Legends of the Dark Knight is the nineteenth episode of The New Batman Adventures. The episode revolves around about a group of kids explaining their perceptions of Batman and stories around him, whilst also becoming involved in a scheme organized by Firefly.
Plot[]
It's late in Gotham City. Three kids read the Gotham Gazette's latest report on a mysterious arsonist. When Matt, one of them, thinks he can make out Batman in a photograph, Carrie needs to double-check it before she believes it, but she assures her friends the "arson boy" is history once Batman is on the case. Enthusiastically, the third kid, Nick, begins to tell his friends how he perceives Batman.
- He is like a giant pterodactyl beast, with big fangs and talons. And when he sees a bad guy, he swoops down from the sky and carries him off. Skree, Skree!
Carrie is less than impressed and drags Nick back into reality. Matt then tells that his uncle actually knows Batman—and that he's really nice and funny. Carrie dismisses this version as well but allows Matt to explain himself.
- Matt's uncle, a guard at the Walker Music Center, sits back on what seems a quiet night until his radio signal is cut short and replaced with maniacal laughter. Joker boasts of his plans of thievery and exclaims: "The comedy is finished!". Frightened, the guard says he's "better stay on [his] toes".
Nick cuts short Matt's story, deriding the humorous statement "better stay on my toes". Matt dismisses it as the way his uncle tells the story and continues with his story.
- The guard checks all locks and doors in the music center when a jack-in-the-box is thrown in through a window. A joker's face pops out and gasses the guard. Desperate for fresh air, he unlocks a door—upon which the Joker and two henchmen enter. The Joker heads straight for the ukulele, pings a note, and expects his henchmen to applaud. He then walks to the guard and steals his keys, joking that strings never were his section, and he was much better on the keys.
- But instead of unlocking a display case with a key, he just smashes it with a priceless ukulele. As he is about to pick up the valuable manuscript in the case, a shadow looms over him. Batman & Robin enter, and explain how they figured out his clue, "The comedy is finished". It's a line from the famous opera "Pagliacci", and Joker was about to steal the original score. Joker orders his goons to fire at the Dynamic Duo, and Batman and Robin take them on. Running from the fight, Joker climbs up a ladder to throw a sousaphone around Robin. As Batman sees his young friend in need, he is distracted. A henchman hits Batman on the head with a giant tuning fork. Joker is very pleased and orders his men to tie them up.
Act II[]
- The guard wakes up to see that the Joker forces Batman & Robin on the snares of a giant piano. The Clown Prince of crime gloats about how long he's been wanting to kill Batman and prances down the keys of the piano. As Batman sees the hammers closing in, he tells Robin to roll. While out rolling the hammers, Batman whips a saw out of his belt and cuts the cords. At that moment, however, a hammer falls down on them.
- Joker sees victory and laughs at his luck. At that moment, however, his two henchmen are struck out by batarangs, and Batman & Robin are shown to have survived. They crush the Joker under the keyboard lid and go after the goons. Batman & Robin find a way to stop them: By using a giant violin and its bow as a bow and arrow. The goons are pinned to the wall right next to the guard.
- The Joker gets away, but Batman gives chase. He jumps on a large saxophone that's on a wheeled tray and closes in on the Joker. He traps him in the horn of the sax, and at that moment he blows it. The Joker is deafened by the loud sound. When the sax crashes into a "humongous flute", Joker is catapulted into a harp and is trapped in the snares. Batman then tells the guard to call the police and shakes Robin's hand. He concludes: "Well done, old chum".
Nick and Carrie are struck by disbelief and dismiss the story because Matt's uncle was unconscious most of the time. Matt still defends it, but the others have moved on. They walk past a thrift store, where another kid, Joel overhears them. He's excited about the Caped Crusader—all the muscles and the tight rubber armor, and a car that he thinks can drive up walls. Nick laughs at the thought. Matt then sees that one of their hangouts, The Kozy Korner, is burned down. Joel informs him that the mysterious arsonist is to blame. Carrie and Nick rush in to look for clues, with Matt reluctantly following. He suggests they'd leave, but Carrie counters that Batman wouldn't leave either. Nick asks her how she knows—which leads him to tell her tale.
