Legends’ First Arc Ends and We Dive Deeper into Joker’s Puzzlebox in Bat Chat

It’s catch-up week here at Bat Chat. With none of the main-continuity Bat titles dropping, we’ll be discussing three out-of-continuity digital first tales: two released physically in the past couple weeks, and one that is still digital for a couple more months.

The inaugural arc of the new volume of Legends of the Dark Knight wraps up with issue #3. Worn down, Batman has an unusual encounter with Riddler before finally finding the man in the gas mask and the Gotham rogue who has designs on the poison gas, in an issue written and penciled by Darick Robertson, inked by Robertson and Richard P. Clark, colored by Diego Rodriguez and lettered by Simon Bowland. 

We catch up with the Joker in interrogation with two issues of The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox. The two factions of villains, one working for Riddler and one for Catwoman, start the hunt for the pieces of a mysterious artifact, which sets them on a collision course. Both issues #3 and 4 are written by Matthew Rosenberg. Art in issue #3 is by Jesus Merino and Keron Grant, colors by Ulises Arreola and Grant and letters by Ferran Delgado. Art in issue #4 is by Merino and Dani, colors by Arreola and Jeremy Cox and letters by Delgado.

Matt Lazorwitz: We’re into the third week of the month, which is our hodgepodge, no main-continuity Bat book week. It’s fun, not having to keep track of how these books tie into everything else in the DCU or in Gotham. 

Will Nevin: Robertson got into some dangerous waters with that last time, making references to “No Man’s Land” and such. But here? Just some good ol’ fashioned nonsense. 

Matt: There is a pretty noticeable hiccup in Puzzlebox this week, but we’ll get to that when we get there.

Will: Oh, there is some Puzzlebox shit to talk about. Will’s mad. Big mad. Mad enough to refer to himself in the third person.

We Miss Alfred

Matt: So, we reach the end of this first arc, and all I can say is … it’s fine. This isn’t going down in the annals as one of the great Legends of the Dark Knight arcs, but I’ve also read way worse.

Will: You read my dadgum mind, Brother Matt. It’s perfectly OK with a dash of mediocre. The two thoughts that popped into my head while I was reading the digital chapters: 1) I do not see how Chs. 5/6 hang together as anything approaching narrative consistency in tone, and 2) Do you think Robertson is pretty good at the big picture level as both a writer and an artist but falls apart when we get to small scale things? We talked about him fudging a lot of the details in the story, but one thing that struck me here is that he is capital B Bad when it comes to facial expressions as an artist. His fight scenes, though? Good stuff.

Matt: Robertson works in a very particular type of story. It’s no wonder he’s best known for working with Garth Ennis and the writer of Transmetropolitan whom we no longer speak of. These are over-the-top stories where there is no subtlety in the characters, and so his rubberface shtick works. But when he’s trying to go on model with characters he didn’t create, that doesn’t work as well. He has a good sense of motion and design; I like how dirty and gritty his Gotham is. But the Riddler looks … weird. He’s best off drawing Scarecrow, whose face is entirely hidden behind a mask.

I also see what you mean about the big picture vs. the details. The concept here is solid: Someone is selling sarin gas to one of Gotham’s rogues, and Batman has to find out who and stop both the villain buying and the guy selling. That’s a good Batman premise! But the detective action a story like that would imply is lost. Batman just beats the snot out of guys until they give up the info. Batman is not the Punisher; he’s smarter than that.

What gets me is that Robertson does understand that in other parts of the story. When Riddler makes his plea that he wants to go straight and find a life with Quiz? Batman gives him a shot. And you know what? I’m OK with that. Most iterations of the Riddler make him out to be one of the least violent and prone-to-murder of the Arkahm set, and Batman has given more than two chances to the considerably more homicidal Two-Face or Mr. Freeze. I like that Robertson doesn’t have Batman just deck Riddler and drag him off to Arkham; he still is a little harsher than a more rational Batman would be when in that situation for my taste, but you can chalk that up to the long night he’s had.

Will: And Robertson does a bang-up job with the coda and Alfred’s interaction with Bruce. The closeups of the breakfast tray, only for it to fall to the floor after Mr. Stiff Upper Lip loses it? Great work. But let me ask you — those really read as distinct works to me, the Riddler/Quiz stuff and the end of the night/recovery at the manor. How did they work together in one print issue? 

Matt: Oh, bigtime cognitive dissonance. Rarely have I felt a chapter break more clearly than in that issue. You can tell in something like Batman & Scooby-Doo where the break is, sure, but this? This was “hard black-end of episode-next episode starts in 20 seconds” break here. This was obviously two somewhat related stories in one issue.

Also, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Any time Alfred shows up in a flashback or an out-of-continuity story, it just reinforces how much his presence is missed in the main DCU.

Will: The first writer/editor/whoever to bring back Alfred in the main books will be my favorite. Redeem yourself, Tynion.

