I remember this as one of the first storylines I remember reading when I discovered Legends of the Dark Knight (LOTDK). It quickly became one of the best titles of Batman.

For one thing, it carried short storylines, 2-5 issues long, so that it was something that new readers, could always jump into at anytime, without having to purchase multiple back issues just to catch up with what was going on presently. Another thing was that the stories where many times written by a different writer and artist. So that there was always differnent interpertaions and thoughts on Batman and Bruce Wyane's charecter. The series was started to give up and coming artists and writers a chance to jump into mainstream comics and make a name for themselves. A lot of good art and stories were told in these pages of LOTDK.

But my post is about a particular storyline in LOTDK. I looked back through my older comics, many times the ones that I remember finding back when I first started collecting comics. This was the second storyline I read, since I picked up LOTDK.


Written by James Robinson
Art by John Watkins
Published by DC Comics
Date: May-June 1995

The first issue kind of sets up the story, how Batman gets involved in this crime and how it takes him to London. (Which I thought was kind of clique.) Well the story starts that Batman went to Gordan in response to two murders. Both of them were people that worked for Bruce Wayne at the Wayne Foundation. The first was shot, pretty straightforward. The second however, a Dr. Hugh Downs (I don't that is in relation to Mr. 20/20. Sorry Barbara Walters, I have a wad of "You aint Hugh Downs" and can't hear what you are saying) was murdered viciously. Torn apart. So after some investigation, Batman first suspects something with WayneTech's office in London, as they were already under suspicion of using the office as a front for money laundrering.

So Batman decides to go to London, at the suspicion of his own employees and the eyewitness, testimony of Hugh Downs death, that is was a werewolf that killed him, as Dr. Downs was out walking his dog when he was attacked. Well on arriving in London, Batman goes to work with his patented investigating. Coming across a suspecious man named Tommy Twist that has connections to Charles Blake that was rumored to be a crime boss, using a legitimate buisness as a front for his illegal activites. But Blake himself had been missing for years, as he had disapered shortly after his wife divorced him and has not been seen since. As the London police, working with Batman, tell him that Blake's buisness was bought a while back, by a Willian Sinclair in a hostile takeover. So thinking that maybe Sincliar had something to do with it, Batman decides to visit Sinclair's home. He doesn't find Sincliar, but he does find . . .



Wowsers that's a big a meataball! Look how he throws Batman around . . .



That left panel is one of my favorite renditions of Batman. Both as the charecter and how once he is set to a task, nothing will stop him, not even a possible broken rib. And also artisticly. The look of determination as he brushes of the broken glass to return to the battle with the werewolf. That is determination there. As you can see from the panel next to it, that Sinclair is most definatly dead. But who did it and who is the werewolf? Batman's thoughts on that? Blake is the werewolf. But why and how?

Batman's investigations take him to a cult know for their worship of this feral beast. However, them and their leader Raven, claim that they don't know of the wereabouts of the werewolf, or who is human alter ego is. So Batman must investigate further to figure this mystery out.

The more Batman finds out the more that it still leads back to Blake. So Batman goes to find Tommy Twist once again. But before he can the police call Batman and explain that while they were at a stakeout for Blake, they woke up, feeling drugged and one of their men, Yeardley was killed by the werewolf. So what kind of werewolf has to drug people to kill them?

So Batman after confronting Tommy one more time to give him a chance to come clean, Tommy sets out to put a price on Batman's head, because of his interupting their buisness. Batman has given Tommy a chance to come clean. Believe me Batman will be back and this time Tommy will not be happy.



A new tip comes to Batman's attention. Blake's ex-wife called Bruce Wayne (who I forgot to say was the woman that Bruce Wayne was renting a flat for his stay in London) to tell him that while she was cleaning through some of Blake's stuff that he had left their after their divorce, she found something that may lead to finding Blake himself. But what he found was not what he was suspecting. The information that Blake's ex-wife had found, was a note that after Blake's buisness went under, his equipment from his buisness was moved to a up until then undisclosed location. So Batman goes to this location in hopes to find some clues. But what he finds his Blake himself. Long dead, for months. But what he did find was Blake's journal. What he discovers is that Blake was indeed a werewolf, and that he was working in seclusion to try and find a cure for the curse of the wolf. Of course, right on schedule, Tommy Twist catches up with Batman, and a battle begins. Tommy is killed by the werewolf, in an attempt to avenge his brother's death at the hands of the werewolf. But not before the werewolf can escape, Batman is able to defeat the beast. But what was all this about and who was the real killer?

Read on . . .







So that is the story. It was a great one. That is one of things that I like about Batman stories. Is that the most simplistic things can make a great story when Batman is concerned. There are some of the most fabulous stories can come from a simple crime that can make a helluva story.

Thanks for reading my posts and I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed posting it and the memories that came with remembering such a good story. Take care all.

