Book Review: Batman Year One

Frank Miller is a very prolific name in the comic book industry. He's best known for his gritty interpretation of comic book characters like Daredevil and Batman,  Some of his most prolific entries into the world of comic books include Daredevil: Born Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. There's definitely a distinct charm behind his work, both as an illustrator and as a writer as he doesn't shy away from utilising comic strips to portray a dark and brutal set of stories. One of his most noteworthy entries into the comic industry is Batman Year One. 

Written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, Batman Year One takes place in Gotham City and follows the origins of Batman and his unlikely relationship with Detective James Gordan. Both Gordan and Batman's stories are told in conjunction to one another and work to outline their struggle to tackle the overwhelming corruption that lies at the heart of Gotham City and it's Police Department. Both Gordan and Batman face off against this corruption in different ways and despite being on two different ends of the law, we see how their clear sense of justice brings them to common ground in unexpected ways. It's not just Gordan and Batman this story follows either. As the story progresses we see some familiar faces like Selina Kyle, Harvey Dent and Carmine Falcone have their own introductions into this dark and bloody world Miller and Mazzucchelli have established.  Despite it's use of some familiar characters though, one of the most noteworthy elements behind this story is how little of Batman's usual rogue gallery it uses. As this is set during his initial origins, he doesn't have any colourful characters to face against this time and instead goes up against the violent corruption at the heart of Gotham city's police department and it's mafia families.

There's a lot to appreciate about the way Miller has written this story. The way Miller pivots the story around both Gordan and Batman's struggle to establish themselves in a city that doesn't want them is such a compelling way to link them together. As I noted they both have their own stories and methods of achieving justice but their moral principles are aligned and it's really interesting to see how they both strive to achieve the same goals in very different ways. Miller does a fantastic job in characterising these two characters in a very human way, with clear strengths and weaknesses. The world Miller has crafted clearly reflects his vicious and violent trademark style but never to an extent that it overshadows the typical world we recognise these characters to come from. The cruel and unjust world behind Gotham City is the perfect backdrop for the stories of these characters to overcome it's vices. I like how unrelenting tMiller is in reflecting just how selfish and toxic the city has become under these parties, as it makes Batman and Gordan's everlasting struggle to overcome them way more compelling. 

Part of what reflects this story in such a successful way is down to it's art style. David Mazzucchelli has done a fantastic job here illustrating the gritty and dirty streets of Gotham City with a clever use of dark colours. The comic panels all feel really well crafted and outline sequences in clever detail and pacing. His character work is exceptionally noteworthy too, I love how he's visualised Batman's early costume design to be more in-line with an actual bat. All of the characters in the story have a lot of detail in their faces and postures too which just goes to show how much effort Mazzucchelli has gone to give the comic a very detailed and unique aura that will be hard to be replicated. The only small gripe I will raise is with the text format for Bruce/Batman specifically. It's a very stylish form of font which I struggled to read easily and it did make my time with reading his character moments a lot more difficult than I would have hoped for,

What Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli have done with Batman Year One is incredibly iconic. You can feel this comics influence so easily across multiple modern interpretations of the Caped Crusader, especially in Matt Reeve's 2022 Batman movie. I like how it's brutal tone and visual style is constant throughout every page but it never sacrifices the integrity of Batman and the principles he and Gordan are so well known for. It's a really intriguing read for any Batman fan and I'm sure anyone and everyone will have a really good time reading through it.