History ComicBook / BatmanEarthOne

''Batman: Earth One'' is a 2012 graphic novel from DC written by Creator/GeoffJohns and illustrated by Gary Frank. The second installment of DC's ''ComicBook/EarthOne'' line after ''ComicBook/SupermanEarthOne'', it aims to update the story of the Dark Knight for a new generation. The book has been critically acclaimed so far, although Bat-purists are likely to... well, go batty.

** Penguin too. Although it's very much DependingOnTheWriter most versions have at least some lines they won't cross. This Cobblepot knowingly hands over the teenage daughters of those that cross him to the Birthday Boy, a serial killer that invariably slaughters them.

** The Earth One version of Batman more or less learned everything he knows about fighting from Alfred, having never travelled around the world mastering different forms of martial arts like his mainstream counterpart, never learned the different kinds of medicine and other forms of being a polymath of his main counterpart, including being a rather poor detective. It shows when he has trouble fighting off a group of cops, and when he gets caught off guard by the Penguin.
** James Gordon is nowhere near as brave and uncorruptible as his mainstream counterpart. He's just as corrupt and ineffectual as the other Gotham cops, though more out of fear of reprisal against his family than greed; he speculates, though it's never confirmed, that his wife was killed as retaliation for his looking into things too much. It's still jarring to see him basically tell Bullock to not arrest certain criminals because they're untouchable.

* AlternateContinuity: Is in its own continuity, separate from the main DC Universe. An extra in ''[[ComicBook/SupermanEarthOne Superman: Earth One Volume 2]]'' confirms that both Earth One stories take place in the same universe, which was backed up by ''Comicbook/TheMultiversity'' saying that ''all'' Earth One books take place in the same universe, but haven't connected yet.

** [[spoiler:Done again with the same characters in volume 3, as Jessica is tormented by what appears to be Harvey BackFromTheDead, with one panel even showing his distinctive scarred visage and Bruce discoering his body is missing. But when Batman tries to stop him, he only finds Harvey's still-dead corpse, and Jessica's split-personality "Harvey" is the true villain of the piece]].

-->'''Bartender:''' What can I get you, pal?
-->'''Harvey Bullock:''' Whatever's the '''strongest'''.

* GenderFlip: [[spoiler:This universe's version of Two-Face isn't Harvey Dent, but his twin sister Jessica]].

** [[spoiler:Played with regarding Jessica Dent, the new Two-Face. Her brother Harvey is dead, but she develops an alternate personality that acts exactly like him. Even though it's in Jessica's head, for all intents and purposes it's still the traditional Harvey Dent version of Two-Face as the real villain]].

* JabbaTableManners: Mayor Cobblepot.

** Volume 1: Barbara Gordon is seen drawing a Batgirl costume. The Riddler is seen musing about Batman's secret identity.
** Volume 2: The lady who stitched up Batman is Selina Kyle -- and she didn't actually live in that apartment, she was ''ransacking'' it when Batman fell there. Also, Jessica Dent got [[TwoFaced half of her face burned]] and has developed a SplitPersonality.
** Volume 3: [[spoiler:Batman is forming the Outsiders with Robin, Batgirl, Ragman and Killer Croc (with Lucius Fox providing tech support) and vows to bring light to Gotham - as the Joker frees Toyman from prison transit to help him kill a lot of kids]].

* TheStinger:
-->'''Volume 1:''' "''Who'' is Batman? What a ''riddle''."
-->'''Volume 2:''' "''Meow.''"
-->'''Volume 3:''' "''[[spoiler:[[ComicBook/TheJoker I'm nobody]].]]''"

** Harvey Bullock is a handsome former TV star, instead of an overweight, unshaven wreck. [[spoiler: Though the ending strongly hints he's going to start rapidly sliding towards his mainstream canon appearance.]]

** Killer Croc is a pretty decent guy here, if misunderstood. After being rejected and attacked by a world that judged him for his disfiguring illness, he retreated into the sewers. Chased there by hunters, he pre-emptively attacked any people he encountered. He eventually ends up saving Bruce from the Riddler, and joins Team Batman. In the comics he is usually depicted as a savage monster who kills and eats people for fun, albeit a tragic one whose villainy is informed by everyone treating him like a monster purely for looking like one and deciding to show them who they were messing with when he grew up.

