Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me.
Today, reader Bob Garlen wrote in and wanted to share some exhaustive research he did into Batman's age during Frank Miller's various Batman comic book stories and Bob did such a fine job that I am more than willing to share it with you all. Here's Bob!
Recently, I have been re-reading Frank Miller Dark Knight Series (including All Star Batman and Robin) and I’ve been curious about Batman’s age through out the series. In the comics his age has been a pretty big question and I recently decided to take Frank Miller’s Batman works and decipher his age. I started with the few basics from Year One and The Dark Knight Returns and it led me down a weird rabbit hole where I ended up working on the ages of several Batman Characters in relation to Frank Miller’s works. Unfortunately, not every single answer I needed was available from the six Frank Miller written Books I’ve been looking at, and I had to use information detailed out by the post crisis canon. To fill in certain gaps I researched post crisis canon, since Batman Year One was written as the official Post Crisis Batman Origin.
In this you will see diligent detective work with specific sources listed, I’m not an expert on APA citation so I’ll refer to them in text directly.
To begin I’m going to start with the first two Frank Miller Batman stories “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” (DKR) and “Batman: Year One” (BY1). In BY1 it’s establishes several key bits of information:
- Bruce is 25 Years Old returning to Gotham City In January.
- Bruce studied abroad for 12 Years.
- Bruce has Waited 18 Years to become Batman. (Established in the opening Page of BY1 Issues 2)
It’s important to note that in the comic books, according to the DC Calendar 1976 Bruce Wayne’s Birthday is Listed as February 19th. Adding 1 final additional detail from Year One
- Bruce Wayne was 26 Years Old when he became The Batman.
The Next round of information that assist my look into the ages of Frank Miller’s Batman characters comes DKR, where we learns 3 things:
-It’s stated that the series is set 40 Years after Bruce’s Parents were murdered.
-Bruce has been retired from Batman for 10 Years.
- James Gordon is retiring from GCPD at Age 70.
This reveals that during the events of the series that Bruce Wayne was 48 and he retired at age 38 because of the death of Jason Todd. This also reveals that during the events of BY1 James Gordon was 47/48. These key bits of information get things started. After discovering his age in Frank Miller’s First Two Batman stories, I wondered as to what Bruce Wayne’s age was in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (ASB). Discovering his age in ASB was by far the biggest challenge, but I did get a decent piece of information to start:
-Dick Grayson is 12 Years Old when he becomes Robin.
While this is something that certainly helps, it doesn’t tell me enough. I began digging into Another piece of information at the same time, as I felt this was vital to discovering his age in ASB. I began looking up information on Jason Todd, as I knew at Jason Todd’s Death Bruce was 38 (Actually turning 38 in “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – The Last Crusade” (BLC). I felt if could build a comprehensive timeline for Jason Todd’s time with Batman I could also get a comprehensive timeline for Dick Grayson’s time with Batman and thus reveal his age during ASB.
To get to this I looked up Jason Todd’s death, looking for any clues from “Batman: A Death in the Family” (BDF) but found little to no information that assisted me. The reason I looked into the age of Jason Todd in BDF was to give a parallel to what his age would have been in BLC. It wasn’t until reading on a DC Wiki there was actually a death certificate with an age. I looked up the death certificate for Jason Todd discovering that he died at Age 15, on April 27th. The Date of April 27th was provided by Batman Annual #25, released in 2006. In “Batman #413” were in the letter pages it’s established Jason Todd became Robin at 12 Years old.
This revealed that Jason Todd’s tenure as Robin lasted roughly 3-to-3 ½ years. This is certified as Detective Comics #790 it’s revealed Jason’s Birthday is August 16th. The next major piece of information is discovered way into the Future of “Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again” (DKS) where, in confrontation with Dick Grayson, Batman reveals he fired him for incompetence. What makes this information important is that in “Batman #408” where we meet Post Crisis Jason Todd, we also see Batman fire 19-year-old Dick Grayson for incompetence after Dick is shot in the shoulder by the Joker, and nearly dies. This gives the final puzzle piece.
