Batman: Prey

Batman: Prey, is yet another solid book that takes place during the `Year: One' timeframe. Still alone except for Alfred, Batman has not yet earned Gotham City's trust. That leads him down a dangerous path as psychologist Hugo Strange leads a police hunt to bring the Caped Crusader to justice once and for all. By obsessions lurk everywhere, and for some in this story, obsessions prove deadly. Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy do a great job of providing a dense, rich read. They also conspire to highlight this very dark work with some moments of bright, delightful comedy in such a way that is not out of place with the rest of the work. Some character highlights include the creation of the Batsignal, and further bonding between Gordon and Batman. Catwoman appears briefly throughout, but she seems out of place in the story, just flittering in and out without doing much at all. This volume could be enjoyed by a newcomer to the Batman mythos, or a veteran collector, but silhouetted nudity might not make it appropriate for very young children. Recommended.

I easily consider this one of the best stories that ran in the "Legend of the Dark Knight" series (this book reprints #11-15) up till now (this one and "Gothic"). Batman, the hunter, becomes the hunted when the major demands him arrested. Captain Gordon is to form a special squad to do so, which shall be master-planned by psycho-analist Dr. Hugo Strange. While Strange shall try to unravel the mystery 'who is Batman' by logical psychological deduction, a street squad will do the fieldwork. Only it turns out that Dr. Strange himself isn't very sane and that he plans to reach far more than just the arrest of Batman, using whatever means neccesary. Meanwhile Batman is having a hard time to keep himself thinking straight. Something that proves to be difficult during the schemes of the mad Dr. Strange. This is really a well written Batman story that will especially appeal to those who like "The Killing Joke". The art looks a lot like the art of Brian Bolland and, even more importantly, the theme and atmosphere of the story are very much alike (the theme, not the plot). A dark psychological thriller. It's really good to see is that the things that happen during the story aren't just coincedences but happen for a reason, and are backed with arguments. A small example of that is that when Dr. Strange concludes that 'the man behind the mask must be a wealthy man' it's backed up with the argument "The man must be wealthy since he's up all night and therefore doesn't have time to work a job in the daytime, but still has so much expensive devises". Things don't come out of thin air, like what unfortunately seems to happen in too many other books. And like this little example, everything else that happens also fits and is made to look logical. What is also a good thing is that you don't know how it's exactly gonna end untill you're at the last couple of pages. Just when you think you figured Dr. Strange's next move out, the plot twists. It isn't predictable anywhere and therefore never becomes boring. If you're looking to pick up a good Batman story besides the ones who got a lot of attention already (like "Killing Joke", "Dark Knight Returns", "Long Halloween", "Year One" etc. etc.), this would certainly be a good choice.

This book collects the Prey storyline that ran in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. A very tense Batman book which also depicts the first meeting between Batman and the twisted Dr. Hugo Strange. In this book, Bats makes a lot of mistakes and he has let Dr. Strange get to him. Also introduces the Bat Signal and the Batmobile. It's really good to see Batman as a human being who goofs up and get ticked off by someone else. One disappointment I have with this book is Catwoman. It's as if she's just there. She didn't really contribute anything to the story.