I’m super excited to share site contributor Martín Lel’s amazing new video “An Exhaustive Look at the Current Batman Chronology,” which is a two-and-a-half-hour documentary version of Batman’s Rebirth/Infinite Frontier timeline lifted straight from the webpages of my Batman Chronology Project.
Martín has put each year of the Batman Chronology Project’s Rebirth/Infinite Frontier timeline (from Bruce’s birth through to his death) into a straightforward, easy to digest narrative. The video is a tremendous culmination of both Martín’s and my work, and I commend him highly for it, especially the personal flair and touches he’s added. While you never get as many nitty gritty details or scholarly analysis with video, seeing my website adapted into video format does give a certain type of depth that just can’t be attained via a text-based chronological list. After watching through for the first time, I told Martín that his video feels like Chris Tolworthy’s “Fantastic Four as the Great American Novel” theory but applied to Batman. The feature length video not only fleshes out Batman’s overarching story with a pleasing kaleidoscope of expertly edited comic book images, but its narration also highlights several important things that might get missed when one is eyeball-scanning through a long text-based timeline. First, it really impresses upon the viewer exactly how Batman’s trials and tribulations build and connect to each other over long periods of time. Second, it shows how Batman reacts to trauma, learns, grows, occasionally regresses, rebounds, and is generally shaped—again over long periods of time. Third, it shows how Batman’s family is at the heart of his every motivation—and not just the infamous deaths of his parents, but also his very own role as loving father to a handful of kids. As Martín told me, “I 100% believe all of Batman’s history can be read as one big character arc,” and this surely resonates in the video. In short, it’s damn cool to see the Batman Chronology Project play out in this manner.
Please tell us what you think by leaving a comment here and on YouTube. Thanks!
Recently, longtime project supporter and contributor Troy Doliner, as part of a Patreon request, posited the questions: “What are your favorite Earth-1 stories (from the Silver/Bronze Age)? And what are your favorite Earth-2 stories (from the Golden Age and Silver/Bronze Age)?” Thanks, Troy!
As I thought about these questions—the more challenging they became. Because the Golden Age and Silver/Bronze Age were written mostly single issue to single issue (as opposed to arc to arc, or later trade to trade), it’s quite a difficult task to list out favorite stories compared to doing so with later continuities. That’s not to say I don’t love the continuities of old. In fact, because so much of contemporary continuity is modeled directly off of these old stories, I really love a lot of the old stuff, sometimes much more than the newer stuff.
It’s hard for me run through my memory banks to list out dozens of single stories, some of which I haven’t read in a very long time, but what I can do much more definitively is list my favorite writers of yesteryear (keeping a Batman focus), along with a few suggested examples of their work.
In my humble opinion, in regard to Earth-1 stories, Denny O’Neil is the greatest Batman writer of all time. (When I think of the Silver/Bronze Age, Jack Kirby is my #1 guy overall, but he didn’t work on very much Batman, so that’s the only reason he’s not listed below.) Unlike most writers today (who are obsessed with the deconstruction of the superhero genre and often write fascistic power fantasies), O’Neil always understood what a superhero was supposed to represent—helping the little guy and trying to make a positive impact on the world, above all else. Here’s my list of favorite Earth-1 storytellers (in order) along with a random couple favorite tales of theirs to boot.
1. Denny O’Neil – Batman #237, Justice League of America #71-75, Justice League of America #72-75, Justice League of America #82, Detective Comics #483, Batman #232-244 (“The Saga of Ra’s al Ghul”), Batman #251 (“Joker’s Five Way Revenge”) 2. Len Wein – Justice League of America #103, Batman #312-314, Batman #323 3. Doug Moench – World’s Finest Comics #289, Batman #360-400 and Detective Comics #527-566 (his final epic Bat-run to close out the era) 4. Cary Bates – Justice League of America #123-124, his entire Flash run 5. Elliot S! Maggin – Justice League of America #123-124, Action Comics #440 6. Gerry Conway – Batman Family #17, Justice League of America #125-134, Justice League of America #153, Justice League of America #183-185 7. Marty Pasko – Wonder Woman #221-222, Justice League #147-148 8. Bob Haney – Brave and the Bold #54, Teen Titans #1, The Brave and The Bold #79, The Brave and The Bold #83, The Brave and The Bold #94, The Brave and The Bold #98, The Brave and The Bold #115, World’s Finest Comics #239, World’s Finest Comics #255 9. Gardner Fox – Batman #171, Justice League of America #9, Brave and the Bold #28-30, Justice League of America #1-70 (the first few years of JLofA are not only fun but highly influential), Detective Comics #359, “Flash of Two Worlds” 10. Marv Wolfman – Batman #332-225 (“The Lazarus Affair”), New Teen Titans #1-4, Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #1 (“The Judas Contract”), Tales of the Teen Titans #50 11. Bob Rozakis – DC Super-Stars #10, Batman Family #11 12. Steve Englehart – Detective Comics #439, Justice League of America #140-149, Detective Comics #469–476 (the famous “Strange Apparitions”/”Dark Detective” run is just okay, getting way overhyped, but it’s definitely worth reading and highly influential) X. Harlan Ellison – Special runner up, specifically for the brilliant Detective Comics #567
In terms of Earth-2 Batman stories, where would we be without the fantastic Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Edmond Hamilton, or Don Cameron? And the art contributions by Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, and Sheldon Moldoff are big enough they should/could really be considered writing contributions too. In the Bronze Age, though, O’Neil and Paul Levitz (and others) were writing excellent Earth-2 material as well. Admittedly, O’Neil’s contributions to Earth-2 mostly come in the form of JSA/JLSA crossovers. (This is true of a lot of the other names mentioned above on the Earth-1 list that also make it down here.) Here are my favorite creators for Earth-2 Batman tales (and a few suggested examples of their works).
1. Denny O’Neil – Justice League of America #72-75, Justice League of America #82 2. Bill Finger (along with Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Sheldon Moldoff, Curt Swan, and yeah I guess Bob Kane too) – Detective Comics #27 w/ Kane, Batman #1 w/ Kane & Moldoff, WFC #3 w/ Kane & Robinson, Batman #11 w/ Kane & Robinson, WFC #11 w/ Robinson, WFC #75 w/ Swan 3. Don Cameron (along with Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang) – Batman #12 w/ Robinson, Batman #14 w/ Robinson, Detective Comics #74 w/ Kane & Robinson, Batman #19 Part 2 w/ Sprang, Detective Comics #83, Detective Comics #109, Batman #46 Part 1 w/ Sprang 4. Roy Thomas – All-Star Squadron #1-4, All-Star Squadron #25-37, Secret Origins Vol. 2 #1, Secret Origins Vol. 2 #6 5. Gardner Fox – “The Mad Monk,” all Earth-2 crossovers with JSA/JLA, “Flash of Two Worlds” 6. Edmond Hamilton (along with Jerry Robinson and Dick Sprang) – Batman #11 Part 3 w/ Kane & Robinson, Detective Comics #91 w/ Sprang, Detective Comics #215 w/ Moldoff, World’s Finest Comics #91 w/ Sprang 7. Paul Levitz – DC Special #29, DC Super Stars #17, Adventure Comics #461-462 8-12. Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, Gerry Conway, Marty Pasko, and Steve Englehart – A lot of really great Earth-1/Earth-2 crossover JLA/JSA stories.
So, yes, Denny O’Neil is my number one favorite—the G.O.A.T!
Interestingly (and here’s where I slide into a tangent), I recently came across a fascinating series of Reddit posts by user FlyByTieDye, in which they analyze Batman comics across the years to ascertain who had the greatest impact on the character based upon number of writing and art credits. Obviously, this is a bit flawed since impact is subjective, and a writer or artists can greatly impact a character even with only one issue. Plus, I don’t think FlyByTieDye includes any Justice League titles in his analysis, which is a major oversight. In any case, though, his project does give us a general idea of who the big names are when it comes to shaping the Dark Knight.
Check out FlyByTieDye’s Golden Age analysis here. Check out their Silver Age analysis here. And check out their Bronze Age analysis here.
I think the desired result of this post was meant to be a list of essential (or at least my favorite) Earth-1 Batman stories and Earth-2 Batman stories, but clearly I’ve failed in that task, so apologies for that. Nevertheless, I hope that the stream of consciousness response above (which includes a quick list of favorite writers and some interesting links) satisfies my readership! If you are looking to read some really great Batman stories, while I haven’t provided such a list, I highly suggest checking out all the Bat-works of the writers listed above. Leave a comment below, and let me know some of your favorite stories from yesteryear!
When Bill Finger and Bob Kane debuted Batman in 1939, the titular character (joined shortly thereafter by his sidekick Robin) killed wantonly—sometimes in self-defense (i.e. indirectly or situationally), but sometimes purposefully and callously as well. Batman certainly had no qualms about using lethal force in his war against crime. As highlighted by hotstufflouieb on the DC Universe Infinite forums in 2020, Chris on ComicTropes in 2019, and multiple people on the SuperHeroHype forums in 2016, Golden Age Batman started out by committing the following murders:
–Detective Comics #27 (1939) – Batman judo flips a bad guy off of a roof and knocks Alfred Stryker into a vat of acid. (1, 2) –Detective Comics #28 (1939) – Batman kicks jewel thief Ricky off of a roof. (3) –Detective Comics #29 (1939) – Batman breaks the neck of henchman Jabah. (4) –Detective Comics #30 (1939) – Batman snaps the neck of Dr. Death’s henchman Mikhail. (5) –Detective Comics #33 (1939) – Batman blows up three of Kruger’s henchmen, tricks Kruger into killing his own henchman, blows up a couple more of Kruger’s henchman in a blimp explosion, then later causes Kruger to die in an airplane crash. (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) –Detective Comics #34 (1939) – Batman forces kidnapper Duc D’Orterre into a fatal car crash. (13) –Detective Comics #35 (1940) – Batman causes a henchman to get impaled by a sword, then knocks Sheldon Lenox out of a window. (14, 15) –Detective Comics #37 (1940) – Batman punches Count Grutt into a sword. (16) –Batman #1 Part 2 (1940) – Batman allows a couple Monster Men to kill one another, shoots a couple of Hugo Strange’s henchmen, hangs a Monster Man, kills another henchman, and knocks a Monster Man off of a building. (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23) –Detective Comics #39 (1940) – Batman pushes giant statue onto eight cultists. Earlier in the story, Batman and an assassin tumble out of a window together (with Batman landing on top of him below). It’s unclear whether or not this is a death (or even whether or not this would count toward our list), so I’ve left it off. (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32) –Batman #2 Part 2 (1940) – Batman punches crook Adam Lamb down a flight of stairs. (33) –Batman #2 Part 4 (1940) – Batman knocks Goliath the caveman off of a circus tent. (34) –Batman #3 Part 3 (1940) – Batman judo flips a bad guy off of a roof. (35)
From 1939 through mid 1940, one can total around thirty-five Bat-kills (a mix of self-defense and purposely caused deaths). Remarkably, in Detective Comics #32 by Gardner Fox (1939), Batman terminates The Monk and Dala Vadim with a gun. However, these are vampire slayings, which is why they’ve been left off the list above. (As we’ll come to learn, DC writers never regarded the destruction of the undead as legitimate murder.) Of note, Robin had been busy killing as well, with two dead by the Boy Wonder’s hand in Detective Comics #38 by Finger and Kane (1940). By mid 1940, though, Batman quickly stopped killing entirely. Robin can be seen eliminating two more people in Batman #6 by Finger and Kane (1941), but his murderous behavior more-or-less also stopped in its tracks immediately after that.
