Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and Dave Mazzuchelli hit the stands in November 1986, but it had a cover date of February 1987 so we’re celebrating it today.
Arguably one of the top 10 most important, and best, comic books stories of all time, Batman: Year One originally ran in serial form in Batman’s own title, starting with issue #404. In near mint, the book can sell for $30-50–largely because I got a letter printed on the letter page.
The story included most of what was considered both canon and iconic for the next 25 years, from the S&M Catwoman who also appeared in Tim Burton’s Batman to the broken string of Martha Wayne’s pearls as she died in the alley.
If you haven’t read it, it’s brilliant and you should. And if you have, read it again. It’s awesome.
Here’s a panel from each issue:
#404
Lots of folks would have picked the bat crashing through the window at the end of the comic, and that’s certainly iconic, but what made these four issues so resonant was the time Miller spends on Selina Kyle and Jim Gordon. In fact, the book is more about them than it is about Batman. And making Selina an S&M dominatrix was absolute brilliance.
#405
Why the homeless shopping cart woman? Because Frank Miller introduced her in The Dark Knight Returns. Then, Grant Morrison used the same concept throughout Batman RIP, where Bruce Wayne’s guardian angel and drug counselor helps him pull through a brief period as a homeless person himself. The image of the dark-skinned person with a red hat/bandana became a recurrent one, and was used to show Batman’s connection to the streets. Superman saves cats in trees. Batman saves homeless people, the humans that even humanity has forgotten.
#406
All told, Selina Kyle/Catwoman gets maybe four or five pages of screen time during this series, and yet her character arc is well-defined, clear, and believable.
#407
I had the damndest time finding a single panel from the final chapter to use on this site. Unlike most “last issues,” Miller didn’t wrap up with a huge booming explosion or large dramatic conclusion. In fact, Batman isn’t even in the third act. Instead, Miller first shows Catwoman moving on to the next phase of her career and then wraps up with Jim Gordon.
In the end, I picked the above sequence because it shows how Gordon is morally flawed but also because of the clown. I don’t know if that was Frank or Dave’s idea, but having a tacky clown picture behind the corrupt police commissioner was genius. Genius!
And so my review of Frank Miller’s Batman work draws to a close. Now, what to examine next?