A decent-enough set of small arcs of early Batman stories. I'd say "ret-con", but they seem to fit any given continuity, so it was more of a "retroactive expansion" than a "retroactive continuity correction". All arcs brought to you courtesy of the "Legends of the Dark Knight" series."Masks" examines the core of Bruce Wayne's psyche as well as the possibility that Batman is nothing but a delusional fantasy of a broken man. I especially liked "Images" for its deft interweaving of new material, th...

Four stories, leaning toward the creepy, mostly quite good. The weakest link is the Joker story, which I think focuses on the same old story too much. The other three are a creepy "fake hospital" story, one about Batman's training that boasts great dialogue, and a final creepy one.

I think its fair to say that I am not a huge fan of the Legends of the Dark Knight Series. Although a lot of writers that worked on this series, such as Grant Morrison, went on to later write much better Batman comics.This collection contains issues #39-40, 50, and 52-54. The first story is about Bruce Wayne losing his group on reality and takes the more psychological approach. There isn't anything here that hasn't been done before, but it was still an enjoyable read and had a cool cameo of the

Over the years there have been many monthly Batman titles, and for me, one of the best was Legends of the Dark Knight. Collected here are four stories from LotDK, featuring some of the best names to ever write and draw comics. Focusing on Batman when he was a lone crimefighter, Legends often covered stories from Bruce Wayne's years in training.This is a fantastic collection of early Batman tales to savour!

Collection of four different Legends of the Dark Knight stories, this book includes:Mask, by Bryan Talbot. Fittingly, from a man who did some truly mind-bending drug comics in the 70s and the world-bending epics The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and Heart of Empire: the Legacy of Luther Arkwright (both recommended), this story is a mind-warping trip. Batman stops a run of the mill break-in, but he collapses as soon as he leaves the scene.When he wakes up, he's in a hospital and Dr. Mike Clayton...

A review will come....

A few years ago, I made a chronology for how to read modern Batman. I was focused quite a bit on creating the order, as opposed to just reading the books for enjoyment, so now I'm going back to see how the chronology holds up.I've dumped a few collections off the chronology already, but this one stays. It is, sadly, not currently available from Diamond (who hold a monopoly on distribution rights to comic book stores),but it's worth digging around used book stores or online to find a copy.It open...

#39-40 - Mask - ★★★★ (Fun nightmarish horror story. Really Nightmare on Elm Street-esque visuals.)#50 - Images - ★★ (Bland Joker Story.)#52-53 - Tao - ★★★ (Decent Spiritual story with Kung-Fu action. Great art.)#54 -Sanctum - ★★★★★ (Mike Mignola issue, one of my favorite Batman stories of all time.)

Not as good as I remember it. The stories seem very dated, some were legitimately boring, and I was happy when it was over. The art was hit or miss. I really liked the illustrations in Tao and the last one. Masks and Faces looked just... old. This is a skippable volume.

Four extremely disturbing short tales from the lore of Batman and his messed up past.A must read for the fans of the Dark Knight.

Batman: Dark Legends is a collection of six issues from the original run of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. It mainly features a collection of stories that are independently standalones that ranges in various lengths. Batman: Dark Legends collect six issues (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #39–40, 50, and 52–54) from the 1989 series run and collect four stories: "Mask", "Images", "Tao" and "Sanctum"."Mask" is a two-issue storyline (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #39–40), which has Bru...

A compendium of stories set in the early years of Batman's career, including a tale from Bruce's training in the Orient, a Dennis O'Neil imagining of the Dark Knight's first encounter with the Joker, a ghost story of sorts, and the requisite psychological wrangling of Bruce's childhood trauma. It's this last story that works the best, with Bruce projecting his own fears and assumptions onto those close to him (Alfred, Catwoman, etc.); just try not to over-think how contrived the set-up is. All i...

A nice collection of stories that offer variety, action and mystery.Mask is a great idea, a new take on the idea of Batman that is let down by a convoluted ending that feels a little forced. A few panels near the end do suggest Batman might still be a figment of a drunk man's imagination though...!Images is good fun, but pedestrian. It doesn't offer much new in way of the Joker, and actually robs him of some mystery. The punchline in the last panel will definitely raise a smile though!The final

This is a mishmash. The first story "Masks" is not my cup of tea. It goes into surrealism and feels empty and I hated reading it. Images is a standard Joker, post Man Who Laughs origin story. It packs none of the punch of that first encounter and of the three Joker origins I've read it is the least memorable. Tao looks like a 70s kung fu flick but has none of the style. Mignola's Sanctum is a more engrossing tale that I wish was a two parter so it could be clearer. This collection is not great a...

As a whole, this book is nothing special. I am a completionist and need this for my Legends of the Dark Knight run, however there is one story in here that stands out. Tao Pt. 1 & 2 are so amazing they could be made into a feature film in my opinion. The art is hyper-realistic looking, the writing is great, and it really adds more mythos to Bruce Wayne's early training before he became Batman and his (not-so) religious beliefs. While I think Tao (which is only a third of this book) make this wor...

I just reread this and, for the most part, enjoyed it. Batman: Dark Legends contains four stories from the Legends of the Dark Knight series.Masks - I really like how Brian Talbot wrote and drew this story. This is a two-part psychological story wherein Bruce Wayne questions whether he really is a crime fighter or is it just a byproduct of his imagination. There is even a reference to Miller’s The Dark Knight story.Images - The second story tells of Batman’s first Joker encounter in LOTDK. This

Three stories. Images is based on Batman #1, the first appearance of the Joker. Tao is a look at some of Bruce Wayne's early training. Both are good tales. Mask, the third story is the real treasure here though.

A strangely collected book featured some completely unrelated stories. Mike Mignola does Batman so that alone is fantastic. The other two stories were pretty bland. An Asian-inspired Batman tale that was considerably lacking and another look at Batman going insane. Overall, the book was just an average look at some early Batman tales.

GREAT...

Yet another book I was a little hesitant about, not really knowing what I was going to get. What I did get was some amazing writers teaming up with some quality artists to tell a plethora of different stories, psychological, supernatural and mystical. The stories like many collections by different writers do vary, but they are all entertaining and worth reading. Particularly an early meeting with the Joker from Dennis O'Neill who arguably brought batman back from the slapstick parody he was beco...