![]() ![]() Two police officers shoot and take him in their squad car, but a dazed and bleeding Bruce breaks his handcuffs and causes a crash, dragging the police to a safe distance before fleeing. He is reluctantly drawn into a brawl with her violent pimp and is attacked by several prostitutes, including dominatrix Selina Kyle. On a surveillance mission to the seedy East End, a disguised Bruce is propositioned by teenaged prostitute Holly Robinson. Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violence of Gotham City, with Gordon witnessing his partner Detective Arnold John Flass assaulting a teen for fun. ![]() Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City at the age of twenty-five from training abroad in martial arts, manhunting, and science for the past 12 years, and James Gordon moves to Gotham with his wife, Barbara, after a transfer from Chicago. It's not only one of the most important comics ever written, it's also among the best.Episode Description: The story recounts the beginning of Bruce Wayne's career as Batman and Jim Gordon's with the Gotham City Police Department. You know that saying, "If you read just one book, this is the one to read"? Well, that applies to Batman: Year One. It's nice to see someone appreciated Year One enough to spawn two brilliant stories in its honor. Year One was a clear influence for Jeph Loeb's Long Halloween and Dark Victory as the inspiration for some of Loeb's stories can be seen here. The power of Gordon's knowledge over the years hold much more significance than the ignorance portrayed in later years. If nothing else, his wife (whom Gordon brought with him when he interrogated Wayne about possibly being the Baman) got two good looks at Bruce in action. Many have interpreted Gordon's line, "You know, I'm practically blind without my glasses," to indicate that he couldn't actually tell who the savior was. After an unmasked Bruce Wayne saves the life of Gordon's newborn son, the future Commissioner gets a long hard look at the Batman. Miller offers some rather heavy hints that Gordon knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. Selina Kyle is no longer a reformed whore, Gordon has never again shown that he can actually kick some ass and Batman is hardly human any longer. What's shocking, reading Year One so many years later, is how little of this story actually has stayed in continuity. Mixed together, they make for a incredible exploration of the Batman mythos. Batman's tale is more of the transformation from man to myth, of how the harshness of Gotham forced Bruce Wayne to put on a bat costume. Gordon's journey is used to illustrate the corruption in Gotham, of the grime and darkness as viewed from the man on the streets. This is a story of how that relationship was forged, of how two men came to the dirtiest, crummiest city in America with the hope of doing some good. It isn't until the very end that Gordon and Batman see eye-to-eye. The path of Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon begin far apart, but over the course of the four-issue story, the two paths come together. I imagine Miller watched Serpico before writing Year One, as the journey of these two cops trying to clean up their departments is remarkably similar in some respects. The commissioner is owned by the mob, most of the police are too. At the time, Gotham is a mess of corruption. Bruce Wayne's return to Gotham parallels Jim Gordon's arrival from Chicago. ![]()
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