Ultimate Batman
With the success of Superman Earth One, it was inevitable that Batman would also get the Earth One treatment too. Batman Earth One does the Dark Knight justice in this original telling of Batman's origin story. As Batman tries to uncover why his parents were murdered, he discovers a conspiracy to kill Thomas Wayne that involves the Penguin. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank deliver a great and impressive retelling of Batman's origin story. Batman Earth One is a great read from its compelling story, characters, and artwork.
Story
Batman Earth One is a great retelling of Batman's origin story. It bears similarities with Frank Millar's Batman Year One. The premise of Batman Earth One is that Batman's parents are murdered while Thomas Wayne is running for Mayor. Thomas Wayne's death makes Oswald Cobblepot the de facto mayor/ Batman looks for leads to his parents' death by interrogating someone who has Batman's dad's liter the Batman gave to his dad. Which ends up leading him to Arkham Asylum where he meats Birthday Boy. Meanwhile, Harvey Bullock is hired by the Gotham City Police Department to be James Gordon's partner. While being Gordon's partner Bullock also investigates the killing of the Waynes, which leads to the Penguin having Birthday Boy kidnap Barbara Gordon. When Gordon and Bullock go to Arkham Asylum to save Barbara they meat Batman and team up to save Barbara and stop the Birthday Boy. The overall feel of this is dark and gritty like Batman stories should though a character is named Birthday Boy does sound out of place. However, the character is an actual disturbing character. I like how Thomas and Martha Wayne's deaths are more than just a random mugging, it was a deliberate hit organized by Oswald Cobblepot so he'd win the mayoral race. It adds importance to the Waynes in Gotham. I also love the Riddler tease at the end, which later Earth One stories would duplicate like Superman Earth One 2's Lex Luthor tease.
Characters
Geoff Johns does a masterful job with creating new versions of iconic characters in Batman Earth One. Bruce Wayne is depicted as an orphaned child who was forever traumatized by the deaths of his parents. Bruce's love for his parents even drives him to do anything to defend his parents' honor, he even attacked Harvey Dent when Harvey insulted his mother when Harvey and Bruce were teens. As an adult, Bruce becomes Batman to solve the unsolved death of his parents and bring the person or people responsible to justice. He first decides to interrogate Jacob Weaver because he suspects Weaver knows something about the Wayne murders. He then goes on to save Barbara Gordon and stop Birthday Boy, after that Batman accepts his role as Gotham's protector. He depicted as being clumsy at the beginning and even crashes the mayor's party by accident. However, Batman does get better and he even defeats Birthday Boy even though Birthday Boy is much bigger and stronger than Batman. Batman is also shown to have very adequate detective sills, like noticing the dust at the scene of Jacob Weaver's murder came from Arkham Asylum. Bruce Wayne isn't much of a billionaire playboy in this graphic novel. He attends Mayor Cobblepot's party only to hunt for Jacob Weaver, and he was a jerk to Harvey Bullock. Penguin or Mayor Cobblepot is the main antagonist in the graphic novel. Like Batman, the Penguin is depicted as being an eccentric billionaire who uses his money to hide who he really is, which is a common characteristic of the Penguin and he has the trick umbrellas. Oswald Cobblepot was Thomas Wayne's mayoral opponent and was bound to lose until the Penguin hires Joe Chill to kill Thomas Wayne making him the de facto mayor. The Penguin also does everything he can to cover up his involvement in the Wayne murders by having Birthday Boy kill anyone who knows anything about the murders or investigating the murders. Which brings me to Birthday Boy, he is the Penguin's hitman who the Penguin hires to kill anyone he feels is a threat to his power. Birthday Boy is an original character created for the purposes of this graphic novel, his real name is Rey Salinger. He is depicted as being a deranged murderous psychopath obsessed with his first victim. He delivers his victims a birthday cake before killing them. Birthday Boy hides out in Arkham Asylum where he keeps his victims buried in the basement. He is the most disturbing character in the story and that adds to the darkness and grittiness