Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight #104 - DC Comics

BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT No. 104, March 1998

Focusing solely upon the final hour or so of the titular character’s battle against the murderous machinations of the Spook, James Robinson’s script for Issue One Hundred and Four of “Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight” certainly seems to show Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego at the top of his game as he deduces the cold-blooded killer’s partner-in-crime, whilst simultaneously fighting for the lives of the billionaire’s ‘house-guests’. In fact, the pulse-pounding pace of this comic’s storyline arguably never lets up as the Caped Crusader is shown consistently rushing through secret passages, stone fire places, hidden escape routes and even the inside of a fast-falling helicopter in an effort to disarm his white-cloaked, would-be assassin.

Happily however, this seemingly endless rush towards the book’s conclusion doesn’t make this three-part adventure’s ending any less enjoyable than its previous two, much slower-stepped instalments, and just confirms how formidably relentless an adversary the Spook is; “I’ll kill you all! One at a time or all together! I won’t be denied my vengeance! I won’t!” In addition, the British author’s penmanship actually suggests that Batman might truly be in physical danger, by having the World’s Greatest Detective be repeatedly outwitted by his faceless foe – whether it be by reinforcing the mansion’s wooden doors with “a hardened steel core”, or somehow outmanoeuvring the Dark Knight whilst being stalked along a winding, stone-walled corridor.

Just as well conceived are the clues which ultimately reveal to the cowled vigilante the identity of the Spook’s employer. Yates’ discovery of a hidden passageway in a room fast-filling full of suffocating gas must surely have ‘jarred’ with many within this publication’s audience, especially when the heavily choking industrialist claims he conveniently found it after he “touched some wood carving and the door in the wall slid open.” But it isn’t until the aforementioned punch-up inside a helicopter that the blonde-haired maniac really ‘puts his foot in it’ by mentioning that Bruce Wayne isn’t actually dead – something only the supposedly spectral slaughterer and his main associate would know.

Rather impressively helping this twenty-two page publication bound along are Paul Johnson’s prodigious pencils, which really help highlight just how close to death Batman might actually be during his tense tussle. Facing a seemingly deceased hitman armed with a submachine gun, the Dark Knight is persistently sketched diving for cover as his cape is ripped to pieces by bullets, or profusely bleeding from several slicing cuts to his chest, once the Spook decides to get in close with a seriously sharp blade.

Writer: James Robinson, Artist: Paul Johnson, and Colorist: Dan Brown