Batman

Following on the heels of his noir depiction of Batman's later years, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, writer Frank Miller produced this similarly-toned account of orphaned millionaire Bruce Wayne's early, flawed career as Batman, and future Commissioner James Gordon as a new lieutenant in Gotham City, and how the vigilante and the honest cop forged their famous partnership to fight crime and the corrupt city administration. THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and BATMAN YEAR ONE, with their darker mood and more nuanced morality, have had a profound effect both on the direction of the various Batman series and on the genre as a whole. In keeping with the writer's intent to place Batman in a real-world setting, artist David Mazzucchelli's portrayals of people and places eschew the exaggerated, over-the-top style common to superhero comic books, although Bruce Wayne retains his chiseled, movie-star good looks. Originally published in the late '80s as issues #404 through #407, and then as a graphic novel, this full-color deluxe edition of BATMAN YEAR ONE includes a black-and-white comic book-style afterword by Mazzucchelli as well as reproductions of original scripts, sketches, covers, and other art for this seminal mini-series.