Legends of the Dark Knight
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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. 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. 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 crimefighting as Batman. Again 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.
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.
Contents |
Collected issues
Several of the stories from the title have been collected into trade paperbacks including the following:
- Batman: Shaman (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 1 - 5)
- Batman: Gothic (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 6 - 10) ISBN 1563890283
- Batman: Prey (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 11 - 15)
- Batman: Venom (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 16 - 20) ISBN 1563891018
- Batman: Faces (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 28 - 30) ISBN 1563891263
- Batman: Collected Legends of the Dark Knight (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 32 - 34, 38, 42 - 43)
- Batman: Dark Legends (reprints Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 39 - 40, 50, 52 - 54)
- 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) ISBN 1401201261
Awards
Issues 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 125, and 126 of the series were parts 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.
A short lived series Legends of the DC Universe was based on the concept of Legends of the Dark Knight but instead of Batman 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.
Trivia
Legends of the Dark Knight is also the title of an episode from The New Batman Adventures era of Batman: The Animated Series. The title refers to the Batman comic book of the same name. In the episode, three Gotham City children tell each other stories of Batman, which include:
Batman and Robin comically foiling a heist by the Joker, inspired by the 1950s era comics and camp 1960s television show; An accurate recreation of Batman's fight with the Mutant gang leader from The Dark Knight Returns, complete with a tank-like Batmobile and Carrie Kelly as Robin; and A "dig" at the Batman movies of Joel Schumacher (and possibly a gay joke), in which another child (whose name is Joel) claims that Batman has "tight rubber armor" and a car that "can drive up walls".