** In Volume 2, Riddler has this. He's a MadBomber who [[spoiler:wants to take control of the late Mayor Cobblepot's crime network]], and in terms of riddles, [[spoiler:he has none of his main counterpart's HonorBeforeReason, [[ILied lying]] about being willing to not kill a train full of people when Batman successfully solves one of his riddles]].

*** Volume 2 reveals he also has next to no skill as a detective, absent-mindedly making a lot of common sense mistakes at a crime scene to the point that he asks Gordon if he can tutor him in detective work. He gets incrementally better as the book goes on.
** James Gordon is nowhere near as brave and uncorruptible as his mainstream counterpart. He's just as corrupt and ineffectual as the other Gotham cops, though more out of fear of reprisal against his family than greed. It's still jarring to see him basically tell Bullock to not arrest certain criminals because they're untouchable.
** Killer Croc applies to this, in the sense that he doesn't have a three-digit killing record like his original self. This version is basically just a normal human whos been put under extreme circumstances and sought out isolation rather than lashing out with murder.
* AdultFear: The Birthday Boy, [[spoiler:who kidnaps young girls, is implied to cut their throats and then keep their corpses rotting in Arkham Manor's basement]].
* TheAlcoholic: [[spoiler:Harvey Bullock, at the end of the first book. The Birthday Boy case destroyed him. Subsequent books show that while he'll come through when it counts, he'll still seek refuge in a bottle at the first opportunity.]]

* BatterUp: [[spoiler:Bullock]], when he decides to go after [[spoiler:Axe]].

* BigDamnHeroes: Alfred's rescue of [[spoiler:Batman]] at the end of the first volume.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Subverted with [[spoiler:Waylon. After he's shot, he coughs a lot of blood and looks like he's gone, only to reappear a few pages later bandaged but fine, in Alfred's company.]]

* ChekhovMIA: [[spoiler:The 15-year-old girl reported missing, with birthday candles placed at her open window.]] She presumably shows up later as [[spoiler:the Birthday Boy's first in-comic victim]].

* CynicismCatalyst: Harvey Bullock arrives in Gotham, naive and happy, hoping to capitalize on being a detective in the most dangerous city in America. But very soon the city begins to break him as he realizes how deep the corruption and fear run, culminating in him witnessing the [[spoiler: countless rotting corpses of Birthday Boy's victims in Arkham]]. Even in volume 3, he's still unable to go back to Arkham.

** [[spoiler: Oswald Cobblepot]] is shot and killed by [[spoiler: Alfred]] at the end of the first volume.
** As shown in RealityEnsues below, [[spoiler:Harvey Dent is not merely scarred by the burns he receives from Sal Maroni, but dies from them]].
* DeathBySecretIdentity: [[spoiler:Oswald Cobblepot]] discovers Batman's identity right before he gets killed.

* DemotedToExtra: Harvey Dent. He is still D.A., but his sister plays more of a role than he does. Harvey does show up in a flashback to deliver some exposition and [[spoiler:get punched in the face by an angry Bruce]]. He plays a much bigger role in volume 2 though, [[spoiler:and even after death is the GreaterScopeVillain of volume 3]].
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Harvey Bullock]] goes crashing through this after he [[spoiler:hits a light in the aforementioned basement]].

* HandicappedBadass: Alfred has a limp and uses a cane. [[spoiler:A fight with Bruce shows that his right leg has a prosthetic, thus the need for a cane. Thomas Wayne apparently made it for him during the war they met in]].

* MortonsFork: Riddler tells Batman that he has to solve a riddle. If he doesn't, he'll blow up a train full of people, if he solves it, they live. [[spoiler: He was lying, even when Batman answers correctly, he blew up the train anyway because he never expected Batman to answer correctly]].

* MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe: [[spoiler:The effect of Harvey Dent's last words on Jessica, coupled with the trauma of his death. In volume 3 it eventually causes her to become Earth One's Two-Face]].

