DC Comics announced today via the AP that superstar writer and artist duo Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo would continue their bestselling run on Batman with a look back at the Dark Knight’s origins in an 11-issue series titled “The Zero Year”.
Set to begin this June, Snyder confirmed that he and Capullo would be revisiting the formative years of Bruce Wayne:
“It’s not ‘let’s redo the origin,’” he said “It’s time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52.”
“We tried to preserve as much of Batman’s history as we could and keep what we could of this history intact,” Snyder said of the change. “It’s ‘The Zero Year,’ the one that no one has told the story of before. We see how Bruce became the Batman, built the cave, faced off with his first super villain.”
Snyder and Capullo have had enormous critical and commercial success with their run on Batman in DC’s New 52 relaunch with “The Court of Owls”, “The Night of Owls”, and the forthcoming finale “The City of Owls”, as well as the recent return of the Joker in “Death of the Family”.
But as most Batman fans will know, Bruce Wayne’s origins have already been definitively written in Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s “Year One”. “We’re not going to take apart ‘Year One,’” said Snyder. “It’s time for a new story showing how Batman became who he is in the New 52. It builds up the mythology.”
Conspicuously absent was any mention of the villain Batman will face. With Snyder having already written stories featuring James Gordon Jr, the Joker, and his own creations the Court of Owls, the position for a classic Batman rogue is wide open. Who do you think should feature in “The Zero Year”?
We are currently seeking Batman contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Batman contributor, click here.
3 Comments
I think they’d be better off writing a completely new origin story that borrows from Year One instead of trying to retcon a story in around it. In fact, I’d say that reconning around Year One does more to “take apart” the story than simply replacing it.
Lots of great stories exist outside of canon, and I wouldn’t really have a problem with Year One being pushed out of continuity because of The New 52. Origin stories get updated and replaced. That’s comics.
A retcon of Year One would feel like a waste of money to me. It will be interesting to see where Snyder goes with this.
I assume Issue 0 was the initiation of the “Zero Year” storyline. It was a great issue that only marginally resembles the Year One storyline and it bares the “To be continued in 2013″ tagline at the end, so I assume that’s where it’s headed to.
It’ll be nice to see where Snyder takes the story with 11 issues at his disposal.