I picked this up based on the cover, figuring a Batman book by decent writers Chip Zdarsky and Matthew Rosenberg would be . . . decent. But once I cracked the cover I found this is actually a Gotham City mullet, with Red Hood/Jason Todd all business in the front and Grifter/Cole Cash having a party in the back.

Jason Todd's tale is a sequel to Batman: A Death in the Family, with Jason having repeated flashback to the events of that title, as he copes with how he and his foster father Bruce Wayne have failed to fully and mutually process their feelings about what happened. Jason is also having second thoughts about his use of lethal force in stopping criminals when he is confronted with some repercussions he has previously ignored. And there's a new villain named Cheer running around who isn't particularly important.

I've never liked Jason Todd, and though Zdarsky comes as close as anyone to changing that, he still falls short and I would be happiest if Jason just walked off panel one day and never returned. But at least I don't actively hate Jason Todd the way I do Grifter. I really dislike the decision to shove him into Gotham City in the "Future State" books and continue with him here, a bad character in a bad story. Unreadable garbage.

Batman: Urban Legends is basically a revival of the old Batman Family giant-size comic book anthology I enjoyed as a kid back in the 1970s. Each issue has four stories featuring different characters, so even though I didn't much like this first collection, it's only half of the material that appeared in the first six issues, and I'll probably still try the next collection since it will have a different mix of characters and creators.

FOR REFERENCE:
Collects only the Red Hood and Grifter features originally published in single magazine form in Batman: Urban Legends 1-6. Does not include all material published in those issues. (The excluded stories featured Harley Quinn, Outsiders, Oracle, Lady Shiva, Batwing, Tim Drake, Batgirls, Zealot, and Black Canary.)

Contents:
Red Hood: Cheer
• Red Hood and Batman: Cheer, Part 1 of 6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Eddy Barrows with Eber Ferreira, artists; Marcus To, artist (flashbacks); Hicham Habchi, cover art
• Red Hood and Batman: Cheer, Part 2 of 6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Eddy Barrows, pencils; Eber Ferreira and Julio Ferreira, inks; Marcus To, artist (flashbacks); Hicham Habchi, cover art
• Red Hood and Batman: Cheer, Part 3 of 6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira with Jesus Merino, artists; Marcus To, artist (flashbacks); John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson, cover art
• Red Hood and Batman: Cheer, Part 4 of 6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Eddy Barrows, pencils; Eber Ferreira, inks; Marcus To, artist (flashbacks); Jorge Molina, cover art
• Red Hood and Batman: Cheer, Part 5 of 6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira and Diogenes Neves, artists; Marcus To, artist (flashbacks); David Finch and Danny Miki, cover art
• Red Hood and Batman: Cheer, Part 6 of 6 / Chip Zdarsky, writer; Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira and Scott Eaton and Julio Ferreira with Oclair Albert, artists; Marcus To, artist (flashbacks); Nicola Scott, cover art

Grifter: The Long Con
• Grifter: The Long Con, [Part One] / Matthew Rosenberg, writer; Ryan Benjamin, artist; Kael Ngu, variant cover art
• Grifter: The Long Con, Part Two / Matthew Rosenberg, writer; Ryan Benjamin, artist; Francesco Mattina, variant cover art
• Grifter: The Long Con, Part Three / Matthew Rosenberg, writer; Ryan Benjamin, artist; David Marquez, variant cover art
• Grifter: The Long Con, Part Four / Matthew Rosenberg, writer; Ryan Benjamin, artist
• Grifter: The Long Con, Part Five / Matthew Rosenberg, writer; Ryan Benjamin, artist ( )