What had occurred to mark such a stark change in Batman and Robin’s attitudes? As detailed wonderfully by Alan Kistler in a 2019 Polygon article, following the instant success of Batman #1 (1940), DC publisher Jack Liebowitz and editor-in-chief Whitney Ellsworth told Batman creators Kane and Finger they not only wanted them to permanently phase out Batman toting a gun, but also Batman killing people altogether. Already regretful for having painted Batman as a killer, Finger was all for the change whereas the stubborn Kane pushed back. Nevertheless, Kane quickly acquiesced. In Batman #4 (cover date 1940, release date 1941), Kane and Finger initiated what would go on to become Batman’s very famous non-lethal code of conduct, which still lasts to this very day. At the time, all DC writers made sure that Batman strictly adhered to the new rule. Detective Comics #108 by Don Cameron and Dick Sprang (1946) and World’s Finest Comics #27 by Bill Finger and Jim Mooney (1947) both included further details about Batman’s non-lethal code, thus linking it to the character forever more.
Following the institution of Batman’s no killing ordinance in 1940/1941, Batman’s only remaining Golden Age (Earth-2) killings were all WWII related. It’s clear that Ellsworth and company made a major exception to Batman’s no killing rule for government-conscripted jobs in which he was engaged during wartime. In fact, the kill count ballooned exponentially once Batman got Nazis in his sights. Here’s the chronological list of these military-sanctioned offings.
–Detective Comics #55 (1941) – Batman throws a Nazi into a vat of molten metal and throws two other Nazis off of a blimp. (36, 37) –The Brave and The Bold #84 (1969, Earth-2 canon only) – Batman kills dozens more Nazis on behalf of the US Army. (38 to ~60?) –Batman film serial (1943) – Batman kills Axis agents on behalf of the US government. (~60 to 65?) From the conclusion of WWII onward, Earth-2 Batman’s killing days would be legitimately done. Overall, Earth-2 Batman’s Axis Power kill count is high enough that it’s hard to quantify. (He blows up bridges, planes, and ships filled with enemy soldiers. My guess is around thirty wartime kills, bringing Earth-2 Batman’s Golden Age total to around sixty to sixty-five kills.) I suggest regarding Batman’s wartime kill count with an asterisk, keeping those numbers separate from his Gotham activities.
Before we move on, we should bring up a few iffy issues from Finger. First, in Finger’s Detective Comics #47 (1941), Batman forces a blackmailer into what appears to be a fatal automobile accident. However, an editorial note that follows makes note that the blackmailer and his accomplices have been “trussed,” which implies that they’ve been captured and jailed. We can assume that no one was forced into a fatal crash by the Caped Crusader, who is thus able to uphold his no killing vow. This was the continuation of a trend that had started right out of the gate in 1939 (and one that would be present for decades to follow): Bat-killings being open to interpretation, subject to certain points of view, or undone with a retcon or a caption. For example, villains like Joker or Hugo Strange “died” at the hand of Batman time and time again only to re-appear with a revelation that they weren’t actually killed before. Second, in Finger’s Detective Comics #56 (1941), Batman knocks a strongman into a mineshaft pillar, which causes the mineshaft to collapse. The strongman and his gang are all killed. One could argue that Batman has killed five people here—albeit in self-defense. However, Finger’s narrative intention, despite being a bit sloppy, was clearly to place blame on the strongman for the mineshaft collapse. Third, Finger’s Batman #8 (cover date 1942, release date 1941) ends with Batman kicking super-villain Professor Radium to his death. However, this is misleading. Radium had already previously died and been resurrected as a radioactive undead monstrosity. Therefore, this fits into the previously mentioned undead (zombies, vampires, and other unnatural beings) category, meaning this doesn’t actually count as a kill. Our analysis of Finger tales wouldn’t be complete without addressing Batman #15 Part 3 (cover date 1943, published 1942), which a lot of internauts like to talk about since it features Batman extinguishing dozens of Axis soldiers on behalf of the US Army. However, most people miss entirely that this is an imaginary story that doesn’t actually occur. Therefore, Batman #15 Part 3 doesn’t violate the no killing decree.
Notably, 1949’s Batman and Robin (the second Batman film serial, written by George Plympton, Joseph Poland, and Royal Cole; and directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet) contains some brutal scenes featuring fatalities, but there’s a strong argument to be made that Batman doesn’t actually kill anyone (or isn’t directly responsible for causing deaths) in said scenes. Throughout the rest of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, it was fairly easy for Batman writers to stick to the no killing conviction, especially with the campy tone and lighter fare of the Golden to Silver Age transition era.
Part Two: The Silver and Bronze Age (Earth-1 Batman)
In the 1950s and 1960s, as the Silver Age split DC’s line in twain, giving retroactive birth to Earth-1 and Earth-2, the no killing rule spread across the multiverse, echoed through the actions of two separate Batmen. The elder Earth-2 Batman’s no killing code of conduct, which had begun in 1941/1942, would continue plainly, without the Dark Knight engaging in any homicidal behavior whatsoever. Earth-1 Batman’s no killing code was clearly heralded (and adhered to) as well. In terms of the Silver Age, it was first officially mentioned in World’s Finest #164 by Leo Dorfman and Curt Swan (1967). From that point onward, there would be nods toward Batman’s anti-killing MO for many years to come, with various comics giving readers important reminders of the vow every now-and-again.
As the Bronze age began in the 1970s, DC higher-ups (particularly editor Julius Schwartz) called for a much darker world for Earth-1 Batman. With the arrival of this edgier style of storytelling came an immediate contradiction between the Caped Crusader’s new grim-dark violence and his classic imperturbable restraint to kill. The no killing rule wasn’t just for the Caped Crusader in fictive Gotham City, but also for the DC bullpen churning out Bat-stories in real New York. But even the best of these writers (like Denny O’Neil, for example) struggled to find a balance. In fact, O’Neil—along with contemporaries like David Vern Reed, Bob Haney, and Mike W Barr—would write darker and darker Batman tales through the 1970s and early 1980s, increasing the violence tenfold even though Batman’s non-lethal edict was definitively still in place. This led to a handful of instances throughout the Bronze Age where Batman did sometimes kill, albeit only (usually) in self-defense. (If the increasing violence of the story demanded killing, then it had to unequivocally be done in self-defense so as to not fly too boldly in the face of the no killing rule.) Of course, very few writers, if any, were submitting stories where Batman was killing outright, meaning that most of the Bat-killings were open to reader interpretation.
The hyper-violence of the Bronze Age also brought about the first ever legitimate exceptions to Earth-1 Batman’s no killing rule. The first exception to the rule was in regard to immortals (specifically, those who have extended their lifespan by unnatural means)—as seen with the Muertos in Detective Comics #395 by O’Neil and Neal Adams (1970), with Ubu in Detective Comics #438 by Archie Goodwin and Jim Aparo (1974), with Catman in Detective Comics #509 by Gerry Conway (1981), and multiple times with Ra’s al Ghul (in various issues throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, mostly by O’Neil). The idea here was likely that, since immortals could always come back to life, it was okay to use deadly force against (or in retaliation to) them. The second exception to the rule was in regard to vampires and/or the undead (as seen throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, most notably in Batman #235 by O’Neil, Detective Comics #455 by Bernie Wrightson and Elliot S Maggin, and The Brave and The Bold #195 by Barr). The logic was clear, reflecting the very same exception dating back to the early Golden Age—vampires and the undead were already dead (evil dead, actually!), so killing them again was an acceptable form of punishment. Interestingly, despite O’Neil’s edgier storytelling, he was always one of the more progressive-minded writers at DC, always keeping the no kill rule in mind at all times (despite the handful of ostensible fatal contradictions he contributed to the mix over the years).
Now let’s get to the million dollar question at heart of this article. What are the canonical instances of Batman killing—from material published from the mid 1940s up to present day? Most folks think that it has happened very rarely (if ever), but there are actually a bunch of occurrences where Batman kills. As highlighted earlier, ComicTropes has an excellent video about all of Batman’s kills from the Golden Age into the Infinite Frontier Era, and the SuperHeroHype forums have a great discussion about this as well, but I’ll break it down for you with another easy-to-digest list below. To start, these are all the possible canonical Silver/Bronze Age (i.e. Earth-1) Bat-killings, all of which are via self-defense. Again, some—if not most—are debatable.
