The Untold Legends of the Batman with Case Aiken

We’re back with another episode of Trade School! This time, we’re talking about The Untold Legends of the Batman! Our host this week is Case Aiken!

Want to submit an entry? Email case.aiken@gmail.com

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Edited by Case Aiken

Scored by Bret Eagleston

Certain Point Of View is a podcast network brining you all sorts of nerdy goodness! From Star Wars role playing, to Disney day dreaming, to video game love, we've got the show for you! Learn more on our website: https://www.certainpov.com

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⏱️ YouTube Chapters

00:00 – Intro to Trade School & First Comic Memories
00:52 – Growing Up with Adam West Batman
01:35 – What The Untold Legend of the Batman Actually Is
02:27 – The Weird Digest-Sized Black & White Trade Paperback
03:16 – Batman Lore Crash Course
04:06 – Why Batman’s Core Mythology Barely Changes
05:27 – Batman’s Penthouse Era Explained
06:12 – Len Wein, Jim Aparo & John Byrne
07:03 – Nostalgia, Summers & Becoming a Comics Kid
07:49 – Early Trade Paperbacks Before the Boom
08:38 – Wonder Woman & the Strange History of Collected Editions
09:29 – Why This Still Works as a Batman Introduction
10:14 – Batman in the Early 80s: A Snapshot in Time
10:51 – Podcast Plugs & Call for Trade School Submissions
12:05 – The Word From Tomorrow Promo

Transcription

00:00
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it. Hey, everyone, I'm Case Aiken. And for this episode of Trade School, I just wanted to take a look back on the first trade paperback that I ever owned. I was thinking about it and it occurred to me that I could identify specifically not just the first trade paperback, but the first comic book that I ever owned. I realized that in my possession was the Untold Legend of the Batman. And that might surprise some people that it's a Batman book that is my first comic and not a Superman book. But I think you need to remember the era that I grew up in was pre the 89 Batman movie from. From Tim Burton with Michael Heaton.

00:52
I grew up in the syndication era of the Batman Adam west show. And so that was my introduction to a lot of superhero stuff. I mean, it wasn't my pure introduction. I Mouse and Super Grover predate it. But it was certainly in my very early rotation in terms of my exposure to superhero media in general. And so I was a big fan of Batman. I continue to be a fan of Batman. I just not as vocally a fan of Batman as I am of Superman. As those of you who are familiar with my podcast, Men of Steel should be pretty well familiar with. I might rag on the character a little bit, but I do have a lot of love for Batman. I just don't pick up the books regularly anymore.

01:35
But that aside, I want to talk about the Untold Legend of the Batman, which is a pretty cool origin story book for Batman. So it is written in such the way that it is all these characters sort of flashing back as they try to figure out what's going on with Batman and what's messing with him so much. And it's a fun sort of retrospective of the career of Batman. The. The relationships that he has established with all these characters, including like tons of individuals that have only like tertiary connections to Batman, like the guy who built his car. That has like a specific bit of lore. And this is all pre crisis lore, I should note. So this is. And this was published in 1982, or at least the trade was published in 1982, which is what I have. It's actually.

02:27
It is a trade paperback, but it is a WE trade paperback. It is a digest sized black and white trade paperback published from 1982, which is funky. The original comic was. Was published in color and is available on the DC Universe Infinite app in full Color, which is weird for me to look at because I'm so used to seeing it in black and white. But the trade that I have is a black and white trade for it, which kind of goes for this sort of like pulpy investigative quality to it all. Like it's, it's a noir story that goes through the legend of who Batman is from various characters perspectives and gets into a lot of history for the characters.

03:16
So it was sort of a catch up for like if you didn't know all the ins and outs of Batman's history, this is a, a crash course on who Batman is. All of the lore bits, the Joe Chill, the fact that Batman's father at one point wore a batsuit to stop a crime, the fact that Batman wore the Robin outfit before Dick Grayson wore the Robin outfit, the lore for how Barbara Gordon became Batgirl, the lore for how Dick Grayson became Robin, the lore behind the majority of his criminals, of his rogues gallery. It's all here. This was an incredibly foundational work for me in terms of understanding the Batman lore. And the fact of the matter is it didn't deviate too much from what the show had set out, the Adam west show.

04:06
And so it was a lot of understanding for characters that I had only seen on tv. And it was like, oh, there's all this additional lore. And that tickled my very particular neuro spicy brain in a way that I think is appropriate and I think is consistent with how I approach things that I become hyper fixated on. So this was a good book for me. Obviously this is super outdated. It's 40 plus years old at this point. 44 As of the time of this recording. So it is containing a lot of information that is bad. It doesn't necessarily hold up. But Batman has been fairly resistant to the effects of the various retcons that have occurred. There have been small impacts on his, like on his lore, but usually it's been the way he relates to other characters.

04:51
Like his relationship with Superman is different, but the foundational. This is who Batman is and this is his backstory and this is the backstory for most of his characters. Hasn't changed too much. Aside from like where like when the New 52 happened, which has been reset anyway. So, you know, whatever, it doesn't matter. Like this is still a fun lore book, especially if you just want to see where a snapshot of the lore was. You know, this is an era where Batman was in his like penthouse in Gotham City as opposed to back at Wayne Manor. So he had to, like. He, like, goes and visits Wayne Manor and they talk about it a lot.

