Debriefing #35 ‘Legends of the Dark Knight Vol. 1 (2012)’

Legends of the Dark Knight Vol 1 (2012)
Writers: Damon Lindelof, B. Clay Moore, Steve Niles, T. J. Fixman, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Jeff Parker
Artists: Jeff Lemire, Ben Templesmith, Trevor Harisine, Christopher Mitten, Phil Hester, Gabriel Hardman

Edgar: Here is a very interesting project for us to discuss as a debrief: a collection of one-shots written by a host of talented writers (not all of them typically related to the domain of comics and graphic novels) as well as a bevy of different artists to brings these tales to life on the page. For the most part since we’ve started this project James, we’ve reviewed large volumes that featured stories spanning multiple issues. Perhaps the only time we discussed a series of one-shots, if memory serves, was when we read the very first collection of Batman stories in Batman Chronicles volume 1.  I’d like to start off by knowing what your sentiments are with one-shot issues in general, their strengths and weaknesses, and then slide into your thoughts on this particular collection.

Debriefing #34 ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ Vol 2 Disk 3

Batman: The Animated Series Volume 2 Disk 3

Directors: Dick Sebast, Bruce Timm, Boyd Kirkland, Eric Radomski, Frank Paur

Writers: Len Wein, Steve Perry, Mark Saraceni, Paul Dini, Marty Isenberg, Robert N. Skir, Michael Reeves

Note: The following discussion concerns the Animated Series episodes Moon of the Wolf, Day of the Samurai, Terror in the Sky, Almost Got’im, Birds of a Feather, What is Reality?, I am the Night

James: This batch of episodes at first seem rather eclectic: we go from a werewolf story, to a samurai/ninja story in just the first two episodes. It certainly demonstrates the diversity of the show. However, the more I watched this batch, the more I think that what tied this batch of episodes together is that they build off past events from previous episodes. My question to you Edgar is did you like getting followup to previous episodes from TAS, or were you yearning for more episodes that start us off from scratch?

Debriefing #33: Legends of the Dark Knight: Shaman

Legends of the Dark Knight: Shaman

Writer: Dennis O’Neil

Pencils: Ed Hannigan

Ink: John Beatty and Dick Giordano

This discussion concerns Legends of the Dark Knight (published November 1989) issues 1-5

Edgar: The origin of Batman, a story any fan of the Caped Crusader can recite by heart without any fact checking whatsoever by now. What made Bruce Wayne don the cape and cowl is the stuff of comic book and graphic novel legend. Despite everyone’s familiarity with the material, it always seems as though new writers come along with ideas about how to add more layers, depth, and twists to what Bruce Wayne went through after that fateful night in Crime Alley. Here we are with Legends of the Dark Knight: Shaman, a curious tale about, what else, how Wayne started his career as a masked vigilante. Of course, there is a twist, what with Native American folklore thrown into the mix this time around. James, what were your initial thoughts when turning the early pages of this book and discovered we’d be getting yet another variation of the birth of Batman and did it satisfy?

Debriefing #32: ‘Batman: Detective Comics Vol 2: Scare Tactics’

Batman: Detective Comics Vol 2: Scare Tactics

Writer: Tony S. Daniel, James Tynion IV

Artist: Tony S. Daniel, Ed Benes

Note: This is a discussion of Detective Comics (2012-) issues 8-12, 0 & Annual #1

Edgar: And so we arrive at volume two of DC’s New 52 Batman Detective Comics series. A streak of new mysteries to unravel, some more cumbersome than others. Reading this second package a thought sprang to mind. I get the feeling that this Detective Comics series is in a constant tug of war between establishing a sense of continuity in the Batman comic world and establishing new ground with smaller, more isolated cases for the Dark Knight to solve. Some characters we’ve seen before as well as stories we’ve read about are alluded to or make important returns. James, do you prefer it when Detective Comics is doing its own thing and has Batman investigate new, strange occurrences or do you prefer having things tie in with the great comics universe, such as when the Owls show up?

Debriefing #31: ‘Batman: Detective Comics Vol 1: Faces of Death’

Batman: Detective Comics Vol 1: Faces of Death

Writer: Tony S. Daniel

Artists: Tony S. Daniel, Ryan Winn

James: So far we’ve dabbled a bit into the Detective Comics line, we did go back and see where it all began as well as checking out The Black Mirror. Reading this book, I think it’s fair to say that this is a different tone and texture to the Batman story than what we’ve seen so far in a lot of the main Batman storylines. My question to you is did you appreciate the different atmosphere and texture of this story or did it drift too far away from the familiarity of the Batman stories we love the most?