There have been plenty of “Year One” stories inside of the Batman universe, but Tom King and Phil Hester will collaborate on a new “Year One” story, not about a person, but a place, in what is being called the “definitive origin of Gotham City” in October’s Gotham City: Year One.
The six-issue mini-series takes place two generations before Batman gets on the scene and stars private investigator Slam Bradley (a Golden Age character originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster a year before Superman arrived from Krypton). Bradley quickly gets embroiled in the “kidnapping of the century” involving an infant Wayne heir.
King is excited to get to “… add something large and essential to the mythos of the Dark Knight, as Scott (Snyder) did with Court of Owls or Grant (Morrison) did with the introduction of Damian or Frank (Miller) did with, well, everything he touched. In Gotham City Year One, Phil and I will take you to a noir drenched past, where the secrets that made Gotham become Gotham, the sins that made Batman become Batman are finally and violently revealed.”
Hester says that “Tom has crafted a story that will echo across Batman lore past and present…” and is also excited about “…giving one of DC’s oldest legends the white-hot spotlight he deserves.”
Gotham City: Year One by King, Hester, Eric Gapstur, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles will debut on October 4 with a main cover by Hester, a variant cover by Ryan Sook, and a 1:25 variant cover by David Marquez.
Check out Hester’s cover and a preview page below, and get ready to learn about the seedy history of Gotham in October.
