Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner

Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner by Matt Wagner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner contains Legends of the Dark Knight 28-30, Batman: The Riddle Factory, a story from Batman: Black and White #3, Batman: The Monster Men 1-6, Batman: The Mad Monk 1-6, and Batman #54. Matt Wagner draws all but one story and writes all but one story.

Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner sparked my interest for a variety of reasons. I enjoyed his Batman vs. Grendel, Sandman Mystery Theater, and the one issue of Mage I own. Mainly, I bought it because I wanted to read Batman: The Monster Men. The rest was a bonus.

Yeah, this is good shit right here. For the most part, Matt Wagner's Batman is in his early days, under gunned and in over his head at every turn. The first story, Faces, features Batman vs. Two Face and also features a criminal freak show. Wagner's art reminds me of Alex Toth's quite a bit in this one. I'd be surprised if Wagner didn't list Toth as an influence.

The second story, The Riddle Factory, was the only one in the collection not drawn by Matt Wagner and the only one I didn't really care for, although it had a few good moments. The coloring was garish as hell and I didn't think the art suited the story.

The Batman: Black and White story was only 8-10 pages but it was mind blowing and really showed what black and white comic art can achieve. It was simply fantastic.

The meat of the book for me were the two miniseries, Batman: The Monster Men and Batman: The Mad Monk, both reimaginings of some of Batman's Golden Age adventures, pulpy, horror-tinged tales featuring Hugo Strange and a vampire cult respectively. Matt's art evolved a bit since Faces but there was still a moody, Alex Toth vibe at times. Both knocked the batarang out of the bat cave for me.

As much as I was prepared to dislike the final story in the book, the only one not written by Matt Wagner, I liked it quite a bit. It was a standalone tale of Batman and Nightwing written by Tom King on the heels of Catwoman leaving Batman at the altar. It was a sweet little tale, tempered by the knowledge that Nightwing would be shot in the head shortly after.

Matt Wagner doesn't often get mentioned as one of the great Batman creators but for my money, Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner is a solid, hard to beat collection. 4.5 out of 5 silver batarangs.

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