* PoliceAreUseless: Played with; most of the police are either corrupt or apathetic, serving only to get in Batman's way. However, the Gordon/Bullock team is quite professional and competent and even clue Batman in on things. For example, they are the ones to deduce that the Riddler must be nearby whenever he bombs a site; when Bruce Wayne overhears their conversation, he knows where to look when the Riddler strikes again.

* RealityEnsues: The spin on Harvey Dent's tale in Volume 2: [[spoiler:he gets hit in the face with a molotov cocktail by Sal Maroni, and though he does receive his trademark TwoFaced appearance, he quickly dies of the burn wounds due to their severity]].
** The setting does this in general: Batman is not nearly as effective as he is in his mainstream appearances, Gordon is not able to keep himself clean and is forced into corruption to protect his family, and the flamboyant supervillains of the comic books are virtually absent: Oswald Cobblepot is not the Penguin but the corrupt Mayor of Gotham, Birthday Boy is an all-too realistic serial killer who targets teenage girls he is psychotically obsessed with, the Riddler is a terrorist who uses the Riddler identity as a cover for his true goal, the Catwoman isn't clad in leather and spandex, and Killer Croc isn't a villain at all, but simply a social outcast who takes refuge in the sewers.

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Barbara Gordon is seen drawing a Batgirl costume. The Riddler is seen musing about Batman's secret identity.]]
** The lady who stitched up Batman in volume 2 is [[spoiler: Selina Kyle -- and she didn't actually live in that apartment, she was ''ransacking'' it when Batman fell there]]. Also, [[spoiler:Jessica Dent got [[TwoFaced half of her face burned]] and has developed a SplitPersonality.]]
** For volume 3 [[spoiler:Batman is forming the Outsiders with Robin, Batgirl, Ragman and Killer Croc (with Lucius Fox providing tech support) and vows to bring light to Gotham - as the Joker frees Toyman from prison transit to help him kill a lot of kids]].

* StealthHiBye: Subverted, during Vol 2. It appears Batman has pulled one of these to Gordon... [[spoiler:but he's not quite gotten out of the room, and even bids him goodbye.]]

-->'''Volume 1:''' "''Who'' is Batman? [[spoiler:What a ''riddle''.]]"

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:In the final parts of Volume 2, Riddler undergoes a rather quick one, going from calm and confident as he kills people with his various tactics to screaming at Batman and trying to shoot him as soon as he finally catches up with him]].

* YouKilledMyFather: Bruce's motivation in this version. He becomes Batman so he can bring down Mayor Cobblepot, who had his parents murdered so that Thomas Wayne couldn't get elected Mayor. [[spoiler:The twist is that he actually didn't; he was certainly planning to, but Bruce's bolting to find another theater to watch Zorro took them away from Cobblepot's gunmen and into the path of the random mugger that killed them]].

* AdaptationalMundanity: The bat signal is a custom one-way cellphone rather than the dramatic searchlight it usually is.

* CompositeCharacter: In this version, Martha Wayne was born Martha ''Arkham'', and given she dies as tradition, this makes Batman himself the Arkham family's last living heir, much like Dr. Jeremiah Arkham in the main series.

** Zigzagged with Harvey Dent. In most adaptations, he's portrayed as a troubled but nice guy before he becomes Two-Face but here Harvey is a major Jerkass from the beginning[[spoiler: and dies before he even becomes Two Face.]]

** [[spoiler:Played with regarding Jessica Dent, the new Two-Face. Her brother Harvey is dead, but she develops an alternate personality that acts exactly like him. Even though it's in Jessica's head, for all intents and purposes it's still Two-Face as the real villain]].

*** Gillian Loeb is a seemingly good cop, and RaceLifted to black.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Bruce badly understimates Penguin when he eventually confronts him, unable to take Cobblepot warning him to back off with an umbrella seriously. Of course, the audience knows exactly what [[KnifeNut Penguin]] + [[IconicItem umbrella]] equals. Sure enough, Bruce is stabbed and bleeding out in very short order.

