Comic Review: Legends of the Dark Knight #1 (DC Comics)

Yesterday, I decided that I had so many ideas for Batman-related blog posts that I would just make this week Bat-Week. So far, you can read my review of The Dark Knight Rises or check out one of the not as popular new 52 Batman comics. Today, I thought I would offer up another comic review, but this time I'm reviewing the digital exclusive comic Legends of the Dark Knight by Damon Lindelof and Jeff Lemire. Read on for my thoughts...

I had heard of this comic when it first debuted not too long ago, but I picked it up recently for the same reason that I tried out the Red Hood comic: it is only $0.99. That price point is my prime target for digital comics and I will try out just about anything at that price. So earlier this week when I was looking for some cheap comics I rediscovered this title and decided to try out the first issue.

Let's just say I won't be picking up anymore issues. I hated this comic! First of all, it felt like there was hardly a story here at all. There was 20+ pages, but each page is formatted landscape and there is not much on each page. We end up getting a small story about how Alfred teaches Batman a lesson early on in his crime-fighting....and that's it. In my opinion, there isn't hardly anything here that is entertaining on any level: if this lesson was incorporated into a normal comic, it would have taken up 2-3 pages and that is it. Which is basically what I got: 2-3 normal comic pages worth of story.

Not only that, but the story itself plays out as very weak. The Batman in this story makes some fairly big mistakes, ones that I couldn't really believe he was doing upon first read. When I sat back and thought about it, it *might* make sense that they would be mistakes that Batman would make early on--but its a stretch. To make matters worse, I am NOT a fan of the artwork in this issue at all. There was one particular panel that was a close up of Batman's face and it almost made me gag.

IN CONCLUSION: Don't bother with this comic. There are plenty of other good digital comics that take advantage of the $0.99 price point very well - IDW's Transformers: Autocracy series is a great example of this. Go read that comic instead.

Have you found any really cheap digital comics lately? Let me know in the comments below, or send me an email at chris@ocdcast.com.