–“The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” (1939 but canon in Silver/Bronze Age) – Batman punches a crook into vat of chemicals. (1) –Batman #1 Part 2 (1940 but canon in Silver/Bronze Age) – Batman guns down a couple of Hugo Strange’s henchmen, hangs a Monster Man, and knocks a Monster Man off a building. (2, 3, 4, 5) –Batman #221 (1970) – Batman judo tosses an evil scientist into a pit holding a killer lamb. (6) –The Brave and The Bold #90 (1970) – Batman tosses a villain into the ocean, killing him. (7) –Batman #235 (1971) – Batman knocks a League of Assassins scientist into deadly chemicals. (8) –Batman #270 (1975) – Batman punches a crook into a statue, which crushes him to death. (9) –Batman #271 (1975) – Batman blows up about fifteen cultists. (10 to 24) –Batman #288 (1977) – Batman uses a henchman as a human shield as Penguin shoots at him. (25) –Batman #290 (1977) – Batman judo tosses Skull Duggar into an electrified power box. (26) –The Brave and The Bold #157 (1979) – Batman causes a kidnapper to crash his helicopter. (27) –The Brave and The Bold #159 (1980) – Batman tosses a League of Assassins henchman into Ra’s al Ghul’s crystal death wall. (28) –Batman #340 (1981) – Batman kills The Mole. While there’s no 100% confirmation here, we never see the Mole again (and Batman’s intent was to eradicate him). (29) –The Brave and The Bold #193 (1982) – Batman judo tosses Bloodclaw of the PLA off of a bridge. (30) In total, we have somewhere around thirty Earth-1 Bat-killings, all in self-defense. Although, as stated, some instances are vague and open to interpretation, so this list merely comprises possible killings. While not included above, The Brave and The Bold #127 by Haney (1976) is notable because it shows Batman ignore a distress call, which leads to a fatal helicopter crash. Many online sources regard this as a kill, but I lean the other way on this one. Detective Comics #517 by Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz (1982) is also notable because it shows Batman himself turn into vampire and bite someone, but it’s unclear whether or not the victim dies (or whether this even would be considered a self-defense scenario in the first place). Likewise, Batman Annual #9 Part 2 by Barr (1985) appears to contain a straight-up violation of Batman’s no killing code, showing the Dark Knight directly incite gang bloodshed. We should highlight that the latter is written by Barr, who—as mentioned above, along with Reed, Haney, and O’Neil—arguably penned the most extremely violent Batman comics once the Bronze Age started. Stories by Barr, Reed, Haney, and O’Neil in the 1970s and early 1980s certainly seem to depict Batman sometimes dishing out a level of viciousness that could potentially be fatal, but we have to assume Batman knows exactly what he’s doing, keeping folks maimed but alive. Again, we (the readers) have to suspend our disbelief a bit to ensure he Batman doesn’t break the rules!
Once The Crisis on Infinite Earths brought about the Modern Age in 1986, Batman’s anti-killing stance was still in full effect, but the lingering gritty effect of the Bronze Age continued influencing (or confusing) writers to some extent. In Batman #402 by Max Allan Collins and Jim Starlin (1986), Jason Todd oddly reminds readers that Batman has killed people before, to which Bruce replies, “[Only] in self-defense.” When Collins wrote this arc, it was right after Crisis on Infinite Earths, so he hadn’t been notified of the Modern Age status quo in regard to Batman’s no killing rule—hence this strange dialogue. When has Modern Age Batman killed in self-defense, you ask? Here’s my complete list of possible canonical instances in chronological order.
–“The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” (1939 but canon in Modern Age) – Batman tosses a villain into a vat of chemicals. Although, technically, we don’t actually know if he dies. (1) –Detective Comics #29 (1939 but canon in the Modern Age) – Batman tosses one of Dr. Death’s henchmen off a roof. (2) –Detective Comics #30 (1939 but canon in Modern Age) – Batman snaps the neck of one of Dr. Carl Kruger’s henchmen. (3) –Detective Comics #35 (1940 but canon in Modern Age) – Batman impales a henchman on a sword and knocks crime boss Sheldon Lenox out of window. (4, 5) –“Infected” (1996) – Batman knocks a monster-serum-infected soldier into the reservoir. The soldier is definitely more beast than man at the time of his death, but this is still technically a kill. (6) –“Blink” (2002) – Facing a hail of gunfire and not seeing many options, Batman instinctively uses a henchman as as human shield. (7) –“Family” – Batman blows up at least two men with explosives. (We’ll keep it at two, since we only technically see two guys get blown up.) (8, 9) –“Sanctum” (1993) – Batman kicks Lowther onto a railing spike, killing him. (10) –“The Saga of Ra’s al Ghul” (1971 but canon in Modern Age) – Batman knocks a League of Assassins scientist into chemicals, killing him. (11) He is also tricked into killing Dr. Mason Sterling’s re-animated brain, although this latter instance falls into the category of destruction of the undead, of which Batman is totally cool. After all, just as in previous continuity, Batman believes in killing vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural entities without regard as seen in The Brave and The Bold #195 by Barr 1983 but canon in Modern Age), Action Comics Annual #1 by John Byrne (1987), Detective Comics #814 by David Lapham (2006), Superman and Batman vs Vampires and Werewolves by Kevin VanHook (2008-2009), and other vampire stories in the 1990s and 2000s. –Year One: Batman – Ra’s al Ghul #2 (2005) – Batman causes an avalanche that buries two League of Assassins agents. It’s possible he doubles back to make sure they are alive, but that’s certainly not shown in the comic. (12, 13) –The Brave and The Bold #193 (1982 but canon in Modern Age) – Batman judo tosses one of the members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) off a bridge to his death. (14) –“Batman: Year Two” (1987) – Reaper falls to his death while fighting Batman. This is more of Batman not saving Reaper from falling, so it could really go either way, depending on your perspective. (15) Batman #402, where we get Jason’s pointed question about Batman killing in the past, occurs at roughly this point on the timeline. –Batman: Son of the Demon (1987) – Batman kills a couple League of Assassins henchmen by causing a helicopter crash. He also kills Qayin by knocking him into an electrified power box. (16, 17, 18) –Detective Comics #590 (1988) – Batman knocks a terrorist through a window onto a spike wall below. He later runs over (and blows up) four more terrorists. (19, 20, 21, 22, 23) –Batman: The Cult (1988) – There’s a trippy scene where a drugged-up Batman seemingly goes on killing spree, but this is merely a hallucination. However, in this same arc, Batman blows up a building with a cultist standing atop its roof. Additionally, Batman more-or-less allows the cultists to kill Deacon Blackfire, although there’s an argument that nothing could be done to save Blackfire once the cultists were on top of him. (24, 25) –Detective Comics #572 (1987) – Batman uses a hood as a human shield. (26) –Batman #425 (1988) – In a junkyard, Batman kills a bad guy by causing a pile of cars to topple on top of him. (27) –Cosmic Odyssey (1988) – Batman shoots a Parademon to death. (Parademons are 100% sentient beings, although some writers—especially in later continuities—will unfortunately treat them more like undead zombies.) (28) –Detective Comics #613 (1990) – In yet another junkyard, Batman kicks a couple of criminals into the back of a garbage truck, crushing them to death. (29, 30) –Batman: Bride of the Demon (1990) – Batman crashes an airplane into three League of Assassins technicians. (31, 32, 33) Not long afterward, the League of Assassins base explodes. Some internauts believe that Batman is responsible for the deaths of dozens of people in the base, but, based upon the way the narrative is delivered, there’s more than a strong argument to be made that the destruction of the base is not directly linked to the Dark Knight.
Bride of the Demon by Barr (1990) is the last time we ever see Batman kill anyone in any capacity (even in self-defense) in any continuity. Since eight of his Modern Age kills are highly debatable, this gives us a total of no less than twenty-six but no more than thirty-three possible instances where Batman kills. Again, many of the above scenarios are generally open to reader interpretation, meaning, if one were so determined, one could regard even more Bat-kills as dubious, thus further lessening the number. Nevertheless, Batman killing is more-or-less a rarity (for someone that is constantly fighting for his life every day). By the fact that Devin Grayson’s Year One: Batman – Ra’s al Ghul #2—which was written in 2005 but occurs (partly) in the early portion of the Modern Age timeline—includes a couple Batman self-defense kills, we can ascertain that at least some folks in the DC home office, even as late as 2005, were leaning into the idea that Batman killed in self-defense in his formative years. A rather special case is Batman #673 by Grant Morrison (2008), which famously has Batman psychologically nudge Joe Chill toward suicide. Whether or not we include this on our kill list is debatable as well. (I’ve opted not to, but it could easily be up there, depending on your perspective.) No matter the case, it’s clear that DC editorial, by 1990, mandated that Batman never ever kill again in contemporary chronology. From 1990 onward (even into later continuities!), there aren’t any canonical Bat-killings whatsoever (aside from those retroactively taking place in Batman’s early years or those perpetrated by alternate Batman Jean-Paul Valley in 1994). Story-wise, we can take this to simply mean that, by the end of Modern Age Year 13, Batman gets really good at making sure people around him stay alive.
In the latter part of the Modern Age, readers would see Batman push his no killing code to its utmost limits in regard to certain foes—notably Ra’s al Ghul and Joker (with Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s 2003 “Hush” arc being an example of this for both villains, and Starlin and Aparo’s 1988 “Death in the Family” being another example for Joker).
Part Four: Contemporary Comic Continuity, Ethics, and Hollywood
Overall, the Bat-bodycount (in comics) from 1939 to today comes in as follows: Around sixty to sixty-five kills for Golden Age Earth-2 Batman (nearly half of which are government-sanctioned kills during WWII), around thirty kills for Silver/Bronze Age Earth-1 Batman, somewhere in the range of twenty-five to thirty-three kills (probably on the lower end of the spectrum) for Modern Age Batman, zero kills for New 52 Batman, and zero kills for Rebirth/Infinite Frontier Batman. As you can see, the “Batman never kills” concept has become absolute gospel at DC Comics and it has been for decades.
