If anyone were to pick up on a divisive aspect of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman, it would probably be Zero Year.
The duo fashioned a new origin not just for Batman, but for the modern day Gotham too. It was fairly controversial, and one of the biggest sticking points proved to be the introduction of a new Red Hood Gang, which of course came with a new origin for the Clown Prince of Crime.
The basic structure of the new gang was that each Red Hood received a numerical designation, with Red Hood One the leader. When Batman first emerges as a crimefighter, he shows an instant attraction to the character not unlike the Joker. At the same time, this version of the Red Hood is also drawn towards Bruce Wayne, and it was very much clear where this was all heading.
In the end, Red Hood One takes the big green acid bath and presumably emerges on the other side as the Clown Prince we all know and fear. Or at least that's one theory. The GCPD recovers the body of one Liam Distal from the water after the Red Hood falls into the vat, but it remains unclear as to what exactly happened, and who out of the gang really went on to become the Joker.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
