49.
Title: [Batman: Year One]
Author: Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
Genre: Comics
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Purchased
Date Completed: 28 May 2016
Rating: ****

According to the introduction of Batman: Year One, DC Comics decides to revamp their bi names in the 1980s, afraid that the characters had grown stale. Denny O'Neil writes that Wonderwoman and Superman needed new stories, "but Batman was a problem. He was fine just as he was." Thus, the "editors decided, Batman's origin should not be changed. It could be given depth, complexity, a wider context." This is precisely what Frank Miller aims to do in Year One, originally published in 1986, and offering an origins story that fixes Gotham in the cultural imagination, and broadens the task of origin narration to include other significant characters. I haven't yet made it to my omnibus to see how much of, say, Gordon's story is original to Miller, but the book as a whole is dedicated to a consistent level of struggle and searching, looking forward to the characters so well known today.  Jim Gordon is transferred to Gotham after past failures, bringing along a newly-pregnant wife and a deep-seated repulsion for his newly assigned city; Bruce Wayne returns from twelve years in Europe, perfectly charming and confident, but in secret plagued with a sense of inadequacy that drives him to work harder and harder. Selina Kyle watches from the shadows before developing her own alternative identity, and pits herself in a contest of reputations with the mysterious Bat.

Batman: Year One does exactly what it promises, returning to the real origins of Batman - not the murder of the Waynes, but when Bruce Wayne seeks out an alternative identity through which to exercise his manic desire for revenge and street justice. What Batman No. 1 does in approximately nine frames Frank Miller details in ninety-six pages of thoughtful development.  Bruce Wayne, though wealthy and physically practiced, is uncertain of his means, and blunders in his first days on the street, making mistakes and earning scars - and a nasty official reputation.  Gordon, too, has his flaws, not quite the boyscout he is in my head, but with a sense of right stronger than a sense of self-preservation.  Selina Kyle isn't given quite the same attention, to my dismay, but it's not her book.  Though I found the clipped and awkward narrative jarring and pedestrian, the story itself was well paced, and the visual narrative more than made up for the staccato writing.  This is the Batman I've known all my life (I'm only a year older), and it was a pleasure to go back and see where he came from.