The Batman Movie: 10 Comics Matt Reeves NEEDS To Adapt

4. Legends Of The Dark Knight

Legends of the Dark Knight
DC Comics

Batman: Gothic isn't the only 'legend' of the Dark Knight worth mentioning, because - as the series implies - there have actually been dozens.

Legends of the Dark Knight was a long-running Batman title that gave writers the opportunity to tell stories situated within various points of Batman's career. Without the constraints of contemporary continuity, creators were given a full license to tell self-contained, personal story-arcs that delved into the character's classic characteristics, with the likes of Morrison, Doug Moench and Denny O'Neil all having contributed seminal stories while on the book.

Reeves could seriously spend days combing through that book and find storylines that speak to the specific kind of Batman he wants to portray on the big screen, but apart from Gothic, there's also Venom, a comic which sees Batman fail to save someone and his attempts to ensure that never happens again.

O'Neil's work on Batman is definitive, but then there's also no overlooking the contributions of writers like Mike W. Barr, who wrote the immaculate 'Faith' while on Legends, and even Matt Wagner's 'Faces', which depicted Two-Face in a whole knew light.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.