(Hey everyone, Brandon here. Not really sure what this piece is supposed to be (let’s call it reminiscing on my comics’ past or something), but it was fun to do so let’s just focus on that. I don’t know if I’ll do another one of these, but who knows? Anyway, to formally begin this piece I’d like to start with a story…)
It’s 2011 and I’m entering Dr. Comics and Mr. Games in Piedmont, CA for the second time that year. My spending allocation is limited but I know I’ll make the best of it by picking out some stellar comics. I just need to find something that looks good, I tell myself. My eye drifts towards the long box marked “Batman” and the striking cover of Batman #466 from 1991 is the first issue that immediately catches my eye.
I don’t remember when I read the issue or where, but I remember enjoying seeing Batman and Robin work together. The main story by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle is pretty good, even if my 10-year-old mind doesn’t fully understand what “smack” is just yet, but it’s the house ad in the back of the issue that catches my attention. The image on the ad is of a group of young men and women dressed in black t-shirts with Batman symbols on their chests, red berets, and baseball bats. They’re posed as if for an album cover or movie poster and the tagline is enticing enough to get me to find out more about it. It reads: “Once he fought alone…now he’s got an army of believers.” At the bottom of the ad is the text informing me of where I can read this tale, in a book called “Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #21,” as well as informing me of the creators involved in the making of this tale, “Barr, Sears, and Elliot,” though I had no idea who they were at the time.
To my pre-teen mind, this was about the coolest thing you could possibly have. A group of people in bat t-shirts and berets, with sick bats fighting alongside Batman? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
But here’s the thing: I never actually read this story.
Despite intense searching, I was never able to find a copy at Dr. Comics or any other comic shop I looked at. So, as time passed, I started to forget about this ad. Yet even with waning memory of all the contents of the ad, like the name of the story, “Faith,” the mental image of men and women in Batman t-shirts fighting alongside Batman stuck with me, even when I eventually forgot where I had seen that image in the first place. It would actually be quite a few years after 2011 when I finally tracked down my beat-up old copy of Batman #466 and rediscovered where I had seen that ad the first time. “One of these days,” I say to myself, “I’m gonna find that book.”
Flash forward to junior year of high school in 2019, and I find myself in another comic store (the more things change, right?) staring at a copy of Legends of the Dark Knight #21. I’ve actually managed to find a store that has it and it’s in my hands for the first time. My mind races back to seeing that ad back in 2011 and the intrigue I had over this mysterious group of Bat-themed people. Intense curiosity seizes me then and, without much thought for the quality of the story, I buy #21, along with the following two issues. By 2019, I have a greater understanding of what “Legends of the Dark Knight” is and who the mysterious Barr, Sears, and Elliot are, having fully immersed myself in the realm of comics for the past three years or so. I ended up reading the story during one of our big school assemblies, but trying to read the story and pay attention to the assembly made it difficult to retain anything. So here I am, three years later, digging out this story again to give it some more attention and a proper read-through.
So, you might be wondering, why exactly am I talking about my history with a random Batman story from 1991?
Well, all of this was meant to provide some context to my own personal investment in this book. I love the backstory for how one finds themselves involved in reading a story or tale, so I figured my own history with this story might be interesting to others as well. And, not to be insensitive or egotistical, but I found my own strange history with this ad for an arc I never read to be, well…somewhat more interesting than the arc itself actually was. Almost like I was enamored by the promise of what this book could be, especially as a 10-year-old, rather than the actual story itself.
So what is the story? Well, not much in all honesty. A junkie by the name of John Ackers has his shit kicked in by a drug dealer named Costas (who we later discover had been feeding the very same drugs Ackers had taken into Gotham City) and, following a surprise intervention from Batman, decides to take on Batman’s mission and patrol the streets as a vigilante. Soon attracting followers, Ackers forms the “Bat-Men” as a sort of neighborhood watch, that is unafraid to use violent force to achieve peace in their neighborhood. Absent from this organization are the tools and tech often associated with Batman and instead are replaced with baseball bats, chains, and fists. It’s a very DIY organization, and the imagery of the self-made group of Bat-Men was probably what attracted me to them in the first place. Anyone these days can buy a Batman t-shirt at their local mall or online as well as bats and chains and other common tools that can be used as weapons. There was something so down to Earth about it that I loved the idea of going out with just a t-shirt and working alongside Batman. You didn’t need an expensive costume or gadgets, you just needed a shirt, a bat, and some courage. But again, this is the imagery of the story, not the story itself.
