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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

Comic Reviews: Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)
14 May 2012 at 3:02pm
Scott Snyder's Batman: The Court of Owls is a different kind of book than his Batman: The Black Mirror, but that's not a bad thing.

Black Mirror was a wonderful horror story, with gore lurking for the reader just beyond the next page. Court of Owls, the first DC New 52 collection of the relaunched Batman title, has a more superheroic aesthetic, built in large part from Batman fighting a new foe over the rooftops of Gotham. This is abetted by Greg Capullo's art, evoking Rick Burchett penciling Greg Rucka's stories during the Batman: Murderer/Fugitive era; it all serves to make Court of Owls feel more naturally in line with the Batman stories that came before.

Court of Owls is no less psychologically complex than Black Mirror, however. Snyder's first crack at Batman Bruce Wayne explores layers of the hero that remarkably may never have been explored before. Snyder proves he's unafraid to show both Bruce's good and bad qualities, something that serves the story well but may be troubling to some fans.

[Contains spoilers]

An evil cabal is killing Gothan's citizens, an immortal assassin roams the streets, but what seems to bother Batman the most is that they're stealing his shtick. At first Bruce refuses to believe the Court of Owls exists; then, trapped in their labyrinth, he reminds himself that Gotham is "your city, your story" and affirms "I invented all the tricks." Not only do the owls seems to have a greater history with Gotham and know the city better than he does, but they have lairs all over the city like Bruce's satellite Bat-caves; they even usurp, to an extent, Bruce's own sidekick, Nightwing Dick Grayson.

All of this appears to make Batman, put quite simply, jealous, and furious to boot. As a child, the reader learns, Bruce sought the Court of Owls and couldn't find them; he's searched for them over time and always concluded they were a myth. It's only when the Owls choose to reveal themselves that Batman learns the truth; this is a massive blow to the ego of the "World's Greatest Detective," a truth Batman says in the conclusion that he wishes he hadn't learned. Nightwing tries to convince Batman that the Owls are "just another bad guy," but at the end of the book Batman remains inconsolable.

This depiction of Batman who falls victim to the Owls largely due to his own hubris may not be to every reader's liking. Batman is largely in the wrong in handling this case, and Snyder portrays him as willing to just give up and let the Owls kill him after a few days in their labyrinth. Nightwing chides Batman for being unemotional, something that had largely long-since been handled in the aforementioned Murderer/Fugitive days. It makes for a good shock when Batman hits Nightwing to knock out his tooth where an owl symbol had been hidden, but the reader might quickly wonder why Batman doesn't just say, "Hey Nightwing, let's check out your tooth" instead.

None of this detracts from what's otherwise an engaging story, but Snyder ought take care not to make Batman too unlikable or alienate him too far from his allies, something that's caused a reader backlash in times past.

Snyder has the unenviable task in this book of writing what is meant to be the new "first" Batman story. This is neither Batman's origin nor could one could one come in blindly and intuit the roles and history of Robins Tim Drake and Damian Wayne, for instance; however, Snyder does well hitting all the high spots: the inclusion of said Robins, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock, and a dramatic reveal of the Bat-cave with help from Capullo. Snyder even smartly teases a grand New 52 change with the Joker as Batman's ally, though indeed this turns out to be just a tease.

The biggest difference between Batman's old and new adventures, and one that Snyder portrays well, is the technology. Court of Owls feels definitively like a twenty-first century Batman story, from Bat-computers in Batman's contact lenses to digital lip reading, to Batman infiltrating the Gotham morgue via hologram rather than sneaking through the ductwork. In the New 52 Justice League: Origin, mentions of the characters watching Conan O'Brien seemed like anachronisms; Snyder's Batman, on the other hand, is up to date, in line with what modern audiences -- especially television and moviegoers -- would expect.

The end of Court of Owls leads right into the "Night of the Owls" crossover that will probably occupy the second Batman collection, but Court is a decent advertisement for Gates of Gotham co-writer Kyle Higgins's Nightwing series as well. First, there's continuity between the books -- Nightwing specifically departs from this book for his own adventure and addresses that adventure when he returns. Second, Court has significant implications for Nightwing even more so than Batman, which is bound to be addressed in the first or second collection of the Nightwing title. Finally, Snyder just writes an appealing Nightwing -- younger and jauntier than his Black Mirror appearance, plus Capullo makes the new uniform look good. If the wait for "Night of the Owls" is too long, Nightwing: Traps and Trapezes might help ease the wait.

Justice League: Origin may not have relaunched the DC Universe as wholly as the New 52 needed, but Jeff Lemire's Animal Man: The Hunt -- the other DC New 52 collection released so far -- was near perfection, and Scott Snyder's Batman: The Court of Owls acquits itself well, too. That's a majority success rate for the DC New 52 collections so far; if Snyder keeps up this level of storytelling as attention on the Batman titles grows in the advent of the Dark Knight Rises, that should mean good things on all sides.

[Includes full covers, scripts and pages/art by Capullo.]

We'll close out the week with one more DC New 52 review -- come back for the Collected Editions review of Green Lantern: Sinestro, next!
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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.