Modern YEAR TWO

1990

_______________________________

–Batman and The Mad Monk #6 Epilogue by Matt Wagner
January 1. Bruce receives another mailed letter from Julie Madison, who is starting her service with the Peace Corps somewhere in Africa. Although, as per reference in Batman #682, Bruce doesn’t actually read Julie’s letter. Meanwhile, Batman has the stark realization that his war on crime will likely last a very long time, meaning he shouldn’t allow anyone to get too close to him. In Bruce’s mind, short-term physical relationships, especially ones to keep up Playboy appearances, are okay, but getting too attached is highly dangerous and distracting to his mission. (Batman has said this exact kind of thing before, but he always has had—and will have—trouble adhering to this self-edict.) While patrolling the urban streets and rooftops, Batman is alerted by police scanner report about poisoned corpses piled up in a Gotham City warehouse. Strangely, all of the victims have horrific rictus grins stretched from cheek to cheek across their faces. The Dark Knight immediately heads toward the scene of this macabre crime, hoping to assist Captain Gordon.

–Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker/Doug Manhke
January 1-5—it’s been three months since the Red Hood incident at Ace Chemical. Picking up directly from Mad Monk #6 epilogue, Batman meets with Captain Gordon at the warehouse full of rictus grinning murder victims (the very same cadavers mentioned in the Mad Monk #6 epilogue). The next day, Bruce has dinner with prominent Gothamite Henry Claridge. During the dinner, Bruce evades a boring business discussion by citing the fact that he is merely a figurehead at Wayne Enterprises, which is 100% accurate at this juncture! The evening is interrupted when a debuting Joker interrupts a live TV news report about the upcoming reopening of Arkham Asylum, introducing himself to the public by threatening to kill Claridge at exactly midnight. (Notably, as mentioned before, The Man Who Laughs retcons Frank Miller’s Year One by revealing that Joker has not yet started calling himself “Joker”; he has simply gone without a moniker and even goes nameless during his introduction. It’s only because the police and news media now dub him “Joker” that the name sticks!) Bruce slips away and switches into Bat-gear, utilizing a new Batmobile (or new Batmobile mode) that allows the car to camouflage itself as a civilian vehicle. Sure enough, at the stroke of midnight, despite massive police protection, Claridge keels over with a forced smile on his face—victim of a time-release poison (which will soon come to be referred to as Joker Toxin aka Joker Venom), with which he had been dosed earlier in the day. Across town, Joker kidnaps a bunch of asylum residents and turns them into his henchmen. In the morning, Joker threatens to kill millionaire Jay Wilde. When night falls, Joker is much less subtle this time, attacking the GCPD and Batman head-on via helicopter and shooting Wilde dead with Joker Toxin-tipped bullets. The next day, after some chemical analysis, Batman learns that the man in the Red Hood costume that fell into the vat at Ace Chemical three months ago is Joker. Batman tracks Joker and discovers that he has been looking at survey maps. Batman here seems unsure as to what Joker was searching for, mistakenly thinking it has something to do with the sewers. This feels like a continuity error on the part of Ed Brubaker—Batman surely would have realized Joker was finally ready to strike at the reservoir since he’d already made that threat only a month earlier (on December 3 in Miller’s “Year One”). But as I’ve stated above, since this is the definitive Joker origin, published in 2005, the error becomes a retcon. Joker publicly threatening to contaminate the reservoir on December 3 simply never happened. Batman spends the next two days creating an antidote to Joker’s Toxin. Joker then appears on TV again to threaten Judge Thomas Lake and Bruce Wayne! In order to free himself of police protection, Bruce fakes his own death at 11:30, injecting himself with Joker Toxin (and then having Alfred cure him in an ambulance down the road). Batman then realizes that Joker is going to attempt to poison the reservoir, battles Joker’s henchmen, and prevents the Clown Prince of Crime from doing so. (A flashback from Detective Comics #0, despite being published nine years prior to The Man Who Laughs, basically shows this fight scene between Batman and Joker, even including some verbatim dialogue.)^[1][2] The epilogue to The Man Who Laughs takes place a few weeks later, and is listed below.

