Line #110 ComicBook/BatmanYearOne


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Batman_Year_One_837.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine He's out to clean up a city that likes being dirty.\
3	He can't do it alone.]]'']]
4
5	-> ''"Without warning it comes... crashing through the window of your study... and mine... I have seen it before... somewhere... it frightened me... as a boy... frightened me... Yes, father. I shall become a bat."''
6	-->-- '''Bruce Wayne'''
7
8	"Batman: Year One" is a four-issue story arc, by Creator/FrankMiller and David Mazzucchelli, of the regular ''ComicBook/{{Batman\|1940}}'' title (issues 404 through 407), published in 1987 by Creator/DCComics.
9
10	The storyline follows the first year ComicBook/{{Batman}} begins to operate in Gotham from his disastrous first attempt in Gotham's red light district, to the battles with crime lords and corrupt cops alike, and even the first appearance of other people in tights and masks in Gotham. It also has (in Batman #404) the first appearances of mob boss Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, who would go on to have prominent roles in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'' and ''Film/BatmanBegins'', and ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'s protegee Holly Robinson, who would later become [[LegacyCharacter the second Catwoman]].
11
12	''Batman: Year One'' is unique in the following: It was deemed the official origin story for Batman ComicBook/PostCrisis, and remained canon despite other {{Cosmic Retcon}}s until the ComicBook/{{New 52}}, where it would eventually be replaced by Creator/ScottSnyder and Greg Capullo's ''[[ComicBook/BatmanZeroYear Zero Year]]''. It is also canon to the "Dark Knight Universe", an AlternateContinuity comprised of Miller's other ''Batman'' stories, including ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'', ''Dark Knight: The Last Crusade'', ''[[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns The Dark Knight Returns]]'', ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain'', and ''ComicBook/DarkKnightIIITheMasterRace''.
13
14	After the launch of ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', ''Zero Year'' initially remained in canon as the de facto origin story. However, [[BroadStrokes at least parts of]] ''Year One'' would be made canon once again. Over time, ''Year One'' was referred to more and more, and now it seems that ''Zero Year'' is referred to in broad strokes and ''Year One'' is the canon origin, also being heavily referred to in the lead-up to ''Detective Comics'' #1000.
15
16	This comic heavily influenced ''Film/BatmanBegins'', and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' took some elements from it. In 2011, [[WesternAnimation/BatmanYearOne an animated adaptation]] in the WesternAnimation/DCUniverseAnimatedOriginalMovies line was released; the adaptation is almost word-for-word.
17
18	Chronologically, it is followed by a sequel story arc, ''ComicBook/BatmanYearTwo''.
19	----
20	!!This mini-series contains examples of:
21	* TheSeventies: While the book itself was written in the '80s, the story is set roughly ten years prior to the present day, landing it somewhere in the late '70s. Gotham City here is very similar to late 70's New York (especially the red light district) as seen through ''Film/TaxiDriver'' and Miller's earlier work on ''Daredevil''.
22	* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: Holly has an unusual way of talking to "Se-LI-na."
23	* AmazonChaser: Gordon notes that Essen's "arms are strong. Her whole body's strong."
24	* AnswerCut: When Gordon willingly confronts a crazed gunman unarmed, he internally hopes that his wife isn't watching the event on television, but knows she probably is. Sure enough, the dialogue boxes are right next to a panel showing her watching him on television in a live news report.
25	* AuthorAppeal: Catwoman starts out as a prostitute. Yup, it's a Creator/FrankMiller comic, alright. Distressingly, Holly is also one, and she's only thirteen, if that. Bruce himself is more than a little disturbed by that. [[note]] This is one of the few parts of the book that has NOT remained in continuity, and was made so almost immediately. However, retcon over retcon has actually led it to be the foundation of her post-Crisis character in certain ways.[[/note]]
26	* AxCrazy: Branden and the GCPD SWAT team. They once put down a riot in Gotham's Not-Central-Park. Didn't even leave the statues standing. Their SOP seems to be: kill everything with fire.