Think outside the Puzzlebox

Matt: As I said above, we’re looking at two issues of Puzzlebox here. Since each one is only 17 pages, it’s closer to a standard book and a half than two full comics. Brother Will, it sounded like you had some strong feelings on this one, so why don’t you get us rolling?

Will: My issue here — and this is not about 3/4 specifically — is that I just learned they are releasing “director’s cut” versions of each one of these chapters. And these “director’s cut” books have six extra pages, which is half of what the main story has. So it sounds like these extended versions are the ones in print? I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m mad because I read the longer version of ch. 1, and it’s got good shit — but the longer cuts of 3 and 4 aren’t yet available. I have no idea what DC is doing here or why other than to encourage double dipping, which seems super shitty of them.

Matt: Yeah, I’m not sure. There doesn’t seem to be anything in these later chapters thats feel like ancillary material, but the initial press release and stuff is vague. Is the Director’s Cut material the bits at the back, the Merino stuff with Black Mask, and the print versions will be shorter? Or is that standard fair and there will be more pages in print as you say. I’d feel pretty unsatisfied if it’s the former, because even with two issues jammed into one for print from digital, the main story, while very fun, is thin and it feels like the backup stuff here is filling in a lot of the clues. Either way, there is the stink of a cash grab here.

Will: The sales copy promises “additional clues for readers” and that “[e]ach issue of Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox includes a BONUS BOX story, giving additional clues and insights to help you stay two steps ahead of Joker!” In the director’s cut #1, we see Gordon talking through some strategy with one of his detectives and making the observation that most of the rogues they’ve captured won’t talk so the interrogation rooms are useless. “It’s like the treadmill my daughter got me for Christmas,” Gordon says. “Nobody’s going to use it, it’s just nice to pretend.” A hilarious laugh line that was not available to Will the first time he read the book. See, that’s why Will is so mad.

Matt: That is not cool at all. As a mostly physical reader, I don’t think of that disparity, and now that I am, I’m getting a bit miffed as well, on behalf of people who either don’t have the space for physical comics, the access to a comic shop or who just prefer digital media. 

But we should spend some time on the content as well, because there is some cool stuff in here. For one thing, I like how different the art styles are on the book. Using artists like Dani, who has a very distinct style, juxtaposed against Jesus Merino’s solid house style really works to set this apart.

Will: I agree with the concept, *but* some of the execution here felt off. The visuals in ch. 3 were great at setting the mood but obscured too many details. And I thought the work in 4 seemed a bit amateurish and didn’t necessarily meet the tone of “Oops, you just beat your friends half to death.”

Matt: Fair. Neither of these styles are for everyone, and more than that, these aren’t artists who have a lot of superhero experience. I can see where you’re coming from with issue #4, but I am a fan of the artist, Dani, after her work on the underrated Hill House book The Low, Low Woods, so I am looking at that from a place of familiarity. My issue was more with issue #3, where the punch of a switcheroo is hurt by how shaded things were; as you said, the details were sketchy, and that kind of thing works better when there are little visual clues to go with the script clues. 

Will: Overall, what do you think about the story structure — with each chapter seeing a different baddie go after the big important MacGuffin only for some calamity involving another baddie to befall them?

Matt: I’m reading that as a love letter to classic superhero team book storytelling. Every issue of Justice League of America for the first … at least 50 issues did this: Big team divides into small teams, goes out, has an adventure, comes back together for the finale. It’s a trope, and one I enjoy. Plus it gets us some interesting character interactions we don’t usually see. When Dan and I interviewed Juni Ba on WMQ&A, he said his chapter is Croc Vs. Man-Bat. I love a good classic monster battle.

Will: That should be some good reading and even better fighting. I guess this series is not turning out to be what I expected it to be — in that I thought there would be an actual mystery to solve in who killed the Riddler. Seems, though, with these character mashups, it’s the journey and not the destination with Puzzlebox.

Bat-miscellany

• Seeing Robertson use both designs, I have to say, I come firmly down on the Riddler in a suit and bowler costume over the green bodystocking costume. It suits the character better.
• Is it a rule that for every Black Mask appearance we have to establish that he can’t take off his mask? I’m strangely OK with that.
• The mask was burned onto his face after he was caught in a fire, so it is stuck on there unless you want to tear his face off with it. Now this is the dude who killed Catwoman’s brother-in-law and FED HIM to her sister, so I’m not too opposed to that…
• Truly, only something Scott Tenorman would deserve.
• OK, while I know Black Label content doesn’t fit into continuity, and I’m cool with that, some characters appearing in the same story can be jarring. We saw Punchline, a character who is still fairly new, appear in issue #2. In issue #3, we see Rene Montoya with her old partner, Crispus Allen, who was murdered in 2006. There’s no way these two characters could coexist, and it threw me out for a minute. That might be me just being a continuity nerd, though, and if Rosenberg wants to bring back Cris, I’m all for it.

Matthew Lazorwitz

Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.

Will Nevin

Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.