Beyond writers and publishers grappling with the notion of Batman dishing out capital punishment, for ages, this has been a topic of heated debate among fans too. In fact, when I was on set for the filming of Jozef K Richards’ lovely documentary Batman & Jesus(2017), the concept of Batman committing murder stirred up a big argument among those involved with the project. On set that day (and in local comic shops and online forums yesterday, today, and tomorrow), there are those that firmly believe that Batman should never kill, citing the act as a hypocritical violation of his oath to bring justice to evildoers in honor of his parents having been horribly gunned down. He’s a superhero—and superheroes just don’t kill. Others stand opposed, believing that killing should be a necessary (and equal) action against homicidal maniacs, especially for a vigilante already operating beyond the restrictions of the law. This is brilliantly articulated by Mark White in Batman and Ethics (2019), who says, “By choosing to act outside of nearly every single law (albeit sometimes sanctioned by the police) but cherrypicking no killing as his one personal rule, Batman actually allows thousands of deaths to occur at the hands of his rivals.” As a continuity and superhero purist, I’ve always leaned into the “Batman should never kill” camp, but I do agree with White that Batman’s anti-killing stance directly contradicts his own ethical standpoint and obstructs his stated goals. Removing Joker, Riddler, Two-Face, and others from the equation would lead to an exponentially safer Gotham. Food for thought! Those on the “Batman should kill” team often refer to “realism” as a primary reason behind their viewpoint—citing that a violent crimefighter engaging in daily vigilantism against equally vicious opponents would likely result in collateral loss of human life. Obviously, Hollywood, which strives for filmic “realism,” has long been okay with a Batman-who-kills, as we’ve seen it happen in both Batman movie serials (1943 and 1949), Adam West’s Batman ’66, Tim Burton’s Batman films (1989 and 1992), Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever (1995), Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (2005, 2008, and 2012), and Zack Snyder’s Batman-related films (2016 and 2017). While there’s no explicit Bat-killing in Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022), there’s certainly enough harsh violence to presume collateral fatalities with Batman being at least partially responsible for causing them. Thus, Hollywood’s Bat-bloodlust continues.
Thankfully (depending on your perspective, of course), the Batman of the funnybooks has remained devout in his commitment to non-lethal action. In summary, Batman killed initially until 1940/1941, at which point the no killing rule was initiated (with the only exceptions being instances of self-defense and wartime Nazi/Japan stuff). Post-WWII, there were no Bat-killings at all (not even in self-defense). It wasn’t until Bronze Age muddling (where authors were aware of the no killing rule but struggled to deal with it due to the darker tones of the new line) that we wound up with a handful of Bat-killings (mostly in self-defense, at least one with a serious asterisk) sprinkled throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Once the Modern Age began, there was lingering creator confusion, resulting in a similar vibe until 1990, but after that there would really be no more Bat-killings whatsoever (aside from those retroactively placed in Batman’s early years). To this very day, even into current comics continuity, Batman still hasn’t killed anyone since! Thanks so much for reading. Please leave a comment below, and if you like what you’ve read, please consider donating to my Patreon. Last but not least, a special shout-out to Jasper Derklin for initiating this topic of discussion.
The retcon history of Batman and Catwoman discovering each other’s secret identities is rather complicated. Before I dive in, the great Brian Cronin has an excellent series of articles about this very topic, to which I’m incredibly indebted:
In the Golden Age, Catwoman uses a variety of false names, not revealing her true identity of Selina Kyle to Batman until Year Twelve—in Batman #62 Part 1 by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz, and Charles Paris (1950).
Five in-story years later (Year Seventeen), thanks to a retcon that sees the Bat marry the Cat (thus further distinguishing the Golden Age Earth-2 from the Silver/Bronze Age Earth-1), Batman reveals his secret identity to Selina. This big moment occurs via flashback from The Brave and The Bold #197 by Alan Brennert and Joe Staton (1983).
Turning to the Silver/Bronze Age, we get a super-compressed version of the Golden Age in regard to Batman’s dealings with Catwoman. Her use of false names and Batman learning her secret identity all occurs in Year One! Batman #208 by E Nelson Bridwell (1969) is a clever story that re-contextualizes old material via the framing device of Ma Chilton talking about the history of Batman’s love life. Thus, instead of having the typical non-canon reprint issue, all the reprinted (prior continuity) material, including Batman #62 Part 1, is canonized in full.
Year Sixteen’s Batman #355 by Gerry Conway and Don Newton (1983) is the first issue that definitively reveals that Catwoman knows Batman’s secret identity. It’s possible she knows earlier than that, but in any case, she 100% knows by Year Sixteen. Not long afterward, Detective Comics #526 by Conway and Newton (1983) doubles down on this, emphasizing that Catwoman knows who Batman is under the cowl. However, DC editorial royally complicates the matter after that. In Year Nineteen’s Batman #389 by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake (1985), Batman blindfolds Catwoman to bring through an alternate Batcave entrance. This scene that makes it seem like she doesn’t know who he is under the cowl. However, as Conway had already definitively shown in Batman #355 and Detective Comics #526, Catwoman already knows Batman’s secret identity—so the need for her to be blindfolded in Batman #389 makes no sense. An easy fanwank is that Batman simply doesn’t want her to know about one of the alternate entrances into the Batcave. However, in a rare attempt to cover their asses, DC editors actually publish a letter of explanation in Batman #393 by Moench and Paul Gulacy (1986) saying that Catwoman shouldn’t have been blindfolded since she already knows Batman’s secret identity. They actually own up to a continuity error! But then, in Batman #397 by Moench and Mandrake (1986), DC editors retract their statement in a second letter! Instead of letting things go and providing an easy out for the blindfold thing, they disavow all prior instances of Catwoman knowing Batman’s secret identity, even going so far as to say that she never knew—even in Batman #355 and Detective Comics #526! What?! That is a huge (and bogus) retcon. She definitely knew, and, if she doesn’t know by 1986, then she was friggin’ mind-wiped. Go with your headcanon on this one because it’s better than anything DC has to offer.
Believe or not, Batman’s knowledge of Catwoman’s secret identity (and vice versa) is just as complicated in the Modern Age. Due to vague hints in Frank Miller’s “Year One” (1986-1987), Mindy Newell’s Catwoman #3-4 (1989), and Denny O’Neil’s Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #1 (1989), it’s possible Batman knows Catwoman’s secret identity as early as Year One. (At the very least, he likely has a hunch who she is under the mask.) However, it’s not until Year Two that we can be more certain that he knows. Of course, the references to Batman learning Catwoman’s secret identity as early as Year Two on the Modern Age timeline—specifically in Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (1996-1997), Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #140 by Moench and Gulacy (2001), and The Batman Files by Matthew Manning (2011)—are, like the earlier references, also a bit vague, still merely hinting at Batman finding out. Because of this haziness, various arguments can be supported. Furthermore, over the course of the following seven in-story years, Batman’s interactions with Catwoman—and Bruce’s with Selina—are coy enough to keep things deliberately vague. For example, Batman: Dark Victory by Loeb and Sale (1999-2000) keep things so vague, you could read it either way. It’s actually downright perplexing. While we are at like 90% certainty that Batman knows Selina is Catwoman by Year Two, it’s not all the way until Year Nine—via flashback from Catwoman Vol. 3 #50 by Will Pfeifer (2006)—that we learn definitively that Batman knows Catwoman’s secret ID. But 90% certainty ain’t bad. Therefore, all signs point to Batman learning Catwoman’s secret ID in Year Two (if not earlier). This is your personal headcanon call, of course.
I should mention that, for decades, I had regarded Batman Confidential #17-21 by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire (2008) as an important arc in regard to Batman learning Catwoman’s secret ID, but upon a recent re-read, this simply isn’t the case. There’s a scene in issue #18 where a nude Batgirl fights a nude Catwoman, and the latter is referred to as Selina Kyle by multiple people at the Gotham Hedonist Society, but it’s unclear if it’s within Batgirl’s earshot or not. Either way, neither Batman nor Batgirl refer to her as Selina in this arc. Like the other stuff above, it’s kept vague. Although, as mentioned, I no longer think this arc has any particular bearing upon our Bat/Cat secret identity topic at hand.
The other way around—Catwoman learning Batman’s secret identity—has an even more complex history in the Modern Age. At the time of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in 1986, the Catwoman status-quo was that she was a superhero that had learned Batman’s secret identity much akin to how she had in the Bronze Age. This is confirmed via reference in Detective Comics #569-570 by Mike W Barr and Alan Davis (1986). Notably, Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales (2004) would later retcon that Catwoman, in Year Nine, becomes a superhero due to a Zatanna mind-wipe, at which time the Dark Knight reveals his secret identity to her as a gesture of goodwill. Wanting to revert Catwoman back to her old ways, Barr (in Detective Comics #569-570), has Catwoman mind-wiped yet again (this time by Dr. Moon, and this time it turns her back into a super-villain). This mind-wipe also causes her to permanently forget Batman’s secret identity.
And this is the status quo for a while. In Batman #499 by Moench and Jim Aparo (1993), Bruce, Alfred, and Selina board a plane together. The dialogue between Alfred, Bruce, and Selina makes it sound like Alfred has no idea who Selina is and that Bruce has only met her once. Alfred says, “Good lord, who are you and how did you get—” and Selina cuts him off with, “My name is Selina Kyle, Mr. Wayne—we met at a charity function and I desperately need to reach Santa Prisca.” When Batman #499 originally came out in 1993, Bruce and Selina really had only interacted (out-of-costume) one or two times prior to this moment and definitely not romantically. When Loeb and Sale’s The Long Halloween was published in 1996-1997, it retconned things so that Bruce and Selina did have an intimate relationship outside of their Batman/Catwoman relationship, thus changing this Batman #499 sequence entirely.
It’s not until Year Nineteen’s “Hush”—specifically Batman #615—by Loeb and Jim Lee (2003) that Batman finally reveals his secret identity to Catwoman. Interestingly, DC Comics editors, in a halfhearted attempt to erase any head-scratching Catwoman continuity, tried to cover up their messy mind-wipes by labeling Detective Comics #569-570 as occurring on the alternate Earth-85 (in 2005’s The Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium). Of course, Detective Comics #569-570 is dead smack dab in the middle of John Ostrander and Len Wein’s major “Legends” crossover arc, so its details are definitively canon.
In the end, continuity is as follows: Catwoman gets mind-wiped in Year Nine, becoming a superhero, at which time Batman reveals his secret identity to her. In Year Eleven, Catwoman is mind-wiped again, becoming a villain again and losing knowledge of Batman’s secret identity. In Year Nineteen, Batman reveals himself to Catwoman for the final time.
