Batman: Year One

It is a shame that, Tim Burton’s excellent two outings notwithstanding, the Batman of film and television is the one that is most solidly rooted in the collective psyche of the public. What many current readers may not remember, however, is that the campiness of the 1966-68 TV show was reflected in, and fed off the Batman titles at the time.

All of that changed when Dennis O’Neil took over the writing chores and returned the character to the dark roots laid out by the late, great, Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Dennis O’Neil brought Batman comics into and through puberty. Frank Miller brought them into adulthood.

Along with the brilliant “Dark Knight Returns,” “Year One” bookends the saga of Bruce Wayne by re-interpreting and sometimes redefining the character’s roots. In so doing, Frank Miller laid the foundation for the character that today populates the monthly titles. Although not as grim as “Dark Knight,” “Year One” nonetheless hits closer to home and is, in my opinion, the best introduction to the character for anyone unfamiliar with it outside of film and TV.

The parallel struggles of Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon to “clean up a city that likes being dirty” are brilliantly rendered by Miller, possibly the finest comics writer EVER. Miller’s Jim Gordon is a far cry from the incompetent beat cop shown in movies and TV. He is a passionate, crusading man, the sort of cop Bruce Wayne might have been in another reality.

Opinions have always been strong one way or the other about the art in “Year One.” For my money, you couldn’t ask for more. Mazzucchelli’s pencils work wonders even beyond what he did in “Daredevil: Born Again,” and the coloring is particularly striking in its subtlety, even more so when you consider the “beat you over the head” standards of late-’80s comics.

All in all, this is the definitive Batman origin story. That Miller, Mazzucchelli and Lewis also manage to turn it into one of the finest Batman stories ever told is evidenced by the lasting impact it had on all subsequent interpretations of the characters involved. An all-around winner.
Rating: 5 / 5

Following up on his 1986 renovation of the Batman myth with “The Dark Knight Returns”, Frank Miller teamed with David Mazzucchelli to produce “Batman: Year One”, a novel retelling of how Bruce Wayne came to don tights to fight crime.

Miller’s Gotham City is a corrupt and festering cesspool, much as he would later depict in his Sin City series. Two good men come to town to clean things up: Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon, a new detective on the Gotham police force fresh from his role in cleaning up another police department.

Wayne himself has returned to his hometown after a long absence, during which he trained himself to become a vigilante. Wayne’s first foray into crimefighting nearly ends in disaster, but leads him ultimately to adopt the Batman motif to frighten criminals. Gordon becomes his unlikely ally as he strives to clean up Gotham’s police department.

The writing remains more mature and gritty than the typical comic book fare of the time. Batman is not the invincible denizen of the dark we’ve come to know and love, but an awkward guy in a goofy costume who seems always to be within an inch of death. Gordon is no paragon of virtue either; the main subplot deals with his affair with another cop while his wife waits to give birth to his son.

The result is a gripping, gritty, and ultimately redeeming tale which once again reinvents the familiar figure of the Batman.
Rating: 4 / 5

Frank Miller opens this absolutely must own graphic novel classic from 1987-88 by telling us that if the only Batman we remember was Adam West on Saturday mornings, then we do not know the Batman he once met, a much darker batman, a more real batman, the kind of Batman that Tim Burton would succeed somewhat in bringing to the screen in 1989, but Batman: Year One is just so much better in so many ways, and probably will remain better than any movie or television program you can expect to see or have seen. If you want to know Batman, then you should really be meeting him right here.

