Post-Crisis Batman Retrospective - Batman Year One

Batman Year One remains my favourite comic book ever.

I just re-read it, and it honestly gets better every single time I do so.

For a story that came out in 1987 it has honestly aged like fine wine. It manages to hit every single thing I like in early Batman stories. Seeing Batman as such a grounded, human figure instead of the larger-than-life, contingency for every possibility, overpowered myth that he grows to become. He's not infallible, he fucks up, and he's brutal in the way he tries to take down organised crime in Gotham.

And that's just Bruce. He's not even my favourite part of this story. That honour goes to Jim Gordon. Seeing this man, this honest, good man, surrounded by some of the most corrupt individuals in Gotham, his fellow cops, and how he stands up to them is awesome. And yet, he too is not infallible. He's not perfect, he's a messy human being who ends up in an affair with a younger woman who happens to be his co-worker, whilst his wife is at home pregnant. But he owns up to his mistakes, and he tries to make right, and has to console the fact that Batman's vigilante justice, whilst outside of the law is doing so much more to help Gotham than the Police Department are.

The way their alliance is born here is honestly beautiful. Seeing them both come to terms with the fact that they need each other as an ally if they are going to make Gotham a better place. Its just so well written. If he hadn't gone on to become a crazy alcoholic and write some of the worst Batman stories of all time after this, Frank Miller would honestly be a contender for my favourite comic book writer. The fact that in nearly 40 years no attempt has even come close to replacing it as the definitive Batman origin, and not for a lack of trying, is insane. I genuinely think this book is the best argument I could have against anyone who believes comic books to be childish or not a legitimate form of art. I think if I were to pick one comic that everyone should read in their lifetime, it would be this. It not only redefined Batman, and shaped the direction his character would go for the next 4 decades, but honestly it honestly laid the groundwork for what a "modern" superhero origin story could and should be.