The Fate of Batman

[Diabolical]

I had that in regular book-sized paperback when I was a kid.
I remember thinking it was awesome back then.

[Tom Foolery]

Untold Legend of the Batman. Dumb ending, but overall a classic series.

I loved that miniseries! And I think that sentence sums it up better than any other statement could.

I think the fact that it built up the mystery over three issues before the last minute 'bipolar' explanation was a bit of a cop out. I bet when it first came out, waiting three months would've made it worse. Reading the entire story in 30 minutes isn't as bad.

The other part that was hokey to me was when he went to train with the cop and randomly decided to dress up in a fruity red and green costume with no pants. I get they were working the Robin costume into his history, but I just cracked up.

[vynsane]

I had that in regular book-sized paperback when I was a kid.
I remember thinking it was awesome back then.

HA! me, too! wasn't it in B&W?

[anarky]

I think so. The version I had came with a record or cassette, I forget which one.

It may have even been three, but cheap enough for me to buy all three at once.

[Tom Foolery]

DC did Digest Sized books back in the 80s. I first discovered Wolfman and Perez' New Teen Titans in a B/W digest book. Even without color, Deathstroke was the baddest badass ever.

[Tom Foolery]

I read the first half of my Batman:Shadow of the Bat run from issue 44 thru 68, cover dated Nov 95 thru Nov 97. All the issues were written by Alan Grant. Some really fantastic covers on issues 57, 60, and 62.

34-35. The SotB issues of Prodigal and Troika where Dick was the Bat for a short while and then Bruce finally returned after KnightFall a few years previous.

44. Third part of a 3-parter with Catman, Catwoman, and Ratcatcher. They tried something interesting with Barry Kitson's art where they forwent inks and just colored of his high contrast pencil shadings.

45. A body is found under the Wayne Manor wine cellar. It turns out to be Bruce's ancestor Joshua Wayne who died before the Civil War and we are treated to an early 19th century Wayne adventure about the underground railroad.

46-47. Cornelius Stirk breaks out of prison and tries to kill newly elected mayor Marion Grange(remember that ongoing subplot? The Krol-Grange Mayoral Race?).

48-49. Part of the 'Contagion' event. Gotham is plagued by an Ebola derivative called "Clench". Batman and his team race to find a cure. Vince Giaranno on art. Was never a fan of his style.

50-52. 50 is a double size issue with all the series artists returning for a jam session. Batman faxes a new rogue called Narcosis who can make people hallucinate their nightmares. New artist Dave Taylor starts.

53-54. Part of the 'Legacy' event that culminated in Detective 700. Bane and Ras Al Ghul attempt to bring the Clench virus back.

55. Bruce Wayne spends the night in jail, accused of murder. Dick dons the cape and cowl again to stop thugs from harassing a shop owner. Art by Rick Burchett.

56-58. Floronic Man is making high grade weed and breaks Poison Ivy out of Arkham. One of Tim's friends has a bad trip from the weed. Basically Alan Grant on his soapbox about pot.

59-60. 2 parter has Scarface greaking Ventriloquist out of prison. Also a sort of origin story for Albert Wesker. And one of Penguin's guys tries to kill him and take over.

61. Stand alone story with art by Aparo (Grant and Aparo!) Batman stops some nasties from killings mobster turned states evidence and saves a boy's family in the process.

62-63. A new villain named Janus shows up trying to take over Two-Faces crew. Its really just TF in a mask having a further mental breakdown.

64. A murder mystery about a bride killed on her wedding night.

65-67. Breyfogle returns! Jim Gordon gets arrested for being dirty. Bruce Wayne is accused of beating his illegitimate kid. And other craziness is happening all over Gotham. Turns out its the work of a low level ESP and his hypnotist partner.

68. Another stand alone by Aparo. A serial killer only kills once a year on Halloween. It's taken Batman nine years and nine deaths to find his pattern and stop him.

The rest of the SotB series, 69 thru 94, is where I'm missing the 10 issues. A majority of the rest of the series is Cataclysm, Aftershock, and No Man's Land related. Those are up next.

[anarky]

I wonder how No Man's Land holds up. I recall it being far, far better than it should've been, but not sure how a decade and a half will affect it.

[Tom Foolery]

I've read bits and pieces of it over the last few years and they were mostly good stories. It came out during that span when I had quit collecting for 7-8 years, so I didn't get the sheer scope and size of the event until I started looking for Batman back issues. From Cataclysm thru the end of No Man's Land was TWO years of the Bat Office's publishing schedule. And thinking about how many books wouldve been involved (several Bat-titles, Robin, Nightwing, Catwoman, Azrael etc) That is fucking ambitious and quite a gamble!
I read a 'From the Den' editorial in the back of one of the first issues, and it was supposed to be just the Cataclysm event for two months (17 issues including all the tie books) and then everything would be back to "normal" but the Asst Editor at the time came in one Monday morning with this post-apocalyptic premise and Denny O'Neil was like 'this could either be epic or a huge disaster' and he said he didn't want to regret later on NOT going for it.

