蝙蝠侠：第一年 (1987)

"Batman: Year One" is an American comic book story arc written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli. "Year One" was originally published by DC Comics in Batman #404-407 in 1987. The story recounts Batman's first year as a crime-fighter as well as exploring the life of recently transferred Gotham police detective Jim Gordon, building towards their first encounter and their eventual alliance against Gotham's criminal underworld.

Plot

Billionaire Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City after twelve years abroad, training for a one-man war against crime. James "Jim" Gordon moves to Gotham with his pregnant wife, Barbara, after a transfer from Chicago. Both are already acquainted with the corrupt and violent atmosphere of the city, but because Jim assaulted a corrupt officer without obtaining evidence, he is so disgraced that no other police force will take him. Jim focuses on purging corruption from the Gotham City Police Department after witnessing his partner, Arnold Flass, abuse his power. Several officers led by Flass beat him on orders from his superior, Commissioner Gillian Loeb, and threaten to do the same to Barbara if he continues cracking down on corruption. In revenge, Jim tracks Flass down, beats him, and leaves him naked and handcuffed in the snow.

Bruce believes he is still unprepared to fight crime despite the skills he learned abroad. He goes in disguise on a surveillance mission in Gotham's red-light district but is drawn into a brawl with several prostitutes, including Holly Robinson and Selina Kyle. Police officers shoot Bruce and take him away in their patrol car. Bruce breaks free, subdues the cops, flees from the scene, and returns to Wayne Manor barely alive. He sits before his father's bust, requesting guidance in his war against crime. A bat crashes through a window and settles on the bust, inspiring Bruce to save Gotham as Batman.

Jim diffuses a hostage situation without any deaths or injuries, leading the press to hail him as a hero, which inhibits Loeb and his cronies from acting against him. With Bruce striking as Batman, street crime significantly declines. Flass is attacked while accepting a bribe from Jefferson Skeevers, a drug dealer of Carmine Falcone. Jim becomes obsessed with apprehending Batman. Batman infiltrates the mansion of Gotham's mayor and threatens all the dinner party guests, including Loeb and Falcone. Jim and GCPD Sergeant Sarah Essen witness Batman save an old lady from a runaway truck and summon more GCPD officers to the scene, forcing Batman to flee into an abandoned building. Loeb personally deploys in a police helicopter and drops bombs onto the building. A SWAT team led by a trigger-happy commander, Branden, is sent in to continue the manhunt. Batman uses a signal device to attract a swarm of bats from the Batcave, concealing his escape.

Jim and Essen have an affair for two months, before Jim finally ends it out of guilt. Weeks later he confesses the affair to Barbara. Jim apprehends Skeevers, but Batman persuades Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent to let him out on bail. Batman uses the opportunity to terrorize Skeevers into testifying against Flass.

Bruce sneaks into Falcone's manor as Batman and overhears a conversation between Falcone and his nephew, Johnny Viti. An attack by Kyle, now a professional burglar, interrupts before he can record any useful evidence, but he hears enough to surmise Falcone and Viti intend to target Gordon's family. Jim leaves home on Loeb's orders but becomes suspicious when he spots Bruce entering his home parking lot on a motorcycle at high speed. Jim turns back, to discover Viti and his men holding Barbara and their newborn son James hostage. With sleep deprivation causing Jim to be paranoid and abnormally violent, he opens fire on Viti's men. Viti flees the scene with James. Bruce tries to intervene, but Jim shoots him and takes the motorcycle to chase Viti. Jim and Viti fight on a bridge until James falls. Bruce catches up on a stolen bicycle, leaps over the bridge's railing, and saves James. Jim, unable to identify Bruce due to losing his glasses in the fight, lets him go. Flass supplies Dent with the evidence and testimony needed to implicate Loeb, who resigns in disgrace. Jim is promoted to captain and prepares to meet with Batman to investigate a plot orchestrated by a criminal calling himself the Joker.

Publication history

Development

In an effort to resolve continuity errors in the DC Universe, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez produced the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wolfman's plans for the DC Universe after Crisis on Infinite Earths included relaunching every DC comic with a new first issue.

The contract Frank Miller signed to produce The Dark Knight Returns (1986) also required him to write a revamped Batman origin story. "Year One" was originally conceived as a graphic novel. Dennis O'Neil, who had been asked to edit several issues of Batman, was friends with Miller and learned of the story. Reflecting on poor sales of Batman, O'Neil caught Miller one day while on a walk in Los Angeles and convinced him and David Mazzucchelli to serialize the story in the ongoing series. Miller was initially reluctant; he felt this would be hard because he had to ensure the story stayed canonical to the DC Universe, something he did not have to worry about when writing Dark Knight Returns. In addition, Miller's pacing would have to be altered because of ongoing series' relatively small page counts. O'Neil reasoned that Crisis on Infinite Earths had completely remade the DC Universe, so Miller would be able to have the same creative freedom that Dark Knight Returns provided. He also reassured Miller that he and Mazzucchelli "weren't going to lose anything" by serializing it.