In the New 52, Batman first meets a fully-costumed Catwoman in the Year One story, Young Romance: A New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 by Ann Nocenti and Emanuela Lupacchino (2013). While there’s no indication as to whether or not Batman knows Catwoman’s secret identity in Young Romance, as referenced in Catwoman Vol. 4 #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March (2011), a tale that occurs five years later, it’s entirely possible that Batman knows right from the get-go. But, as before, it’s very vague. Catwoman’s inner dialogue in Catwoman Vol. 4 #1 says, “I don’t think he knows who I am. Although he is the master detective. So, mabye.” However, any vagueness here can be thrown out because Young Romance is immediately chronologically followed-up by Batman/Superman #1-4 by Greg Pak and Jae Lee (2013). In Batman/Superman #2, Bruce travels to Earth-2 where he meets Earth-2 Batman and Earth-2 Catwoman, learning the secret identity of the latter—and therefore learning the secret identity of her primary Earth counterpart. If Batman didn’t already know a few days earlier, then he certainly knows by Batman/Superman #2. So, yes, Batman definitively learns Catwoman’s secret identity in Year One.
Catwoman, on the other hand, doesn’t learn Batman’s secret identity until fairly late—not until Year Eight (out of ten total years of the shortened timeline). While the New 52 version of “Hush” includes a Bat/Cat romance, the latter does not learn the former’s secret identity. Notably, there is the much-maligned “Gothtophia” crossover (written by multiple authors) where Catwoman learns it, but only while under a drug induced haze, and by the story’s conclusion, she has no recollection of it whatsoever. Ultimately, the first reference of Selina learning Batman’s secret identity doesn’t come until a reference inCatwoman Vol. 4 #49 by Frank Tieri (2016). In this issue (again, in Year Eight), there’s no big reveal that is shown (she just all of a sudden knows it), meaning that the discovery occurs off panel.
This is the most straightforward of them all, as the discovery of each other’s secret identities are connected to the very same issue—Batman Vol. 3 Annual #2 by Tom King and Lee Weeks (2018). In regard to Batman discovering Catwoman’s secret identity, we are told (via reference in Batman Vol. 3 Annual #2 Part 1) that he has “known since the beginning,” meaning since Year One. Catwoman Vol. 5 #3 by Joëlle Jones and Fernando Blanco (2018) and Catwoman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular Part 6 by Newell (2020) both nod toward some form of Catwoman #1-4 happening in the Rebirth/Infinite Frontier Era. These references also tell us that, during Year One, Selina slightly suspects Batman may be the same man she first encountered on the street in the East End (in the Rebirth/Infinite Frontier Era’s version of Miller’s “Year One,” but she still doesn’t know his true secret identity. Catwoman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular Part 6 actually functions as a direct precursor to Batman Vol. 3 Annual #2 Part 1, which leads with Catwoman having discovered Batman’s secret identity, after which she breaks into the Batcave. In this same story, Batman and Catwoman kiss for the first time ever.
And what better way to end than with a kiss. That’s all folks!
In September 1995, DC released Batman Annual #19 (“Scarecrow: Masters of Fear”) by Doug Moench, Bret Blevins, Mike Manley, and Stuart Chaifetz. Because this release came out post-Zero Hour, and since there had really been no official post-Crisis origin story for Scarecrow (Jonathan Crane) prior to this, Batman Annual #19 instantly became the ultimate canonical Modern Age origin story for the character. Significant portions of Batman Annual #19 were loosely based on Scarecrow debuts from prior canon—World’s Finest Comics #3 by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson (1941) and Batman #189 by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, and Joe Giella (1967)—but this was a definitively Modern version of Scarecrow.
Here’s a basic synopsis of the general plot of Batman Annual #19. Crane gets fired from his teaching job at the university, taking up the mantle of Scarecrow to enact revenge on his former fellow faculty members by terrorizing them with his patented Fear Gas. Leaving behind a piece of straw as a calling card at each crime scene, Scarecrow goes on a killing spree and also attacks the head of Fontana ChemCorp. Batman investigates, discovering that Scarecrow is Crane. He also learns more about Crane’s family and past, including information about his negative high school experience, murders he committed during high school while wearing a proto-Scarecrow costume, his college mentor’s suicide, and his subsequent takeover of his mentor’s job. Batman then visits Crane’s boobytrapped apartment where he experiences the effects of Fear Gas for the first time. Eventually, Batman busts Scarecrow in a cornfield, sending him to Arkham Asylum afterward.
Notably, Batman Annual #19 cemented the following facts:
First, Scarecrow debuts after Two-Face, at some point in Year One. Batman says that he’s already faced Two-Face, and the story even shows Scarecrow going to Arkham Asylum in a cell next to Two-Face at its end. At the time of Batman Annual #19‘s publication in 1995, Two-Face debuting prior to Scarecrow was actually already the line-wide status quo, so this reflected that. Batman Annual #19 has “Year One” cover-dressing as well.
Second, Crane is only twenty-three-years-old at the time of his debut as Scarecrow, having graduated from a four year Bachelor’s Degree program (in psychology and chemistry) at Gotham University one year prior. (This is especially funny because I’m fairly certain Batman Annual #19‘s “Masters of Fear” title is a pun meant to allude to a Master’s degree, which is a degree Crane specifically doesn’t earn in the story. Maybe the pun refers to Crane’s victims? Anyway, I digress.) The tale also reveals that Crane had become the protégé and assistant to the top professor in his department. After graduating, Crane used Fear Gas on his mentor, causing his suicide, after which Crane, despite only having an undergraduate degree, was hired as his replacement, thus becoming a new professor at the school.
Third, Crane’s parents are supposedly no longer living.
Fourth, Fontana ChemCorp is said to have enjoyed a monopoly in Gotham’s chemical market until three other companies arrived on the scene. Of the three other companies, only AlchemCorp is mentioned, but, as per Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland (1988), one of the others at the time would have been Ace Chemical. Batman’s in-story journal entry dialogue implies that the arrival of market competition happened recently. Batman/Scarecrow 3D #1 by John Francis Moore and Carl Critchlow (1998) later names Wayne Chemical and Morrison Chemical as yet two other Gotham-based chemical companies, so its possible that one of these is the other mentioned in Batman Annual #19. Notably, 2009’s Batman #682 (by Grant Morrison and Lee Garbett) reveals that Apex Chemicals was bought out by Ace after supplying Dr. Death in Year One. Axis Chemicals, canon only in Tim Burton’s film universe, is also erroneously mentioned in Darwyn Cooke’s Batman: Ego (2001).
All the above information from Batman Annual #19 shaped the status quo for Scarecrow’s origin until two years later with the publication of Batman: The Long Halloween #8 by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (1997), which instituted the big retcon of moving Scarecrow’s debut prior to Two-Face’s debut. Notably, The Long Halloween #8 added context to Batman Annual #19‘s tidbit about Crane’s parents being dead, revealing that Crane supposedly strangled his own mother to death. Several other issues—including Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 by Scott Beatty (October 1998), Batman: Dark Victory by Loeb and Sale (1999-2000), and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #137-138 by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy (2001)—would re-emphasize the new status quo: a still canon Batman Annual #19, only now shifted prior to Two-Face’s debut. In the case of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #137-138, it actually directly shows flashbacks to parts of Batman Annual #19—including Crane’s negative high school experience, his mentor’s suicide, and his takeover of his mentor’s job.
In 2005, Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 (by Bruce Jones and Sean Murphy) was published, ostensibly delivering a brand new Scarecrow origin story, one that gave additional back-story about Crane being raised by his wicked grandmother Marion Keeny. It also introduced readers to Scarecrow’s mom Karen Keeny-Crane and father Gerald Crane. However, both are not only shown to be still alive, they also factor heavily into the narrative of the story. For various reasons, including the anachronistic return use of “Year One” cover-dressing and titling, the contradictory inclusion of Robin (who didn’t debut until after Two-Face), and the contradictory inclusion of Crane’s parents (who were supposed to be dead), Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 was always generally regarded as non-canon. After all, nothing else in 2005 was showing that Scarecrow’s parents were alive or that he debuted prior to Robin and Two-Face. This story was a severe outlier and was regarded as such at the time.
2005 also brought about the publication of Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke, which had some impact upon Batman Annual #19 by moving Joker’s debut into early Year Two, thus pushing Scarecrow’s debut into Year Two as well. The Man Who Laughs also specifically revealed that Ace Chemical opened roughly twenty years before Batman’s debut. Thus, either this was retconning the aforementioned chemical plant situation in Batman Annual #19 or, at the very least, was forcing readers to reinterpret Batman’s journal entry. Since the market competition now couldn’t have been recently emergent at the time of Scarecrow’s debut, this meant that Batman’s journal dialogue had to now be read as Batman simply reviewing Gotham’s history of chemical companies. Technically, while likely not Moench’s intent, the line can be read this way. In this regard, it’s less of a retcon, and more of a forced reader response shift. No matter your personal take, in sum, by 1996, Batman Annual #19 was still canon, but caveats now included Scarecrow debuting before Two-Face, newly, Scarecrow debuting in Year Two, and, also newly, a status quo change in regard to Gotham’s chemical market at the time of Scarecrow’s debut.
One year later, a significant retcon in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #202 by Christos Gage and Ron Wagner (“Cold Case,” 2006) placed Crane as a criminal psychology teacher at Gotham University as early as 1968. As such, Crane still caused his mentor to commit suicide, but it now happened in the 1960s, meaning Crane had been a teacher for decades and was currently much older than twenty-three at the time of his debut. Therefore, this retcon shifted Crane’s high school murders/experiences and the murder of his mentor to all occur in the 1960s, decades earlier. This meant that Crane was likely in his mid forties at the time of his debut as Scarecrow. In sum, by 1996, Batman Annual #19 was still canon, but caveats now included Scarecrow debuting before Two-Face, a status quo change in regard to Gotham’s chemical market at the time of Scarecrow’s debut, and, newly, all of Crane’s backstory shifting decades prior to make him much older at the time of his debut.
