Episode 99 – Venom – More Than A Very Special Episode

This time out Andy and Mike go back to the Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight well to talk about a story that came out in 1991 and was very much a done and one tale that later turned out to be one of the building blocks of the Knightfall Saga.

(To be fair, they’ve talked about Legends of the Dark Knight stories before, but that doesn’t stop Mike from giving you a history of the title.)

Venom was a story that ran from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #16 to issue #20. Written by Denny O’Neil with art by the unlikely trio of Russell Braun, Trevor Von Eden, and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, this story is about a time in Batman’s history when he become addicted to performance enhancing drugs. That’s actually an oversimplification. There’s a lot of moving parts to this story and it not only takes place in Gotham City but also on the island of Santa Prisca. It’s part examination of addiction and part James Bond type story that includes a fun reference to shark repellent.

Andy and Mike talk about a variety of things during the course of the episode. From a brief synopsis from Mike to Batman becoming an addict to addiction in general to the two bad guys and how much the guys hated them to how wonky the last act of the story is. They also have a brief conversation about how this story ties in Knightfall, which leads them to talking about the Bat Crossovers in general. They even go through the house ads that were in the book as well and Mike reads two of the letters from later issues, one of which seems to presage Knightfall.

Below are the covers to the issues discussed in this episode as well as the cover to the most recent trade paperback.

It may not seem like it, but Andy and Mike do like feedback even if they are crap at getting to it. The most direct way to do this is to email them, which you can do by directing your thoughts to overlookeddarkknight@gmail.com. You can also leave a comment over on their Facebook page. You can also leave a comment at the new web home of the show, The Bailey Planet.

Next Time: In the lead up to episode 100, we are going to represent some audio from the past. First up will be the first time Andy and Mike talked about Batman in a podcast! From the archives of Bailey’s Batman Podcast, the guys do a deep dive into Batman #400!