Batman Year One

The first thing that I noticed while reading through Batman: Year One was the uncanny resemblance between the Neo-noir themes of the comic and the overall tone of The Batman(I’m willing to die on the hill that this movie was better than the Dark Knight Trilogy). Which shouldn’t be a surprise, since Batman:Year One was the inspiration for the movie.

Batman:Year One(I’m going to shorten this to BYO in this post going forward) takes a refreshed, modern approach to the origin story of the Caped Crusader(“modern” by the standards of this book being written in 1986 and comparing it against when Batman first appeared in Detective Comics in 1939). Gotham is shown as a dirty, corrupt, dark, violent megacity, where the cops and government are in cahoots with organized criminals, and the entire underbelly of the city is for all to see. Detective Gordon is one of the few cops who still wants to make a difference, along with Harvey Dent, the District Attorney. It is a constant, thankless battle for the few people who are still fighting for Gotham’s soul in the face of the entire government machinery against them.

Under this backdrop, Bruce Wayne returns to the city after 12 years away. The richest billionaire in the city was away since the fateful day when his parents were murdered, and he now is trying to figure out what he wants/should become for his catharsis.

BYO is dark, gritty, and the violence is always in-your-face. Batman has still not become the infallible crusader that he will eventually become, and its interesting to see Bruce stumble, get stabbed, and shot at multiple times(even by petty criminals) as he figures out what he is becoming and what his own limits are. The story is refreshing because this isn’t a story about how the Batman is working with similar minded folks to thwart the plans of a villain, but its more about how the leading characters are all trying to come to terms with the evil that has permeated in their own city, and what they are willing to do in the face of relentless disappointments to try to fix what’s wrong in the world.

The artwork is edgy and stays with the reader for a while. A short read, but one that is thoroughly enjoyable, BYO should be picked up by every comic book/Batman fan.

Rating: 4.5/5