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Batman Vol 1 404

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"Year One (Part I of IV): Who I Am - How I Come to Be"

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Image:Quote1.png Without warning it comes... crashing through the window of your study... and mine... I have seen it before... somewhere... it frightened me... as a boy... frightened me... yes, Father. I shall become a bat. Image:Quote2.png
-- Bruce Wayne


Appearing in "Year One (Part I of IV): Who I Am - How I Come to Be"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Villains:

Other Characters:

  • Joe Chill (In flashback only)
  • Martha Wayne (In flashback only)
  • Thomas Wayne (In flashback only)
  • Jackie (Single appearance)
  • Morgan (Single appearance) (Behind the scenes)
  • Skunk (Single appearance) (Behind the scenes)
  • Tom (Single appearance)

Locations:

Items:


Vehicles:




Synopsis for "Year One (Part I of IV): Who I Am - How I Come to Be"

Chicago police lieutenant James Gordon relocates to Gotham City and begins working under Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb. Already he finds himself detesting the grime of the city, but his thoughts are on his pregnant wife Barbara. Inwardly, he hopes her tests come back "negative".

Meanwhile, Gotham City's most eligible bachelor Bruce Wayne returns to the United States after nearly twelve years abroad ever since the age of thirteen. He plays up the role of billionaire playboy, but secretly he is anxious to begin a new career as a crime fighter. He wants to avenge the tragic deaths of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Across town, James Gordon meets some of his fellow officers, including the brutish Lt. Arnold Flass. It doesn't take Gordon long to realize that Flass represents only a tiny fraction of a trail of corruption that extends all of the way to the Commissioner's office. Gordon learns that Flass is reckless and is not above accepting the occasional bribe. However, Gordon’s own moral code is strong and he refuses to buckle beneath the weight of corruption.

Flass grows concerned and tells Commissioner Loeb that Gordon may not be a "team player". Coyly, Loeb gives Flass permission to teach Gordon a lesson. That night, Flass and three other officers don ski masks and corner Jim in the parking garage. They mercilessly beat him with baseball bats, but Gordon recognizes the sound of Flass' laughter and vows to strike back.

Later, Jim takes his car and follows the crooked cops back to a place called Chute's. He waits for them outside until they are ready to leave. As Flass drunkenly stumbles out of the building, Gordon attacks him. He beats Flass up, strips him naked and leaves him bound with his own handcuffs on the side of the road. Jim is confident that the incident will go unreported.

Some nights later, Bruce Wayne disguises himself as a vagrant and begins patrolling the seedy streets of Gotham's East End. He gets into an altercation with an albino pimp named Stan over an adolescent prostitute named Holly. Bruce and Stan's fight attracts the attention of another one of Stan's working girls – Selina Kyle. Selina tries to defend Stan, but Bruce lays her out with one blow across the jaw.

Suddenly, police officers arrive and take the disguised Wayne into custody. Bruce breaks free of his handcuffs and forces the police cruiser off the road. Wounded and bleeding, he manages to make his way back to his Porsche and return home to Wayne Manor.

He sinks into a wing chair in his study and begins stammering his father's name. Bruce feels that he has failed his parents. He reflects upon the night that a common mugger savagely gunned them down in the street, leaving him an orphan. Suddenly, a bat crashes through the open window. Bruce takes it as a sign and promises to avenge his parents' deaths by taking on the form of a bat.

Notes

  • The events from this issue take place in both Post-Crisis New Earth continuity as well as Earth-31 continuity.
  • This issue establishes that Bruce Wayne is twenty-five years old when he first begins his crime-fighting career as the Batman. In narrative, he states that he was only seven-years-old (possibly an honest error by the writer) when Joe Chill murdered his parents. This, however, contradicts other sources, such as the Zero Hour timeline, which establishes Bruce as eight years-old at the time of his parents' death. Batman's profile in Superman/Batman Secret Files and Origins (2003) confirms the Zero Hour timeline and establishes that Bruce is in fact eight years old when his parents are killed.
  • Catwoman appears as Selina Kyle only in this issue.
  • It is briefly stated in this issue that James Gordon was forced to leave Chicago after an incident involving other corrupt police officers. This incident is expanded upon in greater detail in the Gordon of Gotham limited series.
  • Harvey Dent is seen only briefly on a television screen in this issue.


Trivia

  • Bruce's moment of inspiration in his father's study is a re-imagining of a scene first depicted in Detective Comics #33.
  • The tagline for this issue is "He will become the greatest crimefighter the world has ever known... It won't be easy".



See Also


Recommended Reading


Links and References


The Batman Family's Early History
Main Storylines Batman: Year One | The Long Halloween | Dark Victory | The Man Who Laughs | Batman and the Monster Men | Batman and the Mad Monk | Untold Legend of the Batman
Supporting Cast Robin: Year One | Batgirl: Year One | Nightwing: Year One | Huntress: Year One | Gordon of Gotham | Two-Face Year One
Titles Legends of the Dark Knight | Batman Confidential
Others Batman: Year Two | Batman: Year Three | Year One: Batman/Ra's al Ghul | Year One: Batman/Scarecrow | Batman Family Year One Annuals | Batman: Blind Justice
Other Media Batman Begins
Characters Thomas and Martha Wayne | Joe Chill | Carmine Falcone | Sal Maroni | Tony Zucco | Lew Moxon | Commissioner Loeb | Detective Flass | Kirigi | Henri Ducard
See Also Batman (Golden Age) | Batman (Silver Age) | Batman (Modern Age) | Year One
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Post-Crisis Reboot

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 1985-1986 maxiseries which completely reset the continuity of the entire DC Universe, all of DC's major characters and franchises needed to be updated to reflect the changes in the events of their lives. Multiple story arcs were put out to explain these rebooted versions of popular characters.

Superman: The Man of Steel
Man of Steel #1 • Man of Steel #2 • Man of Steel #3 • Man of Steel #4 • Man of Steel #5 • Man of Steel #6
Batman: Year One
Batman #404 • Batman #405 • Batman #406 • Batman #407
Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals
Wonder Woman #1 • Wonder Woman #2 • Wonder Woman #3 • Wonder Woman #4 • Wonder Woman #5 • Wonder Woman #6 • Wonder Woman #7
Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
Emerald Dawn #1 • Emerald Dawn #2 • Emerald Dawn #3 • Emerald Dawn #4 • Emerald Dawn #5 • Emerald Dawn #6
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