Bookshelf: Comic Review- Batman Earth One

I hope to cover the other titles and heroes in the near future. But this review is all about the Bat so let us take a look at Batman Earth One Volume One and jump in.

"In a Gotham City where friend and foe are indistinguishable, Bruce Wayne's path toward becoming the Dark Knight is riddled with more obstacles than ever before. Focused on punishing his parents’ true killers, and the corrupt police that allowed them to go free, Bruce Wayne's thirst for vengeance fuels his mad crusade and no one, not even Alfred, can stop him"

Spoiler alert in effect so please be wary.

The comic is set during the early stages of Batman's career. We meet a Bruce Wayne who is haunted by the unsolved death of his parents and is attempting to solve the case himself. This is a real highlight of this Earth One comic. Unlike our normal super detective, crime fighter: we are instead following an ill prepared, under trained Batman. Who lacks body armour and has experimental equipment that is more likely to fail than succeed.

The story progresses at a steady pace and can be split into two parts. The first part is the flashbacks and through these we learn of Bruce's past in this reality In these moments we learn that his father Thomas Wayne was running for Mayor of Gotham, against a Mr. Cobblepot and his mother Martha was actually an Arkham (a family renowned for being Gotham's creators and also a family of madman!). We also meet Alfred who is an ex-military friend of Thomas Wayne, called in to act as a bodyguard of sorts for Thomas, who has received death threats leading up to the mayoral vote. This ultimately lead us to the night of the Wayne's couple murder, which in this universe is actually all Bruce's fault! As a young spoilt Bruce mouths off to a criminal/street scum about how his parents rule Gotham and are super rich. This is a great twist as it shows us a Bruce that is a spoilt child and the cause of his own pain and guilt. Unfortunately for this Bruce, he is too young and naive to understand cause and effect and how his actions lead to the death of his parents; instead he believes it was all some part of a conspiracy to remove the Wayne's from the Mayoral race. Alone and now an orphan, young Wayne is left with a man called Alfred who he has never met. Struggling to explain his role in all of this, Alfred calls himself Bruce's butler and begins to assume this role.

As Bruce ages in the flashbacks so does his need for vengeance and following an accident involving Bats (surprise!), Bruce is soon on the path to becoming Batman and is determined to discover his parents killer. During this time Alfred has revealed his true identity to Bruce and starts training him in military fighting styles. The two butt heads over how to deal with criminals with Bruce believing in not using guns and causing death, whilst Alfred feels the best cure for Gotham is to cut the poison out permanently.

This then leads us nicely to part two, Modern/now time Batman. With Alfred's training and guidance an early twenties/mid-twenties Bruce has now adopted the Batman persona. Batman is now hunting down the criminals of the city, to find answers over his parents death. Bruce isn't the only one changed by the death of parents, Gotham is now a changed place. Under Cobblepots leadership the city has fallen to the criminal organizations and the government run institutions like police, judges etc. are just as bad as the mob. It's now that we also get to meet the real characters of Batman Earth One so let us look at each of the main characters:

Batman

Batman of this timeline didn't travel the globe training with combat masters, league of shadows or even learning basic cop skills. His only tutor for fighting skills was Alfred Pennyworth which leaves us with a barely competent Batman. What we come to see from this tale is a Batman who relies way too much on luck and others to save his life and avenge the death of his parents.