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Legends of the Dark Knight just introduced a new gang of Gotham City thieves called the Ghost Dogs, and they already have Batman on their side.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Legends of the Dark Knight #15, by Che Grayson, Belén Ortega, Alejandro Sanchez and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.
In Gotham City, some parts of society end up neglected, even with Batman saving people and Bruce Wayne’s charitable actions, many segments of society end up neglected. It’s why Jason Todd stayed in the Hill for a while to help the people with problems that the Caped Crusader couldn’t punch away.
Now, come Legends of the Dark Knight #15, Batman ironically encounters the Ghost Dogs, a gang of thieves that has been born from this very issue. And despite their inexperience, this group proves to be the best thieves in Gotham since Catwoman’s Alleytown gang came together.
Bruce has been investigating a string of thefts by a masked gang known as the Ghost Dogs. He’s stunned that they’re so skilled, even reminding him of Selina Kyle. When he catches and unmasks one of the Ghost Dogs, Batman is surprised to learn that it’s a young girl named Ghost. She’s bitter at first, but he eventually gets her to admit that she’s stealing like Robin Hood to help her people, a group of over 100 families who were displaced by their landlords who burned their building for the insurance money. Even before this, Ghost relays that she grew up with White folks, but the posh always looked down on her, making it difficult in school. As Bruce listens, he reconciles how lucky he was — despite his parents’ death — to have Alfred, his family’s wealth and much more than Ghost.
Society has failed Ghose and the other families in her encampment, and while she hates Jim Gordon’s cops for this, she also despises the status quo Batman stands for. To her, Batman is more concerned with protecting the Winstons, the landlords who burned down her building, and their jewelry store than for the innocent, underprivileged people and the youth in general.
Ultimately, Batman’s sympathetic and takes most of the jewels back without turning her in. He just asks Ghost to promise she won’t pursue theft again. He returns the loot to Gordon and has him look into the Winstons, but the twist is Batman knows Ghost has kept some jewels to hock to help her community out. They need food, better tents, clothes, so he lets this one slide.
It’s somewhat similar to when Catwoman recruited her gang in Alleytown when she moved back in Catwoman #25, training them the same way Mama Fortuna trained her and many others. She was giving them agency once more, not just to steal but to stop drugs and human trafficking, turning them into vigilantes.
While Batman’s Robins and other sidekicks set a precedent for young people taking to Gotham’s rooftops and engaging in extralegal activities, they weren’t the only ones to do so. And now, people like Ghost and the kids of Catwoman’s Alleytown crew have carved out their own place on the dangerous streets of Gotham, often because they have to. Even though Batman has made a place in the Bat-Family for many lost kids, he can’t bring them all to Wayne Manor, but he still needs to find a way to help Gotham’s most vulnerable residents.
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