—^[3]

–“Do You Understand These Rights?” by Andrew Kreisberg/Scott McDaniel (Batman Confidential #22-25) December 2008 to March 2009
January 5-13. First of all, this item is canonically dubious, containing several errors. As such, feel free to exclude it from your personal headcanon. The completist in me has chosen to include it here—with a few caveats, of course. We’ll address those caveats as we come to them. Our story picks up immediately after The Man Who Laughs ends. Batman hauls Joker to jail. (Enter error number one. Batman delivers the line, “He calls himself ‘The Joker'” to the cops, which doesn’t make sense since Joker is already a household name and the cops themselves are the ones that named him!) Batman then meets with Jim Gordon. (Enter error number two. Gordon is referred to as Lieutenant, and he will be throughout this arc. Ignore it.) From jail, Joker uses his one phone call to ring GCPD Detective Geoff Shancoe’s wife Holly and, posing as her doctor, tells her she has a rare fatal blood disease. The unstable Holly commits suicide as a result! The next day, Batman and Gordon attend Holly Shancoe’s funeral. A day after that, Joker nearly escapes on his way to his arraignment hearing, killing two guards in the process, but Batman makes sure he gets to court. At the hearing, Bruce watches from the crowd as ADA Harvey Dent asks for an “expedited trial” aka “rocket docket.” The fast-tracked trial is granted by the judge, who sets the trial to last for four weeks. (Note that the “expedited trial” has been a part of DCU canon dating back to the Golden Age.) However, before the judge can even bang his gavel, Joker, having learned of his serious allergy, kills the judge by flinging a peanut into his drinking water. If you haven’t already suspended all disbelief, do it now. The next day at trial, Joker manages to kill the court psychiatrist with a well-placed banana peel. After getting chewed out by the mayor, Gordon and Dent meet with Batman to discuss a plan of action. (This is error number three. Writer Andrew Kreisberg and artist Scott McDaniel show Mayor Hamilton Hill, which is a total anachronistic continuity error. Hill won’t be mayor for years—so we should either ignore this scene, reimagine it with Mayor Klass, or keep Hill but think of him as a city councilman or something.) Batman then gets purposefully arrested as Matches Malone in order to meet with Joker face-to-face in an attempt to get inside his head. Finding it impossible to do so, Batman bolts and frustratingly heads home. On the second day of the trial, a new judge halts the proceedings, citing that Joker is too “psychologically damaged to continue,” and sentences the criminal to Holly Springs Psychiatric Hospital. Angered at the decision, Shancoe snaps. He shoots both Gordon and his partner Robbie, cuts off Joker’s transport to Holly Springs, and then puts a gun to the villain’s head. Batman arrives just in time to take down Shancoe, but a freed Joker puts the gun to Batman’s head. Gordon, safe and sound thanks to his bulletproof vest, arrives as well and takes down Joker. On trial day three, Joker goes to newly reopened Arkham Asylum—he is inmate number one, with Shancoe as inmate number two. (Here we face error number four. Kreisberg makes a weird “Arkham Estates” private condo reference. Arkham was already set to reopen as an asylum in The Man Who Laughs. Arkham was never—nor was it ever going to be—a condo.) Batman Confidential #25 has an epilogue involving the first capture of Riddler, but that doesn’t take place until March, so we’ll see it a bit later on our timeline.

–REFERENCE: In Batman #673, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #32-34, and The Batman Files. Batman invents one-man autogyro-copters called Bat-Gyros, which will occasionally (but rarely) get used on certain cases or patrols moving forward. When Robin comes on the scene in a few years, he will rename these things “Whirly-Bats.”

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #23. Bruce visits Dr. Leslie Thompkins. They hang out and she stresses how much she loathes Batman, thinking his vigilantism is reckless and dangerous. Bruce poses for a photograph with Leslie. After developing the photo, Bruce frames it and sends it to her as a gift.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman #0. Batman poses in the Batcave, ready for a night’s patrol. The Batmobile is shown in the background.

–FLASHBACK: From Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2. Batman, having just returned to the Batcave from a routine patrol, greets Alfred and walks away from the Batmobile. This could take place pretty much anywhere but works here.

–Batman: The Man Who Laughs Epilogue by Ed Brubaker/Doug Manhke
Late January. With Joker in Arkham Asylum, Batman meets with Gordon and they discuss this horrific new super-villain. They also discuss the mayor’s acceptance of Batman and the use of the Bat-Signal.^[4]

–FLASHBACK: From Batman #682. Early February. Bruce and Alfred visit Thomas and Martha Wayne’s graves. Bruce mentions that he can’t date anymore because it will interfere with his work, suggesting that it’s time to end his relationship with Julie Madison. Alfred reminds Bruce, disgustedly, that Julie dumped him several months ago (two months ago to be exact). Alfred shows Bruce a box of unopened letters that Julie has been sending to Wayne Manor for months. Yes, this attitude seems very cold on Bruce’s part, especially in regard to someone he was legitimately in love with. However, while Bruce loved Julie deeply, Batman moved on, pushed her out of his mind completely, and never looked back.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman: Battle for the Cowl – Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? #1—and referenced in Batman #403 and Batman Confidential #25. February. Despite Bruce having again sworn off serious dating, sexual encounters still apparently aren’t off the table. Bruce has his first sexual liaison with photojournalist Vicki Vale, becoming legitimate friends with her in the process. Post coitus, Vicki comments on Bruce’s various battle scars. Bruce tells her he got them playing polo. (Yes, as confirmed in other stories, notably Batman: War on Crime and “Faith,” Bruce is already fairly heavily-scarred due to his years of intense training abroad and brutal first year of vigilantism.) Bruce and Vicki will have an on-again-off-again thing for years to come. Vicki, who now works for a pro-Batman magazine, also meets the Dark Knight as well, becoming infatuated with finding out his secret ID. While we will only see Vicki sporadically in Batman’s Early Period, we must imagine that she will distantly trail the Dark Knight on a lot of his cases for the next decade.

