THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN by Wein, Aparo, and Byrne

The Untold Legend of the Batman (1982) collects the eponymous three-issue 1980 mini-series from DC Comics. It was written by Len Wein and illustrated by Jim Aparo and John Byrne. Here, someone is threatening Batman in the Batcave, and in trying to identify the culprit, Batman and other characters reminisce about their origins.

This is, first and foremost, a detailed retelling of Batman’s Gold and Silver Age, Pre-Crisis origins, based in large part on stories from the 1940s and 1950s. Not everything that’s here is canon anymore (Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One has supplanted it in matters contradictory; Bruce, for example, no longer was the original Robin), and not everything is consistent even with Batman’s several other Gold and Silver Age origin stories (Joe Chill, for example, is a hired hitman here rather than a random mugger).

Wein’s writing is adequate. The series is little more than an excuse for various characters to recollect their own and others’ origin stories. These include the origins of Bruce, Dick Grayson, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, the Joker, Two-Face, and Lucius Fox (and Batman isn’t the only one to have his origin retconned). Beyond this contrived framework, these origin stories are, on the whole, very interesting, even if the resolution to the “who’s trying to kill Bruce” plot is kind of weak and the dialogue is the typical melodramatic exposition comics are notorious for. The pacing throughout is pretty good, though, which covers some of these flaws.

The art is quite a bit better. Jim Aparo was the definitive Batman artist of the 1980s, and his work, both as a penciller and an inker, is excellent here (the latter is particularly noteworthy because this version is in black and white). John Byrne always did quality work in the 1980s, too, and with Aparo illustrating his work, there’s a good transition between pencillers.

The Untold Legend of the Batman, like a number of Tor’s comic collections, is about four inches by seven – standard paperback novel size. By necessity, the panels have been rearranged – the material from one page of the original comic is spread over several pages here. This obviously disrupts the flow somewhat, but not to a damaging degree. As this story isn’t particularly relevant to the current incarnation of Batman, DC has never released a better version.

It’s hard to recommend The Untold Legend of the Batman to new Batman readers because of its canonical irrelevancy, but it’s a pretty good, pretty quick read, and those who are at least somewhat familiar with Pre-Crisis Batman stories should enjoy it.

RECOMMENDED

STAR TREK: LOG ONE by Alan Dean Foster

Star Trek: Log One (1974), by Alan Dean Foster, contains three novellas adapted from the first three episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series: “Beyond the Farthest Star,” “Yesteryear,” and “One of Our Planets is Missing.” Here, the crew investigates an ancient derelict ship, Spock travels back in time to save his child self, and the Enterprise is swallowed by a planet-eating cloud.

Each novella is about sixty pages, and generally, this is a good length for this material, although there’s quite a bit more setup, especially for “Beyond,” and the pacing tends to be on the leisurely side. Foster has a narrative flair for the dramatic, and his characters often ponder grand cosmic thoughts. The overall effect is a different tone and feel from either The Original Series or TAS. The stories themselves are solid if not spectacular; “Yesteryear” was easily the best TAS episode, and, with the most character focus of the three, it’s the best story here, too.

Foster’s characterization is adequate at best, and the dialogue doesn’t always ring true. The Kirk-Spock-McCoy interplay isn’t on the level that Trek fans will likely expect, and tends to lack both charm and humor. Kirk himself is uncharacteristically awkward at times, while the Spock-McCoy exchanges are more immature and less good-spirited than what we saw on either TOS or TAS.

The only scientific nitpick here is in “Beyond,” where the characters regularly experience sound on a ship with no atmosphere (although in fairness, every iteration of Star Trek going back to TOS has abused this).

On the whole, Star Trek fans should find Star Trek: Log One reasonably readable and enjoyable, whether they’ve seen TAS or not.

RECOMMENDED

CRATER by Homer Hickam

Crater is a 2012 young-adult science fiction novel by Homer Hickam, and the first in his Helium-3 trilogy. Crater, a teenage lunar miner, accompanies one of his company’s helium-3 convoys in pursuit of an objective that led to the deaths of two others who tried to obtain it.

Hickam has been a coal miner and a NASA engineer. Not surprisingly, Crater’s lunar mining operations, living conditions, moon physics, and use of helium-3 are well thought out. There are also a lot of good moon facts in here, as well. Hickam’s setup and world-building (of the moon, anyway) are the highlights of the book.  

Hickam’s storytelling is less impressive. Crater himself is hard to root for because even though he’s good-hearted and capable, he’s also a clueless, pouty bumpkin with inexplicable low self-esteem. Almost every other character is flat, and many have the reasoning power of small children. The novel has two kinds of villains, crowhoppers and demons, and not only are they exactly the same, they’re also largely incompetent. Plot developments and resolutions are often convenient and unrealistic. The romance is horrendous. The story even stops for two pages near the end so Hickam can get in a quick sermon against government regulation. The overall effect is that the novel feels like a Saturday morning cartoon with a bunch of killing.

Crater features little in the way of suspense, even though Hickam tries desperately to generate some in the final act using one of the cheapest writer’s tricks of all time – hiding from the reader plot information known to all the characters. Nor does the MacGuffin-driven plot attract much interest, nor the cartoon characters that populate Hickam’s moon.

All of this is really too bad, because Crater felt like it had a lot of potential when it got started. In the end, though, it was a disappointment.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

THE LOVE & RESPECT EXPERIENCE by Emerson Eggerichs

The Love & Respect Experience: A Husband-Friendly Devotional that Wives Truly Love (2011) is a Christian devotional for married couples by Emerson Eggerichs based on his very worthwhile Love & Respect book (2004) and curriculum.

The Love & Respect Experience consists of 52 devotionals of three or four pages each, covering such topics as the differences between men and women, love, respect, forgiveness, prayer, sex, being positive, focusing on God, anger, and humility.

There’s a great deal of exhortation here, but not a lot of discussion material that doesn’t potentially involve picking at one another’s flaws. Instead, there are plenty of things to do and not do. The effect of this is that The Love & Respect Experience often feels like a Christian self-help book dressed up as a devotional.

The discussion questions for each devotional are in the back of the book rather than with the corresponding chapter. That may sound trivial, but it’s a major blow to user-friendliness. Once you track your questions down, there tend to be a lot of “yes/no” questions and reading comprehension questions, and not always a lot for fruitful discussion.

The book is heavily billed as being “geared toward men,” yet, beyond one devotional about John Wooden and another about Tom Coughlin, I was hard pressed to find evidence of this, whether in theme or town. I never felt like it was geared to me. My wife and I pray together on a daily basis, although we don’t usually do a devotional. I picked this up because I thought this was worth a shot, but neither of us ever got into it.

The Love & Respect Experience also includes a brief explanation of Eggerichs’ three cycles of marriage, as outlined in Love & Respect, but familiarity with the material in Love & Respect helps quite a bit in working through these devotionals, and some of the material may be confusing or not useful otherwise.

While the content in The Love & Respect Experience is good, it just doesn’t work well as a devotional, at least to me – no doubt some will find it quite helpful, and that’s great. The rest of us, however, might be better off sticking with the original Love & Respect and trying to meet our devotional needs elsewhere.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”