I haven't been to good about keeping my posts updated here. But since I have been working outside of home on my blogs, I haven't been able to put the time and thoughts into doing a really good post. I have however got some new pictures scanned and cut, to use on two posts that I will hopefully have time to do tommarrow. My internet should be up and running and I will do at least one if not two tommarrow night. I have pictures for a post on Batman, in the Legends of the Dark Knight series, that I really enjoyed. In fact it was one of the first LOTDK stories that I read. The other one will be another on on Spider-Man. But for now I do have one interesting tid-bit of information on a new comic series that I will really be looking forward to.



This is some art that Bernie Wrightson has done for a comic series that will be based on Stephen King's Dark Tower novel series. It promises to be a good series, for me anyway, just for the fact that Bernie Wrightson is doing the art. I am a big fan of his work. He does some incredible art in the "macabre" type art. I have never read the Dark Tower novels, but if Stephen King knows anything, it is how to scare his reader. And Bernie Wrightson is the perfect artist to complement his writings. Well I hope that was at least something, and like I said look for something new Wensday. Take care all, and thanks for stopping by.

Now all I need is a tagline for this blog . . .

What a strange little word. So fictional, yet so real, to those that know what it is. Of course, chances are if you are intentionally reading this blog, and didn't stumble on it because of some bizzare word caught by a search engine, then I won't be telling anything that you don't already know. And chances are, thanks to the X-Men movies that even if you didn't have a clue before, what the hell adamantium was, you surely do now.

And to just veer off the point for just a minute before I get into the subject. . . Wasn't Hugh Jackman, just an awesome Wolverine? I mean I had my fears about any comic book related movie. And I still do. That dude with the face, and the hair that's just everywhere . . . anyway that guy proved that you can take an awesome charecter like Daredevil, surround him with actors that play their roles so well, with parts written so well, in regards to the charecter that they are protraying, and still ruin a movie. Ben Affleck . . . sorry delayed reaction.

But anyway, let's get to the story. Of all the Wolverine stories, this is one of my favorites, as far as on-going, throught the series and into the X-Men books.





To make a long story short, just to get you up to speed with what just happened. Magneto formed a aliiance of mutants that agreed with his ideology of mutants being superior to humans. Anyway he starts this "haven" for those that follow him, in a giant space station orbiting the earth. Called it . . . damn I can't remember, and I don't have the book right here with me. Well at any rate, Xaviar and the X-Men go to the space station to stop Magneto, and his intentions have been to rid the earth of the humans. Although this time, his intentions appear to be nothing more than wanting to seperate him and his mutant followers from the humans that fear and hate them. Xaviar feels that Magneto has an alterior motive, and assembles the X-Men to invade his "castle".

In this battle, as both seem to be at even ends, Wolverine attacks Magneto with every intention of killing him. When Magneto strikes back at Wolverine, the above pictures illustrate what he does to Wolverine.

After the insuing battle and the safe return of the X-Men to Earth, Wolverine once again is back to his old self. Or so he thinks. He tires to participate in a exercise in the Danger Room, only to find that without his adamantium, he is much more vunerable than he was before. As he is attacked, he uses what he has always used in battle against his enemies, his adamantuim claws, or so he thought. There is something different about them.



They are bone claws. But before, since Wolverine's memory has been affected by the lacing of the adamantium to his skeleton, he never knew that the claws were part of himself, always thinking that the claws were adamantium, not bone claws laced with adamantium. What a surprise! Wouldn't you be?



So after this discovery, Wolverine felt that he was a liability to the X-Men, so he left to go out on his own, where he felt that he would not be a burden to the team and the people that he cared about.

Shortly after he left, however, he found himself on the wrong side of of a criminal (with a bad sense of humor) calling himself Cyber.



This was only four short issues after him leaving the X-Men, having lot his adamantium. In this issue, he seems to get on the wrong side of Cyber. Or you could say Cyber got on Wolverine's bad side and an obligatory battle starts. With Wolverine going at Cyber in a patented feral state, slashing and cutting. But to no avail. After all Cyber is one tough cookie. And so after taking a stab (literaly) at Cyber's face, Wolverine gets a bitch slap from Cyber, something he is not use to. Something that with his adamantium skeleton would have never happened to him before. Like a healthy person facing untreatable cancer. The fear of being vunerable and unable to defend yourself against something that can't be killed. Something that lives inside of you, eating you away, until there is nothing left of you.

SNAP!



And so Wolverine suffers another blow to his ego. Now not only does he not have the adamantium that he was so use to, now he has a set of broken bone claws.

Never fear, however, Wolverine does get his adamantium back. That however will be for a future post, and one that I will have to read up on before I do a post. I have read so much in the many years, that all the details of all these stories sometimes run together.

Well thank you, once again for reading, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed the memories that go with, bring this story back to life. Take care people.