Another retcon (seemingly line-wide, across a couple separate issues) in 2008 made it so Crane was at some point a practicing psychiatrist in addition to being a college teacher. Joker’s Asylum: Scarecrow #1 by Joe Harris and Juan Doe (September 2008) makes mention of his psychiatry practice while Detective Comics #847 by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen (October 2008) shows a young Tommy Elliot meeting with Crane—a “driven young intern” at the university psychiatric hospital—in 1971. This was actually the very first canonical mention of Crane being an intern at a hospital. Prior to 2008, Crane was never once regarded as having more than an undergraduate degree. He certainly had never been referred to as a doctor before this moment. Joker’s Asylum: Scarecrow #1 and Detective Comics #847 not only confirmed the 2006 Legends of the Dark Knight #202 retcon about Crane’s older age, but also that Crane obtained more than just an undergraduate degree. Presuming Crane was in college for at least six years, plus in residency (interning) for two to three years, the youngest he could have been in 1971 would be around twenty-six-years-old. This means, as Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #202 had previously hinted, Crane must have been around forty-five (born in 1945) at the time of debut as Scarecrow. (Several Batman Chronology Project site contributors have argued that Crane being forty-five at the time of his debut seems a bit too old, while also highlighting that fact that DC has a penchant for giving characters post-graduate and medical degrees at very young ages, all of which speaks to the possibility of Crane still being in his twenties at the time of his debut as Scarecrow. However, the overall history of Scarecrow retcons flies in the face of that direction, especially the fact that Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #202 nodded to him teaching in the 1960s.) It’s worth mentioning that both Batman #523-524 by Moench and Kelley Jones (1995) and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #140 by Moench and Gulacy (2001) both indirectly address Scarecrow’s age by showing him target people who bullied him in high school. In these two arcs by Moench, some of these former bullies (which should be around Scarecrow’s same age) look a bit older while others look younger, so nothing truly conclusive can be gleaned from their appearance. In sum, by 2008, Batman Annual #19 was still canon, but caveats now included Scarecrow debuting before Two-Face, a status quo change in regard to Gotham’s chemical market at the time of Scarecrow’s debut, all of Crane’s backstory shifting decades prior to make him much older at the time of his debut, and, newly, Crane having had a psychiatry doctorate/practice.
Cut to 2009 and the release of the DC Universe Holiday Special 2009, which included “Unbearable Loss” by Scott Kolins, a Year Ten story that highlights Deadman meeting and helping Karen Keeny-Crane. It also shows a flashback to Marion Keeny raising Scarecrow. (“Unbearable Loss” occurs in Year Ten because it takes place specifically around Friday, December 25. If we go by the real-world calendar, this places the tale either in 1992, 1998, or 2009. Since “Unbearable Loss” is clearly an “Early Period” story, it cannot take place in 2009. And since it is a Deadman story, it cannot take place in 1992, which is before his debut. 1998 i.e. Year Ten it is.) By showing the Keenys, “Unbearable Loss” functioned, at the very least, as a retcon that canonized the flashback portions of Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 while still regarding its main narrative as out-of-continuity. It’s also possible that Karen still being alive is not a retcon and, as one can do with the chemical company situation, simply re-interpret the urtext. The fanwank here is simply that the story of Crane’s parents being dead (including his mom’s strangling) was false but widely believed to be true, with even Batman buying the bogus story—as referenced in both Annual #19 and The Long Halloween #8. That’s up to one’s own personal headcanon, though. Is it possible that “Unbearable Loss” wanted to canonize the main narrative of Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 too? If that were so, Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 would require massive caveats, including the reader fully ignoring that it is meant to be an origin story for Scarecrow. As such, the Batman Chronology Project has left Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 off the timeline, opting instead to regard it as non-canonical material that “Unbearable Loss” has re-contextualized. In sum, by 2009 (and for the final two years of the Modern Age), Batman Annual #19 was still canon, but caveats now included Scarecrow debuting before Two-Face, a status quo change in regard to Gotham’s chemical market at the time of Scarecrow’s debut, all of Crane’s backstory shifting decades prior to make him much older at the time of his debut, Crane having had a psychiatry doctorate/practice, and, newly, a status quo change in regard to Crane’s parents being alive.
All in all, Scarecrow’s is one of the more convoluted origins of the Modern Age, with more significant retcons attached to it compared to other members of Batman’s rogues gallery, but there you have it!
As per my annual tradition, here is my list of non-comics that I read in 2023. It’s a light list, as it was a very busy year. Nevertheless, I really feel that the non-comic books I read each year have a strong impact on how I engage with comics (and subsequently how I approach many facets of the Batman Chronology Project process). And at the very least, it’s always a lasting snapshot of where I’ve been and a nice window into my mind, if ya’ll are interested. Without further adieu, here’s the list (in order of most liked to least liked).
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Luster by Raven Leilani
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Ethical Slut by Janet Hardy & Dossie Easton
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges
Tough Guys Don’t Dance by Norman Mailer
Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
Batman and Psychology by Travis Langley
The Grifters by Jim Thompson
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Get Out of Your Mind and into Your Life by Dr. Steven Hayes & Spencer Smith
Chip Zdarsky canonized Geoff John’s Three Jokers in his recent “Bat-Man of Gotham” arc. And then, he made another clearcut reference to Three Jokers in Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War – Scorched Earth #1. In today’s Batman Vol. 3 #139 (Batman #904), the start of his new “Mindbomb” arc, Zdarsky once again references Three Jokers directly, except there’s a problem.
Like Nicholas J Levi above, I was a bit confused too. After all, two of the three Jokers were killed in Three Jokers. However, upon closer look, all of Zdarsky’s references haven’t actually been references to Three Jokers the story-arc. They’ve been references to the concept of three Jokers, which was first introduced by Johns in Justice League Vol. 2 #50 (“Darkseid War”).
All of Zdarsky’s references to three Jokers (emphasis on lowercase three), if you examine them closely, speak merely to the existence of the three Jokers—not necessarily to the canonicity of the Three Jokers series. Zdarsky even gives the origin of the three Jokers in “Bat-Man of Gotham”—the whole Halliday thing—but even with that, he has yet to actually mention anything about the Three Jokers series itself. And the recent nods have Riddler and Batman saying that the three Jokers are still around. What does this mean?
It could mean that Zdarsky is treating Three Jokers the series as non-canon (as others have wanted to do), or that he’s retconning Three Jokers the series to make it so that the two killed Jokers weren’t killed, survived, or were revived. It’s also possible that Death Metal/Infinite Frontier brought them back from the dead. Or more likely, when Halliday was reviving all dead Jokers across the multiverse in “Bat-Man of Gotham”, the two dead Jokers from Three Jokers might have been among those resurrected.
In the case that Zdarsky is simply ignoring Three Jokers the series as non-canon while regarding the existence of the three Jokers as introduced in Justice League Vol. 2 #50 as canon, this is possible too. However, it would be very strange. Johns introduced the idea in Justice League Vol. 2 #50, and he continued it in other stories that culminated in Three Jokers the series. And when Zdarsky referenced three Jokers in “Bat-Man of Gotham,” he was referencing the whole shebang, not anything piecemeal. (At least, with that reference, Zdarsky wasn’t being specific, so it could only be read as a reference to/canonization of all things pertaining to three Jokers, up to and including the Three Jokers series itself.)
Some that will say that this proves Johns’ Three Jokers series is non-canon while the existence of the three Jokers (as introduced and referenced by Johns in other titles) is canon. That sounds insane to me. Seriously, read that line back, and contemplate it. It’s bizarre to do a story about Johns’ three Jokers concept while completely ignoring Johns’ Three Jokers series. Zdarsky is doing something either very deliberate here or very odd. Either way, it’s strange. And even if it is deliberate (could Zdarsky be replacing the Three Jokers series with his own version in “Mindbomb”?), I think it’ll be open to interpretation when the dust settles. However, I believe the explanation of Halliday’s resurrected Jokers is the key to solving any potential continuity issues. Moving forward, I’ll be keeping a close eye on Zdarsky’s run. Unless I see any undeniable contradictions/cancellations of the Three Jokers series, then the latter surely must remain canon.
Hello! I’m Batman Chronology Project site contributor Anthony Fallone. Over the last few months, I have been working on a personal passion project of mine that involves adapting the entire modern age/post-crisis story of Batman from its comic form into written prose. Obviously, this is a massive undertaking, but Collin’s modern age Batman timelines, as well as the work of fellow site contributors, Martín Lel and Jack James, have helped me immensely. My vision is to create a series of “books,” each centered around a different year in Bruce’s journey as Batman, commencing with “Batman: Year One.” Below is a sample chapter from my novelization of Year One, focusing on Bruce’s initial encounter with Basil Karlo/Clayface, aptly titled “The Terror.” This project is undoubtedly long-term and will likely take years to complete, but I feel as long as I have other people’s support and investment, I will have the motivation to continue. Please take a look and leave comments below. Thanks in advance!
The following “History of the DC Universe: Overvoid to Dark Crisis” expands upon details from within Collin Colsher’s Batman Chronology Project while focusing on other things—namely, the web of manipulations from The Great Darkness, The Source, Perpetua, and Barbatos. Notably, a big chunk of the following History comes from revelations revealed in Jim Starlin’s Death of the New Gods, which some consider to be non-canon.
In the Beginning
In the beginning, all that existed was the empty nothingness of the Overvoid, aka Overmonitor, an omnipotent living void of endless size. Although nothing yet existed in the various dimensions of the omniverse, the Overvoid acted as a potential incubator for future life. Within the Overvoid was first born The Great Darkness, aka Hand of the Great Darkness. Then the second Great Hand, The Presence/Hand of the Light, was born, thanks to the collective dreams of humanity (Lucifer), altering reality from the future, atemporarly (Sandman). The Light was imperceptible in comparison to the Great Darkness. However, the Light expanded to become everything. In protest, the Great Darkness cried out, creating a flaw in the immaculate perfection of the Light, beginning the birth of the Omniverse (Justice League Incarnate).
As “the Voice,” the Light created the word and the Omniverse. His first living creation was the First of the Fallen, aka Satan, created to be his companion and the embodiment of his consciousness. His next creations and first great ideas were the Demiurgic Archangels (Lucifer) and the Djinn (Adam Glass’ Teen Titans). He married a being of unknown provenance called the Mother Entity, source of the Mother Boxes (Bug: The Adventurers of Forager).