27	* BadassBoast:
28	** Batman's speech while he's "convincing" Skeevers to testify against Detective Flass.
29	--->'''Batman:''' You can never escape me. Bullets don't harm me. Nothing harms me. But I know pain. I know pain. Sometimes I share it... With someone like you.
30	** And also:
31	--->'''Batman:''' Ladies. Gentlemen. You have eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over. From this moment on - none of you are safe.
32	** Gordon's internal monologue deserves special mention as well:
33	--->'''Gordon:''' He's had Green Beret training. It's been a while since I had to take out a Green Beret. ''tosses Flass a baseball bat'' Figure I should give him a handicap.
34	* BadCopIncompetentCop: At the start of the story, Gotham Police Department is made entirely of these, from the Commissioner on down. Lieutenant Gordon and his team seem to be the only cops who are doing what they're supposed to be doing...
35	* BatterUp: Gordon gets ambushed by a group of dirty cops who beat him to a pulp with baseball bats. Later on, Gordon confronts Flass with a bat of his own... but instead of attacking him with it, he tosses it to him and kicks his ass bare handed.
36	* BigBadDuumvirate: Carmine Falcone and Commissioner Loeb.
37	* BigNo: Gordon does this when his baby, little Jim Jr. is thrown off a bridge. (Fortunately, Bruce pulls a BigDamnHeroes and jumps after him, saving him in the nick of time, without his costume).
38	* BigSisterInstinct: Selina toward Holly.
39	* BlackAndGrayMorality: The bad guys are ''bad'', but the good guys have their own problems. Even Gordon, TheLastDJ, has problems with infidelity.
40	* BloodKnight: SWAT leader Branden, who borders on PsychoForHire.
41	** This is probably the ''only'' time Creator/FrankMiller doesn't make Batman this.
42	* BreakingTheBonds: After Bruce gets shot and arrested, he comes to in a police car. He tells them to stop the car, and when they don't listen, he breaks his handcuffs effortlessly.
43	* BrickJoke: After Gordon easily beats the crap out of Flass, he knows Flass has too big an ego to tattle and will probably say something like he got ganged up on by ten people. Later in the story, Flass recounts his encounter with Batman; the exposition is paired with a flashback showing what actually happened showing us that, yup, Flass makes himself look much better and Batman far more powerful.
44	* MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks: Was written at the very end of it. This story arc, along with ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' (also by Miller) and ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' (by Creator/AlanMoore) are often credited with starting MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks.
45	* CanAlwaysSpotACop: {{Downplayed\|Trope}} with Bruce's first night out crimefighting. [[StarterVillain Stan the pimp]] can tell he's ''someone'' in disguise, though he (understandably) mistakes Bruce for a vice cop instead of an independent vigilante.
46	-->''That crazy vet bit...thas old, man.''
47	** Later on, Batman himself plays the trope straight, identifying all the cops in a sting (meant to catch him) by ''name''.
48	* CatScare: Causing one officer to open up with ''a machine gun''.
49	* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: This is the story with the famous training scene that showed Bruce with borderline superhuman strength. He's able to break a tree with the power of his kicks and destroys a stack of bricks with an open handed strike of some sort... and from the way the scene is drawn, it looks like Bruce is destroying those bricks with a ''thrust of his fingers''.
50	* ChekhovsSkill: Bruce Wayne karate-kicking the tree in the first issue is later brought to mind in issue three, to be used a few pages later.
51	* CoincidentalBroadcast: A borderline case - as usual, Miller uses a ''lot'' of news broadcasts to further/hand-wave certain plot developments, but these are more for the readers' convenience; few if any of the ''characters'' are shown directly responding to them.
52	* ComicBookFantasyCasting: In the extras, it's shown that David Mazzucchelli based Bruce Wayne's appearance from actor Creator/GregoryPeck.