The premise itself is genius. At some point, I would love to pull ALL the issues out and read them in roughly the order they were released to see how the epic plays out. But that is seriously a few hundred issues of story. That's fucking crazy.

[Tom Foolery]

I had forgotten how they structured No Man's Land so that none of the story arcs were self contained in a particular series (SotB fer instance). So basically, as when I read Batman, Detective, Robin, etc a few years ago, I'm either reading the beginning of an arc, the middle of an arc, or the end of an arc, with no reference other than what I vaguely remembered from the other books of the over-arcing plots.

Anyway, here's the rest of the SotB series of which I'm missing a dozen issues.

69-70. A two parter about an apocalypse cult of which I'm missing the conclusion.
71. A stand alone murder mystery.
72. Missing it.
73-74. Cataclysm! The earthquake issues. Don't have them.
75-79. Aftershock. The fallout issues where everything starts going downhill. Missing 76 and 79.
80-81. Road to No Man's Land. Missing 81.
82-94. All No Man's Land issues. Missing 82, 83, and 86. Culminating in the death of Jim Gordon's wife Sarah at the hands of the Joker, and Bruce Wayne out maneuvering Lex Luthor for control of the rebuilding of Gotham. The series ended with issue 94. I'm not sure what replaced it on the publishing schedule. Gotham Knights maybe? But that's in the next box.

I'm also curious to see what was happening in the rest of the DCU concurrent to NML. Superman showed up in a standalone issue to talk with Batman, but mostly it was just the Bat family dealing with NML. Also could reread the immediate follow up issues to see how quickly things got back to "normal".


I'm guessing NML has been retconned in Nu52 continuity. I remember when Nu52 started, Didio said all the "important" stories happened. As we go further along, it's clear that NONE of what happened between 1938 and 2011 was important. Unless Geoff Johns wrote it. Then it's diamond encased in titanium solid canon. Eat a hobo's ass, DC.

[Tom Foolery]

I started in on my large Legends of the Dark Knight run finally. After that significant haul last weekend, I'm only missing a dozen or so issues rather than 30+ so there's less holes. I've decided to read a years worth of issues at a time, and comment on the story arcs little by little since each arc is so varied from one to the next. The series ran up until 2005 with issue 212. This reading gap will be from issue 69 thru 200 or so. Here's the first batch.

69-70. Criminals. By Steven Grant and Mike Zeck. The team that did the original Punisher mini send an undercover Batman into a corrupt prison system to figure out how death row inmates are getting back out on the street to commit crimes. Grant has some ham handed narration, and the story is stale, but Zeck's Batman looks great.

71-73. Werewolf. By James Robinson and John Watkiss. Two different murders send Batman to London for answers. A strong start is ruined by Robinson's typical eleventh hour "reveal". And Watkiss' art isn't memorable.

74-75. Engines. By Ted McKeever. A serial killer unleashes some kind of steampunk beast demon thing on Gotham...I think? A hot mess by McKeever. Awful.

76-78. Sleeping. By Scott Hampton. Bruce Wayne's limo is blindsided by a drunk driver and he ends up in a coma. He then has to fight his way out of the 'coma-verse' with help from other comatose people. This was a fantastic story arc. Highly recommended.

79. Favorite Things. By Mark Millar and Yeowell. Oneshot set at Christmas time. Somebody steals a toy train that Thomas and Martha gave Bruce when he was young. Melodramatic sentimental crap from an early Millar.

80-82. Idols. By James Vance and Doug Braithwaite. Early in Batman's career the pop culture 'fad' of Batman takes over Gotham and t-shirts, hats, etc became coveted by criminal kids all over town and the demand is fanned by an unscrupulous vendor riding the tide. Batman must deal with his "popularity" while also dealing with a serial killer. An interesting premise that could've been executed a bit better.

[Tom Foolery]

83-84. Infected. By Warren Ellis and John McCrea. Only have the the first part so I didn't read it.

85. Citadel. By Robinson and Tony Salmons. Don't have it either, but from what I gathered in a letters page in a later issue it's Batman in a heavily fortified 85 story building. So I imagine sort of like that Judge Dredd movie. Except written by Robinson and therefore shitty.

86-88. Conspiracy. By Doug Moench and JH Williams III. A serial killer and drug trafficking takes Batman to Wisconsin fighting motorcycle gangs and L.A. fighting a thinly disguised Scientology knockoff cult. Kinda dopey. Moench has Batman making calls to Gordon from his hotel room in LA and other questionable decisions.

89-90. Clay. By Alan Grant and Quique Alcatena. The origin story of Matthew Hagen Clayface. A thug criminal finds a magic clay pool in the Gotham sewers and immerses himself in it and then becomes addicted to his new power. Routine story arc. Not bad, but nothing noteworthy. Also, the "first" time Batman used the Matches Malone disguise which I'm sure contradicts some other previous Malone appearances.

