A BIRTHDAY SALUTE to Englehart — and a wish for a definitive collection of one of Batman’s greatest stories…
Some years back, we posted an INSIDE LOOK at the never-completed third part of Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers’ so-called Dark Detective trilogy.
In a nutshell, Englehart — who was born 77 years ago, on April 22, 1947 — envisioned that his original 1977 Detective Comics run with Rogers, Terry Austin and Walt Simonson be called Dark Detective and that its follow-up 2005 miniseries, actually titled Dark Detective, be dubbed Dark Detective II instead. And Dark Detective III? That was a project that was begun but never finished because of Rogers’ death in 2007.
You can click here to read all the details — it’s well worth it — but in the recently published, Batman-focused Back Issue #150, there’s a letter from a fan named Wade AuCoin in which he describes self-publishing the six issues of Dark Detective III, using the unfinished art, the completed scripts and Rogers’ 1981 Batman Portfolio.
Dig this:
Wade’s onto something here. DC should find a way to publish Dark Detective III.
“My most fervent dream would (be) to have Terry Austin ink the first issue of Dark Detective III, but I don’t know if that will ever be possible,” Wade told me. “My wish and Steve’s is that DC would print these stories in some way. I am not looking to make any money from this, but I’m sure the powers-that-be at DC would think that Issues #2-6 of Dark Detective III would sell better if they were drawn by well-known artists.”
Austin was involved in the aborted project.
Each subsequent issue could be drawn by a different artist, in tribute to Rogers, Wade said. He suggested Simonson, Trevor Von Eeden, Michael Golden, Joe Staton and Jim Starlin. If it could only be one artist, he would choose noted Rogers buff Kelley Jones.
A wonderful idea but I think it’s unlikely DC would publish Dark Detective III on its own. But what it could do is make it part of the soon-to-launch DC Finest line, which seems perfect for this sort of thing.
Imagine this: DC Finest: Batman — Dark Detective, including Detective Comics #469-476; Dark Detective #1-6; the art from Rogers’ 1981 Batman Portfolio; and all the art Rogers did finish for the third part of the trilogy, as well as Englehart’s scripts for those issues.
You just know DC will at some point get around to publishing those Detective Comics issues in this line. The seminal storyline included the introductions of Silver St. Cloud, Rupert Thorne and Dr. Phosphorus; the first appearance of Hugo Strange since the 1940s, making him an A-List Batman villain; the overhaul of Deadshot; one of the best Penguin stories ever; and the climactic, spectacular Joker two-parter The Laughing Fish.
(You could include the framing device from Detective #477 and the Clayface III issues #478 and #479, but those were written by Len Wein and Englehart has long asserted — with no disrespect to Wein — that his story ended with #476 before the miniseries was published nearly 30 years later.)
This would be the definitive collection of the story and we could, once and for all, dispense with the other names attributed to the original run, such as Shadow of the Batman and Strange Apparitions.
It’s an idea too good not to happen.
—
MORE
— An INSIDE LOOK at ENGLEHART AND ROGERS’ Unfinished BATMAN Trilogy. Click here.
— DC FINEST: 13 BOOKS We’d Like to See in DC Comics’ New Line. Click here.
April 22, 2024
Detective Comics #472 (“I Am the Batman!”) made me a life-long Marshall Rogers fan. I had read #471, but for some reason it didn’t immediately click with me the way the 2nd issue did. But seems like everyone tends to forget that Rogers wasn’t the artist for the entire original Dark Detective run: Walt Simonson penciled the first two chapters, with Al Milgrom inking. So, my preference would be for DC to publish Dark Detective 3 with as much of the Rogers pencil artwork as exists, and then let Simonson pencil the remaining Englehart scripts. Of course, the dream inker to tie everything together in part 3 would be Terry Austin, but it would also be pretty sweet to have Simonson ink his own pencils again. No disrespect intended to Marshall Rogers, but the original Dark Detective run was already bigger than his considerable contribution to it.
April 22, 2024
DC knows where my $$$ is if they want it.
April 22, 2024
When I interviewed Terry Austin for my book THE BATCAVE COMPANION back in 2010, he discussed with me that Marshall had completed the pencils for the first issue of DD II. He also told me that Englehart had completed the scripts. What Terry wanted to do was ink Marshall’s pencils for the first issue and then have Walt Simonson pencil the rest of the story and he would ink Simonson’s pages.
April 22, 2024
Makes so much sense, right? One almost wonders if Simonson already elected to pass on the project. Or, just a complete lack of interest on DC’s part, for whatever reason.
April 22, 2024
When I emailed Terry Austin for my book THE BATCAVE COMPANION in 2010, he wanted to get DD II completed. He wanted to ink Marshall’s pencils for issue 1 and said he wanted either Walt Simonson or Paul Gulacy to pencil the remaining issues of Englehart’s story, which he would ink. At that time, DC told him they had no interest. Since that time, Gulacy has retired, I have no idea how active Terry still is. Simonson still does work.
April 22, 2024
INSTANT BUY!
(And what a great opportunity for DC to get us to buy some of the same material all over again, by adding part III.)
April 22, 2024
Agree 100%!
April 22, 2024
I’d be interested as long as the new material was also printed separately. I got the original run off the rack, the Sal Q portfolio when it came out, the 80s reprints, Strange Apparitions and the hardcover when they came out, I don’t think I’d be willing to go to the well again.
The best case scenerio would be for Simonson and Austin to do it, but I’d be all over a Kelley Jones version.
April 23, 2024
Maybe what they should do is have multiple artist put their spin to it. Same story told with different takes. Everyone wins.
April 23, 2024
An artist that comes to mind that could complete the story is Paul Smith…if he even does comics anymore!