53	* CollectorOfTheStrange: Much to Catwoman's chagrin, Commissioner Loeb has a $40,000 collection of...''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' memorabilia. It's a character point for him: He loves the honesty of ''Peanuts'' even though he's immensely ''dis''honest!
54	* TheCommissionerGordon: One of the subplots is of Lieutenant Gordon coming to trust Batman and become this.
55	* ContinuityNod: "Hmf. I suppose you'll be taking up flying next, like [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} that fellow in Metropolis.]]"
56	** The arrival board at the beginning mentions several DC universe locations: [[ComicBook/TheFlash Central City]], [[ComicBook/{{Manhunter}} Empire City]], [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Fawcett City]], [[ComicBook/TheFlash Keystone City]], [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Metropolis]], and [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Star City]].
57	* CreatorCameo: While perhaps not the ''first'' to do it, this story is likely the TropeCodifier for various Gotham landmarks named after past Batman creators (usually from decades ago), namedropping (Jerry) Robinson Park, the (Bill) Finger Memorial, and the (Dick) Sprang Mission.
58	* DecoyProtagonist: While Batman is still a main character and his early days protecting Gotham are explored, Gordon's conflict with his corrupt fellow officers gets a ''lot'' more focus in this story, to the point that even Bruce's first night out as Batman is glossed over.
59	* DirtyCop: The Gotham City Police Department is swimming with them, although Detective Flass is the most obvious example. Gordon's refusal to go dirty nets him a lot of enemies among his coworkers very quickly.
60	* DramaPreservingHandicap: When the police bomb the abandoned apartment building Batman is sheltering in, the blast ignites the thermite in Batman's utility belt, forcing him to discard it, so he only has the meagre number of gadgets in his boots and his wits to survive against the heavily-armed SWAT officers gunning for him.
61	* DudeWheresMyRespect: Catwoman's first heist results in Batman getting the credit. Her second heist ''does'' net her credit... as Batman's assistant.
62	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Bruce makes a point of bringing this up in his internal monologue when he decides to rescue the corrupt cops from their burning car after he escapes from it:
63	-->'''Bruce''': ''Scum, maybe, but even scum have families.''
64	* FirstNameBasis: Gordon realizes his affair is getting too serious when he starts calling her Sarah instead of Essen.
65	* TheFettered: Both Batman and Gordon.
66	* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: the collected hardcover and paperback editions are completely re-colored by the original colorist, Richmond Lewis. The [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/f2371e40011aa41fa7f3c42f439df9d8/tumblr_inline_nw906tp6uP1sa5pgl_1280.jpg original colors]] are more vivid, pulpy, and in line with standard comic printing at the time. The [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b1/a8/00/b1a8005e45cad35deffd90cd5f2b658a--batman-year-one-book-art.jpg new colors]] are much darker and moodier, and use a far wider color palette.
67	* HappyEndingOverride: Per later writers, Jim Gordon's family life [[spoiler:goes straight down the shitter in subsequent years. Despite the marriage counselor, his wife ultimately leaves him - in Greg Rucka's retelling, she doesn't even do it to his face. Those who ship him with Sarah - and indeed, ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' did introduce Sarah as future!Gordon's wife - probably won't feel much better knowing that Sarah gets killed by the Joker. Oh, and that adorable little baby boy Batman saved? Grows up to be one of America's most vicious serial killers.]]
68	* HaveAGayOldTime: About Selina's outfit.
69	--> '''Holly''': "I mean it's pretty ''queer'' -- I mean --"
70	* HellBentForLeather: Two words--{{dominatrix}} Catwoman. The fact that such appeared in a Creator/FrankMiller comic isn't surprising.
71	* HeroOfAnotherStory: While Batman and Jim Gordon are the mains, Assistant D.A. Harvey Dent makes a few appearances here and there, and is mentioned to have been (trying) to combat Gotham's corruption long before either of them. He's secretly working in cahoots with Batman.
