Sadly, this is the last issue of this series I own. And yet it lasted until March 2007. I guess I'm just a quitter.
At the end of the last issue, Batman fell out of a skyscraper window, presumably to his death. Being that these stories are legends, wouldn't it have been cool to just end Talbot's story there? Let people wonder if it was the final Batman story where we discover he's just a deluded alcoholic living in the alleys of Gotham? I would have been fine with that but it seems nobody at DC was so they forced Talbot to write a second issue. I guess we're going to find out that Batman's been drugged this entire time. Even in 1992, I'd like to believe most readers found "It was all a dream" stories bullshit.
And, of course, it was all a drug-induced delusion. But Talbot takes it a step further into hack territory (possibly because editorial demanded a three part story be turned into a two-parter? Or was it just that Talbot was more an artist so he wanted twenty pages to be Batman fighting hallucinatory monsters with little dialogue and the last few pages all exposition?): um, well, you know, like the parenthetical reference says, "The last few pages are all exposition."
At the end of the last issue, Batman fell out of a skyscraper window, presumably to his death. Being that these stories are legends, wouldn't it have been cool to just end Talbot's story there? Let people wonder if it was the final Batman story where we discover he's just a deluded alcoholic living in the alleys of Gotham? I would have been fine with that but it seems nobody at DC was so they forced Talbot to write a second issue. I guess we're going to find out that Batman's been drugged this entire time. Even in 1992, I'd like to believe most readers found "It was all a dream" stories bullshit.
And, of course, it was all a drug-induced delusion. But Talbot takes it a step further into hack territory (possibly because editorial demanded a three part story be turned into a two-parter? Or was it just that Talbot was more an artist so he wanted twenty pages to be Batman fighting hallucinatory monsters with little dialogue and the last few pages all exposition?): um, well, you know, like the parenthetical reference says, "The last few pages are all exposition."
Whew! I'm too stupid to comprehend what I read so I'm glad it was fully explained to me in microscopic detail.
But wait! There's more! Not only does the villain, a nameless jerk who blames his criminal father's poor choices (is murdering your wife a "poor choice" or something worse?) on Batman, reveal his entire plan to Batman, he also conveniently gets killed by the nurse whom he previously mortally wounded so that the only two strangers who know Bruce Wayne is Batman die! That saves Batman a call to Doctor Fate or Zatanna to come wipe some people's memory.
The woman playing the nurse was in on the plan for the money, being that her life was a complete wreck before the offer to torture Batman, but when she found out that the torture would end in death, and after Batman calls her "nice" exactly one time, she decides to betray her employer. She does this by discontinuing her drugging of Batman and dressing as Catwoman to mount Batman one night and not fuck him but to cry on him so he knows his delusions are real and by saying to him, "Believe in yourself." Also she kills him after he's basically killed her but that might have been more for her own sake than Batman's. If somebody murdered me, I probably would go ahead and kill them as well if I got the chance. I'm not a huge advocate of violence or the death penalty but in a situation where a person has ostensibly killed you and you have a few moments left to kill them as well, I'm pro that. If I ever killed somebody and then, with their last act of strength and will, they plunged a fork deep into my eye, my last words would be, "Ha ha! Good for you!"
The woman playing the nurse was in on the plan for the money, being that her life was a complete wreck before the offer to torture Batman, but when she found out that the torture would end in death, and after Batman calls her "nice" exactly one time, she decides to betray her employer. She does this by discontinuing her drugging of Batman and dressing as Catwoman to mount Batman one night and not fuck him but to cry on him so he knows his delusions are real and by saying to him, "Believe in yourself." Also she kills him after he's basically killed her but that might have been more for her own sake than Batman's. If somebody murdered me, I probably would go ahead and kill them as well if I got the chance. I'm not a huge advocate of violence or the death penalty but in a situation where a person has ostensibly killed you and you have a few moments left to kill them as well, I'm pro that. If I ever killed somebody and then, with their last act of strength and will, they plunged a fork deep into my eye, my last words would be, "Ha ha! Good for you!"
Oh yeah, also, Maggie the nurse confesses that she didn't do any of it to save Batman, really. That might be my favorite part of the story!
No wait! I've got a better panel for "my favorite part of the story!"
I just found my Halloween costume for this year: mediocre hooker.
