[World of Bats] Legends of the Dark Knight #156-158, 164-167 "Blink / Don't Blink"

Hello and welcome to the latest iteration of the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!

This week, I thought we’d honor an industry great, especially relevant given the day. Today, February 20th is the birthday of Dwayne McDuffie, who has created a lot of characters and concepts for both DC and Marvel, from Damage Control to the Milestone Universe. He was also one of the chief architects of the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series. And on the day tomorrow, ten years ago, Dwayne McDuffie passed away, leaving an impressive legacy that was sadly cut short.

So to honor him this week, I thought we’d look at one of his lesser known but still intriguing stories in the pages of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, “Blink” and “Don’t Blink”, which were also drawn by Val Semeiks.

When a blind man with the power to see through the eyes of other men accidentally taps into the mind of a serial killer, Batman finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that reaches from the streets of Gotham straight up into its cathedrals of power.

Here are the links to the issues:

Blink

Don’t Blink

This week’s reading will go from 2021-02-20T06:00:00Z2021-02-26T06:00:00Z, though of course you can always come back to comment once you’re looking through the eyes of someone else with sinister motives.

So let us know what you think of these two stories down below!

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Batman tortures people for information by chaining them right beside the jet exhaust of his Batmobile and dragging them through the snow. That’s a bit…excessive.

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I can see that – Batman’s always been on the edge when it comes to just how far he’ll go to get information, but that feels straight out of Frank Miller’s Sin City. I guess you can say that since this is likely in that nebulous “early period” of Batman, as most Legends stories tend to be, that this is him still feeling that out? It does help that the people he’s torturing tend to be far worse than your usual Gotham thug.

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I’m late with my thoughts, but I quite enjoyed both of these stories. Batman reminded me a little bit of RDJ’s Sherlock Holmes that way he described the fights and his strategy. Blink feels like a unique character and I think it’s nice to see Batman fighting crime without the entire city at stake.

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It’s all good – Lord knows I’m the last person to say something about someone being late to comment. :sweat_smile:

I agree – some rougher torture stuff than usual aside, McDuffie really wrote an excellent Batman.

Blink was definitely unique, part of the reason why I chose this one for reading – it’s not every day you get smaller crooks or potential allies with superpowers, and his was distinct and really original.

Thanks for sharing! :smiley:

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