- A girl Robin hides behind a corner, eyeing the mutants on the other side. One of them captures her, and the other asks her where the Bat is. Right at that moment, two large arms grab him and pull him through a wall. The other one pulls a gun on Robin and threatens to kill her. Before he can do anything, Batman descends from the ceiling directly above the mutant, crushing him to a lower floor. There, he violently interrogates the frightened mutant into revealing his leader's whereabouts.
- At a dump, the leader preaches the fate of the mutants to his gang. He dismisses the opinion of the general population—that they're just noisy kids—and exclaims that they are the future and the law. The crowd goes wild, and two of them, Rob and Don, praise their leader. The leader tells them he will kill Batman, but at that moment, the torch he holds explodes. From the distance, an ominous rumble rises from a cloud of dust. The mutants fire their weapons at the tank that inches closer, but their bullets fail to cause damage. Batman returns fire with rubber bullets, which prove much more effective as he takes out the majority of the mutants. Robin leaves the tank and continues to fight the mutants on her own, armed with a slingshot.
- The Mutant Leader steps in front of the tank and calls out Batman. The two fight, and after a couple of blows end up in a pit of mud. The Mutant Leader gains the upper hand and attempts to drown Batman...
Act III[]
- The Mutant Leader pushes Batman further into the mud, waiting for the air bubbles to stop. Robin fires several pellets at him with her slingshot, distracting the giant enough to allow Batman the chance to get up. Now, Batman is stronger, and as Rob and Don note, their Leader is losing. Batman pulls the leader out of the mud and breaks his back.
Nick and Matt are in awe, and Carrie is pleased that her story is the best. Matt picks up his flashlight—of which he had made a custom Bat-signal with a paper cutout—and tells them that they'd head home—it's late. On their way out, they see a shadow flying through the air, one similar to the one in the photo they saw in the Gazette earlier. They follow it to an abandoned movie theatre, believing it to be the secret headquarters of Batman. But instead of Batman, they find the arsonist—Firefly. Carrie recognizes him and they decide to warn Batman with Matt's flashlight. After a few seconds, however, the battery goes dead, and Firefly catches them. He ignites the firebombs he planted in the cinema and prepares to make his getaway when the real Batman arrives. Though Matt at first thinks he alerted the Dark Knight, Batman tells Firefly that his bosses quite easily gave away where he'd be.
Firefly engages Batman, who quickly disposes of his fire thrower and flame saber. Firefly's escape is stopped by a bola around his feet. At that moment, more explosions erupt, and the kids find themselves trapped. Batman throws an explosive Batarang at the wall to allow the kids a means of escape, while Batman leaves with the bound Firefly over his shoulder.
Moments later, firemen and police arrived. Detective Bullock arrives, and the first thing he sees is Firefly left dangling. The kids, the ones who had alerted the police, walk off each claiming that the experience "proved" his/her Batman story true.
Voice Cast[]
- Kevin Conroy as Batman
- Robert Costanzo as Harvey Bullock
- Anndi McAfee as Carrie
- Gary Owen as 50's Batman
- Michael Ironside as 80's Batman
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Mutant Leader
- Phillip Van Dyke as Joel
Gallery[]
Lithographs/ animation cels[]
Concept art[]
Notes[]
- The episode's format is similar to the Batman #250's "The Batman Nobody Knows". Each of the stories told are refences to Batman comics:
- Matt's tale is based on Detective Comics #91. The story features multiple references to Golden and Silver Age comics, including Batman and Robin shaking hands in a vein similar to the 1960s Batman series.
- Carrie's tale is based on The Dark Knight Triumphant, with the story very heavily condensed and some of the more violent moments toned down.