Batman: Urban Legends #1 descends to us from DC this week, with stories featuring Red Hood, Grifter, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, and The Outsiders. It’s an $8.00 book, inside the Infinite Frontier category.
Urban Legends contains four stories, all of them continued. So be aware, these are not ‘done in one’, nor even ‘done in this title, later down the road’. The Harley story carries on in a separate title; Harley Quinn and Batman. There, I said it. Continuing on…
Among the four stories, I think the strongest is the Red Hood and Batman tale “Cheer”. What do I want for my eight bucks? I want story, drama, and characters. I think “Cheer” showed the most depth and thoughful character development. Red Hood’s antagonism toward Batman. Batman’s failings as a parent. Loads of bone-crunching action and the ‘always’ raining dark Gotham scenes. Rooftops with a Batman looking down at the streets. The old days of Red Hood in training, already showing his restlessness. Alfred hovering around, dispensing wisdom and after-dinner mints. Story by Chip Zdarsky, plus three artists and a colourist. Okay, next.
The Harley story. Flawed, perhaps, in its “This was then, wait, now this is now, then” continual time jumping journey. Flawed perhaps in the ‘nothing really physically happens much’ way. But still, we have character scenes. Drama. Emotion. Lightning effects. The critical amino acids for good stories.
The remaining stories are heavy on monologues, heavy on action, but something in the writing is just not working hard enough. Rants, jumping, and darkness? We want Legendary stories in one of DC’s hottest new titles. Urban Legends!
DC, Batman: Urban Legends #1, $7.99 for 67 pages of content. Teen
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