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #40 Rating: C. Overall, I love the concept of this story. I just wish that the climax and denouement had been better thought through than just "Let me explain what's been going on for the last issue and a half." Arkham Asylum should have been involved although I think that story might be happening in the next story I read, if the leftover, brittle, falling-apart dregs of my memory have any useful knowledge left smeared across them. One of Batman's major villains should have been behind it! Batman should have realized the drugs were wearing off, leading him to understand the nurse was helping him, letting him leave his bed to investigate and discover what was happening through his detective skills rather than the bad guy pulling the old "Here's my plan!" trope. The story gets high marks for the concept and how it began but fails when it tries to stick the landing, shattering both shins and also setting the auditorium on fire at the same time somehow. I don't know. Do human bones spark when they snap and rub against each other? Maybe Talbot was chewing on a Wintergreen Life-Saver on his dismount and the sparks from that set the foam mats on fire? Look, I'm not a comic book writer! I'm an asshole who pretends to review comic books! Why would I be able to think up a scenario for a terribly mixed-metaphor that I pulled out of my hemorrhoid-clogged asshole?!
I'd heard of this one. This arc, I mean. I used to be a Talbot-head-- I wish there was a name for fans of Luther Arkwright exclusively? Arkwrightinoids? --but at some point I threw in the towel. It was probably that 'Alice In Sunderland' graphic novel that has more glue in its binding than in its composition as a written work. It could have also been the three month covid shutdown torpedoing my ability to pay rent. Anyway, I sold everything with Talbot's name on it. Like, 'The Tale of One Bad Rat' looks great, but *fuck* that 'Granville' style Talbot's been leaning on since he sequel-ed Arkwright. (Which looked neat, don't get me wrong: but the sequel made the original work into more like a ripoff of Moorcock's tired schtick than it already was. Kids! Don't do sequels!!!)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'd heard of these issues. Never went there. You have performed a great public service. Because outside of the addition of Electric Chameleon or whomever to the art, what the fuck. This sounds even more pointless than that Katsuhiro Otomo b&w Batman comic. Fucking postmodernism, man, and fuck postmodern Batman. I can get more comix-about-comics value from skimming a Chipp Kidd photo-tour of his collected 60s kitsch than these "What if Batman was on dope in an isolation tank" riffs: because Bats never emerges from the tank having devolved into a spun neanderthal who fights stray dogs. Never!! Everybody just does the 'Take On Me' music video instead of having the isolation tank implode into an abscess in spacetime. Posers.
Anyhoo. This comic sounds like stale ass. But that Kevin O'Neill arc with Bat-Mite? You've sold me on that!
Thanks for reminding me I need to be on the look out for Batman: Mitefall at the comic swap I'm going to this weekend. I need a complete run of Overdog's appearances.
DeleteI don't know any of that Talbot stuff you mentioned! Is that some British stuff?! Not that it needs to be since I really know nothing about Talbot.
yeah, bryan talbot was kind of a legend out of the british indy scene. he started in the 60s, hit in the late 70s early 80s, mainly known for 'the adventures of luther arkwright', a sci-fi multiverse thingy with lots of graphic chops. strict b&w. the brit-boys are all huge boosters for it; moore, morrison, ellis et al. influenced all of them. the next thing that hit was 'the tale of one bad rat' which is quite all right, and lovingly illustrated, in full colour. maybe my favourite thing of his, visually, next to 'heart of empire', the sequel to arkwright. 'heart of empire' looks good, it's all cg colour, but it's nice. then the diminishing returns set in. there's a series of graphic novels set in some sort of anthropomophic england where it's all toads & hedgehogs & such, with the blanket title of 'granville'. i don't like how they're drawn & coloured. then there's 'alice in sunderland' which is kind of a wanky wannabe alan moore psychogeographical exploration of the sunderland region & how that has anything to do with alice liddel & lewis carrol. that i do not recommend in any fucking way
Deletehe was a player, and now he's kind of a faded lege is the long & short of it. i'd heard of the batman story but had never sought it out. my ears perked up when you suggested this was a three-parter that was shrunk to two. is that your intepretation, or is that something you heard about the production? i'm curious because there's not that much of talbot working with other people, or editors outside the dark horse / euro-publisher realm. he did a few issues of sandman, but i don't know of much else in american comix
It just feels like it should have been three. Nothing but my gut on that. It might actually have been decent if they let it play out longer so Batman could actually been an active participant in his own rescue instead of coming out of the drug haze, witnessing the argument between his two captors, getting told exactly what happened, and then they conveniently died by each others hands. Batman might as well have stayed in his drug induced haze for all he did.
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