Hello and welcome to the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
For this month, we’re going back to where we left off in October and delve into an event that was apparently much bigger than I thought it was going to be, Legacy, written by Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant and Doug Moench, with art by Graham Nolan, Jim Balent, Jim Aparo, Dave Taylor, Staz Johnson, and Rick Burchett.
I have never read this before! A story from Nightwing’s mullet days! I loved seeing Dick, Tim, and Bruce work together. It was pretty wild to see Talia and Bane as a couple, if only briefly.
I loved Alfred’s pep talk at the end as well!
It was fun to see Catwoman do an Indiana Jones style adventure. She even looks reminiscent of Marion Ravenwood in the outfit they gave her. I’m curious to find out what’s so important about the thing they were after
Recently finished reading Bane of the Demon, and DAMN, I’m wondering if this is the version of Talia that Grant Morrison was utitilizing when they were doing their big run on Batman. Like, I’ve always known her to be more on the morally grey scale, someone who shares her father’s vision of a better world, but doesn’t want to kill innocents to accomplish it. Meanwhile, Dixon’s Talia was ordering her mooks to suicide bomb themselves just to open a heavy door!
Also, all the stuff with her and Bane was just…so ick. I know Dixon has talked about not liking to directly reference sex in his work and thought it was kind of weird, but now after seeing him directly use it, I think I prefer sexless Dixon.
I also didn’t care for the Bane and Talia relationship. It just felt icky and I’m not entirely sure if I can explain why
All the needless death was wild. We had Bane killing people as soon as he’d gotten a piece of information from them (including the priest who was nothing but kind to him ) and Talia and Ra’s just throwing their men’s lives away. I guess they really wanted us to see the difference between them and Batman
I loved the globetrotting part of the story and it was fun to see Ducard make an appearance.
One thing I don’t quite get is Ra’s deciding to go with Bane as a husband for Talia. I know Batman isn’t interested, but Bane is a pretty big step down
Yeah – as I recall, there was a story where it was heavily implied that Ra’s might have been Bane’s father, which just makes that whole thing even more
As for Ra’s choosing Bane – well, we know that Ra’s is really, really, REALLY old fashioned. Man there would rather give his operation to a steroid-addled incel than let his perfectly capable daughter run things.
Anyway, here’s a question for everyone that I think I’ll put a poll for – which was better: Contagion, or Legacy?
It’s a tough call for me. There are things I really enjoyed about each story. After pondering which one I enjoyed more, I ultimately settled on Legacy. The way Contagion’s story just kinda fizzles out was the determining factor for me. I didn’t like the Bane and Talia stuff, but I think Legacy has a stronger climax. Catwoman doing Indiana Jones stuff was pretty neat, too
I feel that – like, Contagion had a fun mix of Bond-like globe-hopping and Edgar Allan Poe horror, but had a ho-hum ending; meanwhile, Legacy had a bit of a stronger ending, but kind of felt like a bigger version of a standard Ra’s al Ghul story.
The stuff with Catwoman was fun, though I wish she played a bigger role in the story – like, I get she was decidedly more mercenary and more on the bad guy side, but I could see her helping with saving Gotham and the rest of the world if only because Gotham and the world is where she keeps her stuff.
) and Talia and Ra’s just throwing their men’s lives away. I guess they really wanted us to see the difference between them and Batman