He then created the race of The Hands, which He sent into the Great Void, where He tasked them with creating new multiversal systems using the Seven Forces of the Universe (These 7 are subdivided into Anti-Crisis and Direct-Crisis Forces. Doctor Manhattan is composed of the Anti-Crisis ones, also called Connective Energy. Some of these 7 forces are the Flash’s Speed Force, the Emotional Spectrum of the Lantern Corps, which manifest in Emotional Entities such as Nekron, for death, and the Life Entity for life; the Sphere of the Gods, which creates magic, Angels, Demons, gods and New Gods, the Dimensional Superstructure, which creates the Monitors, the Life Force which created Aquaman, the Collective Unconscious and Faithfulness.) After the creation of their Multiverse, each member of The Hands was to die and allow their energies to return to the Source of All Things. The true goal of each Multiverse was the achievement of perfect harmony between each being of the infinite realities that make up its Multiverse. The Presence also created the Chronicler, an observer of the Omniverse who records the histories of the dying Multiverses in his “Codex Omniversa”. For countless eons, he saw trillions of dying Multiverses, recording their entire history. However, one of The Hands, Perpetua, refused to die and wanted to create an immortal, predatory and vicious multiverse designed for its inhabitants to become Apex Predators to rebel against the other Hands; for this, she combined humans with Martians to create metahumans. Her multiverse was locked in an endless cycle of crisis and rebirth. (Tynion) However, her children Monitor, Anti-Monitor and World Forger (Barbatos’ father) betrayed her and called in the Judges of the Presence, the Cosmic Raptors, who created the Source Wall from the Apex Predators to imprison Perpetua; the Predators became known as Promethean Giants. The Source Wall became the new boundary between the Multiverse and the Greater Omniverse, rendering the Antimatter Universe obsolete and causing a rift between the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. The flawed and predatory Multiverse had to be rebooted, but what emerged in its place was unique: the Chronicler observed that it was unlike all other multiverses, and that its residents were “eternal.” The Chronicler did not know that this was because Earth Prime is not a universe but a metaverse that causes the multiverse to change in reaction to changes within it (Doomsday Clock).
In the new multiverse, many things happened, but first and foremost we must emphasize that one of the beings that were born along with the multiverse was the woman called Pandora, an incarnation of the Seven Sins of Humanity, who began a cycle that always ends with one of her Sins victorious and causing the collapse and reboot of the multiverse (Trinity of Sin: Pandora).
Another being that caused countless reboots was Imperiex, an incarnation of entropy contained in humanoid armor. Since the dawn of time, he repeatedly destroyed the universe to create a new one from the ashes of the old one (Our Worlds At War).
Multiverse-2
After countless reboots, Krona went back in time to observe the moment when the multiverse was reborn. His actions caused the multiverse to fragment into an infinite number of universes (implying it was a finite multiverse before? See Dark Crisis’ implications that an universe can be “even more infinite”). The Anti-Monitor was born like in every cycle and Perpetua began to poison his mind by whispering to him in order to free herself from the Source Wall. Mobius, the Anti Monitor, built the Chair of Mobius to learn the secrets of creation. When he laid eyes on the dark secret of the core of the Anti-Monitor universe, the Anti Life Equation, a piece of the Presence that separated from Him, Mobius was cursed forever, turned into a destroyer of universes. Some time later, he met the New God Metron, to whom he willingly gave up his Mobius Chair to travel the universes (Darkseid War). Eventually, the Crisis On Infinite Earths of the 1980s caused the latest reboot (without giving Pandora or Imperiex time to do their thing). The Pre-Crisis multiverse continued to exist as ruins in a separate place called Multiverse-2, though several beings removed from their timelines (Superman and Hal Jordan from Pre-Flashpoint, and Barry Allen and Supergirl from Pre-Crisis) traveled back in time and avoided the Crisis, so the Pre-Crisis Multiverse co-exists with its ruins, perhaps as Multiverse-3 (Convergence).
Multiverse-1
After the last reboot, this is the current history, with many events that occur in each cycle: The Presence began to make Himself seen as The Source 19 billion years ago (Byrne). One of His creations, a being named Sila, seeded each planet with potential for life by raining meteorites in them containing Green, Red, etc. (Swamp Thing). There were already several living beings from previous cycles, such as Pandora, Imperiex or Pariah, who, in the ruins of the previous multiverse, made psychic contact with a portion of the Great Darkness. The Darkness did not intend to undo the cosmos, it simply wished to interact with the light from above, to participate in and observe the great stories of the multiverse. Its flickering was the only light it received. However, Pariah corrupted the fragment he touched, and it began to influence beings with the selfish desire to cause conflict with the light, even as it slept (Williamson).
Meanwhile, in an alternate future, Odin, Jove and Zeus came to fear the power of the Source and allied to destroy it: their attack caught the Source off guard, sending it into the past, where it presumably merged into its past self, but its yin was separated from its yang (Countdown to Final Crisis). The Great Darkness interceded so that the yang became the Anti-Life, (Williamson) which fell into the Center of the Antimatter Universe. The Light counteracted by creating its opposite, the Life Entity of the White Lanterns, at the center of the Positive universe, which is planet Earth (Darkseid War).
Another race that existed before creation itself came from the dimension called Darkworld; they were the Lords of Order and Chaos, incorporeal magical beings. When the universe properly began, the Lords were the first intelligent race along with the Guardians of the Universe. The Lords would create Doctor Fate, Blue Beetle, Amethyst, Atlantis, Hawk and Dove and the “Parliaments of Life” that spawned the natural forces of the world: The Green, The Red, The Grey, The Divided and The Rot (Justice League Dark).
The Lords, and the magic they and all magical beings use, is a manifestation of one of the 7 Primordial Anti-Crisis Forces that create multiverses; specifically, the one called the Sphere of the Gods. More specifically, magic is something called “scraps of creation”, described as the random errors in a computer code (Doomsday Clock).
The First World
When the Presence created the First World, GodWorld (aka Asgard, aka Urgrund), Sila seeded humanoid life into it. Fifteen billion years ago, its humanoid inhabitants attained godhood, thus becoming the Old Gods, and Urgrund became known as the Second World. These beings reached a pinnacle of immense power and ushered in a golden age of cultural and scientific advancement (Byrne).
The first of the Old Gods was Olgrun. Olgrun was immensely powerful, creating many worlds and bestowing wonders upon them. He was also wrathful, and in his anger killed his own beloved daughter. In time, the other Old Gods rose up against him and waged war against him for an age. Unable to truly kill him, they divided him into seven divine aspects, which they hid throughout the multiverse in devices meant to protect them from being claimed by the wrathful and unworthy. Among these devices was the artificial planetoid that would one day be known as Warworld Prime, which contained within it the aspect known as The Fire of Olgrun (Phillip Kennedy Johnson).
Five billion years ago, Urgrund went to war. At the center of this conflict was Lokee, god of mischief and bastard son of the prime god Wotan, who became the first god of evil (Mark Evanier). At that point, the Source finished recovering and punished the Gods for their future treachery by causing Ragnarok, splitting Urgrund in two in a great explosion in which nearly all the gods perished (Kirby). One of the Old Gods who managed to survive was Gog (JSA), who was corrupted by The Great Darkness. (Williamson)
Some 4.8 billion years ago, the remnants of GodWorld ended up creating two separate planets: Apokolips and Galactica, the world that would become New Genesis (Green Lanterns Rebirth).
When Sila planted seeds in the Solar System, they took root on three different planets: Earth, Jupiter and another one that was destroyed. On that last doomed planet evolved a collective fungal consciousness that thrived on the frequency of the Grey. The Source created Adam and Lilith in the Garden of Eden, which was also home to the first Parliament of Trees. When Lilith refused to obey men, God replaced her with Eve (Sandman). Lucifer betrayed God (Alan Moore) and corrupted humans, so God cast them out. After this, a war between The Green and The Gray destroyed Eden and froze it in what is now known as Antarctica (Swamp Thing). But that was what the Presence wanted, as now humans were mortal and had free will, being able to forge their own destinies, choosing virtue or sin, good or evil. With rebellion and sin, the concept of justice was also born, and celestial beings, first Eclipso (God’s Wrath, which caused the Flood of Noah) and then the Spectre (God’s Revenge, which caused the Plagues of Moses). Eons later, faithful angels like Zauriel, redeemed demons like Etrigan and corrupted demons like Neron played their roles and contributed to the great project.
Forty thousand years ago, the Great Darkness and Perpetua corrupted Barbatos, who murdered his father. Upon seeing Bruce Wayne in his Omega Sanction (Return of Bruce Wayne), he became obsessed with Batman, and decided to manipulate Bruce Wayne’s life in order to create Batman (Batman Lost).
The energy unleashed by Urgrund’s explosion spread throughout the universe, spawning the Godwave, which seeded worlds with the potential to give rise to their own gods. One such world was Earth, which produced its first gods 35,000 years ago. This was the beginning of the “Third World” (Byrne). Eventually, the main Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian, and Aboriginal gods formed the Circle of Eternity (Trinity War).
Thirty thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Apokolips and New Genesis gained divinity and traits similar to those of the Old Gods, but became divided in terms of moral alignment. The “Fourth World” began when these New Gods attained godhood and repeated the history of the Old Gods by going to war. Since the source was now split in half, it could only influence the New Gods minimally, like a hand writing with fire (Countdown to Final Crisis).
The Presence also created Jesus of Nazareth, who with his teachings started the religion of Christianity. When Jesus was born, Spectre was cast into Limbo because Vengeance and Forgiveness could not be on earth at the same time. After Jesus’ death on the cross, Spectre exploded from Limbo and swept the earth with his wrath to punish mankind until the Archangel Michael stopped him (John Ostrander). After betraying Jesus, Judas attempted suicide, but was transported to the Circle of Eternity, who forced him to wander Earth forever as the Phantom Stranger (Dan DiDio). 4000 years ago, Black Adam killed most of the Circle of Eternity except for the Wizard (Priest). The Wizard proceeded to form the Quintessence along with Guardians of the Universe, Greek gods, New Gods, the Spectre and Phantom Stranger (Kingdom Come; Scott Snyder).
Noting that the New Gods of New Genesis were committing genocide in their war against Apokolips and other unacceptable behavior for gods, the Source decided to combine with the Anti-Life to create a Fifth World. The Source wanted all gods to combine into beings like Infinity Man, but the individuality of gods like Darkseid made this impossible.
