Legends of the Dark Knight #2 – Review

By: B. Clay Moore (story), Ben Templesmith (art)

The Story: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, up until it gets you killed.

The Review: With this title, Smallville, and Ame-Comi Girls, that makes three digital-first series on my review list, and yet I’ve never even commented on that particular aspect of these titles.  So here goes.  While I think it’s smart of DC to anticipate the future market, I don’t know if setting aside a number of what have been really mediocre titles for digital-first release will do much to set a trend for web reading.  Still, changes in medium can’t stop good stories from popping up.

I have no idea how this story worked as a digital product, but as a collected issue, it’s a very fine showing from Moore.  Batman tales can come in many different flavors: dark and moody, mean and violent, tragic and poignant, warm and uplifting, funny and outrageous, strange but true.  Moore’s story of random philanthropists taking on the cowl of the Bat and running to their deaths manages to hit all of these different takes and maintain a unified tone.

Nowhere does Moore’s skill at handling the complex shine more than in his portrayal of the Joker, probably the toughest character for any comic book writer to tackle.  Not only has this dastardly clown been done to death, but it’s too easy to stress just one part of his makeup, producing a shallow caricature than a rounded, albeit twisted, personality.  Moore’s Joker is indeed twisted, but not to the point where he loses his comedic shtick.  At the same time, he doesn’t exactly go for hard laughs, but his dysfunctional logic is the source of some effective, dark humor.  The best example is when to teach a dissenting thug a lesson, he points out a devoted loyalist—and promptly head-shoots him.  “If I’m willing to lose a trusted ally like Miller,” he reasons, “how much heckling am I going to take from a partypooper like you?”

Even more ambitiously, Moore draws Mad Hatter and Killer Croc into Joker’s scheme, creating an interesting triumvirate of Batman rogues.  Joker clearly stands atop the rest as a direct threat to Batman.  In contrast, Hatter embodies the gimmicky sideshow of criminals, while Croc serves as superhuman muscle.  The three in unison would probably prove a legit challenge to the Dark Knight, but discord typifies the usual alliance of Bat-villains, and in the end, our hero simply winds up as a target in the middle.

You won’t come away with any new understanding of Bruce or Joker or any other character by the time the issue wraps, but you do get moments of unsettling ambiguity.  At one point, Bruce has a jarring moment of disassociation, unable to tell whether he’s acting the playboy or the vigilante, whether he’s following hypnotic orders or conning his enemies.  He gets it right in the end, of course, but it’s not clear what this confusion reveals about his psyche.

Even though Moore doesn’t seem to have a particular message he wants to get across with this story (indeed, Joker alludes as much in the issue’s final panel), he still displays some strong storytelling skills.  He avoids dwelling on any one scene for too long, switching settings and characters not only to keep the pace lively, but to involve all of Gotham in the story, from its prominent members to its citizenry.  This creates a living city, of which Batman is but a part.

Templesmith’s riotous art aligns closely with the Lemire school: wild, loose, rough, abandoning consistency and perfection for a more improvisatory, chaotic feel that works well for a Batman tale.  Though childishly cartoony at times, to the point where characters look more like caricatures of themselves, Templesmith’s figures don’t lose credibility from their exaggerated features.  Once you get closer, those exaggerations seem like manifestations of the characters’ inner selves, whether hideous (as in Joker) or smooth and placid (as in Commish Gordon).  Templesmith drapes this issue in darkness, with weak, sickly colors only barely illuminating the gloom.

Conclusion: It lacks that specific flair to be a classic Batman tale, but as a standalone, it’s a well-told story of a very high degree.

Grade: B+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – I do love the bubble pipe.  Makes any scene a little more festive, doesn’t it?

– Oh, come now, Bruce—who’re you trying to fool with that “fat” comment?