As I was reading through the BOF FORUM recently, one of the members started a very interesting discussion thread about BATMAN #1 [see link provided -- Jett]. This comic book, which hit newsstands back in the Spring of 1940, featured five stories: “The Legend of The Batman" (a reprint), “The Joker,” “Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters,” “The Cat,” and “The Joker Returns.”

Think about it: this one comic spawned The Joker -- perhaps the greatest comic book villain of all time -- and Catwoman. It also featured a story -- "Dr. Hugo Strange and the Monsters" -- that was the inspiration for Matt Wagner's recent BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN. It's also rather significant because Batman was given his own comic book about a year after his premiere in DETECTIVE #27. Obviously, BATMAN #1 is very important historically -- and it’s also worth a bundle!

Since “The Joker” and “The Joker Returns” are said to be being used by Christopher Nolan and company as an influence on The Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT, I thought it’d be cool to take a look back at BATMAN #1 and “review” each of the five stories.

“THE LEGEND OF THE BATMAN - Who He Is And How He Came To Be”

Two pages, twelve panels.

That’s all it took to give The Batman one of the most famous origins in comic book history.

The first story in BATMAN #1 was actually a reprint [And re-colored when you compare the two -- Jett] of a story featured in DETECTIVE #33. It finally gave readers and fans of “The Bat-Man” answers about Bruce Wayne’s past and how he became The Dark Knight. Written by Bill Finger with pencils by Bob Kane and inks by Sheldon Moldoff, the story informs readers that as a young child, Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered in front of him during a botched robbery. A few days later, the young Bruce Wayne makes a pledge to “…avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals.”

To carry out the vow that he had made, Bruce Wayne “becomes a master scientist” and “trains his body to physical perfection.” Thomas Wayne’s estate has left him wealthy, but still, his plan seems incomplete. He decides that he needs a disguise...

Just as Bruce utters the above words, a bat flies through the window of Wayne Manor. Bruce takes it as an omen. “A Bat! That’s it…I shall become A BAT!”

"I shall become A BAT!" - DETECTIVE COMICS #33 (November, 1939) and reprinted in BATMAN #1
© DC COMICS

The story is both dated and fresh at the same time. Of course the artwork and even the writing is primitive -- we’re talking about something that’s 67 years old -- but it is still quite powerful to this day. Imagine the pain one must have within after seeing your parents shot and killed -- a pain so powerful that it creates this dark, justice-seeking alter ego.

I wonder if Kane and Finger realized what they had created with they put together this story? Seriously, the beginning of The Batman is one of the greatest and most famous stories in comics. Hell, maybe even in all of American literature.

Great stuff -- even today.

NEXT: “THE JOKER”