91-93. Freakout. By Garth Ennis and Will Simpson. Someone is flooding Gotham drug trade with a weaponized LSD. And it gives some schmuck super powers or something. Stupid.

94. Don't have it.

[Diabolical]

91-93. Freakout. By Garth Ennis and Will Simpson. Someone is flooding Gotham drug trade with a weaponized LSD. And it gives some schmuck super powers or something. Stupid.

Not surprising that it was dumb, with Ennis' distaste for superpowers. Perhaps it was intentional?

[Tom Foolery]

91-93. Freakout. By Garth Ennis and Will Simpson. Someone is flooding Gotham drug trade with a weaponized LSD. And it gives some schmuck super powers or something. Stupid.

Not surprising that it was dumb, with Ennis' distaste for superpowers. Perhaps it was intentional?

I don't think it was intentional. I chalk it up to being early in his career and still finding his groove on American super hero comics.

Anyway, the next batch.

95-97. Dirty Tricks. By Abnett & Lanning and Anthony Williams. This started out really well. Batman meets a magician killer many years ago in Romania(while he was still training) and it got inside his head. All these years later the Magician is in Gotham killing criminals and Batman's trying to stop him. The idea that a magician (think David Blaine or Ricky Jaye) using his illusions and wearing a cool creepy mask as one of Batman's regular rogues is a great idea. It turns out to be a group of guys wearing the same costume, so the finale was a let down. But the setup was fantastic, with the killer leaving a tarot calling card on each victim. File that idea away for later.

98-99. Steps. By Paul Jenkins and Sean Phillips. Someone is shooting hookers in the face with a crossbow. And the only witness is an Autistic teenager that Batman has to figure out how to communicate with. Interesting premise. Executed mundanely.

100. Don't have it, but I'm assuming it's a star studded extra sized extravaganza of some kind.

101. John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra tell a tale of Batman in the year 2098. A robot bodyguard for the police commissioner dons the Cape and Cowl to take down a telepathic crime lord that the law can't touch. Fun one off from Wagner.

102-104. Spook. By Robinson and Paul Johnson. Bruce Wayne and. A bunch of other CEOs in a murder mystery mansion situation, getting picked off one by one by a former CIA agent left for dead after a failed military coup left him hung out to dry. He figures politics and some giant corporation are at fault but doesn't know which one, so he's targeting ALL of them. Some plot holes and Robinson's usual crutch of having Batman find a journal that explains everything. But not as much garbage as his usual stuff.

105-106. Don't have them.

107-108. Stalking. by Lee Marrs and Eddy Newell. A mysterious motorcycle riding female is committing various crimes in Lt. Gordon's district as part of an elaborate revenge plot because he Gordon sent her boyfriend to prison years ago. Newell's art is Jekyll and Hyde; fantastic on some pages, and poorly framed and rushed on others. I had no idea who Marrs was so I looked her up. She did a lot of underground books in the 70s. This was pretty much her last work ever.

[Tom Foolery]

109-111. The Primal Riddle. By Steve Englehart and Dusty Abell(whatever happened to him??). During a fight with Riddler, Batman is tossed into some power lines and dies. The EMTs resuscitate him, but his "soul" is knocked loose and begins jumping from body to body, first a small boy, then a firefighter, etc trying to find Batman. Meanwhile, Batman has become soulless and logical, trying to figure out why he's different. The Riddler figures out what happened and attempts to prevent the soul and body re-merging. Not bad. I do have a problem with Englehart having Alfred have a gun in the Manor in case of break-ins. I seriously disbelieve Bruce would allow that, given his stance on firearms.

112-113. Shipwreck. By Dan Vado and Norman Felchle(who and who?). Bruce is on an expensive cruise ship for millionaires that's gets taken over by terrorists demanding some General gets released or they'll blow up the ship. I only have the first part, but it's an average Batman story.

114. Playground. By Robinson and Dan Brereton. A rookie Batman heads to Chicago to find a hitman and quickly finds himself out of his element, wounded and on the defensive. Eventually he gets saved by a bunch of homeless people. A not shitty Robinson one off, but omg Dan Brereton's art inked by Tim Bradstreet is amazing! The splash page is gorgeous. I wonder if it's online anywhere.

115. The Darkness. By Darren Vincenzo and Luke McDonnel. A young boy survives a yacht explosion and lives in the catacombs under Gotham and Wayne Manor for 25 years. He comes out looking for his "mother" whom he thinks is Martha Wayne because he found a list locket with her picture in it in the caverns.

116-126. A bunch of No Man's Land issues. So, a bunch of story fragments with no ends or no beginnings or both.

[Diabolical]

114. Playground. By Robinson and Dan Brereton. A rookie Batman heads to Chicago to find a hitman and quickly finds himself out of his element, wounded and on the defensive. Eventually he gets saved by a bunch of homeless people. A not shitty Robinson one off, but omg Dan Brereton's art inked by Tim Bradstreet is amazing! The splash page is gorgeous. I wonder if it's online anywhere.

Which one? There are a couple of splash pages in there.