Batman: Year One – 10 Things Only Comic Fans Know

Batman: Year One is an iconic story, but there’s a chance you don’t know some things about Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s epic Batman origin.

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Frank Miller is a divisive individual these days, but back in his prime, he was responsible for many comic classics. Among names such as Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, and The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One is among Miller’s finest achievements as a comic author.

Drawn by David Mazzucchelli, Batman: Year One released alongside John Byrne’s The Man Of Steel, as well as George Perez and Greg Potter’s Wonder Woman, and might be the most famous of DC’s revamps in the post-Crisis On Infinite Earths landscape. However, there are many facts that only hardcore fans may know about Year One.

10 A Chance Encounter Is Responsible For It

In an interview, legendary writer and editor, Dennis O’Neil recalled the first time he met Frank Miller. Many moons ago, several comic book personnel would meet in a park in New York City to play volleyball. It was at one of those meetings that a young Daredevil artist struck up a conversation with O’Neil.

Fast forward to 1986. That same Daredevil artist was now working for DC, writing and drawing the, at the time controversial miniseries, The Dark Knight Returns. With Crisis On Infinite Earths in the rearview mirror, it was time for Batman’s true origin story to be told, and O’Neil felt that there was no one better to do it than Frank Miller.

9 Gregory Peck’s Artistic Influence

When Frank Miller was brought onto the project, he decided to leave the penciling duties to David Mazzucchelli, who had worked with Miller on the acclaimed Daredevil: Born Again. It was Mazzucchelli who truly defined the look of the series, but for The Dark Knight himself, he had a bit of help.

In the back of one of Year One’s many re-releases, there is concept art from Mazzucchelli as he was trying to get a feel for the series. This includes sketches of Batman, as well as Bruce Wayne, which were modeled off of legendary actor Gregory Peck. Also featured is an image of Jim Gordon as a beat cop.

8 It Was Told In The Pages Of Batman

While Miller’s prior Batman story, The Dark Knight Returns, was a miniseries that was printed on high-quality paper, Year One was told in the pages of the regular comics. Batman readers were in for a shock when as soon as the story they were following ended, DC pumped the breaks, and Year One began.

This helped cement that Year One was 110% in continuity and that this was the Batman fans would be following from this point on. For those who eschew trades and love to dig around in old back issues boxes, Batman #404-407 are the ones to look out for, but they won’t be cheap.

7 Gordon Is A Focal Point

To those unaware, Batman: Year One may be the origin of Batman, but it’s truly shocking how The Dark Knight serves as a deuteragonist in the story. The main focus of the story is Lieutenant James Gordon, who cuts his way through a corrupt Gotham City Police Department to make Gotham City a better place.

Though Jim Gordon is the hero of Batman: Year One, he is far from infallible. Throughout the story, Gordon makes several critical blunders, commits some morally questionable actions, and even cheats on his wife. However, despite all of this, the seeds of Gordon’s relationship with Batman are planted here.

6 It Marked Carmine Falcone’s Debut

In DC’s ever-expanding and increasingly confusing lore for Batman, there is one constant. Long before Gotham was in the pocket of evil maniacs, particularly those of the clown-themed variety, it was in the pocket of gangsters and mafiosos.

The kingpin of that era of Gotham City was Carmine Falcone, who ruled Gotham as an emperor ruled over The Roman Empire. Though Falcone is well known via his appearances in media like Telltale’s Batman games, he made his debut in Batman: Year One.

5 The Joker Is Referred To

At the end of Batman: Year One, Jim Gordon, now captain of The GCPD, smokes a pipe while waiting on the roof of The GCPD building for Batman. In Gordon’s internal monologue, he references how somebody has threatened to poison Gotham’s reservoir. A person calling themselves “The Joker.”

Now, The Joker is never seen in the story, nor is his iconic origin even alluded to have happened during the story. Regardless, it is a fun reference to how, now that Falcone’s empire has begun to crumble, Gotham will be in the hands of a new kind of evil.

4 It Was Batman’s Canon Origin, Until…

Among many changes that fans chastise The New 52 for, one of the many is that it made it so that Year One was no longer Batman’s origin. Instead, a new story, Batman: Zero Year by the current creative team Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, was released, and fans are still salty to this day.

Zero Year does have its merits, as Scott Snyder is one of the best Batman writers of all time, but it sadly doesn’t hold a candle to the brilliance of Year One. A few years later, the new DC Rebirth initiative re-instated Year One back into continuity. It was certainly a welcome change.

3 It Has Quite A Few Sequels

Apparently, Batman: Year One was so popular that everyone wanted to know what happened immediately afterward, which led to the story receiving several sequels. By the way, Miller and Mazzucchelli had no involvement in any of them.

The first was the mind-bogglingly lackluster Batman: Year Two, which barely has any connection to Year One. A story that many fans consider to be the correct sequel to the story is Batman: The Long Halloween, which shows the shift from gangsters to maniacs in Gotham. Another great story is Batman: The Man Who Laughs, which shows Batman’s first fight with The Joker.

2 It’s Influence On Batman Media

Batman: Year One’s popularity has led to it being an influence on several media adaptations of The Caped Crusader. Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm takes a scene from Year One where Batman is on the run from the police, The Batman, the 2004 animated series showcases an outlaw version of Batman, and the story even got an animated adaptation in 2011.

The most famous adaptation to be inspired by Year One is Batman Begins. Though Christopher Nolan’s first Batman movie mostly does its own thing, several cues from Year One were infused into the narrative in the story. However, it wasn’t supposed to be the first movie to show Batman’s origin.

1 It Almost Got A Live-Action Movie

A few years before Batman Begins entered pre-production, Warner Bros. was looking for a vehicle to catapult them away from the cataclysm of Batman & Robin’s failure. Batman: Year One jumped to the front of the pack, with Warner Bros. approaching Miller to write the movie with Requiem For A Dream director Darren Aronofsky.

Aronofsky and Miller’s plan for Batman would have been the darkest yet, with the director envisioning a low budget, R-Rating, French Connection-esque Batman flick, which Warner Bros. flat out refused. The official script, which is now online, is an interesting read, but it isn’t for the faint of heart.

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