DC Comics; $12.99

The first Batman mini-series, 1980’s three-issue The Untold Legend of the Batman, was the work of a group of masters of the craft, and very recently it was collected and offered for the first time in the large Treasury format. It’s a treat for those readers who remember it and also for those who can discover it for the first time.

Writer Len Wein teamed with pencil artist-inker-letterer Jim Aparo (John Byrne, doing his first DC work, penciled the first issue). José Luis García-López and Dick Giordano were paired to illustrate the three covers. The results were superb.

The plot isn’t anything revolutionary – Batman is confronted by a seemingly impossible mystery – but in the hands of Len Wein, it becomes a concise tour of the origins of Batman’s foes and allies as the Dark Knight deals with the threat at hand.

The art and Glyn Wein’s colors create a perspective that is simultaneously energized and haunting, and it truly benefits from being seen at this much larger size. One note about that: in eBay listings we’ve seen this described as a facsimile edition, but that’s entirely incorrect. It was never in the treasury size before.

– J.C. Vaughn