* PaperThinDisguise:

* AdaptationalHeroism: Killer Croc is a pretty decent guy here, if misunderstood. After being rejected and attacked by a world that judged him for his disfiguring illness, he retreated into the sewers. Chased there by hunters, he pre-emptively attacked any people he encountered. He eventually ends up saving Bruce from the Riddler, and joins Team Batman. In the comics he is usually depicted as a savage monster who kills and eats people for fun, albeit a tragic one whose villainy is informed by everyone treating him like a monster purely for looking like one and deciding to show them who they were messing with when he grew up.

* AdaptationalWimp: The Earth One version of Batman more or less learned everything he knows about fighting from Alfred, having never travelled around the world mastering different forms of martial arts like his mainstream counterpart, never learned the different kinds of medicine and other forms of being a polymath of his main counterpart, including being a rather poor detective. It shows when he has trouble fighting off a group of cops, and when he gets caught off guard by the Penguin.
** Volume 2 reveals he also has next to no skill as a detective, absent-mindedly making a lot of common sense mistakes at a crime scene to the point that he asks Gordon if he can tutor him in detective work. He gets incrementally better as the book goes on.

** [[spoiler:Done again with the same characters in volume 3, as Jessica is tormented by what appears to be Harvey back from the dead, with one panel even showing his distinctive scarred visage. But when Batman tries to stop him, he's always been dead, and Jessica's split-personality "Harvey" is the true villain of the piece]].

* DecompositeCharacter[=/=]GenderFlip: [[spoiler:Two-Face. ''Jessica'' Dent, not Harvey, is the one who becomes TwoFaced and crazy.]]

** When Bruce punches a young Harvey Dent in the face as a child, there's a close-up shot that makes half of his face look distorted and ugly from the punch's impact.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted; the Gordon/Bullock team is quite professional and competent and even clue Batman in on things, for example, they are the ones to deduce that the Riddler must be nearby whenever he bombs a site; when Bruce Wayne overhears their conversation, he knows where to look when the Riddler strikes again.

* RunningGag: Gordon and [[spoiler:Catwoman]] both point out the absurdity of Batman's contact phone actually having a bat on it.

** For volume 3 [[spoiler:Batman is forming the Outsiders with Robin, Batgirl, Ragman and Killer Croc and vows to bring light to Gotham - as The Joker frees Toyman from prison transit to help him kill a lot of kids]].

* BigBrotherInstinct: Harvey Dent is EXTREMLY protective of his sister Jessica. [[spoiler:Even the version of him in Jessica's head]].

* AdaptationalJerkass: Zigzagged with Harvey Dent. In most adaptations, he's portrayed as a troubled but nice guy before he becomes Two-Face but here Harvey is a major Jerkass from the beginning[[spoiler: and dies before he even becomes Two Face.]]

* TheAlcoholic: [[spoiler:Harvey Bullock, at the end of the first book. The Birthday Boy case destroyed him.]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: Harvey Dent is EXTREMLY protective of his sister Jessica.

* CynicismCatalyst: Harvey Bullock arrives in Gotham, naive and happy, hoping to capitalize on being a detective in the most dangerous city in America. But very soon the city begins to break him as he realizes how deep the corruption and fear run, culminating in him witnessing the [[spoiler: countless rotting corpses of Birthday Boy's victims]].

* DemotedToExtra: Harvey Dent. He is still D.A., but his sister plays more of a role than he does. Harvey does show up in a flashback to deliver some exposition and [[spoiler:get punched in the face by an angry Bruce]].

* MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe: [[spoiler: The effect of Harvey Dent's last words on Jessica, coupled with the trauma of his death.]]

* SplitPersonality: Two-Face, naturally. [[spoiler: But here it's Jessica, and the new violent personality is 'Harvey'.]]

* YouKilledMyFather: Bruce's motivation in this version. He becomes Batman so he can bring down Mayor Cobblepot, who had his parents murdered so that Thomas Wayne couldn't get elected Mayor.

* AdaptationalMundainity: The bat signal is a custom one-way cellphone rather than the dramatic searchlight it usually is.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Alfred is drawn to resemble Creator/ChristopherLee and Creator/SeanConnery.

* StealthHiBye: Subverted, during Vol 2. It appears Batman has pulled one of these to Gordon... [[spoiler:but he's not quite gotten out of the room.]]