Jason Todd is 15 when he dies as Bruce Wayne is 38. Jason’s tenure starts when Bruce was 34 years old. Dick Grayson during this time was 19 and had been active as Robin since age 12 giving his tenure as Robin to be 7 years. Bringing Bruce Wayne’s age to being 27 years old during the time of ASB making it take place only a year after BY1.
Now that the ASB age is solved and DKR age is known, to figure out the age during DKS and “Batman: The Dark Knight III: The Master Race” (DK3) becomes much simpler. Each book states that it’s only 3 years removed from the previous.
Bruce Wayne’s age in DKS is 51, while in DK3 he is 54. All together this gives some specific information to work off of if looking at other characters. It’s easy to establish that Commissioner Gordon is only 22 Years Older than Bruce. ASB also gives us Barbara Gordon’s age, establishing her as 15, thereby making her 14 during BY1 (Why she’s nowhere in BY1 is beyond me, but the theory I would have is Jim Gordon waited until he felt it was safe to bring her to Gotham and that she stayed with relatives in Chicago.)
Even learning Barbara’s age the math becomes pretty simple. The age difference between her and Bruce is only 12 years. This allows me to establish her age for specific story points in the Frank Miller Batman Canon. The last character of age I could discover is Carrie Kelley, tried as I might I just couldn’t find anything to suggest Alfred’s age and could only come up with vague guesses but with Carrie there seems to be some specifics to her age.
In DKS Carrie gives her age as 16 and considering DKR is set 3 years earlier means she was 13 during Batman’s return and in DK3 she is 19. This gives specific ages for a comprehensive timeline of Frank Miller’s Batman series. Going based off key events, the ages of the characters go as follows:
The Death of Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne:
Bruce Wayne – 8 Years Old
James Gordon – 30 Years Old
Bruce’s Time Abroad (12 Years Abroad):
Bruce Wayne – 13 – 25 Years Old
James Gordon – 35 – 47 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 2 – 14 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 0 – 11 Years Old
Jason Todd – 0 – 3 Years Old
Bruce Returns to Gotham and Becomes Batman (Batman Year One):
Bruce Wayne – 25 Years Old (Return) 26 Years Old (Becomes Batman)
James Gordon – 47 Years Old (Bruce’s Return) 48 Years Old (After Bruce Becomes Batman)
Barbara Gordon – 14 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 11 Years Old
Jason Todd – 3 Years Old
Bruce Adopts Dick Grayson (All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder):
Bruce Wayne – 27 Years Old
James Gordon – 49 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 15 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 12 Years Old
Jason Todd – 4 Years Old
Bruce Fires Dick Grayson, Adopts Jason Todd:
Bruce Wayne – 34 Years Old
James Gordon – 56 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 22 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 19 Years Old
Jason Todd – 12 Years Old
Jason Todd Dies, Bruce Retires (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns The Last Crusade):
Bruce Wayne – 38 Years Old
James Gordon – 60 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 26 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 23 Years Old
Jason Todd – 15 Years Old (Died before his Birthday)
Carrie Kelley – 3 Years Old
Bruce Returns as Batman, James Gordon Retires (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns):
Bruce Wayne – 48 Years Old
James Gordon – 70 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 36 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 33 Years Old
Carrie Kelley – 13 Years Old
Batman Strikes Again at Lex Luthor and Brainiac while fighting against a new Joker… Dick Grayson (Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again):
Bruce Wayne – 51 Years Old
James Gordon – 73 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 39 Years Old
Richard Grayson – 36 Years Old (Dies)
Carrie Kelley – 16 Years Old
Batman battle the Kryptonians after Ray Palmer unshrinks Kandor (Batman: The Dark Knight III – The Master Race):
Bruce Wayne – 54 Years Old
James Gordon – 76 Years Old
Barbara Gordon – 41 Years Old
Carrie Kelley – 19 Years Old
Well done, Bob!
Okay, folks, if you have any interesting comic book related story that you'd like to see me feature in a future Knowledge Waits or if you have some original scholarship like Bob here that you'd like to share (I'm not saying that I necessarily WILL share it, but if it's good like Bob's, then sure), feel free to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!