In the aftermath of Batman: Year One’s immense popularity among readers, DC decided to go all-out with origin stories and tales set in the Dark Knight’s past. The Legends of the Dark Knight was a product of the late 1980s, with the aim to re-write Batman’s past, taking huge influence from the golden age stories of the late 1930s and early 1940s in order to create a modernised story that matched the darker Batman of the modern age. Editor Dennis O’Neil penned the first five-parter, one which focused on Bruce Wayne’s training and his first case as Batman. Grant Morrison wrote the second in Gothic, a unique and experimental epic that featured a character from Batman’s childhood. For the third, we have Prey and out of the first four stories of the run (the fourth is Venom and all of which are five-parters), it is the most identifiably Batman story of them all. When looking at the core villains of Batman’s Rouge’s Gallery, Hugo Strange is the oldest, created in Detective Comics 36 in February 1940. Here, Doug Moench, a writer who brought the character back in the 1980s, redefines the character and while doing so, delves deeper into the mind of Bruce Wayne and the real reasons he became Batman.
Legends of the Dark Knight 11-15 was published from September 1990 to February
1991. It was written by Doug Moench with art by Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin. I have read the story in its original issues.
In the grim dark streets of Gotham, undercover police prepare to bust a drug deal. Suddenly, the dealer is captured by a gliding Batman, taking the criminal onto the roof and interrogating him. As Batman beats the truth out of the dealer and learns that it is a villain known as The Fish who supplies the drugs, the police attempt to reach them both and arrest them. As expected, Batman disappears into the shadows, leaving the dealer for the police. Sgt Max Cort of the police isn’t pleased, and his hatred of Batman grows stronger. It always seems common in these earlier stories for at least one police officer to utterly despise Batman and, unsurprisingly, that spawned with Year One. Anyway, Cort later asks Captain James Gordon to be tougher on vigilantism, but he must dash as he’s got a TV interview with Mayor Wilson Klass and psychiatrist Hugo Strange. This always struck me as strange (no pun intended there) as Gordon isn’t yet Commissioner and surely in a city like Gotham (where crime is as contagious as the plague), he probably wouldn’t have the time to do anything like this. Regardless, Hugo Strange psychoanalyses Batman and comments on his unnatural obsession to head out into the night dressed as a bat. Bruce Wayne watches the broadcast and dramatically shatters a glass in his hand at Strange discussing the Batman’s torments. Make of that what you will. Anyway, it is live on TV when Gordon finds out from Mayor Klass that he is creating a new vigilante taskforce, with Gordon as its leader. Bear in mind that this takes place after Year One and as Batman has saved Gordon’s son from falling off a bridge, the bond between the characters has been created and there is a trust between them. Therefore, Gordon doesn’t really want the job, but it’s basically thrust upon him. Klass also takes an interest in Hugo Strange and asks him to join the taskforce, to which any Batman reader would know is a bad idea. Anyway, at the same time, Batman continues to work on his prototype Batmobile (a nice addition to the story), while Gordon hires Cort for his taskforce, and Strange accepts Klass’s offer, but only if he is given all police records on Batman and he reports directly to him and not to Gordon, sensing that he is too close to Batman. Later on, Batman continues to hunt down The Fish (unaware that Catwoman nearby is doing the same), while Cort tests out the new taskforce by, you guessed it, hunting down The Fish. Meanwhile, Hugo Strange speaks to a dummy about his theories on Batman and possible origins for him, before moving to the next level and creating his own Batman suit. This is why I’ve always liked Hugo Strange. While he is one of Batman’s most intelligent and cunning villains, he himself is crazy too. But he fails to recognise that. His theories on Batman can often be mirrored and reflected on himself. For example, when Strange discusses Batman’s obsession, Strange too has the same quality as Batman. Therefore, Strange may think that Batman is insane, but he is too. And that isn’t even taking the dummy he talks to into consideration. Anyway, Batman attacks Fish and his men, but as he does so, Cort and the taskforce appear and fire back. Batman quickly makes his