DC Redefines the Dark Knight's Origin Story in Batman: The Knight

CBR

By Jeremy Blum

Published Oct 15, 2021

Bruce Wayne's pre-Year One adventures spent traveling the world will be explored in Batman: The Knight, by Chip Zdarsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico.

The Caped Crusader will receive a new update to his origin story with Batman: The Knight, a new series that focuses on the pivotal years before Bruce Wayne became Gotham City's protector.

Written by Chip Zdarsky (Batman: Urban Legends, Daredevil) and illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico (Justice League Odyssey, The Flash), Batman: The Knight promises to explain how a young Bruce trained both his mind and body, eventually forging the skills he would put into practice when donning the Batman cape and cowl in Gotham City. Preview pages for Issue #1 of the new series show Bruce getting his hands dirty in an arena -- likely honing his fighting prowess or seeking an outlet for his anger.

"How did an angry, damaged young man grow into the most accomplished detective and crime-fighter the world has ever known?" a press release describing the series asks. "How did the Dark Knight…begin?"

According to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Year One, Bruce Wayne spent nearly 12 years abroad before returning to Gotham City to assume the role of Batman. There have been many stories outlining this period of his training, perhaps most visibly in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins film as well as the live-action Gotham television show. In recent comics, writer James Tynion IV used his run in the main Batman book to offer a glimpse of Bruce's friendships abroad, detailing how the man who would become Batman trained with a fellow vigilante now known as Ghost-Maker.

In the '80s and '90s, Batman group editor Denny O'Neil famously dived into Bruce's overseas travels in tales like "The Man Who Falls," originally published in the 1989 trade paperback Secret Origins of the World's Greatest Super-Heroes, and "Shaman," from Issues #1-5 of the first volume of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. Both tales featured Bruce studying in a variety of different countries. These included North Korea, where he learned martial arts from Master Kirigi -- who would later go on to train members of Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins -- and France, where he learned the art of manhunting from Henri Ducard, who made a notable appearance in Batman Begins, played by Liam Neeson. "Shaman" also delved into Bruce's experience among indigenous people in Alaska, where he was inspired by Native American legends about bats.

Batman: The Knight #1, by Zdarsky and Di Giandomenico with variant covers by Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion and Gerald Parel, goes on sale Jan. 18, 2022 from DC.