Batman: Earth One

writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Gary Frank

The idea of the the Earth One graphic novels is to present updated origins for iconic characters, so that hopefully new readers will have something they can easily understand.  Two years ago J. Michael Straczynski presented Superman: Earth One, and is on the verge of releasing a second volume.  Marvel has since launched Season One graphic novels that have borrowed the concept, which is funny, because its Ultimate line was the originator of the concept (though having since become an entirely separate ongoing continuity now more than a decade old), which DC tried to match with its All Star line, also featuring Superman and Batman.

I think Batman: Earth One may be a better representation of the concept.  Combining certain elements of Christopher Nolan's cinematic Dark Knight (including character profiles for Alfred and Lucius Fox) with a revised version of the classic origin story, it's a more successful attempt to match the kind of thing movies and TV shows have been doing for decades, presenting a version of a known comics property without any of the baggage decades of comics have dropped on it.

Part of what will energize existing fans is that Batman: Earth One comes from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, two superstar creators who've done this sort of thing before but have arguably reached the most important phase of their collaboration, a graphic novel that tackles the most successful comic book creation of all-time. Retelling Batman's origin is not exactly a fresh concept, but finding a way to make it relevant again, especially in the pages of a comic book, is.  The last time this was done was Frank Miller's "Year One," a companion piece to his famed Dark Knight Returns, which explored a more vulnerable Bruce Wayne trying to find his way.  Johns chooses a similar approach, but combines it with the approach Jeph Loeb took in The Long Halloween, with a direct challenge from a new understanding of the status quo as it existed in Gotham City before the rise of Batman.

A vision of corrupt Gotham is not exactly new, but framing it in the way Johns does is.  One of the key alterations is with Bruce Wayne's mother, who has become a member of the Arkham family, known for her work with the mentally ill (her previous maiden name was Kane, as in Bob Kane, the creator of Batman).  Thomas Wayne's money and legacy is also firmly rooted in his profession as a doctor (something that amusingly comes up with Bruce's later visit to Lucius Fox, which as already noted otherwise sticks to the Nolan template).  The manor that for so many decades has served as one of the most famous aspects of Batman lore is abandoned, a legacy of the Arkham family everyone would sooner forget.

It is not so great a spoiler to say that Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin, is the villain of this piece, and the long-tenured mayor of Gotham, whose personal corruption informs much of what the city has become, including the cynical detective James Gordon, who gains an unlikely partner in Harvey Bullock, a svelte Hollywood personality looking for a shot at redemption by visiting a place he's only seen in recreation on a reality show he used to host.  Together, they try to figure out what the deal is with this Batman who crashes Cobblepot's party, looking for answers from a cop who was at the scene of his parents' murders, still unsolved ten years later.

Batman is still learning his craft, and Alfred is a reluctant tutor, who doesn't believe Bruce Wayne is ready to assume a reckless quest suggested to him by a visit to a mausoleum festooned with bats.  Alfred, by the way, is an old army friend of Thomas Wayne's, who becomes Bruce's legal guardian, but introduces himself as butler when he doesn't have the heart to reveal the truth to a wounded boy looking for a sense of normalcy.  In the brisk 144 pages of this adventure, a lot of details are glossed over, but none of the heart is missing.  Much of it is a mystery worthy of a TV detective, and the Penguin will be recognizable to anyone who saw Batman Returns but wished it had been less Gothic.  You will recognize this Batman, but will be thrilled to follow him along this adventure, which could easily be mistaken for the first time you've ever read him.

Trust me, you'll want more.