escape, but his mission has failed because of the police. When he arrives home, it is morning. At the same time, Strange puts on his Batman costume, attempting to emulate Batman by standing on top of tall buildings. It stops when he nearly falls to his death. Later that night, Bruce Wayne attends the Mayor’s party and speaks to Strange, listening to his theories before Catherine, the mayor's daughter speaks her mind about how Batman is the only one doing what must be done in the city. Strange takes a liking to her, making her the obvious candidate for kidnapping. Whoops, that’s a spoiler, but it isn’t much of a surprise when we are taking about Hugo Strange. Meanwhile, the taskforce finds Batman’s glider and takes it back for examination, with Gordon becoming worried about Cort’s over-intense attitude towards Batman. Speaking of which, am I the only one who thinks that the glider Batman had in his early days was an unpractical idea? It wasn’t part of his costume, more of a flimsy addition that becomes useless once a bullet strikes it. It appeared in several earlier stories and even some recent ones, but I’ve always found it to be rather dated. Anyway, Gordon warns Cort not to kill Batman if he finds him and as Cort leaves with the taskforce, the Dark Knight himself appears and is moody that The Fish escaped because the police interfered. Gordon himself is conflicted as his job is on the line, but he reluctantly and secretly supports Batman because he gets things done. In an attempt to work together to capture The Fish, Batman takes out another criminal named Cardona, offering him to Cort and the taskforce to prove they are on the same side. But it fails and Cort orders his men to continue their hunt for Batman. After that failure, Gordon communicates with Batman by creating one of the most iconic things from the Batman mythos: the bat signal. Although Batman responds to it, Cort secretly watches the meeting between the Dark Knight and Gordon. From there, Cort goes directly to Hugo Strange, who learns of Gordon’s betrayal. But, even more oddly, Strange asks Cort if he really is as muscular as he looks, creating one of the weirdest cliff-hanger endings to an issue I’ve ever read. It’s clear from the first two parts that this story is very reminiscent of Steve Englehart’s and Marshall Roger’s Strange Apparitions story from Detective Comics during the late 1970s. It is a short stint that changed Hugo Strange and humanised Batman more several years after Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams had begun that process. Of course, the influence of Frank Miller is here in the tone of the story (heavily influenced from Year One), but the way the characters are written, and the story itself is very similar to something from the bronze age and with a character like Strange, they work well. Anyway, the third part begins with Catherine pretty much rejecting Strange in a date, and him threatening her as he leaves. Back at his home, after dramatically crying about it and talking to his dummy once again, Strange meets Cort
and hypnotises him, before telling him that his research has found that Batman must be wealthy, around twenty-five years old, single, and possibly a widower. However, as Gordon is helping Batman, Strange believes he must do the same for Cort. He gives Cort a costume and tells him to head into the night. As Batman takes out some drunks on the street, Cort arrives at a club as the Night Scourge. He beats up everybody in there and then confronts the owner, doing the same to him. Batman hears about the new vigilante on the radio and Strange holds a press conference, stating that the Night Scourge only exists because of Batman’s vigilante acts. They must both be stopped. Later, Batman meets with Gordon, who warns that the Night Scourge must be stopped, otherwise they will both in trouble with the Mayor. Then, we go back to Catwoman, who heads out into the night only to find the Night Scourge. Before we get to that, Catwoman appears rather sporadically throughout the story and, not spoiling the story), she basically has little or no relevance to the main plot. She only really turns up here just to steal some things from the Fish. I get that Moench wants her to feature in the story in order to build more of the Year One world around Batman, but at least give her to connection to the story. If not, then she may as well not be in it at all. Regardless, Catwoman fights Night Scourge before Batman involves himself. However, it ends with the Night Scourge escaping and Catwoman knocking Batman unconscious for… some reason. Anyway, while Batman is unconscious, Cort