–REFERENCE: In Batman Annual #11, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #167, and The Batman Files—originally told in Detective Comics #58. February. Batman (both as Batman and separately as Bruce) meets notorious quasi-celebrity club owner/swindler Oswald Cobblepot, who has now become the umbrella-wielding/bird-themed super-villain called Penguin. As revealed in Batman Annual #11, Cobblepot has been in-and-out of prison for at least the past twelve years. Therefore, while Cobblepot has been a criminal for a while (pre-dating Batman’s arrival in Gotham), it can be assumed that Cobblepot’s newfound more outrageous nature has developed as a direct result of both Batman’s presence and the ever-changing nature of super-villainy and “pop-crime” in the city. Incredibly, there is no actual story in the Modern Age that specifically shows the original meetings between Batman/Bruce and Penguin. Matthew Manning, author of The Batman Files, seemed to have been very aware of this when he wrote the canonical first Bruce/Penguin encounter into his book in 2011. Here’s a synopsis. Bruce, likely to bolster his “playboy” persona, begins dating rich society gal Linda Page (a nod to the Golden Age and Silver Age). He also sponsors a new wing of the Flugelheim Museum (a nod to Tim Burton’s Batman film), to which Bruce, Linda, and some of her friends visit. While there, Linda gossips, mentioning the rich Vreeland family (a nod to Batman the Animated Series).^[5] Cobblepot also visits the museum, where he makes obnoxious comments to both Bruce and Linda before getting away scot-free with a stolen painting. Presumably, not long afterward, Bruce switches to his crime-fighting gear and shakes-down Penguin, thus officially meeting Penguin as both Bruce and Batman. This immediately leads to another quick confrontation (or possibly multiple confrontations in a row). Despite these head-to-heads, Penguin’s current MO is to commit crimes with the façade of appearing like he is running a legitimate business, so he won’t get busted for anything right now. Nor will he really be on Batman’s true crime radar until a few years from now. However, once Penguin is in Batman’s scope, he’ll definitely spend time in various prisons (just as before). It won’t be until around Year Fourteen that Penguin will really build a functional front of legitimacy and perfect his ability to avoid jail time. Notably, Batman will collect a ton of Penguin’s staple trick umbrellas over the course of the next two decades. Shortly after this Penguin affair, Bruce breaks things off with Linda. Again, The Batman Files says that Bruce dates Linda for months, but they actually only date for weeks.

–Batman: Journey into Knight #1-6 by Andrew Helfer/Tan Eng Huat
February—Bruce’s birthday occurs at some point in Journey into Knight #3-4. Bruce begins having disturbing nightmares about his father. Soon after, Bruce meets with his dad’s old lawyer Mr. Simmonds (who Alfred mistakenly calls “Jenkins”) to officially become the majority shareholder/owner of Wayne Industries. (Mr. Simmonds mentions last seeing Bruce on the day his parents were killed, saying, “You were what—almost ten-years-old?” It’s a nice guess, but Bruce was eight.) After signing on the dotted line, Bruce is christened as the new CEO/chairman of the board. (A reference in Superman/Batman #85 tells us that, as CEO/chairman, Bruce will no longer have to answer to shareholders—at least not like before. However, Bruce will technically still be committing felony fraud when pilfering tech to use for his war on crime, but from now on he’ll mostly be stealing from himself.) The existing corporate heads at Wayne Enterprises are not pleased with the new CEO, especially when Bruce “sleeps” through every meeting. By night, Batman solves the case of Cary Rinaldi aka The Carrier, who spreads a fatal disease wherever he goes. By day, Bruce spends time with his new love interest: Mr. Simmonds’ daughter, Summer Skye Simmonds (aka Summer Simmonds aka Skye Peters), who has come back into his life for the first time since he was a boy. I guess Bruce just can’t let go of the ladies after all. After the Carrier is jailed, Batman is forced to go after terrorists, who have cut off the villain’s diseased hand and threaten to use it as a biological weapon. Batman debriefs Jim Gordon (mistakenly referred to as “Lieutenant”) atop police HQ while the latter tunes-up the Bat-Signal. Don’t forget, at this point, the Bat-symbol on the spotlight lens is still just adhered via tape. Artist Tan Eng Huat doesn’t make this very clear, instead drawing it to look like a later version of the signal, but it is indeed a taped-on cloth symbol. With help from the Carrier’s girlfriend, Batman busts the terrorists.^[6]

