The Untold Legend of The Batman

The Untold Legend of the Batman by Len Wein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When his father's bat-suit arrives in the mail, shredded, Batman finds that someone close to him means to destroy him, someone who knows his true identity. Will Batman find the person targeting him before winding up dead?

I actually own two versions of this: the black and white paperback version DC put out in 1982 and the undersized individual issues that came with the Batman cereal do coincide with the first Tim Burton movie. My old copy got waterlogged when my beer fridge leaked but I stumbled upon a new copy a little while back at the used bookstore I always go to.

Back in 1980 or thereabouts, John Byrne had a gap in his schedule and DC offered him Untold Legend of the Batman, a retelling of Batman's origin for the Bronze Age. Due to logistical issues, Byrne only did the pencils for the first issue. Jim Aparo, MY Batman artist, did the inks on the first issue and all the art on the remaining two. Jose Luis Garcia Lopez did the covers. How's that for art? For the time period, it was pretty much unbeatable. In black and white, Jim Aparo's wizardry is quite apparent, especially in his use of shadow.

As for the story, it streamlined, rearranged, condensed, and edited a lot of material that came after Batman's first Silver Age appearance in Detective Comics 327, establishing that Bruce Wayne was the first person to wear the iconic Robin outfit Dick Grayson is known for and Thomas Wayne was the first Batman of sorts. It also recaps the origins of Robin, Alfred, the Batmobile, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon, and The Joker for the Bronze age.

The ending is kind of lame but since The Untold Legend of The Batman was a miniseries, it couldn't upset the apple cart too much. How many times has Batman been rebooted since Untold Legend of the Batman? Regardless, this is an interesting look at an interesting period in the life/publishing history of the Dark Knight, when Bruce Wayne lived atop the Wayne Foundation building because Wayne Manor was too big for he and Alfred when Dick went off to college. Batman is far from the flawless Bat-God he'd later be and seems a lot more human.

For a bunch of comics from 1980, The Untold Legend of the Batman holds up very well. Four out of five stars.

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