almost literally.  We, as the reader, are drawn the line between Bruce's time with the Indians, his transformation into Batman, and the possibility of a connection between the suicide and imagery of the bat.

The art fit well and provided plenty of detail and made it all look very grounded.  Looking forward to issue two!

***

Mrs W's Review:

 As far as Batman origins/early year stories go, this one is more of the same. All of the basics are covered; you’ve got Bruce somewhere exotic and dangerous, being mentored by some coot with wilderness or survival skills as they face up against an off brand of homicidal maniac.  The only real unique take I can see in this comic was the origin of the “bat” persona that Bruce adopts, giving it some ancient tribal flair rather than relating it to the bats beneath Wayne Manor. The mention of Selena Kyle as a hooker was amusing, but other than that you have the same old story that even casual Batman fans know so well. The ending of this comic, however, took a somewhat disturbing twist that perhaps can at least pique your interest long enough to see what the writers have in store for issue two.