80 years old and not a ride! Batman, one of the most popular superheroes since its inception in 1939, is celebrated around the world as it enters its eighth decade. In Paris, a giant mask adorns the entrance of Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Elysees, where a dedicated stand is installed until Sunday. In contrast, the "yellow vests" were right superhero since the "Bat-signal" that was to be projected on the facade of the building Saturday night was canceled for security reasons.
So Batman, we know him especially thanks to the films of Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher and Christopher Nolan. Except that the best stories of the Black Knight were not told on the big screen but in the small boxes of comics, American comics. A genre not easy for neophytes as the superheroes are reinvented permanently, without any numbering adventures. To help you find your way around, we have selected three essential Batman comics, to be read in order of preference.
Year One , where everything has started
Year One is the ideal comic to enter the world of Batman since it tells its beginnings. In 1986, when comics sell less, DC Comics, the editor of Batman, decides to start from scratch and entrusts the task of rewriting the history of the Black Knight to Frank Miller, a young author in vogue at the time . Except that he finds the original story, that of Bob Kane and Bill Finger, perfect! It will therefore content to enrich and blacken a little, to give this image of tormented hero who still remains today that prevails in the cinema and in the collective imagination.
The story of Batman in Year One is primarily that of Bruce Wayne, son of billionaire Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha. One day, when leaving a cinema, the couple is shot by a thief. Bruce, who is only 8 years old, is helpless to the murder of his parents. The orphan inherited the family fortune, colossal, but grew haunted by this crime. By his majority, he exiles to harden his body and his mind. He is learning to fight. His goal: to fight the crime that gangrene the city of Gotham. To inspire fear to his enemies, he makes a high-tech suit inspired by bats. So is born the Batman ...
If Year One remains a classic, it's because Frank Miller is more interested in Batman's faults than his strengths. We see a superhero who gropes, who questions the violence of his actions. This may seem surprising given his image of lonely vigilante but Batman never kills anyone. It gladly amoks thugs but it always retains the last moment, including the worst psychopaths. These doubts, we observe in Year One through the eyes of Jim Gordon, a young police officer and idealistic integrity. First hostile to Batman, he will eventually become his most valuable ally.
And then Year One , it's mostly an excellent comic, with an effective story, told in just 100 pages. The drawings of David Mazzuchelli brought at the time a touch of modernity. He drew heavily on Edward Hopper's urban paintings ( Nighthawks in particular) to deliver a dark vision of Gotham and his hero. In short, Year One is a must.
Silence , 200% Batman
Now that you're familiar with Gotham's dark alleys and the Black Knight's pursuit of justice, we'll tackle a bigger story, Silence . Batman is a superhero, but he's first and foremost a detective. And here we have an exciting survey, which keeps us on 300 pages! Released in 2002, Silence is a "comic-sum", which alone contains all the dramaturgy of the character.
We find a more experienced Batman, who has made many enemies over the years: Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, The Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, and the best known of all, the Joker. One after the other, they reappear to challenge him. But in the shadows, a man pulls the strings and aims Bruce Wayne. Shoved as rarely, Batman will have to call on his allies - Robin, Jim Gordon, Catwoman, Superman - to solve this very personal mystery.
The script of Silence , signed Jeph Loeb, is very well put together, with theatrics, lots of action but also very moving moments. And it is sublimated by the drawings of Jim Lee. It's rich, colorful, extremely detailed. Just wonderful ! Still, Silence has never been adapted into films and it's a shame. An animated film that has just been released makes it possible to fill this gap.
The Dark Knight Returns , the last round of Batmobile
The Dark Knight Returns is THE top of Frank Miller's work. It is this comic, published in early 1986, that convinced DC to let this author not even thirty years to take the hero from the beginning in Year One . But this time, Miller tells the latest Batman investigation. Bruce Wayne is now 55 years old. His body is broken. Above all, he put Batman's suit in the closet for 10 years, traumatized by the death of his sidekick Robin, killed by the Joker. Batman at the end of the roll, an astonishing departure postulate that has largely inspired Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises , the third film in his trilogy on Batman.
The Dark Knight Returns opens with this retired Batman. But in his absence, the criminals flourished. The "mutants", a gang of degenerates, puts Gotham to fire and blood. More to save himself than to save his city, the bat man will have to leave his Bat-cave one last time. A final mission that will finally confront him with his enemy of all time, the Joker, but also his old friend Superman (who does not grow old).
This comic, which Frank Miller wrote and drew alone, offers fans the best-written Batman story. We are taken to the guts by this very black version of the superhero, disillusioned, damaged by time but still standing. It is here that we see how Batman is a character apart, both monolithic as a symbol of justice and terribly fallible as a human being. And it is this duality that makes 80 years later, Batman remains the most exciting superhero.