“Bad Night, Good Knight Part 2”
Creative Staff:
Story: Darick Robertson
Art: Darick Robertson, Richard P. Clark
Colors: Diego Rodriguez
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
You don’t do business in Gotham City without running afoul of the Joker! The Clown Prince of Crime has gotten his hands on the deadly chemical and he’s going to expose it to all of Gotham City, Batman is going to have to stop him and save the GCPD from the Joker’s wrath.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a pretty solid starting point in the opening issue, Darick Robertson set things up well with the gas mask killer and his moving this new strain of toxin out there into Gotham. Robertsons’ script moved well and was pretty enjoyable as it covered a lot of ground with a couple of villains brought into it. Robertson’s also handling the artwork on the book and that was strong the first time around but this issue lists Richard P. Clark helping out with inking work on it. It’s still largely the same but it looks great and continues to have a good Gotham-ish feeling it needs, something that Diego Rodriguez handles very well with the color design for the project.
Unsurprisingly, with this installment focusing on the Joker, he takes up almost all of the oxygen in the book. I liked the way the first moved with a few things going on through it but this is more of the standard chase that we get between Batman and the Joker. It’s done with a bit of commentary on the police side again as he relates to Gordon the things that were going on before Batman got there as the cops faced off against the Joker but couldn’t win once he got those automated dolls out there and the poison gas causing them to freeze up and begin the wild laugh. Relating how, as the Joker escaped, Batman swooped in and provided his own oxygen to them so they’d be able to survive while also handing them some of the antidote that he has, leaving Batman with just one dose.
Not surprisingly, it just becomes the usual kind of marathon fight that we get when these two end up going against each other. The mild narration by the Gotham cop is decent with what they saw from their perspective and it does well to show how Batman handles the situation. Since he’s struggling under the gas as well, everything is a hardship but he continues to push and fight and go after the Joker. It has a typical big action sequence to flesh out the final act of this issue as they take to the air but I’ll admit that I like how Robertson both illustrates the Joker and handles the minor bit of character that we get for him here. It doesn’t feel like he’s psychotic crazy in the deep dark homicidal sense but something a bit more classic with just a touch more violence to him.
In Summary:
Legends of the Dark Knight is moving along pretty well here even though it hasn’t carved out something really significant yet or set itself apart. It’s a solid story with really good artwork that’s coming together well and providing an engaging enough storyline so I’m certainly enjoying it. But when I think back to the 90’s Legends of the Dark Knight series that started out with Dennis O’Neil, well, that’s impossible to overcome. Robertson’s got a solid tale but it feels like it needs something extra here to really put it into a great place so that it feels special. That said, since I’m not reading the mainline books, there’s a whole lot to enjoy here for me since I don’t get to see many Batman stories anymore.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 9th, 2021
MSRP: $0.99