72	* HeroStoleMyBike: Gordon shoots Bruce Wayne, who he mistakes for one of the men kidnapping his son, and steals his motorbike to chase after them. Bruce then steals a bike and pedals like mad after Gordon.
73	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]], who mostly seems to be a dominatrix-for-hire, is protective toward the younger Holly Robinson and already [[KindHeartedCatLover likes cats]].
74	* IconicAttributeAdoptionMoment: This sees Batman initially strike out crime-fighting disguised as a common thug, and doesn't assume his cape and cowl until after his first outing goes ''horribly'' wrong. He realizes a big part of it is because the criminals weren't at all afraid or intimidated by him, so he decides to up his theatricality...
75	* IdleRich: Bruce cultivates this image as a cover, since who would suspect lazy, good-for-nothing Bruce Wayne with, well, ''Batman''? Gordon however is not convinced.
76	* InsaneEqualsViolent: A one-off criminal is a paranoid schizophrenic recently released from Arkham Asylum that kidnaps three children at gunpoint. He's making some sort of demands to the police while holding a gun to the head of one kid, but because he's utterly delusional, none of his demands make any sense.
77	* InstantSedation: Some kind of tranquilizer gun Batman uses to knock out the chauffeurs at the socialite party he sneaks into. There's also Batman's blowgun in the apartment shootout scene.
78	* ItsPersonal: Falcone wants Batman hunted down and killed for tying him up in his underwear inside his own home.
79	* KickTheDog:
80	** In a poor attempt to act {{affabl\|yEvil}}e, Flass gets rid of a frail Buddhist monk who's nagging Gordon for donations by picking up the monk by the collar and tossing him aside like a rag-doll. He also beats up a kid allegedly to disarm him of a switchblade. [[spoiler:It's a comb.]]
81	** Not to mention Loeb's decision to try to corral Batman... by ''firebombing a building full of winos.''
82	** There also a near-literal example, combined with a PetTheDog for Batman. SWAT agent Pratt gets annoyed and tries to shoot the cat used as a CatScare. Not much later, Batman punches him through a wall over it.
83	* KnightInSourArmour: Gordon. He's the only good cop is a city with insanely high crime rates and only violent, corrupt cops. Even when his life and his family are threatened by his coworkers he refuses to give in.
84	* TheMafia: Since this is Batman's first year out, none of his iconic RoguesGallery has shown up yet. Thus, these guys take the role of the bad guys.
85	* MamaBear: When a pimp is abusing Holly Bruce tries to intervene. When he attacks the pimp Holly stabs him with a knife. When Bruce knocks her aside Selina leaps from the hotel room to ''kick his ass.''
86	* MythologyGag: The title of the first chapter: "Who I Am and How I Came to Be" is a reference to the title of the original Batman origin story: "The Legend of the Batman: Who He Is and How He Came to Be".
87	* MoreDakka: Branden and the other SWAT members' response to basically anything is to bomb and blast it as much as they can; it doesn't matter to them how many innocents or even their own team mates get caught in the crossfire.
88	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Branden and his SWAT team are often referred to as this, Gordon even calls them "Gestapo".
89	* NeckSnap: Catwoman does this to a random mook using her legs, which is somewhat of a character violation as in the modern-day comics Catwoman almost never kills.
90	* NighthawksShot: The diner that becomes a sort of GoodGuyBar to Gordon and Sarah Essen. Eventually it's revealed the place is, in fact, named ''Hopper's''.
91	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished:
92	** Wayne takes on a pimp selling underage girls in the RedLightDistrict, and the girl he's pimping stabs him in retaliation. Then everyone else proceeds to gang up on this outsider who's attacking one of their own.
93	** Batman saves a homeless woman from getting hit by an out-of-control truck, and is rewarded with the TriggerHappy cops opening fire and nearly killing him. Several more homeless people end up being killed by the police as acceptable losses as they try to kill Batman.