I especially like the Batman: Year one story. It is an excellent beginning, lots of in-jokes and capturing moments, even on-the-edge of the seat suspense, almost 100 pages of intense artwork. It is about the beginning of Batman like you have never seen it before, but also and probably more importantly, includes the beginning of Commissioner Gordon, a Lieutenant Gordon here, with a pregnant wife, who comes to Gotham City and finds his whole department on the take. The millionaire Bruce Wayne, has been training to become a vigilante since his parents where murdered by a gang of thieves. It is a psychological condition of revenge. He is trying to find the right formula to scare his victims. When he does, he goes up against the same criminals and kingpins that Lieutenant Gordon finds himself up against, no Jokers or Penguins here, but regular underworld types making it all the more level-headed, and thus a more accepting Batman and story. Batman fails in first few attempts, but manages miraculously to survive and continue on, both Gordon and Batman building their careers as crime fighters in Gotham City throughout the pages, a surprise bonus Catwoman introduced in the final act which sees the new crime-fighting duo of Batman and Gordon finally meeting up, without any sign of Robin among the 96 pages, this is certainly an alternative Batman and probably the best one. Miller’s look is a murky color bleeding hard edges and smears, resulting in a Batman graphic novel that takes your breath away. The action sequences are better than any movie I can think off to date, your eyes go wide open from frame to frame as this is the kind of animate Batman you have always wanted to see in action. It is not the kind of high quality artwork you see in advanced graphic novels, this was a series character that had to meet publication dates, but is still gloriously presented none the less. Just check out the sequence with Batman in the burning building fighting the SWAT team. It is the end of Chapter Two and most of Chapter 3. That is some of the best action sequences you have ever seen committed to the page.

I would suggest that you also try and get “Batman: The Dark Night Returns” as that was the other Batman graphic novel and “Batman: The Dark Night Strikes Again”, totally different types of art to Year One, as these are both Frank Miller’s work, the sequels to Batman: Year One, are mostly other artists, DC comics has a list at the back, very interesting ones at that also, like Alan Moore’s Batman: Killing Joke, but get all of Miller’s Batman before you try any other Year One or Year Two books. I would also recommend that you actually try a BEST OF GRAPHIC NOVELS before you venture down any path. And for those who are hearing that they must read and see some graphic novels to get to know Batman, let me ask you this. Do you like to read? Do you like movies? Then why don’t you try Graphic Novels? Comics you say? Don’t say that. This stuff is art. Do you like to read? Then why not Graphic Novels? Do you like movies? Then why not Graphic Novels? Why not? Why? Because it can be… “More fun than going to the movies” – Kevin Smith, Director Clerks. **At this time of writing I do not believe that the movie Batman: Begins is related to this classic piece of art**
Rating: 5 / 5

I’ve been introduced to Frank Miller’s ‘Batman’ stories namely by hype alone, and the hype is more than warranted. Miller writes ‘Year One’ the way Batman needs to be portrayed – gritty, dark and murky; all buzz-words that have become cliches for Millers work, and for the right reason. This is a crime story, true and simple.

Batman here is hardly the invincible super-hero steroetyped by our culture. Here he is just a man, one who’s committed to the task of cleaning up Gotham City of the criminal element. He can be wounded, he can make mistakes, but he also gets the job done. The book also focuses on the young Jim Gordon, who would one day become Gotham’s police commissioner and Batman’s confidant. Here he’s a young cop with all the failings and imperfections of a man striving to do whats right. Miller writes the dialogue with stark realism, and I felt like I was reading about true multi-dimensional characters.

With this book and his seminal ‘Dark Knight Returns’, Miller takes the icon of Batman out of the garish hands of the neon-lighted buffoonery of Hollywood and back into the shadowed streets where he was meant to be. Buy this book.
Rating: 5 / 5

It’s January 4th, and Gotham City witness two arrivals: the arrival of Lieutenant James Gordan, and the return of millionaire Bruce Wayne. Wayne and Gordon both see that Gotham needs to be cleaned up, but each has his own ideas of how it should be done. While Gordon begins his cleaning under the eyes of the press, Bruce Wayne assumes the identity of a bat and begins cleaning up the city under the cover of darkness. But, with the two working from such very different angles, confrontation is inevitable, and out of the confrontation comes…friendship?

This book was published in 1988, containing BATMAN #404-407 (1987). The quality of the illustrations is a bit lower than one has come to expect from more recent graphic novels, but the fact is that the story is excellent and makes the whole book a great buy! As with the stories of the Golden Age comic books, this story pits Batman against an array of regular bad guys, rather than super-powerful super-villains (although the genesis of Catwoman is included!), which I rather enjoyed! Overall, I found this to be a great introduction to Batman, one that keeps up the excellent tradition. I highly recommend this book!
Rating: 5 / 5