05:27
But this was a particular era for Batman that will feel familiar for people who saw the Dark Knight, but for those who were not familiar with a period where Batman ever was not based out of Wayne Manor, that might have seemed strange. And this. This was an era like this. This book takes place during that era, so it just sort of assumes that you're familiar with it and gives you a setup and explanation for it and. And rolls with it. It's, you know, it's. It's a fascinating book. I think that the black and white, like I said, really sells the noir quality of it. But even without it, even reading it on the DC Universe app, it still is going to be a really interesting investigation into who Batman is as he's perceived by. By his allies.

06:12
The art I haven't mentioned who did this. So it's written by Len Wein, and the art is by Jim Aparo and John Byrne. And so it's an early introduction for me to John Byrne's, and I very much appreciated that contribution there. And Len Wein is a great writer who can tell a compelling origin story for characters. It's a solid digest of who Batman is and where he's coming from. And that's why I think that the trade is actually really worth talking about if you can pick it up. If you can't just read it on the app. It's three issues, apparently, that I think do a really good job of just, like I said, detailing a particular window of who Batman was and all that. But again, this was my first trade paperback, and I think back to when I got it.

07:03
I think back to the Summers reading it and to the obsession with this all and how that is, you know, really resonated. It was the first big pivot for me into the world of comic books, into superheroes, which has really been an important thing in my life. So I just wanted to reflect a little bit on that one. You know, this is a horribly old, so I doubt you'll be able to find in print copies. But like I said, it's available on the app, and it's just one that I have a lot of nostalgia for. I have it in front of me right now, and it's just kind of fun to flip through. It's got the yellowed paper quality to it that. That any sort of old paperback is going to have, because this is, I believe, a printing from 1982.

07:49
I probably got a hold of this around 1986, but I am have almost no doubt that this is not. It might have been a second printing, but very unlikely given the proliferation of it because this is before trade paperbacks were a big thing. I think that's one of the things that's really fascinating about it, the fact that it's this digest size story collection for Batman. This precedes the big upheaval, this precedes the legend of when Watchmen needed to be in constant print to avoid the rights going back to Alan Moore. This precedes the big boom for trade paperbacks in the 90s that changed the way that comic books were distributed and were written for and so forth. This is a precursor to all of those kind of trade paperbacks. And that's I think really cool.

08:38
You know, one thing that was astounding to me when we did a history tour of Wonder Woman for Men of Steel, my Superman and Superman Adjacent podcast is that we looked at what turned out to be the first Wonder Woman trade paperback. And that was kind of wild that just specifically like some like a book from the 90s was within our realm of like, oh, this is the first thing that they ever published to collect this character. Because trade paperbacks are just relatively speaking that new. And this precedes all of that big lore and legend and development in the printing medium. And so that's what just a really cool thing about it, like the fact that they were experimenting with these collections even before what we understand as the trade paperback boom was a thing.

09:29
So I think that's a really cool aspect of this book. And yeah, like I said, it's just a fun digest of who Batman is from the perspective of 1982. And that is enjoyable. So I hope you have a chance to check it out. It's a cool story. You know, it is very much like a, like here is everything you need to know about Batman, but like sometimes you need to know some stuff about Batman. And especially for kids, this is a great introduction that like there's some violence but nothing like that's that dramatic like comic panels of character getting kicked kind of thing. It, it's not particularly more violent than like the Adam West TV show. But anyway, so yeah, I think it's a, it's perfectly worthwhile for the youngins and for the oldens.

10:14
I think it's a cool snapshot of where the character was like what was the totality of Batman in the early 80s and how do we go from there. You know that's cool. It's cool that exists and I'm sure there's more modern examples of similar things, but this is the one from the early 80s that I grew up on that and that I thought was cool to talk about anyway. So yeah, check it out. Check out my podcast. I host a couple. I've got Men of Steel which I mentioned, which is my Superman show. Another Pass, which is my movie analysis show, the Word from Tomorrow, which is my read along for Trans Metropolitan that just launched.

10:51
Of course we've got this which is trade school where if you this kind of ramble about comic books and want to contribute, we would love to have submissions. You can reach out to me on all social media platforms at Case Aiken with exception of Instagram where I'm holding on for dear Life to my AIM screen name from high school. So it's Quetzalcoatl 5 there which is Q U E T Z A L C o a T L5 or you could email me, you can email me@case.aikenmail.com and I would love to have submissions, all kinds of submissions for the show. If it's a story you're really passionate about, that's awesome. Awesome. If it's a backstory that you're really passionate, such as this being a my first trade paperback and in fact being a very early trade paperback, also worthwhile stories for the pod.

11:40
So, so please contribute because this is a really cool project and I would love to have more people being a part of it. But otherwise, check out all those things. Check out, check out the Discord. Check out the Patreon for Certain POV Media. Check, check out all of that. And until next time, happy reading.

12:05
The world is getting stranger every day and somehow Trans Metropolitan saw nearly all of it coming. From weaponized misinformation to political theater to tech that reshapes our lives faster than we can process, the series future feels uncomfortably familiar. The Word From Tomorrow is a new read along podcast digging into that uncanny prescience. Hosted by Case Aiken and Keith Lettinen. Each episode welcomes a guest to explore how Warren Ellis and Derek Robertson's dystopian satire mirrors the world we're living in now. Across 10 episodes, we walk through the entire series. Politics, its media chaos, its dark humor, and the way it continues to hit with starling clarity. Listen@ certainpov.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

12:52
Cpov certainpov.com.