94	* NonActionBigBad: The two primary antagonists of the story, the corrupt Commissioner Loeb and the mob boss Carmine Falcone. Neither is even close to a physical match for Batman, or even Gordon for that matter, but they both have many followers willing to carry out their violent orders.
95	* OhCrap:
96	** The reaction of Falcone crime family and corrupt officials when Batman tells them he's coming after them.
97	** Gordon has this reaction twice in the story. First when he hears [[TriggerHappy Branden]] has been called in to deal with a crazed gunman holding three children hostile, and second when he finds out Flass and Loeb have photos of his infidelity.
98	* OriginalPositionFallacy: At a dinner party at Falcone's mansion, Commissioner Loeb assures Falcone and a group of Gotham's elites that Batman is actually good for them in the long run: a vigilante beating up a few street-level thugs and drug dealers helps the city's inhabitants to feel safe, [[BreadAndCircuses "and the safer they feel, the fewer questions they ask"]]. Then Batman crashes the party and tells the assembled elites that he holds '''all''' of them accountable for Gotham's misery, promising that "none of [them] are safe." First thing the next morning:
99	-->'''Loeb''': No excuses, Gordon! That vigilante bastard goes down instantly, or it's your job!"
100	* PapaWolf: ''Do not'' mess with Jim Gordon's son.
101	* PaintingTheMedium: Gordon's narration has a printed font on a yellow background, while Batman's is cursive on white.
102	* LeParkour: Bruce Wayne relies on it while pursuing some kidnappers across the city, during the day.
103	* PeriodPiece: Not for the original mini-series, which was written in the mid-80s, but for the animated adaptation which is incredibly faithful; it's been more than a generation since Hare Krishnas offered people literature at train stations or airports, for example.
104	* PredatoryProstitute: Catwoman herself starts out as one of these, which is why she provides the page image, a HellBentForLeather dominatrix living in Gotham City's RedLightDistrict who doesn't hesitate to jump in when she witnesses a brawl break out on the street between Bruce Wayne and several other people.
105	* PrettyInMink: Martha Wayne wears a white fur coat (it's when she gets shot, but otherwise counts).
106	* RealIsBrown: The comic portrays a much more realistic and gritty retelling of Batman's origin, and uses a far more muted colour palette than the norm at the time (or since, for that matter), with very dark and greyish watercolour hues.
107	* RealityIsUnrealistic: The plot point of the Gotham city police dropping a bomb on a building from a helicopter seems like the sort of outlandish thing you could only expect from a Frank Miller comic book, [[http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/13/406243272/im-from-philly-30-years-later-im-still-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-move-bombing?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20170513 but it actually happened in Philadelphia two years before the comic was released.]]
108	* RecycledInSpace: Gordon's part in the story plays like Film/{{Serpico}}, a sole honest cop trying to clean up a corrupt department, but with Batman.
109	* ResignedInDisgrace: This befalls Loeb at the end after Flass testifies against him.
110	* SaveTheDayTurnAway: Batman saves Gordon's baby without his mask. Gordon says he's blind without his glasses, and tells Batman to flee the scene before the cops arrive.
111	* ScaryShinyGlasses: Gordon is shown with these when he's pissed off.
112	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: The thief boy about to fall to his death according to Batman.
113	* SelectiveObliviousness: Batman, out of costume, just saved Gordon's infant son's life and hands him the child. Even though he's personally met and spoken to Bruce Wayne, Gordon blames the loss of his glasses for his (claimed) inability to recognize the man he's talking to and standing two feet away from.
114	* SelfImposedChallenge: InUniverse. When Gordon gets revenge on Flass for beating him up, he throws Flass a baseball bat because he decides he needs a handicap. He ''still'' easily beats Flass with his bare hands.
115	* SequelHook: The last few frames is of Gordon revealing he received a letter from a guy calling himself "ComicBook/TheJoker" who is threatening to poison Gotham's water supply.
116	* SmokingIsCool: Ironically, the corrupt Detective Flass and Commissioner Loeb seem to be the only cops that ''don't'' smoke.
