Batman: Year One - Part 1

[history79]

The A.V. Club: So you actually consciously set out to change things in the comics industry?

Frank Miller: Well, I set out to remark upon them. And seeing how all these heroes had been castrated since the 1950s, and just how pointless they seemed to be... In this perfect world of comic books, which was what it was back then, why would people dress up in tights to fight crime?

The A.V. Club: Because there wasn't anything bad enough going on back then to justify that extremism?

Frank Miller: It was just a bunch of goofy villains. It was 1985 when I started working on this, and I thought, "What kind of world would be scary enough for Batman?" And I looked out my window.

Comments

[jeremyp]

This highlights one of the biggest issues I have with batman. He started in response to his parent's deaths, and in this story he starts by targeting street crime. But really, being a vigilante is not a good way to fight street crime. He's more likely to have an impact by focusing on education and economic development.

Of course, that wouldn't be a very exciting comic book.

[captainbellman]

And he hasn't looked since.

[reveen]

Catwoman's appearance is kind of hilarious in hindsight. She's just a dominatrix yet she jumps out of a window and starts kung fu fighting like it's a beat 'em up game. It's very 80's.

[mrstatham]

"I didn't really like these awesome silver-age comics that blossomed out of these horrible rules that neutered comics in the fifties and I'm entirely ignorant of how awesome these characters became under more mature creators in the seventies, so I'm here to grimdark Batman forever with some admittedly decent story, but thus create this awful conflict in the writers of the late 90's and onwards who blowjob the silver age but don't correctly understand how to marry that to my grimdark darkness."

[espanolbot]

Ah, Year One. Arguably the best thing Miller ever did, by transplanting Gotham in the New York of the 70s and 80s which really was like how it was depicted here.

I have a lot of issues with Miller's other Batman work (even Dark Knight Returns with its REALLY right wing leanings), but Year One pretty much acted as a good springboard for later, better series. Such as the Brubaker/Cooke Catwoman series (which is still one of my all time favourites), Gotham Central and Scott Snyder's Batman stuff.

And although the legislation in the 1950s did "castrate" a number of heroes, it also enabled them to go outside the box and try new things. If it wasn't for the CCA we wouldn't have Batgirl, the Martian Manhunter, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan etc. etc.

Though it did lead to Catwoman to be retired for a time, for reasons I'll post shortly...