Comics Fondle

Faith, this story in Legends of the Dark Knight, is the second Mike W. Barr-written Batman story I’ve read, certainly the first “regular” one. It isn’t at all what I was expecting. It’s not a mystery–at all–and there’s a lot of hallucinations (thankfully not Batman’s), which I wouldn’t expect from Barr either. To clarify, the mystery I would have expected. But instead, it’s a really straightforward story about a gang of vigilantes modeling themselves on Batman. The specifics are different, but the basic idea is along the lines of Frank Miller’s Bat-gang from The Dark Knight Returns. Barr does amend this rather sparse storyline–the unintended consequences of vigilantism–with some nice character relationships between Batman and his supporting cast, but it’s real light and incredibly uninsightful. Maybe it’s just me, but when Batman concludes his militant vigilantism isn’t a bad idea–following the Bat-gang murdering someone–because one of them (that’s not a figurative one, it’s a literal one person) isn’t a psychopath, it makes Batman come off a little goofy. Then there’s this speech about him wanting a family and it’s creepy enough as an idea, but then they go and show the future Robin on his way to town… Icky.

The Bart Sears art is atrocious in unbelievable ways. It’s not just the changing proportions or the missing anatomy, it’s just really, really ugly. It’s a constant wave of bad and worse.

I have read other Mike W. Barr Batman recently… I just remembered. He wrote the excellent Batman: Son of the Demon. I have no idea what happened. Maybe the constraints of writing Legends of the Dark Knight had something to do with the quality drop, but I’m just making excuses with that one.

D-

Technorati Tags: Bart Sears, Batman, Comic Book, DC Comics, Mike W. Barr, Review

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