returns to Strange, who gives him his Batman costume. From there, Cort kidnaps Catherine and the Mayor puts out a warrant for Batman’s arrest. I guess the only reason Catwoman was in the story was so that he wasn’t around when Catherine was kidnapped. If that’s the case, then why didn’t Night Scourge knock him out. Anyway, the fourth part begins with the Mayor giving Gordon five days to find Batman, otherwise he’s fired. With that news, Cort accelerates his plan with the taskforce, telling them shoot to kill. Meanwhile, Batman awakens after the obligatory flashback to the death of his parents scene, only to find that everybody is after him for kidnapping charges. He heads to Hugo Strange’s apartment, where (unaware to him) Catherine is hidden. Batman confronts Strange, telling him that he knows that he kidnapped Catherine. However, Strange focuses more on Batman’s background, only to trick him and poison him with a hallucinogen. With that, Batman stumbles and Strange pushes him off the balcony, only to hear Batman utter the words “mother” and “father”. With that, Strange phones the police, demanding to have the files on double murders in Gotham during the last two decades. As Batman has another flashback, Night Scourge becomes further tangled in vigilantism as he takes out more crooks more violently. The next day, Gordon finds Cort asleep in his office. However, he also finds Cort has Strange’s phone number written down and all the files on Batman. Speaking of the Dark Knight, he awakens on Gotham pier and stumbles back home only to find Alfred knocked out. Bruce then is confronted by his mother and father, only to find they are dummies created by Strange. Batman goes full-on mental breakdown, attacking an awakened Alfred and falling into a third bout of unconsciousness, this time in the cave. With Strange now knowing Batman’s identity, the stakes are higher, and Gordon only has one day to find the Mayor’s daughter. As the Night Scourge continues his acts of slaughter across the city, Batman finishes work on his Batmobile and heads out into the night. He confronts Strange once again, this time pretending not to know who the (continued)
dummies he sent to Wayne Manor were meant to be and claiming that his parents live in Paraguay. Then, Gordon arrives, and Batman presents to him a tape recording of Strange’s confession. Gordon arrests Strange and they then find Catherine. Although she is safe and Gordon’s career is too, Batman warns that the Night Scourge is still out there. Suddenly, Strange breaks free and tries to escape, only to be shot dead by the police as he leaps into the river. Well, I say dead. It’s hard to kill any Batman villain as you know they’ll be back. Anyway, Gordon tells Batman to go after Max Cort, who he has discovered is the Night Scourge from a weapon he found in his office. Rather the reverse than expected, it is the Night Scourge who finds Batman and the two duel once more, with Batman this time the successor. Oh, with some help from Catwoman. The Night Scourge attempts to escape by heading into the GCPD building and revealing himself as Cort. However, the plan backfires when Gordon arrives and proves that Hugo Strange and Cort were behind the kidnapping together. Outnumbered, Cort is instantly killed when he tries to attack Batman. In the end, Gordon is congratulated by the Mayor and the taskforce is put on hold (i.e., forgotten about until death). Batman is no longer being hunted by the police and Gordon prays that Batman will stay in Gotham for years to come as god knows the city really needs him. If you’ve read any story with Hugo Strange in it, then this isn’t really anything new. Strange is completely obsessed with Batman and his identity, finding out exactly who he is. Ultimately, Batman defeats him and the story ends. Sure, there are some exceptions to that rule like Batman and the Monster Men by Matt Wagner, but most Hugo Strange stories are the same. With Prey however, I can tolerate that usual formula far more. That is because, like Year One, it is a modernised version of Strange’s first meeting with Batman and there are notable new features in the plot, especially with the police. As a villain, I’ve said that Strange is insane and that becomes clearer as the story progresses. But that is what makes him into a unique villain and ultimately, he becomes one of Batman’s most threatening villains. That being said, one of the biggest flaws of the story has to be the Night Scourge, whose purpose is understandable, but I’m left wondering what the point of him is. I guess it is to vary the story because after the first two issues, the police