Like The Batman, discover stories set in the Dark Knight’s second year of operations as the protector of Gotham City.
Ever since Michael Keaton went toe-to-toe with Jack Nicholson in 1989’s Batman, it’s been a tradition to discuss the comic book stories that directors have used to make their take on the Dark Knight, especially Year Two.
Do not miss: Year One and other comics that redefined the history of Batman
Tim Burton’s Batman was directly influenced by The Killing Joke’s theme of two sides of the same coin. Batman Begins promoted Dennis O’Neil and Dick Giordano’s short story “The Man Who Falls,” while The Dark Knight paid homage to The Long Halloween and The Dark Knight Rises served as a spiritual fusion of The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall and No. Man’s Land respectively.
With The Batman, it’s time to do it again. Matt Reeves’ highly anticipated film focuses on a Batman who is in his second year of operation; in other words, he’s a caped crusader who has put on his cowl but hasn’t perfected his modus operandi to truly become the hero of Gotham City.
A few stories have been pointed to by director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson as inspirations for their take on Batman, but if you want the breadth of early-day adventures, look no further than this list of Batman stories that have! place during his second year!
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Batman: The Man Who Laughs is the modern reimagining of Batman’s first encounter with the Joker. It is both a retelling of the original 1940s story found in Batman #1 and a sequel to comics like Batman: Year One that takes place at the beginning of Batman’s career.
Both Batman and Jim Gordon are at the edge of their deductive skills to figure out the Joker’s next move as he threatens his victims on live television 24 hours before carrying out his murders through the use of his famous Joker toxin. The genocide jester threatens wealthy businessmen and seizes the entire city in widespread panic with his seemingly godlike ability to defy the best efforts of the police.
Written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Doug Mahnke, this retelling focuses on Batman and Gordon’s efforts to figure out who the Joker is and what his plans are for Gotham.
The origin of the Joker’s “Little Red Riding Hood” is acknowledged, as Batman is forced to come to terms with a city that offers freaks and monsters as antagonists to his crime-fighting abilities. He had only prepared for normal criminals. Joker forces him to expect the unexpected.
Batman: The Long Halloween
This 13-part story has gained public attention over the years, from its influence on The Dark Knight to more recent animated adaptations. And he’s a huge influence on Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
While The Long Halloween is set early in Batman’s career, the plot features Batman’s first encounter with his classic rogues gallery.
Catwoman casts herself as an elusive thief with whom Batman shares a mutual spark, and Falcone’s people vie to maintain their dominance over Gotham City. What luck, then, that those Mafia members are systematically murdered on holidays?
The Loeb-Sale duo deliver a masterpiece
Once a month, the assassin nicknamed Holiday (Festivo) is responsible for taking down family members, assistants and allies of the Falcone mob. This bizarre series of murders spurs an alliance of Batman, Jim Gordon, and District Attorney Harvey Dent, who together work to stop Holiday while taking down the Falcone mob for good.
Throughout the story, certain revelations are made that make solving the mystery more difficult for our heroes to pull off. For Gordon, the murders require constant time away from his family. For Batman, his detective skills are at their limits and he must master them to stop Holiday.
For Harvey Dent, the dichotomy of preventing the murder of mobsters splits his sense of justice in two, and he is frequently suspected as a suspect.
It’s not until his fateful encounter with a bottle of acid that Dent’s true destiny as a member of Gotham’s underworld becomes clear, and the line between good and evil becomes increasingly blurred for our heroes.
Batman and the Monster Men
Like The Man Who Laughs, writer-artist Matt Wagner’s two-story feature film serves as a retelling of Batman’s Golden Age stories in its second year.
Set after Batman: Year On, Batman and the Monster Men depicts the Caped Crusader’s first encounter with Professor Hugo Strange and his strange experiments resulting in gigantic monster men.
More incisive with the benefit of hindsight than the original Batman #1 story, Batman and the Monster Men casts Julie Madison and her father Norman as victims trapped in the world of crime and disguise. Norman Madison is a businessman in debt to mobster Sal Maroni, the gangster partially responsible for Two-Face.
Julie Madison reinvents herself as a young law student with whom Bruce genuinely falls in love, to the point that he begins to consider ending his war on crime. Bruce hopes to have a future with Julie, but is not yet ready to share her secret with her, which makes Julie suspicious.
Batman and the Mad Monk
This carries over into Batman and the Mad Monk, a reimagining of Detective Comics #31-#32. In this version of the story, the Monk of the same name is not a hypnotic vampire but the scion of a wealthy Gotham family who traveled abroad and returned home to start a cult. The exact nature of his abilities is unknown, but Batman is reluctant to believe in the supernatural. Still, that doesn’t stop him from preparing for the worst, and we see him craft silver-tipped batarangs.
These stories further develop the first Batman into what he will become in the future. Bruce fights mad scientists and genetically modified mutants. He fights cults and deals with extraordinary circumstances beyond those of typical mobsters. Throughout the duology, he realizes that the relationships are inappropriate for a man who dedicates his life to the eradication of crime. Her romance with Julie sours and, at the end of Batman and the Mad Monk, she leaves Bruce and joins the Peace Corps.
Batman: Ego and Other Stories
Of the several comics listed as being influenced by Reeves and Robert Pattinson, Batman: Ego may be the most unique. A one-shot from the late and great Darwyn Cooke, this story served as a general embodiment of Cooke’s favorite elements of the Batman mythos.
After the battle between Batman and the Joker results in the suicide of a mobster, Bruce returns to the cave ready to despair at the futility of his mission. Suddenly, a ghostly vision of his Batman persona appears to him, mocking his depression and taking him through the processes that created his will to fight in the first place.
A masterclass in comic book storytelling, Batman: Ego revisits Bruce’s childhood trauma, his love for his parents, his shattered friendship with Harvey Dent, and his split personality as millionaire playboy and Dark Knight, of the best. stories of his second year.
Confronting his use of a child sidekick and his code against murder, Batman’s monster represents the extremes of Bruce’s psyche, pushing his sanity and conviction to the brink, before recommitting him to the vow he made to not only inspire. fear in the hearts of fellow criminals, but to inspire hope in the citizens of Gotham.
Far too underrated in the pantheon of Batman classics, it’s about time Batman: Ego took its rightful place in the greatest Batman stories of all time.
It may interest you: These are the comics that inspired the plot of The Batman
Source: DC Comics
The curse of the White Knight arrives at SMASH and DC Comics Mexico
The urban jungle that makes up Gotham City is being torn apart by the war between Batman and Joker…a war in which the differences between hero and villain have become impossibly blurred.
Now, with his benevolent Jack Napier persona being submerged by that of the ascendant Clown Prince of Crime, Joker is ready to take battle to the next level…and his army has a new recruit.
SMASH and DC Comics Mexico bring you Batman: Curse of the White Knight. The sequel to the successful story written and illustrated by Sean Murphy will keep you on the edge of your seat
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