Reviewed by Chad Burdette
Story By: Len Wein
Art : John Byrne and Jim Aparo
The Untold Legend of Batman was a three issue promotional series through Batman cereal which was out around the release of the first Batman movie. The premise of the story is that some has stolen and destroyed the bat costume that Bruce’s father wore. In the first issue Batman retells his origin, starting with the night his father wore the bat costume to a party and ended up being forced to help save Lew Moxon, a criminal that had been shot in a bank robbery. As it turned out Thomas Wayne was able to take down the criminals and then testified against them. Years later it was Moxon who hired Joe Chill to kill the Wayne family. Batman then recounts his adopting a Robin-esqe costume as a kid to learn how to be a detective and fight and his education which lead him to decide that becoming a vigilante was the only way to find and punish his parents killer. Issue two recounts the origin of Robin (Dick Grayson), Alfred Pennyworth, and the Joker. The final issue Barbara (batgirl) Gordon, Commissioner Gordon, Lucis Fox, and Jack Edison (the guy who designs the Batmobiles) are introduced. The third issue also reveals that it was Robin who was doing this to Batman in order to help overcome a case of temporary schizophrenia with paranoid delusions he received from a warehouse explosion.
So the underlying story is a bit hokey but what I liked about this series was the fact that it gave a quick yet concise background of the major members of the Batman Family. While some of these maybe no longer in continuity it is still interesting to see where things stood at the time this was released. One part I think that was added for this series is the fact that Bruce as a young kid was the first to wear the Robin costume. Another thing that I liked about this series is that in the back of the books they included old covers and a layout of Wayne Manor, the Batcave, and the utility belt.