Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight

Legends of the Dark Knight Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
Cover of Legends of the Dark Knight #2 (Dec 1989). Art by Dean Motter.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Monthly with a few bi-weekly runs.
Format	Standard, four color comic.
Publication date	(Legends of the Dark Knight) November 1989 - Late August 1992 (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight) September 1992 - March 2007
No. of issues	215
Main character(s)	Batman
Collected editions
Shaman	ISBN 1563890836
Gothic	ISBN 1563890283
Venom	ISBN 1563891018
Faces	ISBN 1563891263
Other Realms	ISBN 1852869771
The Ring, The Arrow and The Bat	ISBN 1401201261

For the animated Batman episode, see Legends of the Dark Knight (The New Batman Adventures episode).

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, commonly referred to as simply Legends of the Dark Knight is a DC comic book featuring Batman. It was launched in 1989 with the popularity of the Batman movie, following on from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. It differs from other Batman titles in that it has constantly rotating creative teams, and the stories are not necessarily part of the current events of the other Batman comics. However, since this is the first months and years of Batman's crime-fighting career, they are still accepted as continuity. Initially the title was promoted as running only stand alone self contained five issue stories of graphic novel quality. However, after issue 20, stories of different lengths started to appear. Three to five part stories are still the staple of the title. While some stories have tied in with the other titles, generally this has not been the case.

Most of the stories featured in Legends are set in the early years of Batman's career, though a few have been set in the present and even the future. Stories set at the beginning of Batman's career are referred to as taking place during Year One, meaning Bruce Wayne's first year of crime fighting as Batman. The title had been initially promoted as only doing stories from before Robin, Dick Grayson, the first Robin, did appear in issue 23, though he was still a circus performer. The title was discontinued with issue #214, in January 2007, to make way for a new Batman anthology series, Batman Confidential, which focuses on more personal events in Batman's life (first encounters, building of new technology etc.), rather than early crime-fighting tales.

Some of the creative talent who have worked on the series include Dennis O'Neil, Grant Morrison, Mike Mignola, Bill Willingham, Matt Wagner, and Doug Moench.

Story Arcs

Shaman (1-5)

Bruce Wayne and a bounty hunter climb a mountain in Alaska as they try to capture a murderer named Thomas Woodley. Woodley quickly manages to kill the bounty hunter before falling off the cliff after a small fight with Bruce Wayne. Wayne's supplies are lost with Woodley which nearly results in Wayne's death when a Native American with her grandfather discover him. The grandfather is able to save Bruce Wayne's life by taking Wayne to his cabin and tells him a story on how a mouse became a bat while wearing a mask of a bat. After he recuperates and leaves, Wayne is warned by the granddaughter never to tell anyone the story.

Upon his return to Gotham City shortly after, Bruce Wayne attempts to fight crime but fails miserably. That night after he fails a bat flies into the room and reminds Bruce Wayne of the Native American's story from years earlier and so he decides to create a costume for himself and become Batman.

Gothic (6-10)

Detailed plot

Prey (11-15)

Venom (16-20)

Faith (21-23)

Flyer (24-26)

Destroyer 2/3 (27)

Faces (28-30)

Family (31)

Blades (32-34)

Destiny (35-36)

Mercy (37)

Legend of the Dark Mite (38)

Mask (39-40)

Sunset (41)

Houthouse (42-43)

Turf (44-45)

Heat (46-49)

Images (50)

Continuity

Technically, most of the stories in LOTDK are in the accepted Batman continuity, albeit with a number of exceptions. These include stories set in the year 3000, Batman being a cyborg, etc. A lot of the stories share a lot of elements with the regular Batman and Detective Comics: the wedding of Jim Gordon and Sarah Essen Gordon, the introduction of the Batsignal, the origin of Robin, Leslie Thompkins' discovery of Batman's identity, the origins of Joker venom, etc. Whereas most titles move fowards, Legends like Confidential mainly focus on Years One, Two, and Three.

Specials

In the 90s, writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale collaborated on three Halloween specials that led them to create Batman: Haunted Knight. In one of them, based on A Christmas Carol, Bruce is visited by three spirits on Halloween, that of Poison Ivy (spirit of Halloween Past) The Joker (the spirit of Halloween Present), and cloaked, skeletal version of Batman (the spirit of Halloween Yet To Come). Having been immersed so much in stopping crime for nearly two years (the time being Year Two in which the story takes place), Bruce undergoes a change, much like Ebenezer Scrooge, in which he is reminded what it is to be human.

Crossovers

• The Destroyer - #27
• KnightQuest - #59-61
• Knight's End - #62-63
• No Man's Land - #116-126
• War Games - #182-184

Collected editions

Several of the stories from the title have been collected into trade paperbacks including the following:

• Batman: Shaman (#1 - 5), by Dennis O'Neil and Ed Hannigan, ISBN 1-56389-083-6
• Batman: Gothic (#6 - 10), by Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson, ISBN 1-56389-028-3
• Batman: Prey (#11 - 15), by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy
• Batman: Venom (#16 - 20), by Dennis O'Neil ISBN 1-56389-101-8
• Batman: Faces (#28 - 30), by Matt Wagner ISBN 1-56389-126-3
• Batman: Collected Legends of the Dark Knight (#32 - 34, 38, 42 - 43)
• Batman: Other Realms (#35 - 36, 76 - 78), by Bo and Scott Hampton, ISBN 1-85286-977-1
• Batman: Dark Legends (#39 - 40, 50, 52 - 54)
• Batman: KnightsEnd (reprints #62-63 along with material from other titles)
• Batman: The Ring, The Arrow and The Bat (reprints Legends of the DC Universe 7 - 9 and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 127 - 131), by Dennis O'Neil ISBN 1-4012-0126-1
• Batman: Terror (#137 - 141), by Doug Moench, ISBN 1-4012-0125-3
• Batman: Snow (#192 - 196), written by Dan Curtis Johnson and J.H. Williams III, art by Seth Fisher, ISBN 1-40121-265-4
• Batman: Going Sane (#65 - 68, 100) Will be released July 30, 2008.

Awards

Issues 116 through 126 of the series were part of the No Man's Land storyline, which won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Story for 2000.

Specials and Spin-offs

There are three annual Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials written by Jeph Loeb with art by Tim Sale; the popularity of these led to the limited series Batman: The Long Halloween.

The short lived series Legends of the DC Universe was based on the concept of Legends of the Dark Knight. But instead of Batman, it featured a rotating roster of other DC superheroes.

The Mitefall special used a modern version of Bat-Mite who first appeared in Legends of the Dark Knight to parody the Batman Knightfall storyline.

See also

• "Legends of the Dark Knight" is also the title of an episode from The New Batman Adventures era of Batman: The Animated Series.
• Batman Confidential - a monthly comic series that also tell tales from Batman's past but deals with more personal events in his career.