Rob and fellow network all-star Chris Franklin discuss DC’s treasury facsimile edition of THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN!
Check out images from this comic by clicking here!
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I DO like the other thugs killing Joe CHILL but i wouldnt write it.
head thug “Bruce Wyane? If Batman looked like Bruce Wyane he wanted to,and he wanted you to tell us. Now you aint gonna talk no more
panel 2 huge SFX BLAM
I’m so glad you decided to do an episode looking at The Untold Legend of the Batman, which is truly my absolute favorite story featuring the Caped Crusader. I stumbled upon a very used copy in the early 1980s at the dawn of my comics fandom & was forever hooked on Aparo. The joy in your voices was nice to hear.
I know this will never happen but if I could “treasury size” some old issues, my top 3 would include:
1. The Phantom Zone (1982) miniseries by Steve Gerber & Gene Colan.
2. The Krypton Chronicles (1981) miniseries by Bridwell & Swan. I happily devoured those issues.
3. A reprint of Detective Comics #526 (1983). It is a special giant-sized issue that commemorates Batman’s 500th appearance in the series and features the first appearance of Jason Todd as Robin. Great Don Newton art.
*Chris: I’m excited to know what you’re cooking up!
I read all of those, Doc! Great choices!
Thank you for covering this book! I think I had the first issue back in the day and I know that I had the second one. That panel of the villain flash cards dumped on the table is seared into my brain. But I never had the final issue and did not read the conclusion until getting this treasury edition. I was a little underwhelmed by the “Batman was hallucinating from being bonked on the head” explanation, but I was happy to get the end of the story after 40+ years.
Great job as always, Rob! And I too am looking forward to hearing about the future plans Chris mentioned.
Fun discussion, guys! I could listen to Chris talk about Batman every month.
I picked up the new Superman treasury last summer, but haven’t gotten any of the other facsimile or new books yet. I think I might have to grab a few next time I’m at a comic store.
One other quick item. I’ve never forgotten Jack Edison & his connection to the Batmobile from this issue. I always wanted to see more of him.
Also, I’m probably in the minority but I really do prefer Alfred meeting Bruce as an adult. I’ve never bought this idea of turning him into a father figure for Bruce. I dislike even more of making him a “man of action.”
Seconded on Alfred, Chuck. What’s wrong with a Shakespearean actor turned butler? That’s handy for teaching Batman about undercover work. I don’t mind him having had a wartime fling with Mlle Marie, but an SAS man who doubles as a surgeon? Too much.
And ditto Leslie Thompkins, give me a kind old lady who helped Bruce when he needed it most, but was brown bread by the time he debuted as Batman. A doctor? Nah, Dr Douglas Dundee can fill in for both modern Batman and Leslie when it comes to fixing the broken bones.
martin he’s just Everything Americans think British people do
Bruce was shown wearing the Robin costume in 1955 in Detective Comics #226: https://www.comics.org/issue/12522/#105724
Thomas Wayne was revealed to be the first “Batman” in 1956 in Detective Comics #235: https://www.comics.org/issue/13081/#109157
The first story was only reprinted in an early annual before the 80-page giants, but the second story was reprinted several times including less than a year before this mini-series in Best Of DC [digest] #2.
I bought this mini-series off the rack in 1980 [I’m o-o-o-o-old] and still have them somewhere. I’ll try to dig them out to see if any of them had the table of contents you mentioned. What I do remember about that time was that it was shortly before Marvel and DC raised their prices from 40¢ to 50¢. (Check out the original covers to this mini; the first two issues are 40¢ and #3 is 50¢.) Two months after that, Marvel increased their story page count from 17 pages in a standard length comic to 22 pages. DC went to 25, hence the Joe Staton extra in the last issue. That tends to make me believe John Byrne’s window of availability you discussed was closed by an increased workload at Marvel. The first X-Men stories with the new length were the famous “Days Of Future Past” issues (#141-142) and if you compare them to issues earlier that year, leading up to the “Death Of Phoenix”, you’ll notice a marked increase in the number of panels with solid color backgrounds. If he didn’t have time for backgrounds, he didn’t have time for side projects. The only reason that the stories from the first two issues were as long as they were was, I suspect, that they sacrificed in-house ads to accommodate a story intended for a 64-page format. Again, I’d have to dig them out to check.
And, yes, the Huntress back-up feature WAS the only reason to buy Wonder Woman at that time. As weird as it was, the Roy Thomas/Gene Colan version that followed was a step up.
Brilliant detective work… I don’t suppose you could make this a regular podcast?
Thanks, but I’m still trying to revive my old blogs towards a similar end. They got derailed when my parents’ need for care increased. That’s no longer an issue, but picking up the pieces will still occupy me for a bit. That comment above? That’s how I relax.
Very happy for you, Rob. With this and Justice League of America #200 on the horizon — plus the additional podcast coverage that follows — it feels like the gift that’s going to keep on giving.
Normally I wouldn’t even put X‑Men/New Teen Titans down as a possibility, but with all the recent crossovers, I’ll just voice it so it manifests: that’s the one I’d love to see most as a Treasury Edition.