Because while the issue might be called Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #21, Batman is the least interesting part of the story in my opinion. That falls to everyone else around Batman such as Leslie Thompkins, Jim Gordon (still a captain at this point), John Ackers, and his right-hand man, Billy. Seeing Jim and Leslie’s reactions to the Bat-Men are some of the more interesting aspects of the story, as they often come into conflict with the neighborhood’s opinion of them. Leslie almost finds herself coming to blows with some of the members of the neighborhood as they try to defend themselves from the police. Leslie is, surprisingly, on the side of the police having a firm dislike of Batman and his “associates” as she believes the Bat-Men to be in league with Batman. Gordon is trying to wrestle with the presence of the Bat-Men as well given his complex relationship with Batman. And Ackers and Billy, who are the focus of the Bat-Men, have unique perspectives on their activities as well. Ackers, still recovering from addiction, is haunted by dreams of demonic Batman who urges him to escalate his crusade against dope dealers and pushers. This eventually culminates in a final and fatal confrontation with Costas. Watching Ackers, who does begin his mission with good, if misguided, intentions spiral was probably the most interesting part of the book as his mental state continues to evolve the more he pushes to evolve the Bat-Men. Bolly, on the other hand, starts as Ackers’ right-hand man but slowly grows more and more disillusioned with Ackers’ mission before betraying him in the end. All these characters and elements make the story work, but where it ultimately falls apart is in its lead character. Batman is given a majority of the attention here and his motivation is the least compelling due to his indecisiveness. Does he want to stand with the Bat-Men or against them? In some cases he does, but in others, he doesn’t? Yet we never really get any clear resolution for that until the end when he states how nice it was to have partners working for him. The last scene in issue #23 ends with a reference to Dick Grayson, the future partner of Batman, so we know that it’s only a matter of time before Batman’s wish for a partner is realized. Despite this, I never felt fully compelled by Batman’s statements as he doesn’t seem to care all that much about having the Bat-Men around. They don’t seem to work together so much as their paths just happen to cross as they both are working to squeeze out Costas. Batman’s lack of any direction here makes it difficult for me to attach myself to his character which, in turn, makes it hard for me to care about him in this story. As a Legends of the Dark Knight story, I understand that these stories are meant to take place earlier in Bruce’s career, at a point when his personality as Batman was still forming, but I still felt lost about his character in this story.
It’s interesting comparing this story to Barr’s other Batman works because those all seem to feature a much tighter, confident Batman. Again, perhaps this is because of the nature of the Legends of the Dark Knight stories, but I felt much more at ease with his portrayal of Batman in other stories than here. The art from Bart Sears has its moments and there’s a definite Mazzucchelli influence there. I think it wants to be fully realized but the art just isn’t quite there yet. There are some panels that look great, truly, during some nice moments between characters, yet there are some panels that are not so great and make it tough to follow the movements of characters. It’s inconsistent, which doesn’t make it terrible, just a bit disappointing. Especially with how cool that ad looked…
So, would I recommend this story? Maybe? It’s hard to say because while there are a lot of interesting elements, to the story I can’t say it’s a really great story. (Maybe if you’re just looking for a mildly interesting Batman story set in Batman’s early days?) I know I was only compelled to read this story due to my own personal curiosity rather than the promise of a quality story, so I can’t say I sought it out because I thought it would blow me away. But I do feel at ease knowing that I finally had a chance to read the story I was fascinated by all those years ago. Even if it wasn’t great, it’s just good to finally put this ghost to rest…