Revisit Bruce Wayne's earliest adventures with new DC Black Label series The Bat-Man: First Knight
Nov. 17, 2023The series is written by The Death of Superman writer Dan Jurgens
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Dan Jurgens, the writer behindThe Death of Superman- not to mention the creator of great characters like Jon Kent,DoomsdayandBooster Gold- is uniting with artist Mike Perkins for The Bat-Man: First Knight. The new DC Black Label comic is a modern retelling of some of the Caped Crusader’s earliest adventures.
DC’s synopsis for the series reads:
“The year is 1939. The world, still reeling from the horrors of the First World War, is on the brink of tipping into an even more gruesome conflict, as fascism is on the march - and gathering strength in America’s darkest corners. Against this backdrop, a series of violent murders has begun in Gotham, and the recent emergence of the mysterious vigilante known as The Bat-Man has the power brokers of the city living in fear of institutional collapse. All of the evidence in the murder investigation defies logic: the perpetrators are all men who died in the electric chair. But when the Bat-Man comes face to face with one of these sickening anomalies, he barely escapes with his life - throwing into question his ability to survive in a world that is brutally evolving around him!”
You can check out a gallery of unlettered pages from the first book below, which showcase Perkins gorgeously atmospheric art style, as Batman cuts through a rain-lashed Gotham city.
Also freshly announced by DC is The Joker: Year One, a new three-part story that will be taking place across the headline Batman book in February. Running across Batman #142 to #144, which will be published weekly, the story promises to reveal “the terrible secret” behindBruce Wayne’s greatest enemy.
The story picks up in the aftermath of the current ‘Mindbomb’ arc, which sees Bruce Wayne battling his extremeBatman of Zur-En-Arrhpersona. It’s written by Chip Zdarsky with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi, Andrea Sorrentino, Alejandro Sánchez and Dave Stewart.
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You can check out the covers for the new issues below.
The Caped Crusader is DC’s biggest character and the star of some incredible adventures. These arethe best Batman stories of all time.
Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.
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