Batman History


Detective Comics #27 hit the stands in In May, 1939. In it we saw the first appearance of Batman. While Superman was pure and clean, Batman was grim and gritty. In this comic, the villain fell into a vat of acid, which killed him. Not showing any remorse for causing the death, Batman observed A fitting end for his kind. Batman was created by Bob Kane and has always remained in print.

During a time when superhero comics were not so popular, Batman survived by focusing on his detective abilities, making his comic stories more of a mystery series than a superhero book.
The reason Batman is so popular is because he is a compromise between the two types of heroes. He didn't have superpowers, but he did have an intellect, a costume, and neat gadgets that would put him on par with the superheroes. Batman has been put on the big and small screen several times in T.V series, movies, and cartoons.

Batman made his first appearance as a comic book superhero in DC Comics “Detective Comics No. 27, May 1939”.

Bob Kane has been credited with the original creation of Batman. Kane was a twenty-two year old comic book artist creating fill-in cartoons about dogs and cats for DC Comics when he was selected to create a hero as powerful and appealing as Superman, DC Comic’s year old phenomenal success. Kane’s inspiration for Batman reportedly came from three sources—a Leonardo da Vinci sketch of a man trying to fly with attached bat-like wings, a 1930’s silent mystery movie titled “The Bat Whisperer” about a bat faced villain, and the masked heroes from “The Shadow and Zorro”.

Although Kane had skills as both a cartoon artist and writer, Kane indicated that he “didn’t have the time to literally write and draw the (Batman) strip at the same time.” As a result, Kane worked with writer Bill Finger, who wrote the scripts from ideas Kane and Finger collaborated on.
Batman has existed as a character since 1939, with his first appearance in Detective Comics #27. Since then the character has been revamped several times, with the most recent changes occurring after the DC universe event known as Crisis on Infinite Earths

Crisis on Infinite Earths (Cover dates 4/85 to 3/86) is generally regarded as _the_ breakpoint in DC continuity.

After Crisis finished, many characters had their histories changed. The most significant change happened to Superman, who got a complete rewrite in the Man of Steel (late 1986) miniseries. New stories followed in his regular titles, with absolutely _no_ links to the pre-Crisis stories.

Batman, however, never got a full rewrite from scratch. The process was slow and gradual, with several additions and alterations over the years. Due to this process, there is no 'official' cutoff point between the 'old' and 'new' continuities. A general rule of thumb is that all stories are part of the new continuity, until contradicted by a later story.

It all started with the limited series Dark Knight (3/86 to 6/86) (aka The Dark Knight Returns), appearing shortly after Crisis finished . Set in the future, it covered the return of Batman following ten years of retirement. The story is now generally regarded as an Elseworlds story (DC's line of stories set outside the normal continuity). It has been considered as the start of a darker or 'Grim `n Gritty' Batman.

The real changes began in 1987, with the Batman: Year One storyline (BATMAN 404-407, 2/87 to 5/87).

This story provided a new, darker, realistic image, and the definitive Batman origin. The basics of the Batman character generally remained intact.

Year One told the story of Batman's first days as a hero. When it starts, Bruce is not in costume, and as it progresses he learns how to instil fear in criminals; for a while, no one knows whether he is human, bat, or demon. While the story did not have an immediate effect on present-day continuity, a few elements like a redefined origin for Catwoman and new love interest for Gordon popped up later. This storyline is still largely in continuity.



While this was running in BATMAN, an issue of DETECTIVE dealt with the gunshot wounding of Jason Todd (DETECTIVE 574, 5/87). This was similar to the incident which led to the leaving of Dick Grayson - the first Robin (BATMAN 408, 6/87). These two issues helped define the relationship between Batman and Robin, as well as that between Bruce and Leslie Thomkins. Leslie was the one who, with Alfred, took care of Bruce after the death of his parents.



This was followed immediately by Batman: Year Two (DETECTIVE 575- 578, 6/87 to 9/87). It featured a new villainous vigilante - the Reaper - and Batman's confrontation with Joe Chill (the guy who murdered his parents). This story also showed the reasons behind Batman's refusal to use firearms. It has now been taken out of continuity, since post-Zero Hour Batman does not know the identity of his parents' murderer.

Did Robin Die Tonight (BATMAN 408, 6/87) also contained the new origin and first meeting with Jason Todd. This differed markedly from the previous origin, as Jason was now a street kid, who stole the tires off the Batmobile. Formerly, Jason was a circus performer, whose family knew the Grayson family.

This previous storyline is now invalidated.

In 1994, DC celebrated the (almost) 10th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths with another universe revamp, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. Following Zero Hour, several changes have been made to the Batman mythos. These include:
Batman has never caught his parents' killer. [This invalidates Year Two]
Batman never slept with Talia (the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul. [This invalidates the BRIDE/SON OF THE DEMON storylines to some extent.]
Batman was never in the Justice League. [This invalidates most of the early issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA, and is currently the subject of some controversy].
Dick Grayson was officially adopted by Bruce Wayne
Dick failed to save someone from being killed by Two Face in an early encounter. This has caused him to be more uncertain and unsure of himself - especially in dealings with Two Face. [This was addressed in the Prodigal storyline].
Catwoman's origin was heavily altered in Catwoman #0.

Batman latest reviews

• Final Crisis Relevations, Legion of Three Worlds, Batman: Hush Omnibus solicited
  17 Nov 2008 at 7:25pm
  Here's another bunch of collections coming from DC comicbooks, now in to Summer 2009. Highlights include some Final Crisis crossovers, and the first ever complete Batman: Hush paperback.
  
  Final Crisis
  
  * Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds HC - Hardcover edition of the Geoff Johns/George Perez Final Crisis/Legion crossover.
  
  * Final Crisis: Revelations HC - Hardcover edition of Greg Rucka's Question/Batwoman/Spectre Final Crisis crossover.
  
  New and Notable
  
  * Batman: Hush Omnibus - A paperback edition containing both volumes of Batman: Hush. The first time Hush has been available in one paperback volume; we wonder if DC's finding that releasing books as "volume one" and "volume two" results in fewer sales on the second volume.
  
  * Showcase Presents: Eclipso - Contains stories by Bob Haney, so these are older Eclipso stories. We're still holding out for a collection of the 1990s Keith Giffen series.
  
  * Brave and the Bold Vol. 4 - The next collection of Brave and the Bold with stories by Marv Wolfman. Note that this series goes to paperback, at least according to the solicitations, with this volume.
  
  Series Editions
  
  * Superman: New Krypton Vol. 2 - The next New Krypton volume has stories by Geoff Johns, James Robinson, and Sterling Gates, which means this includes the newest Supergirl relaunch, too.
  
  * Trinity Vol. 2
  
  * Reign in Hell
  
  * Teen Titans: Roll Call
  
  * Secret Six: Unhinged - The first volume of the new Secret Six series.
  
  * Metal Men SC - We've been wondering if DC was letting their Metal Man relaunch fall by the wayside, or if we'd ever see this volume in softcover. Here's your answer.
  
  If we're not mistaken, this now covers all the Final Crisis crossovers (if you figure the one- and two-shots will be in the Final Crisis Companion). Which book are you most looking forward to? ---
  

  This post was syndicated from Collected Editions, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit collectededitions.blogspot.com.