Originally, Mars was inhabited by the Burning Martians, a violent race that lived on fire. To prevent them from spreading throughout the universe, the Guardians of the Universe programmed them with a phobia of fire, and, over time, the Martians evolved into the Green and White races (Joe Kelly’s JLA). Three hundred years ago, Darkseid visited Mars. When he learned that the Green Martian philosophy was based on the “Equation of Life,” he postulated that its opposite must exist and began searching for the Anti-Life Equation (Ostrander’s Martian Manhunter).
Things that happened: Wonder Woman debuted in the 20th Century; the JSA existed; Clark Kent was Superboy; the Legion of Superheroes existed; Clark’s parents never died. (I’m listing these events because people will be made to forget about them in a few years.)
In 2002, Barbatos broke through Bruce Wayne’s window in the shape of a bat and convinced him to become Batman (Batman Lost).
Then, the Justice League had its classic debut; Wally West existed; the Teen Titans existed; Barry Allen got married; the rape of Sue Dibny and the mind-wiping of various heroes and villains occurred.
Crisis Era
Crisis on Infinite Earths (Crisis I)
In 2009 of the current timeline, Perpetua began fighting to free herself from the Source Wall, causing the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It occurred because the Anti-Monitor became evil when the Source Wall took away his Antimatter Universe’s job of being the border between the Multiverse and the Greater Omniverse. Without a job, the Anti-Monitor felt resentment towards his brother. For millions of years, Perpetua whispered to the Anti-Monitor to attack, but he was also influenced by the Great Darkness, who made him find the Anti-Life equation it created, driving him mad and compelling him to fight the champion of the light, the Monitor. The Darkness was defeated thanks to the efforts of the immune system of the Multiverse, superheroes. Barry Allen died. However, the contraction of the Multiverse into a single universe weakened the Light, causing the Darkness to attack in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. This ended with a truce between Darkness and Light. (Since in the current timeline the multiverse never contracted, we haven’t been given an explanation as to how Alan Moore’s “American Gothic” happened yet.) The Crisis created a crack in the Source Wall, so Perpetua could corrupt beings more easily, resulting in the Crises happening more and more often.
Zero Hour (Crisis II)
One of the Crises caused by Perpetua was the Crisis in Time, Zero Hour; In 2011, Perpetua manipulated Parallax while the Great Darkness manipulated Extant, and both villains tried to cause a new big bang separately. The Crisis shook reality, creating a new crack in the Source Wall.
Bart Allen existed, Kon-El existed, Young Justice existed; Wally married and had children; Yz, Max Mercury, and Jesse Quick existed and were the Flash Family; Cassandra Cain was Batgirl; Stephanie Brown was Robin; Connor Hawke existed.
Infinite Crisis (Crisis III)
The compressed multiverse created a barrier that prevented the Source from combining with Anti-Life. To correct this, in 2013 the Source manipulated Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime into creating a new multiverse. Alexander Luthor was separately manipulated by Perpetua, while the Great Darkness corrupted Superboy-Prime. Luthor collapsed the multiverse back into a New Earth, but it was too small to contain the energy it held, so it ended up replicating into 52 identical universes. Another crack appeared in the Source Wall.
With the new multiverse, the Darkness managed to break its truce with the Light. The Monitors were created by the Source to delay the awakening of the Darkness. Mister Mind, manipulated by the Great Darkness, evolved and required the energy of the Multiverse to sustain himself. His feeding ate up years and events of each universe’s history, altering the Earths with each flap of his wings. This caused the Earths to change, becoming different from New Earth. The Source manipulated Booster Gold and the Monitors to stop him, but not to wage war on the Darkness, but so that the new Multiverse would be conducive to merge with the Anti-Life and create the Fifth World.
Final Crisis (Crisis IV)
In 2014, Darkseid was one of the few beings aware of the Darkness, and refused to go along with its plans, although he was manipulated by Perpetua despite of this. Darkseid manipulated “prophecy and destiny” to cause the Final Crisis and control Darkness. It’s possible that this involved manipulating quantum probabilities so that the future that created Anti-Life took place. In any case, the Crisis ended up creating a Fifth World, and Darkseid attracted the Darkness in the form of Mandrakk, albeit at the cost of his own life, as his Godhead was broken. To stop Mandrakk, the Monitors activated the multiverse’s immune system: the superheroes. Another crack appeared in the Wall Source.
Stephanie Brown became Batgirl.
Flashpoint Crisis (Crisis V)
When Barry Allen caused Flashpoint in 2015, Jon Osterman entered Earth Prime because he realized that the DC Universe was full of hope in humanity and traveled there to find a place among those people and start a new life. His visions showed him that, in four years, an arms race between metahumans was going to spark World War III, which was going to bring Manhattan into a confrontation with Superman, and then he saw nothing. After Mandrakk’s defeat, The Great Darkness understood that superheroes were his real enemy, so he corrupted Jon so that his reaction to his future visions was to modify the timeline and take years off the heroes, although Jon believed he was doing this to fix the rifts caused by the various Crises in the Multiverse.
Manhattan did the following:
-Tricked Pandora into convincing Barry to merge three separate timelines. The merger allowed him to erase ten years of the reversed universe.
-Manipulated Mr. Twister so that, in order to defeat him, the Teen Titans would have to mindwipe the entire world and everyone would forget that any incarnation of the Titans ever existed.
-Used Abra Kadabra to trap Wally West and his children inside the Speed Force, which caused them to be forgotten even by their family; Jon also revived Reverse-Flash to trap Jay Garrick, Yz, Max Mercury, and Jesse Quick in the Speed Force; Jon erased the memories of Barry’s marriage to Iris; Jon manipulated Dark Opal to erase all memory of Young Justice and have Bart Allen exiled into the Speed Force. The entire Flash Family was erased.
-(Probably) Manipulated Dr. Glory of Star Labs to exile Superboy on Gemworld, making everyone forget about him (Young Justice).
-Erased Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain’s memories of being Robin/Batgirls.
-Made Connor Hawke disappear and erased all memories of him.
-Erased memories of the Justice League’s classic debut; the rape of Sue Dibny and the mind-washing of several heroes and villains; and the death of Barry Allen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
-To study how changing Superman’s history altered the metaverse, he prevented Wonder Woman from debuting in the 20th Century and murdered Alan Scott. With no heroes before Superman’s arrival, Superman didn’t become Superboy, so the Legion of Super-Heroes was never founded. Manhattan also murdered Clark’s parents, who taught him to be optimistic, and replaced them with Jor-El, whom he saved from Krypton’s demise and conditioned by showing him the worst of humanity.
-(Probably) manipulated Mister Mxyzptlk to split Superman into red and blue halves.
-Revived Batman’s father (and probably manipulated him to accept Bane’s plan to tempt Bruce to stop being Batman).
That same year, Barbatos, corrupted by Perpetua and the Darkness, began orchestrating events seemingly unrelated to Batman, such as his Court of Owls kidnapping Batman and putting him in a maze that forces him to drink water from a magical fountain. This was just the first step in a grand ritual for his body to become a portal to the Dark Multiverse.
Two years later, in 2017, Wally West escaped from the Speed Force, warning everyone of Manhattan’s threat. Doctor Manhattan killed Owlman and Metron after they tried to access the secrets of the universe, killed Pandora when she realized he was responsible for all the sins she had been blamed for, and dropped a button in the Batcave for Batman to track down and meet his father with the goal of succumbing his heroism, due to the influence of Darkness.
Convergence (Crisis VI)
Brainiac of New Earth managed to escape Manhattan’s manipulations because his quest for knowledge had caused him to surpass the Source Wall just before Flashpoint. From there, Brainiac studied the previous versions of the Multiverse, and seeing the various crises caused him to evolve into an amalgamation of different incarnations of himself from extinct universes and timelines. Using his powers, he sent Pre-Flashpoint’s Superman and Hal Jordan, and Pre-Crisis’ Barry Allen and Supergirl, back in time, causing them to avoid the Crisis on Infinite Earths and revive a copy of the Pre-Crisis Multiverse. (But nobody cares.)
Metal (Crisis VII)
Meanwhile, the right hand of the Great Darkness, the one that had made a truce with the Light in American Gothic, became the Empty Hand, and it transformed the pre-Crisis Multiverse’s carcass into an army of Gentry (Multiversity).
That same year, Barbatos completed the ritual to turn Batman into a portal to the Dark Multiverse, and attacked. Although Barbatos was defeated, it had the consequence of breaking the Source Wall and freeing Perpetua.
Doomsday Clock
In 2019, the events Manhattan saw took place, but Clark refused to hit Jon, which filled him with a wave of hope. Jon understood that the force driving the metaverse was hope, represented and spearheaded by Superman. Using his Connective Energy powers, Jon reversed all of his changes so that the JSA, the Legion, Superboy, and Clark’s parents would always be alive. In the new timeline, people simply could not remember them until this date.
Death Metal (Anti-Crisis)
In 2021, Perpetua attacked, but was defeated. After reversing her damage by combining Manhattan’s Connective Energy with Crisis Energies, Darkseid gained enough power to once again attempt to steal Darkness’ power, but ended up controlled by Darkness and became his Left Hand.
Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths
In 2022, the Darkness corrupted by Pariah was purified when Pariah was sent to a paradise world where he can live in his native reality that was destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It would have been easier for him to go to the Multiverse-3 created by Convergence and we would have been spared all this.
In the recent issue of Batman: The Brave and the Bold Vol. 2 #2 Part 4, writer/artist Joëlle Jones packed in over forty flashbacks/references in a mere three pages, most of which were generic images that could be linked to any number of places in Batman’s past. However, some were to very specific items—Bane breaking Batman’s spine, Joker’s “Endgame,” and Batman vs Predator. There were a couple of items that were very specific but I had trouble ascertaining what they were exactly. Anyone have any ideas?
First off, I added this bird to a Penguin flashback, but could this be something more specific?
Second, we have a dragon/dinosaur-like creature. I’ve guessed this is one of DC’s more famous dragons, Drakul Karfang. But is it something else?
Third, we have a top hat-wearing villain with an ornate jacket. It looks like Tally Man, right? Or could it be someone else?
Fourth is this image, of which I can make no guess whatsoever. Thoughts?
And last but not least, this image of a female character with diamonds over her eyes. (I had to rotate and stretch this image to make it out at all.) I don’t know who this is. Do you?
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