Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #11-15

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #11-15

Originally released in 1990

Written by Doug Moench

Art by Paul Gulacy

I was introduced to Hugo Strange through the video game Batman: Arkham City, where he had an extremely strong introduction. (The voice actor doing a really good Christopher Lee impersonation likely helped) However, he doesn't get much use in the modern day, given how much Batman's rogues gallery sticks out and how (aside from the beard) he's relatively normal by comparison. I wanted to read a more modern (or at least post-Crisis) story where he's involved.

It's the early days of Batman's career, and he's a figure of controversy within Gotham. Is he a deranged attention-hungry vigilante, or someone who's trying to do good but is worried about reprisals from the criminal element? Bruce recognizes that Jim Gordon understands why Batman does what he does, but Strange's remarks plant seeds for Batman to widen his incredibly small circle of trust. (Which, at this point, consists entirely of him and Alfred)

Jim Gordon is put in charge of an anti-Batman task force, much to his surprise, and he picks Sergeant Cort as his second in command. Cort, unlike Gordon, is firmly anti-Batman, though he's still a good person who does his best to weed out the corrupt elements in Gotham City's police force.

Hugo Strange is hired as a consulting psychiatrist who relishes in the opportunity to study Batman.  His obsession has already reached the point where he has a homemade Batman costume despite Batman rarely being seen in public, though he has some fundamental misunderstandings about why Batman does what he does.

As Cort encounters Batman more and more, any attempts at extending an olive branch to the sergeant just seems to make him angrier and angrier.  Learning that Gordon has been meeting with Batman and setting up the Bat Signal drives Cort over the edge, and he turns over the files that Gordon had been keeping from Hugo Strange over to the doctor.

Soon, Gotham faces a growing problem with vigilantes.  Catwoman's making a name for herself, though much to her annoyance, the newspapers have branded her as Batman's partner, though she tries to prove otherwise.

Meanwhile, Hugo Strange has hypnotized Cort to become a vigilante known as the Night-Scourge, making him act as though he's following Batman's example in an attempt to discredit Batman.  As a back-up plan, he has Cort dress up in his homemade Batman costume to kidnap the mayor's daughter. (the fact that the mayor's daughter snubbed his advances earlier is presumably connected - Strange is a small, petty man who expresses jealousy of Batman and tries to rationalize why people don't like him using psycho-babble in order to act like it's their fault rather than his own)

Upon discovering that he has supposedly kidnapped the mayor's daughter, Batman travels to Hugo Strange's penthouse, where Strange is waiting for him with a powerful hallucinogenic gas.  Batman's screams give Strange the last piece of the puzzle that he needs.

Bruce manages to make it home, barely able to stand, only to find that Alfred has been knocked unconscious and someone has set up dummies of Bruce's parents with tape recorders. Hugo Strange clearly works fast.

Taking several days to recuperate (and finish building the Batmobile), Batman returns to confront Strange, who is confident in his victory.

Batman insists that his parents are alive and in Paraguay, and Jim Gordon bursts in to find the Mayor's daughter held captive in Strange's apartment. Snapping, Strange runs off, only for his Batman costume to backfire on him.

Even with Strange beaten and assumed dead, the Night-Scourge needs to be dealt with. Catwoman's role in this wound up being more minor than I expected, though she does play a part in beating Night-Scourge and forcing him to flee to the police station where his identity is revealed.

Hugo Strange wound up doing less with Batman's secret identity than I thought. I get that Batman planted seeds of doubt to make him think he was wrong, but Hugo Strange lacks Ra's al Ghul's moral code to not act on that information.  Still, he wants to be Batman, so maybe he wants to convince Bruce to turn the identity over to him. This Prey storyline was a well-written story showing Batman's early days and his tense relationship with the police and other Gotham authorities.