Trade Review: Batman Earth One

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Gary Frank

Earth One is a series that does re-interpretations of DC heroes origins. Superman and Batman have both gotten the treatment, and Wonder Woman's is due soon.

Everyone knows the story of Batman.  His mother and father are murdered right before Bruce Wayne's young eyes, and from that day forward he dedicates his life to fighting crime.

The story opens with Batman pursuing a man in a tuxedo across the rooftops of Gotham City. Batman tries to fire a grappling hook over to the next roof, but the gadget fails.  He hastily attempts a jump and falls short, catching himself on a wobbly air conditioner before crashing to the streets below.  Limping away from the alley, Batman sees a crime in progress and does nothing about it. This lets us know that he's still a little rough around the edges.

We are brought back in time to Wayne manor, where a party is being thrown by Thomas and Martha Wayne in anticipation of Thomas being elected Mayor of Gotham City.  We are introduced to Alfred Pennyworth, who is Thomas's friend from a war or something, but definitely not there to be a butler.  Thomas tells Alfred that he doesn't trust anyone, and that is why he brought him all the way to Gotham City.  Lil' Bruce runs through announcing that, "THEY'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" and now Thomas has to go, leaving this party and Alfred, who is NOT a butler, to continue to rage on at Wayne manor.

The Wayne family goes to the theater to watch a movie.  As soon as they get in, the power goes out. A theater employee enters letting everyone know that because of the outage, the theater is closed.  He asks for everyone to come through the front of the theater.  Bruce tells his parents that they should stay.  His parents tell him they'll try another day, but Bruce wants his Oompa Loompa now, and runs out the emergency exit into the alley.  Typical rich kid stuff.

In the Alley, Bruce runs into a hoodie wearing tough who tells him to "watch where he's going."  Bruce tells that dude he doesn't have to do anything, because "My parents are the richest people in Gotham City!"  Thomas and Martha run into the alley where hoodie Joe Chill is now holding a gun to Bruce's head and demanding money from them.  For whatever reason, he impatiently throws Bruce to the ground, lunges toward them, and then murders them.  This was a dude who was just walking by.  I'd hate to live in Gotham City, but you'd think rich people would be able to arrange a screening of Zorro at a much better theater.  It is supposed to be a "modern telling" and all.

So there you have it.  A brooding Dark Knight is born.

We learn that Alfred has been named Bruce's legal guardian, even though he'd literally arrived right before they were murdered.  Martha had never even met him.  Thomas was amazed that he had actually come to visit.  This was probably Alfred's worst vacation.  He sits down with Bruce to console him, but Bruce is having none of that.  He demands to know why he should even listen to Alfred, which is met with one simple reply, "I'm your butler."  What?  He wouldn't even listen to his own mother and father, who cares about a guy claiming to be a butler?

Batman has begun. It seems that the man he was chasing at the beginning of the book was a corrupt cop who worked on his mother and father's murder, and then retired a few weeks later to live the good life.  There were some discrepancies in the police report, and Bruce needed answers.  Was the defining moment in Bruce Wayne's life actually an assassination?  Were the radical politics of the Wayne family a threat to the corrupt system that was currently running Gotham?  Batman has emerged from the shadows to expose it all.

I really wanted to like this book, but I had some real problems with it.  For me, it was basically the CW TV pilot equivalent of an origin story.  Johns really tries to pack in as many Batman nods as possible, and it is very distracting.  There are nods to Arkham, Batgirl, and The Riddler for little to no reason.  The Penguin is the Mayor, and was the man Thomas Wayne was trying to dethrone.  Harvey Dent makes a brief appearance, and in this story has a twin sister.  Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face, so now he has a twin.  Get it?  Yeesh.

This is just a lot of added stuff for a book that really needs to show us Batman learning to be Batman.  Not the worst thing I've ever read, but not great either.

I'd say skip it, and if you are interested in a Batman origin story, go read Batman: Year One by Frank Miller.