Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "len-wein"

Tales of the Batman: Len Wein by Len Wein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Len Wein's Batman work is collected in this book. Included the book are a variety of stories written for Detective Comics during the 1970s and 1980s, an Issue of World's Finest, Wein's nearly two-year run writing Batman, the Legends of the Dark Knight Mini-series, a DC lost story publication from the 1970s era that was released in 2011 and a story from Batman: Black and White:

Detective Comics: Wein's first Batman story was Detective Comics #408, drawn by Neal Adams. it's atmospheric piece with Batman wandering around a mystery house. Many more Detective Comics stories are featured. Highlight include the Bat-Murderer saga where Batman is framed for the murder of Talia Al-Ghul and the police believe he did it, and he ends up on the wrong side of the law for a multiple issues and meets up with the Creeper. There's a great Signalman story that was surprising how good it was because it's Signalman. Last issue had Batman meeting a knock off Grizzly Adams.


World's Finest #207: Clark Kent is hiring thugs to kill Superman. Why? A good issue with a nice fight between Batman, Superman, and Doctor Light, but a somewhat disappointing solution to the mystery.

Wein's Batman run: A very serviceable run. The big highlight is the introduction of Lucius Fox. Also during this time, Selina Kyle had reformed and has a relationship with Bruce Wayne. Among the villains Batman battled were Two-Face, Mister Freeze, and Calander Man. The stories were mostly good (save for the Joker's 40th Anniversary Issue which didn't really rise to the occasion.) The book's biggest fault is that the comics seemed to be trying to imitate Marvel too hard such as when Batman has a relationship failure and responds to moaning from a rooftop. Bat-Spider-man!

Untold Legends of the Batman: DC's Second limited series took all the information about Batman's origin from comics over the decade and collected them in a single volume while Wein fleshed out Batman's origins in his own way. It's a really solid Batman story, easily overlooked because Crisis on Infinite Earth wiped out. The plot finds someone messing with Batman, destroying his dad's Batman suit, and even trying to blow up the Batmobile. The events require Batman to retrace his life story. The writing is really good and the art by John Byrne (issue 1) and Jim Aparo is superb.

DC Retrospective: Batman: The 1970s #1: An untold tale from Aparo's time on Batman. He gets to pick up some threats that were never fully explored during his original run. The writing is as good as it was back when he wrote the original series, which is pretty good, and features a new version of the Terrible Trio.

Batman: Black and White #5: A Two-face story that's short but has a really good twist. My one complaint? Didn't care much for how the artist drew Batman (insanely bulkly.) Still Wein's last Batman tale is a quick enjoyable short story.

Overall, a good mix of stories. Most are quite solid and there are some really gems here that make this a worthwhile read for Batman fans.



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