versus Batman story becomes somewhat stale. But, apart from adding another villain for more action scenes and framing Batman for kidnapping, why did the Night Scourge have to exist. We don’t see that much of what he does. We only hear or read about the crimes he’s committing. The Night Scourge may give Cort, a lacklustre cop who hates Batman just because, some depth and character, but he isn’t used in the way that I thought he should have been. The same applies to Catwoman, who really shouldn’t have featured in the story unless she had a significant role in the plot. It also doesn’t help that the Night Scourge’s 1990s costume is associated in my mind with some of the awful characters that Image later created, but I guess that was the time. Other than that, there isn’t much else bad to say about the story. Batman has had so many writers throughout his eighty-two-year lifespan and while the 1990s may be a shaky period for comics in the minds of many, it is ironically the era that featured some of Batman’s best and most consistent writers. Dennis O’Neil, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant and Doug Moench were the four behind the Batman titles during this period and all four of them consistently wrote excellent stories that, to me anyway, make the period from 1987 to 1998 (from Year One to the start of No Man’s Land) the best era of Batman ever. Moench’s writing here captures perfectly the characters of Batman, Hugo Strange and Gordon. In creating the vigilante taskforce, Moench creates a perfect device to divide Batman and Gordon, which ultimately leaves Gordon with tough decisions to make. But their friendship pulls through in the end and partly as a result of this story (and others), Gordon ends up becoming police Commissioner. Moench certainly knows how to write Batman stories as this is far from his first and he has written for Hugo Strange before, he knows how the character works. At the same time, Moench takes inspiration from the 1940s stories that featured Strange and that is reflected in the rather gothic tone and dark setting. Overall, Prey is about obsession and about how Batman and Hugo Strange are more similar than they would both realise. Let’s face it, they are both mentally unstable and that is down to what fuels them both. But, without looking too deep into it, Prey modernises Batman’s early days in both his relationship with Gordon and the mystery surrounding him own identity. Batman may be Bruce Wayne, but the true answers to why are far deeper than that or the death of his parents. Now I’m starting to sound like Hugo Strange.
With Legends of the Dark Knight having no regular writers and artists, Moench was teamed up with two artists who he’d worked with before, those being Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin. They had worked together on Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu during the 1970s and from there, the partnership expanded across companies. Gulacy’s reminds me of Brian Bolland in the sense that it is incredibly detailed and dynamic. His sense of storytelling works effectively, especially with Moench’s plot. The finishes by Terry Austin are also brilliant here because their styles are smooth and careful, therefore (continued)
creating an impressive appearance to the story. As a result of that, the art is without any real flaws. It does what great art in comics should do. It tells the story effectively and dramatically, while ensuring that all the cast look like human beings. Not only that, but Gulacy’s and Austin’s art create the mood of the story and if it weren’t for them, Moench’s story would be poorer as a result of it.
VERDICT
Overall, Batman: Prey is a very good story that redefines Hugo Strange once again. It may be a story we are somewhat familiar with, but Moench adds no characters and additions to the story in order to make it fresh and different. Moench also writes all the characters brilliantly here and there are only a few flaws, those being aspects of Catwoman and the Night Scourge. Apart from that, Moench writes another great Batman story, and much credit must be given to Gulacy and Austin for creating the mood and drama of the story. Overall, like Shaman, and in some aspects Gothic, Prey is another brilliant story in the Legends of the Dark Knight title.
Story: 9/10
Art: 10/10
Next Week: Green Arrow: Next Generation (Green Arrow (vol 2) 102-111, Green Lantern (vol 3) 76-77). Written by Chuck Dixon and Ron Marz with art by Rodolfo Demaggio, Robert Campanella, Jim Aparo, Bill Sienkiewicz, Paul Pelletier and Romeo Tanghal.
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