Batman Legends of the Dark Knight # 33 Blades Part 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

Batman is currently obsessed in finding the mysterious Mr. Lime, a mass murderer targeting the elderly. Meanwhile, a new hero named The Cavalier has shown up in Gotham and the citizens like him over Batman. As Batman saves a woman from a burning building, on the other side of town, The Cavalier saves a woman from jumping off a roof. What will happen next as now he's fallen in love for her?

The story opens with a news report of daring jewel thefts upon the wealthy in the city. In the Bat Cave, Bruce is still obsessing over the fact that Mr. Lime continues to kill and has left no clues for him to work with. Alfred tells him the Bat Signal is on and that he should see what Captain Gordon wants.

Batman goes to see Gordon who informs him of the rash of jewel robberies. Since the rich are affecting City Hall, the heat is coming on Gordon to solve this. Batman says he can't be distracted from stopping Mr. Lime and if they need a hero they can ask The Cavalier. Gordon asks if the new hero is up to this. Batman says maybe, but at least he's the kind of hero he might have become if things were different.

Gordon arranges to meet with The Cavalier and tells him about the jewel thief. He asks about Batman and Gordon informs that he is busy. The Cavalier decides to take the case and tells Gordon the thief is as good as caught. 

The latest jewelry store has upped their security, spending several thousands to do so, due to all the thefts in the area. Unfortunately, this only made the thief take seven minutes to break in rather than four. 

As night falls, Batman tries to find answers from the local thugs, with zero results. Elsewhere, The Cavalier stops an armored car robbery and finds himself loving the thrill of fighting crime more and more. 

Elsewhere an evil man by the name of Randolph Salt and his bodyguard are visited by the jewel thief. Randolph wants him to do one last job, the big one he was leading up to. Afterwards, he will give the mysterious jewel thief what he wants. 

The Cavalier in his civilian attire and a woman named Ellen watch the TV, which shows his heroic self explaining to interviewers that the jewel thief is trickier than he thought. Ellen was the woman he had saved from trying to end her own life. He hasn't told her that he loved her, he wants to help her deal with her grief first. 

Elsewhere, an award show is commemorating a longtime famous actor, Melvin Ameche. Seeing that this is a major event and the actor is up there in age, Batman is watching, expecting Mr. Lime to strike. Batman is hanging upside down by the stage lights, one eye using an infrared device to monitor everything. As Melvin gives his speech, Batman notices ticking coming from under the podium. Being so distracted by Mr. Lime and expecting for him to attack out in the open, he didn't consider he might have gotten to the show beforehand and planted a bomb. Batman swings by and rescues Melvin right before the podium explodes. A piece of debris clocks Batman on the back of the head causing some damage. Despite being dazed, he can at least tell that Melvin is still breathing. Batman can't stop shivering.

In a museum, the jewel thief sneaks inside, being careful to avoid light beam alarms, video surveillance and taking out the security guards. However one thing he wasn't ready for, was the floor being freshly waxed. He slips and falls, sounding off the alarms. The thief decided to just break the glass casing and get what he came for and get the heck out of there. The alarms were wired to the police and they were quick to show up.

The police shine a light on the rooftops and see that the crook was indeed, The Cavalier. He knew he would get caught, but he had to do what Randolph said. To make things worse for him, Batman also showed up in some sort of... Bat-Helicopter-Scooter thing. This time Batman wasn't there to talk.

The Cavalier runs with Batman in hot pursuit. Batman can't stop shivering and needed to take time to recover from the head trauma, but he was determined to catch the man that tricked the city and also tricked him. The Cavalier continues to run, being surprised that he is also enjoying the rush of escaping capture. 

The Cavalier throws a blade towards Batman but aimed at the helicopter blades. Batman does duck to dodge it and the chopper blades fall apart. This makes the Caped Crusader land hard, his vehicle bursting into flames. The Cavalier is surprised that Batman isn't moving, so he grabs him and pulls him away from the fire. The Cavalier tells Batman that he could have just left him near the flames or killed him to make sure he'd be safe from him, but he's not a murderer. He bids Batman adieu and leaves.

At the Cavalier's home, Ellen begs him to leave before the manhunt for him begins. He says he needs to finish his business with Randolph first, he would be a coward to leave now. Ellen tells him he shouldn't ruin his life over her. He says he must.

My thoughts- 

Now this was an unexpected direction. We got Batman looking for Mr. Lime and a new hero in Gotham, and now we follow that up with a master jewel thief and a new bad guy named Randolph Salt? 

I'm surprised we still haven't seen Mr. Lime yet. With the new jewel thief and Mr. Lime still not being seen, The Cavalier had to be one of these guys. I know they did it like a big surprise reveal, but I kinda saw the jewel thief being The Cavalier coming. It just made sense. Now why he seems to be working for Randolph now, my guess is he has something on Ellen, something strong enough to drive her to try to end herself. With Cavalier being in love with her, he'll do whatever it takes to help her. 

Now is Randolph the elusive Mr. Lime? I'm not really sure. He seems more interested in amassing riches, and I don't see what that has to do with killing the elderly, or make it easier for him to obtain that goal. That's the big mystery that hangs above all of this, just who IS this Mr. Lime person?

Good story, as usual for these Legends of the Dark Knight stories, I'm drawn in and eager to see the conclusion. Other than Batman, Alfred and Gordon, we also have the Cavalier, Ellen, Randolph and Mr. Lime, each with their own goals and I can't wait to see what happens when all the pieces come into play. 

The art is kinda hit or miss on some of the panels, like proportion-wise at times. Especially the huge splash panel of Bruce Wayne brooding. It kinda needed a second pass before publishing. 

Not sure what to think of Batman's.... helicopter/scooter thing. It almost looks like a toy advertisement, except most of the time, not counting cartoons of course, they can release as many weird Batman variants and vehicles they want. The comics have zero obligation to feature them. I'm just curious what these guys were thinking when they came up with this? Didn't Batman also own a proper Batplane or Batcopter... not whatever this device is. Year One indeed. 

Also this comic was made when Batman Returns was just around the corner. Such memories and man, did I ever love that movie and I still do nowadays.