Rating:  -
So many wonderful reviews have been written here that little comment is needed. Suffice to say that this new edition probably didn't rate the "Absolute" treatment from DC mainly due to the story's brevity. Still the extras included in this new edition make it worth it. David Mazzucchelli's afterword is wonderful, not to mention his sketches, preliminary artwork gives the reader a glimpse into the makings of a comic classic. The inclusion of several pages of Frank Miller's script and Mazzucchelli's breakdowns and Richmond Lewis's new coloring have given a timeless story new life.
Maybe DC will release this work as an "Absolute," edition. Failing that, this is the closest we will come to. 5 stars.
Rating: -
Forget "The Dark Knight Returns" (also by Frank Miller), THIS is the best Batman book ever written, by a mile. I can't say enough good things about this book. The story is so good it's almost incomprehensible, and the art is just as amazing. The book follows both Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne, surprisingly giving a little bit more focus to the former, as they experience the corruption of Gotham City firsthand and work to defeat it. If you've seen the movie "Batman Begins", which draws much of its inspiration from this book, then you'll have a pretty good grasp of whats going on here. If you've never read Batman or even a comic before, this is a great place to start, and if you're a lifelong fan, this is a must buy for you too. Highly, highly recommended.
Rating:  -
The very first Batman grapic novel I ever bought was The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. Why not start off with what everyone says is the best? But once I read it and realized it takes place years after Bruce Wayne Retires as Batman, I figured I'd better start back at the beginning. I get a copy of Batman: Year One and once again it's by Frank Miller.
It surprises me that both of these were written only a year apart, and that he wrote this one second. While Dark Knight is definitely the darker of the two, it's also a much different kind of Bat story. Of course the different artistic styles will be the first thing you'll notice seeing as Miller drew Dark Knight but left Year One to David Mazzucchelli, which in some ways I prefer over Miller's Sin City style.
But enough about Dark Knight. Year One was great. I must admit I read this after Batman Begins came out. I wish I had read it first, I would have appreciated it more. What I'm saying is Begins borrows heavily from this. The novel starts once Bruce returns to Gotham. Cut out the entire Ras Al Ghul, Bruce training back story. Replace Scarecrow with Catwoman and you pretty much have the same thing.
But what really makes it stand out from Batman Begins is Year One concentrates a lot more on James Gordon's struggles against his corrupt police department and almost makes him a main character by giving him the love interest instead of Bruce Wayne. I can only hope we'll be seeing this side of Gordon in the next Bat movie, The Dark Knight. Very appropriate title.
Rating: -
The Batman has proven to be one of the most interesting and resilient archetypes of American superheroes. His humble beginnings as a 1930s comic book character dreamt up by young artist Bob Kane have led to many incarnations and retellings of his story in comic, live action, and animated form. Some have been dark, some campy, most somewhere in between. Here is a character that lends himself to many different interpretations.
Batman: Year One is the definite interpretation of Batman in comic book form, the perfect telling of the Batman mythos and its origin, in my mind. Yes, it can be fun to see Batman as a campy, self-parodying character (Adam West in a batsuit), a team player among other superheroes (many incarnations of the Justice League), or a man at his grimmest extreme (Miller's more famous work, The Dark Knight Returns). But here is a story that takes Batman back to the grim figure of the night, driven by the murder of his parents, that Bob Kane first envisioned and wrote.
Year One is often eclipsed by Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. While the latter work has been undoubtedly more influential on comics as a whole, it is also an atypical portrait of Batman, one of the character taken to an extreme. For Year One, Miller focuses instead on the core identity of the character.
The tale of Bruce Wayne's return to Gotham and debut as the Batman after twelve years of training abroad is juxtaposed with the tale of James Gordon, a newly-arrived cop in Gotham, who becomes one of the few good cops in a city full of corrupt men. The juxtaposition works well: the two men have the same goal, just different ways of reaching it.
The story is dark, but not overwhelmingly so. Batman fights no supervillains here (though the story's sole misstep is introducing Selena Kyle, pre-Catwoman, in an unresolved subplot). The police are as much his enemies as the city's crooks. The characters are realistically drawn, right down to their very human failings. This Batman has the skills to perform his mission, but not the experience. This Gordon does his admirable best to make Gotham City a good place for his unborn child and wife, but finds himself strongly attracted to another women.
Praise must be given to artist David Mazzucchelli and colorist Richmond Lewis. Mazzucchelli's sparse (but not minimalistic) art style and Lewis's muted hues complement the plot impeccably. Even the lettering by Todd Klein shines, using subtly different fonts for the two protagonist's internal thoughts (a stylistic device now common in comics, replacing older telegraphic narration, but ahead of its time when this book was published).
Fans of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins take note: this book is its spiritual inspiration. Newcomers to comic books needn't fear: this book requires no foreknowledge of the characters. And fans of fiction in general may well be suprised at how strong the book's literary merits are.
This is Batman as he's meant to be, as he should be.
Rating: -
I'd have given this 5 stars, except I did not like Mazuchelli's art. Matter of taste, so I'll say no more other than I found it unappealing.
This is a dual story that is as much Jim Gordon as it is about Batman. Jim Gordon starts as a good cop transferring to Gotham after a mistake. Gordon won't muddy himself with the unethical behavior of the police department, nor will he ally himself with the Batman whom he considers a bad guy as well. Jim's black/white ethos slowly changes as he first beats a fellow police officer(after he himself was beaten), has at least the beginnings of an affair and comes to realize that maybe Batman isn't the one he should be against and comes to terms with allowing the Batman to do the work the police department cannot. Gordon's change and domestic story was the best part of the book.
On the Batman side we see the first incompetent gropings towards superherodom as Batman hits the streets, first in disguise, then in costume and generally gets his head handed to him by making mistakes. We also see how he inspires one Selina Kyle to become Catwoman.
Though Bruce's struggles are shown to the reader through internalized monologues more than Gordon's, it is still Gordon's struggle that takes over the story, and that is a strength rather than a weakness. It shows Gotham as an organic being, with the dirty cops, the mobs, the judges, the Batman, the D.A. and Jim Gordon reacting to one another and changing. Showing that not even Batman is big enough to effect the kind of change he wants on his own.
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