Back to reading the OG Legends of the Dark Knight run, issues 1-100, and writing about each issue here on Notes. 

“Prey” starts growing on me with Legends of the Dark Knight #12. It’s part 2 in the line’s third miniseries and re-tells one of Batman’s first meetings with Hugo Strange.

Plot-wise, it’s not bad.

It’s not a moody, supernatural story like “Shaman” and “Gothic” before it. Rather, we have a psychological story of obsession — Bruce with Batman, Strange with Batman, so on and so forth.

For me, it’s not living up to its ambitions. But, there are redeeming qualities. We’re starting to get some fun “Year One” moments in Batman’s career. And Paul Gulacy is clearly having a fucking fiesta doing this book.

Let’s talk about some of the things that are keeping me hooked at this point.

Cool “Year One” moments — we open on a splash page of a fully-costumed Batman walking across the manicured lawn of Wayne Manor in broad daylight.

See, he was stranded downtown and had to walk all the goddamn way home.

No Batmobile yet, see. That was a cool little detail.

While Strange is our main antagonist, we also see a robust threat from the GCPD.

Sick of Batman stepping on their toes, they’ve launched a task force headed up by a potential sociopath named Sgt. Cort to take him down.

So for help, Batman approaches who else but James Gordon.

Here we see the now-legendary alliance in its early days. Shaky, but steadily building in trust and mutual respect.

We also get the debut of the bat signal, and the clandestine rooftop meetings this pairing is so well known for.

A few more things of note — we have an extended knock-down, drag-out fight with a naked mobster (teased on the cover).

As a comic book artist myself, I can tell you — drawing fight scenes is extremely fun, but extremely difficult.

As an artist, you usually want to save your energy for the handful of big moments in each issue — a double-page splash, a cliffhanger, some kind of action moment in the middle. A page full of talking is boring, but easy.

So whenever you run into a comic where you get all that plus 3 or 4 pages of a highly technical, fast-paced fight scene, make no mistake — you’re holding a special issue.

You’re holding an issue the artist put in extra hours to get to deadline. Something he or she can’t do every month.

But every once in a while, you say “fuck it” and let it rip and have fun, even if it means staying up well past midnight.

Take care to appreciate this when you see it.

I can also tell Gulacy was having fun with this issue due to the raw volume of cheesecake in here.

Suggestive nudity is one of my favorite things about 80s and 90s comics. As a kid, specifically a young boy, this kind of thing instantly tells you that you’re holding a book that you’re not supposed to have.

The sexual content isn’t gratuitous, so it’s still “safe” enough from an adult point of view. But as a child, you really feel like you’re holding something dangerous.

That was a big part of the fun of comics back then. I’m not sure comics are still fun in that way today.

But they could be.

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Credits:

Writer: Doug Moench

Art: Paul Gulacy

Letterer: John Costanza

Colorist: Steve Oliff

Asst Editor: Kevin Dooley

Editor: Andrew Helfer