needed in a Batman story. Alfred Pennyworth is the Wayne family butler and the very person who raised Bruce Wayne following the death of his parents. Alfred also trained Bruce to be Batman using the skills he learned while he served in the British military. He is also Bruce Wayne's moral council and advice Bruce on how to go about his journey. At first, Alfred tries to talk Bruce out of because he thinks Batman is reckless but then decides to help Bruce become a better Batman. He even kills Penguin to save Batman. James Gordon is depicted as the grumpy cop who has to teach his new hotheaded partner, Harvey Bullock, about being a real cop. This is actually a reversal of Gordon's role in Batman Year One because in Year One Gordon was the recruit and Arnold Flass was the mentor. Gordon is depicted as once trying to fight the corruption in the GCPD and Gotham City as a whole, but he stops when his wife is killed and it makes him accept Gotham's corruption. Gordon is very protective of his daughter Barbara and wants to keep her safe. Batman convinces Gordon that he can still fight Gotham's corruption and that causes Gordon to transform the GCPD. Harvey Bullock is new to the GCPD after his show Hollywood Detectives was canceled. Bullock is not the fat cop who hates Batman and in fact, he's not even fat in this graphic novel. In fact, Bullock helps Batman fight the Birthday Boy and save Barabra. Bullock is more optimistic than Gordon and he even tries to arrest criminals under the mayor's protection without knowing that Cobblepot was protecting some criminals. Bullock is also foolish and even gets Gordon in trouble by checking out files on the Wayne case under Gordon's name which is why Barbara was kidnapped in the first place. Thomas and Martha Wayne were barely in the story the mostly served the purpose of establishing Batman's origin. They both loved Bruce very much and even spoiled him. Thomas Wayne is also depicted as being the guy who runs for mayor to fix his city. Barbara Gordon has a small role too, she is depicted as being the loving daughter who is there for her dad. After Batman saves Barabara from Birthday Boy that inspires her to become Batgirl. Lucius Fox is the Wayne Industries tech manager and makes gadgets for Batman. Fox creates the grapnel gun and Batarangs for Batman. Lucius is actually much younger than in this universe than he is in the main DC universe. Jessica and Harvey Dent make cameo appearances, Jessica is an ex-girlfriend of Bruce's and Harvey was her overprotective brother. Axe is a minor character, he is a criminal under Mayor Cobblepot's protection until James Gordon has had enough and decides to arrest Axe. This shows Geoff Johns' ability to create a compelling cast of characters in a Batman story.
Artwork
Batman Earth One wouldn't be a complete graphic novel without its amazing artwork. Gary Frank's artwork makes Batman Earth One a blast to read. Batman and the Penguin look just like they normally do. Batman's costume changes through the graphic novel largely to indicate that he's becoming a better Batman which is neat. Batman's first costume looks like light body armor and that it was custom made by a wannabe Batman. He even wars generic black military boot. His second costume looks just like the Batman Incorporated Batsuit with a black utility belt. Also, the Batman emblem is part of the cape, which is another difference between it and the Batman Inc. costume. Penguin doesn't wear a top hat in this book. James Gordon looks just like Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon, and Alfred looks a lot like Sam Elliot. Alfred has a prosthetic leg in the novel indicating that he lost his actual leg while he was in the service. Harvey Bullock looks more like Harvey Dent typically looks than Harvey Bullock. Bullock is typically fat. Birthday Boy looks like the Punisher villain the Russian except he wears a brown mask with a birthday hat on his head, whereas the Russian didn't wear a mask at all let alone a birthday hat. The spectacular artwork only complemented the well-written story.
In conclusion, Batman Earth One is one of the greatest Batman stories ever written. From its amazing narrative to its wonderful cast of characters and paired with beautiful artwork, this is truly a brilliant Batman story. Superman Earth One may have set DC's Earth-One of to an amazing start, but Batman Earth One raised the bar higher than Superman Earth One. This is a must-read for fans of the Dark Knight.
