With Batman preoccupied, his deepest, darkest, most dangerous secrets are about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The guest list is strictly villains only, and the outlaw Red Hood fits the bill–putting him on a collision course with Batman’s deniable black-ops team, the Outsiders! Batman: Legends of Gotham is an interesting comic that both stands on its own but also feels like a continuation of what’s come before and what’s still to come.

Written by Andy Diggle, Batman: Legends of Gotham is a fun and entertaining story. The concept is one we’ve seen so many times before. A hero must “sneak” into a meeting of villains to retrieve an item so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. In this case, it’s the trio of heroes that makes this go from a pretty standard story to something a bit more entertaining.

Focusing on Jason Todd, the former Robin must team up with Black Lightning and Katana to complete the mission. It’s a group of dysfunction as expected leading to a mission that goes off the rails in so many ways. And it’s how it goes off the rails that makes it a lot of fun.

Diggle sets things up nicely and delivers a fantastic ending that really adds a nice laugh at the end… the an ugh. There’s a lot here that Diggle draws from, especially Jason’s thirst of vengeance against Bane as a motivator. Where the comic falls a little short is its very end that takes the comic from something anyone can pick up and enjoy to a… what?! Unless you know characters, and I don’t, it lands like a thud. If the comic ended on its previous scene, it’d be far better.

Karl Mostert‘s art is solid with Romulo Fajardo Jr. on color and lettering by Troy Peteri. The comic does a solid mix of action and humor and there’s some panels that’ll keep you lingering. This isn’t a comic with flashy splash pages and moments but it delivers every actions sequence with a solid amount of flair.

Batman: Legends of Gotham is generally a fun comic that new readers can just pick up and enjoy. It explains what you need to know and if it left out the very end, it’d be so much better. But, it clearly leads into something in the future. I have no idea what as I haven’t been keeping up with things, which is a bit frustrating. Because, without that little segment, this would have been a far better one-shot.

Story: Andy Diggle Art: Karl Mostert
Color: Romulo Fajardo Jr. Letterer: Troy Peteri
Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: Zeus Comics – comiXology/Kindle