Year One

Before Batman, there was only Gotham. A city choking on its own corruption, where the police are as dangerous as the criminals they are supposed to stop. Into this darkness arrive two men: a young Bruce Wayne, returned from years abroad with a mission but no method, and an honest cop, Lieutenant James Gordon, who finds himself a stranger in a department that serves only itself. Both men are alone, fighting a war on two fronts against a city that wants to destroy them.

This is not the story of a superhero, but of a man's first uncertain steps in the dark. It chronicles the beginning of a legend through a grounded, street-level narrative, detailing an inexperienced vigilante's costly mistakes and a principled detective's struggle to uphold the law in a lawless town. "Batman: Year One" strips the character down to his raw beginnings, exploring the grit, realism, and human fallibility behind the icon, and in doing so, provides the definitive origin of the Dark Knight and his first ally against the pervasive decay of Gotham City.