It's no great stretch that I had an issue of probably the most prominent "Legends" title handy, although this isn't from the original run. Still, it keeps the streak going! From 2013,
Legends of the Dark Knight #3, "Letters to Batman" Written by Steve Niles, art by Trevor Hairsine.
This one plays with a recurring Bat-theme, as Batman captures the Joker three pages in, and he escapes Arkham on the next page! The Joker left him a message too, a model of a revolving door, with a charming (if awkwardly lettered) note, saying "You might as well not exist." That's unusually disparaging, since the Joker seems to enjoy their conflicts; but since Batman was literally still bleeding from their last match it hits pretty hard. He asks Alfred if what they did was even worth it; and Alfred says he's never wondered that, and he's sad that Bruce has. Batman answers a call from Commissioner Gordon, but it's not Joker-related: instead, it's sacks full of Bat-mail! He brings them back to the cave, but tersely tells Alfred he won't be reading them. Alfred, of course, digs right in.
The first letter is a thank-you, from a young woman whose mom had been saved by Batman. Alfred suggests, maybe Batman really should read some of these, and Bats does, grudgingly at first, then sorting them. Alfred had rather hoping for a more emotional, cathartic response, not OCD, but still. Batman thanks him for the push, and asks him to check on a few names from the letters, seemingly prioritizing them over the Joker. He visits a thug, who gets the recruitment pitch from some of Joker's thugs, but doesn't want back in the life. Batman puts him in touch with some barmen he had saved earlier, getting him honest work; then tracks down the Joker, showing up behind him and stepping on his big speech.
Batman has the letters sorted into several piles, although that might just be because he could only stack them so high; but what are the stacks? One is people he saved, sure; then maybe thugs and petty criminals who turned their lives around after a stout beating, but what else? I suppose there would be some that were sour grapes, or why didn't you save so-and-so, and then outright cranks. Still, it'd be nice to see people embrace the written word again.
8 comments:
Thanks for the free meme-worthy page scans. I’m definitely gonna’ use those for my “There, Fixed It” series.
Issues like this are very necessary to remind not just Bruce, but even the readers, of why Batman’s needed, not just in Gotham, but as an inspiration for all of us honestly.
For some reason, I'm picturing a lot of letters like "Dear Batman: There's a kid at school that bullies me. Can you break his hands, or like send a Robin to do it if you're busy? Love, Timmy."
Makes sense- Superman’s done the ‘letters from people make it worthwhile’ story a bunch, so it stands to reason that Batman could do it too. Or at least, he should be able to- I know they weren’t too keen on Batman being a public figure or role model for a while after Crisis. Sounds like they were doing a bit better by 2013- maybe there’s some hope yet for DC’s main continuity.
There has to be & how could Bruce NOT answer the bully questions.
They weren’t? Hmmm, interesting. I wonder why. Was it because I could understand that line of thinking if this was around the same time period that Batman V Superman came out, but this was 3 years before that, so I wonder what happened.
There’s at least one Black and White story about school bullies, and he solves it in the most Batman way possible.
It was mostly Denny O’Neil wanting to keep Batman dark, mysterious, and brooding like he was when he wrote him. I remember reading that the official stance at the time was that Batman is just a myth to most citizens and had never been photographed or seen in daylight.
Which really & honestly made no sense, even for the sake of suspending disbelief given how many people, saw him, and that’s not even counting his fellow superheroes.
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