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: The entire point of the retelling, which makes subtle but still far-reaching changes to the established Batman mythos. Batman is ''not'' a near-perfect crimefighter, but what you'd expect from a man who's dedicated himself to revenge: a physically skilled but otherwise unremarkable vigilante who knows next to nothing about actual detective and research work.

** Much as in ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'', Lucius Fox is a demoted researcher languishing in the lower levels of Wayne Industries.

* StayAwayFromMySister: Bruce and Jessica have feelings for each other. Jessica's brother Harvey is having none of it.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted; the Gordon/Bullock team is quite professional and competent and even clue Batman in on things, for example, they are the ones to deduce that the Riddler must be nearby whenever he bombs a site, when Bruce Wayne overhears their conversation, he knows where to look when the Riddler strikes again.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Killer Croc is a pretty decent guy here, if misunderstood. After being rejected and attacked by a world that judged him for his disfiguring illness, he retreated into the sewers. Chased there by hunters, he pre-emptively attacked any people he encountered. He eventually ends up saving Bruce from the Riddler, and joins Team Batman.

** Gordon gets hit by this, though reluctantly, and he rejects it by the end. While usually depicted as a resolutely incorruptible police officer, here he has a history of taking payoffs from the mob purely out of fear for his family.

--->[[spoiler:Harvey Bullock:]] This is Gotham City. It's bad cop, bad cop!

* BedlamHouse: Averted with the Arkham Mansion, which hasn't yet been converted into an insane asylum at the time of the story (though it's just as nightmarish as ever).

* HauntedHouse: How most Gothamites see the old Arkham Mansion (it's not an Asylum yet). It's been abandoned ever since Martha Arkham's mother killed her husband and herself in it, and it has a reputation for driving people insane.

** After being saved from Birthday Boy by the combined efforts of her father, [[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Batman]] and Harvey Bullock. Barbara draws herself as Batgirl.

* PsychoPsychologist: Martha Arkham's mother wasn't a psychiatrist herself, but she was a prominent crusader for mental health coming from a long line of them. Then she went insane and killed herself, and her family's mansion was subsequently abandoned (becoming Gotham's resident HauntedHouse in the process).

** The setting does this in general: Batman is not nearly as effective as he is in his mainstream appearances, Gordon is not able to keep himself clean and is forced into corruption to protect his family, and the flamboyant supervillains of the comic books are virtually absent: Oswald Cobblepot is not the Penguin but the corrupt Mayor of Gotham, Birthday Boy is an all-too realistic serial killer who targets teenage girls he is psychotically obsessed with, The Riddler is a terrorist who uses the Riddler identity as a cover for his true goal, the Catwoman isn't clad in leather and spandex, and Killer Croc isnt a villain at all, but simply a social outcast who takes refuge in the sewers.

* BritsWithBattleships: Former Royal Marine Alfred Pennyworth.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted; the Gordon/Bullock team is quite professional and competent and even clue Batman in on things, for example, they are the ones to deduce that the Riddler must be nearby whenever he bombs a site, when Batman finds out, he knows where to look when the Riddler strikes again.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted; the Gordon/Bullock team is quite professional and even clue Batman in on things, for example, they are the ones to deduce that the Riddler must be nearby whenever he bombs a site, and they share this information with Batman so that he knows where to look when the Riddler strikes again.

** The setting does this in general: Batman is not nearly as effective as he is in his mainstream appearances, Gordon is not able to keep himself clean and is forced into corruption to protect his family, and the flamboyant supervillains of the comic books are virtually absent: Oswald Cobblepot is not the Penguin but the corrupt Mayor of Gotham, Birthday Boy is an all-too realistic serial killer who targets teenage girls he is psychotically obsessed with, The Riddler is a terrorist who uses the Riddler identity as a cover for his true goal, and Killer Croc isnt a villain at all, but simply a social outcast who takes refuge in the sewers.

* PoliceAreUseless: Averted; the Gordon/Bullock team is quite professional and even clue Batman in on things, for example, they deduce that the Riddler must be nearby whenever he bombs a site, and they share this information with Batman so that he knows where to look when the Riddler strikes again.