117	* SpotlightStealingSquad: The book feels more like "Gordon: Year One" than "Batman: Year One," since Gordon's story makes up the bulk of the comic.
118	* StupidEvil: Batman jumps in on three teenagers robbing an apartment through the balcony. Unfortunately his TerrorHero persona is ''too'' effective and scares one of them so much he falls over the railing. Batman barely manages to catch him by the ankle, but rather than being thankful that Batman saved their friend from plummeting to his death, the other two robbers take the opportunity to start pummeling Batman, even through he's the only thing keeping the third from falling twenty stories. Some friends...
119	* SuperHeroOrigin: The point of the story is to show off the origins of Batman, [[BadassNormal Gordon]], and Catwoman (although the latter has been retconned out and in of continuity).
120	* SWATTeam: Brandon and his squad are less police officers than a bunch of trigger happy goons enforcing Commissioner Loeb's will. Of course, the bunch of them are all completely outclassed by Batman.
121	* SwitchingPOV: The arrival of Gordon and Bruce to Gotham, in the begining of the story. Gordon arrives in train, and thinks he should have taken a plane... and Bruce arrives in plane, and thinks he should have taken the train.
122	* TalkativeLoon: Albert Blume, a paranoid schizophrenic who holds three children hostage in chapter two.
123	-->'''Blume:''' ''Spider'' nasty don't ''noise'' it--no ''lunch''. No ''lunch''.
124	* TerrorHero: This comic shows how Bruce took up the persona of Batman. When he first set out to clean up the streets as a vigilante, he fails miserably because criminals aren't afraid of him. While pondering what he should do, a bat crashes through his window and lands on a bust of his father. This inspires him to cloak himself as this creature of the night to terrify his enemies, just as bats frightened him as a child.
125	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Branden and his other SWAT officers have this as their response to basically anything they're called in to deal with. Gordon recalls an incident where they put down a park riot so violently that not even the statues were left standing. When Loeb calls in Branden to deal with Batman, his first action is to carpet bomb the apartment building Batman is in, ''five times''.
126	* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Gordon struggles with the fact that he should be pursuing the obviously righteous Batman, who is, according to the law, a criminal.
127	* TriggerHappy: Lt. Branden and his SWAT team who even end up shooting fellow police officers.
128	-->'''Holly:''' Selina! Things are blowing up near the park!
129	-->'''Selina:''' Maybe Branden's cornered a jaywalker.
130	* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The series details not only Bruce Wayne's becoming Batman, but ByTheBookCop Jim Gordon becoming TheCommissionerGordon.
131	* UnreliableVoiceover: In chapter two, Flass is narrating the story while Batman attacks him for taking money from drug dealers. Naturally, what he says and what happens are polar opposites. When Gordon beats him up earlier in Chapter 1, he thinks that Flass will doubtless make up a story about twenty attackers and never admit the truth.
132	* UngratefulBastard: After Bruce protects Holly from her violent pimp, she stabs Bruce in the leg.
133	* VerbalTic:
134	** Holly tends to whinily emphasize single syllables.
135	** Commissioner Loeb also has a habit of answering his own rhetorical questions and reinforcing his own statements, yes he does.[[note]]This is a CreatorThumbprint of Miller's, used by Virgo in ''ComicBook/Ronin1983'' and UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''.[[/note]]
136	* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Bruce's first night home to Gotham, he patrols the streets "just for recon". It quickly turns into an epic screw-up where the prostitutes he thinks he's protecting attack ''him'', the cops shoot him without question, and he nearly bleeds to death.
137	* WorthlessTreasureTwist: This happens to Catwoman when she robs Commissioner Loeb's home. His only "valuables" are his large collection of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' memorabillia, which Catwoman realizes no fence is going to want.
138	* WouldHitAGirl: Bruce shows no hesitance in laying punches on Selina when she attacks him.
139	* WretchedHive: This story portrays Gotham at its dirtiest.

Context ComicBook / BatmanYearOne