To
heck with the
Batmen Of All Nations. What about the
Legion Of Alternate Batmen?!?
Batman #256 (1974) was a 100 Page Giant. And those always had a few extra pages to fill, and
DC usually used puzzles, or factoid pages, or fan-art.
But in this issue,
Marty Pasko and
Pat Broderick used two pages to do something a little bit different. In the era between the
imaginary story era and the
Elseworlds era, they started
What If...?--several years before
Marvel did.
We start with the origin we could all recite in our sleep:
But then they explain their premise:
First stop: what if
Bruce Wayne had been in the desert, for some reason?
Next, look out,
Aquaman:
Hey, Pat, that is a
terribly drawn stingray. Sorry, had to be said.
Then--what if Bruce Wayne were a
park ranger?!?
Or an astronomer?
Or just liked to
hang around museums??
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting
The Scorpion, The Stingray, The Owl, The Shooting Star, and
The Iron Knight--
The Legion Of Alternate Batmen! (OK, Pasko never called them that, but
I did...and you know it's a damn good name).
Look, Grant Morrison is in charge of
Batman these days...and DC had held off doing any
multiverse stories because they want Grant to do them. So, I'll ask--nay,
demand--once more: Why the
hell hasn't Grant Morrison done anything with the Legion Of Alternate Batmen?!?
It should be good for at least an 8-issue miniseries, and would be a lot more fun than
Zur-En-Arrh...
