Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight - Question

[wolverine7230]

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody had a list of which issues of LODK are non-canon, which take place in the 'Year One' era, and which take place later in Batman's career.

The reason I ask is because I'm putting together a reading order for Batman's early years.

Thanks,

- wolverine

[MajorHoy]

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody had a list of which issues of LODK are non-canon, which take place in the 'Year One' era, and which take place later in Batman's career.

The reason I ask is because I'm putting together a reading order for Batman's early years.

Thanks,

- wolverine

Are any of them considered "canon", or was this more a chance for writers and artists to play with an iconic character in a way that they didn't have to worry about how it might effect the New52/DCYou stories?

[son of booyah]

Which LotDK are we talking about, the 90s series or the internet shorts?

[wolverine7230]

Which LotDK are we talking about, the 90s series or the internet shorts?

The 90s series. Sorry, I really should have mentioned.

[JBatmanFan05]

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody had a list of which issues of LODK are non-canon, which take place in the 'Year One' era, and which take place later in Batman's career (except you know that the present is not when).

There is no definitive agreed-upon list. Many happen such that you don't really know when they happened in Batman's career.

There is this list that makes the rounds, but I've always found many flaws and unsupported speculations with it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/batman/comm...ical_ordering/
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=269366

[wolverine7230]

There is no definitive agreed-upon list. Many happen such that you don't really know when they happened in Batman's career.

There is this list that makes the rounds, but I've always found many flaws and unsupported speculations with it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/batman/comm...ical_ordering/
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=269366

Neither of those links work for me... Well they do, but the links on the pages don't work...

[manduck37]

I don't think any of the LODK stories are canon. The book was supposed to be "legends" of the Batman. We weren't supposed to know if any of them were actual adventures of Batman or not. Kind of like hearing a rumor. So if you're looking for canon stories of Batman's early years, I wouldn't count the stories in this book. Though this series did have some really fun stories.

[wolverine7230]

I know that we don't know whether they're canon or not. But a lot of them COULD be, and that's what I'm basing this off.

[MajorHoy]

The 90s series. Sorry, I really should have mentioned.

Well, in that case, the issues that were part of the Knightfall / Knightquest / Knightsend crossover did take place in the pre-New52 canon, but may-or-may-not be part of canon now (not without some serious revisions).

I know that we don't know whether they're canon or not. But a lot of them COULD be, and that's what I'm basing this off.

So, you're asking if there's a definitive list of stories that COULD BE canon as opposed to are canon?

[wolverine7230]

So, you're asking if there's a definitive list of stories that COULD BE canon as opposed to are canon?

I guess I am, yes...

[Jim Kelly]

I remember writing letters to Denny O'Neil and Archie Goodwin about this. I don't think they ever answered my letters, but they answered others in the letter column always with cryptic remarks.

My view was that I was okay with the comic if these were just legends and not meant to be continuity, but then there should be more freedom to do other approaches to Batman beyond the Frank Miller Year One (which eventually did happen later in the run). But if it was continuity, then this was new history and it needed to all fit.

O'Neil and Goodwin didn't want to be pinned down and I think they wished to have it both ways. They wanted the advantage of tying the stories to Year One, but they didn't want to slavishly impose continuity.

Later in the run it's easier to tell which stories are meant to fit with ongoing continuity and which stories are out of continuity. But the earlier run is in a fuzzy, grey area. If Batman is wearing the Year One costume, you might assume that these stories are all taking place at that time, but trying to make them all work in the same continuity is not easy.