71 to 92
Legends of the Dark Knight : Marshall Rogers
containing...
Detective Comics 468, 471 to 476, 478, 479
Secret Origins 6
Legends of the Dark Knight 132 to 136
Batman Dark Detective 1 to 6
Very influential work, an artist excelling at dark cityscapes and creating a classic interpretation of both Batman and Joker, and the modern redesign of Deadshot. For the Bronze Age, excelling at groundbreaking, inventive panel designs and great storytelling skill, but, I’ve always found his figurework, faces and expressions a bit patchy in quality, more noticeable in the later work from the 80s onwards, which tends to look cartoony and simplistic.
Steve Englehart writes some great stories in the Bronze Age arc, the problem being that the narrative really starts a couple of issues earlier, but, being drawn by Walt Simonson and not Rogers, those aren’t included. Also, the remastering and colouring are terrible compared to the Shadow of the Batman reprints done in the 80s; superior colours, much sharper line work.
Englehart’s stories are more a mash-up of Batman from different Ages, reintroducing very old characters such as Hugo Strange and Deadshot, the dark, gritty feel of 70’s O’Neil and Adams at times, and, on occasion, villain dialogue and situations straight from the Silver Age / TV series period.
Secret Origins is an okay retelling of the origin of the Golden Age / Earth 2 Batman based on the very earliest Detective Comics stories, nothing new or exciting.
Legends of the Dark Knight : Siege goes into the background of the Wayne family, it’s okay.
Batman : Dark Detective is the modern sequel to the Bronze Age storyline, with the return of his old girlfriend, Silver St Cloud. Again, very strong visual storytelling, inventive panel layouts, but patchy, simplistic, cartoony figurework. Starts out strong but degenerates into another abducted damsel-in-distress storyline, surviving a booby-trapped house, with lots of 70s-style, melodramatic dialogue along the way.