Great show about what I’m sure is a great-looking book. I’m also old enough to have picked this series up off of the spinner racks back in the day, and I absolutely adored it and ate it all up. To this day, everything that’s outlined here is still pretty much my own head canon for Batman.
As for the cover used for the treasury edition, even though I’m also one of those guys who generally prefers covers that reflect the story inside (and I don’t mind dialogue bubbles on covers), I still think the best choice would have been the cover to the third issue of the original mini. Both the image and the lettering for the title/logo just seem more suited to the treasury format.
In conclusion, it’s good to hear we’ll have some more treasury casts to look forward to in the coming months.
p.s. you may be right that Staton isn’t necessarily a Batman artist, but he did do the art on what I consider the one of or possibly the best Batman stories ever (from B&B #197 in case anybody’s wondering…)
Great show, Rob and Chris. It’s very strange that neither of you two saw this mini-series on sale as kids, it even made it to the UK newsagents.
I really enjoyed the series, seeing John Byrne on Batman was a treat, he and Jim Aparo really did make a great team on that first issue. Still, no complaints about Jim going solo after the first issue. And Len Wein did as good a job as could be expected…shame about the wrap up explaining that Batman was his own worst enemy. Heck, even an anniversary tribute trick from Bat-Mite would’ve been preferable to the Concussed Crusader.
As regards, Len Wein flashing out Gotham City, I remember that when Paul Levitz took over from Julie Schwartz as editor he said in the lettercol that that’s exactly what he wanted to do, he wanted us to know the streets of Gotham like our own home. I’m likely imagining that we got a map…
Oh Chris I’ve told you all a million times, I bought Wonder Woman for the adventures of the Amazon Princess, not the Huntress; it seemed weirdly random having an Earth 2 Bat-character in an Earth 1 book. I enjoyed the shorts well enough, but for me they were a bonus, not the main event. I really enjoyed Gerry Conway/Jose Delbo Diana. Bring back Mother Juju!
While I might not have gone so far as Chris (and apparently others) as to say that the Huntress back-ups were the only reason folks bought Wonder Woman back in the day, I must confess that I went to the trouble of buying the trade paperback that collects those back-up stories, but have never purchased a Wonder Woman trade paperback in my life.
I was lucky enough to get this series new off the racks at the Alpha Beta, where they also carried the Treasury sized books.
I first read that Lew Moxon story in my cousin’s Pizza Hut reprint.
Signalman’s last appearance before this was Detective 466 from 1976, and the Spook’s was Tec 488, fairly recent, so that might have been something they sent Byrne for reference.
Great episode! This comic was indeed a treat. Although they stretched it a bit by calling it “facsimile”. It is really a Treasury sized trade paperback. I do have the original issues and they cherry picked the ads they put in (which is fine, I’m glad they included any!).
Most wanted Treasury sized reprints for me:
– Action 500 (easy)
– JLA 3 parter by Buckler (210-212?)
– Batman 400 and/or Detective 526
A
Great episode it’s a shame that dc never did
Or never has done a Batman 66 treasury especially now that have done comics based on the show .
They could pick the best stories and do two Batman 66 best stories and the stories that inspired Batman 66 they would sell like hot cakes I bet
Hello Rob,
You and your guest Chris did a great job commenting on the Untold Legend of the Batman treasury. I missed out on getting this treasury when it came out and took over a full year to finally get a copy with the foil cover this year on Free Comic Book Day. The excitement and nostalgia for this book made me reminisce when I first purchased and read this story. It was probably 1990 or 1991 when I first found the Untold Legend of the Batman at a book fair in my junior high school. I knew of this series from old ads from back issues I had purchased from used book stores, but never saw any of the individual issues. When I saw the Tor paperback on the shelves at the book fair, I snatched the book from the shelf and bought it immediately.
Like Chris, I treated this particular story as a “bible” to the Batman. The story told me of details of the Batman, Robin, Alfred, and other aspects of the mythos that I never knew when I first read it. For years, I held on to this as THE origin of the Earth-One Batman. Now nearing the half-century mark of my life, I can see some of the minor and major flaws of the story, especially the case of trauma-induced schizophrenia Batman suffered from that was the reason for this story. Despite its flaws, I still look to this, Frank Miller’s Year One, the Roy Thomas-penned origin story in Secret Origins 6, and the Waid/Samnee Batman and Robin: Year One as key stories to detail the origins and early adventures of Batman and Robin.
Over the years, I have owned two copies of the Tor paperback, still owning one of those and the original lost to time. I’ve found the original three issues and now own the treasury. I’ve never come across the smaller-sized reprints from the Batman cereal giveaways nor the comics with the cassettes. I’ve heard some very mixed reviews on the quality of those recordings, so I’ve never sought them out. If they’re not Power Records quality, I may never get them. Ha Ha!
Right after listening to your podcast, I read this treasury in one setting, but I hope to give it another read on my front porch with a water bottle and a good cool breeze. I enjoyed this episode and look forward to the next one. I am certainly looking forward to the JLA 200 episode and will NOT be waiting over a year to get the treasury of that one!
This mini was a great showcase for Jim Aparo. It was one of the few times Jim Aparo drew Catwoman in the purple costume or Poison Ivy and the first time he drew the Gentleman Ghost.
It’s just a little bit weird that DC doesn’t consider this still continuity.