–FLASHBACK: From Detective Comics Annual #8. March.^[7] This “Riddler Year One” story (entitled “Questions Multiply the Mystery”) by Chuck Dixon/Kieron Dwyer is told through flashback from the Riddler’s point of view. As such, the main (non flashback) narrative of Detective Comics Annual #8 doesn’t actually feature Batman—it’s just Riddler at Arkham Asylum ranting to himself in the mirror about his first encounters with the Caped Crusader. (In his rant, Riddler makes mention that he’s been interviewed for months, so the implication is that the present day part of Detective Comics Annual #8 occurs at least a few months following his first incarceration—most likely some point in early Year Three.) In what will be a series of five major heists, Batman first encounters Edward Nashton aka Edward Nigma, better known as The Riddler, a super-villain whose schtick is to send clues to the cops before committing a crime. (Notably, Riddler’s will also mix in some small-time, non-riddle muggings along with his five major heists.) As referenced in Batman Confidential #25, Riddler’s five debut heists all occur within the same month (possibly spanning only a couple weeks) and are chronologically as follows: One, the Riddler’s paltry debut at Everest Theater; two, the Lighthouse Club job at 2:29 am on March 4th (the time and date are part of the riddles); three, the Reservoir Cash Depository job (during which Riddler debuts henchwomen Query and Echo); four, the first part of the Stradivarius Kidnapping affair; and five, the final part of the Stradivarius Kidnapping affair (during which Riddler is finally captured by Batman). We will see Riddler being jailed immediately following the Stradivarius Kidnapping affair in the upcoming epilogue to “Do You Understand These Rights?” (i.e. the epilogue to Batman Confidential #25). While not specifically visually shown, during one of these encounters with Riddler, Batman keeps a giant question mark as a souvenir, which he will later display in the Batcave as a trophy (as seen and referenced in Nightwing Vol. 2 #101). Likewise, Batman keeps one of Riddler’s riddle clue notes as a trophy for future display as well (as referenced in The Batman Files). Last but not least, Batman keeps Riddler’s domino mask as a trophy for future display too (as referenced in Detective Comics #821).

–“Do You Understand These Rights?” Epilogue by Andrew Kreisberg/Scott McDaniel (Batman Confidential #25 Epilogue) March 2009
March—picking up directly from the second part of the Stradivarius Kidnapping plot in Detective Comics Annual #8. Having just apprehended Riddler, Batman drops him off at GCPD HQ.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #105-106. March—Mayor Wilson Klass mentions that the election is coming up in eight months, although Harvey Bullock mentions that Batman has been around for a year-and-a-half to two years. (Bullock is off in his guess, but this story could really go anytime this year.) Batman visits the Middle East to shut down a terrorist organization called El-Kar’isha. While the Dark Knight is away on an unspecified case, Captain Gordon and Sergeant Harvey Bullock challenge Joker, who escaped from Arkham Asylum two weeks ago and has allied himself with a French (possibly North African) terrorist. Gordon and Bullock stop Joker and his new pal from blowing up an oil tanker in Gotham.

–REFERENCE: In Teen Titans Vol. 3 #9. Batman creates a detailed monetary budget for all of his Bat-accoutrements and weaponry. This way he will always have a complete financial account of how much his war on crime costs. In the future, Batman’s allies will also be given access to the budget.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: The Long Halloween and The Batman Files—originally told in Detective Comics #259. Late March to early April. The date-themed super-villain Calendar Man (Julian Gregory Day) debuts, publicly claiming that he will commit five crimes in a row (one per day for five days straight), each with a seasonal theme. After Calendar Man bests Batman four times over the course of four days, the Caped Crusader realizes that Calendar Man plans to strike again posing as Maharajah the Magician, a stage performer he killed last year. On day five, Batman busts Calendar Man, leaving him for Captain Gordon.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #42, Batman: Poison Ivy, and the second feature to Countdown #37—and referenced in Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #42 and Batman #670. Originally told in Batman #181. Spring—LODTK #42 explicitly states that Poison Ivy debuts in the spring. Batman encounters the former female-rockers turned super-villains, Silken Spider, Tiger Moth, and Dragonfly (aka “Dragon Fly”). Shortly thereafter, Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley) debuts, demonstrating her ability to control both plants and people. (Poison Ivy has gotten her powers from the abusive Dr. Jason Woodrue.) Out to prove that she is the number one female super-villain in Gotham, Poison Ivy busts the trio of rival ladies. This leads to Batman busting Poison Ivy, but not before she surprises him with a poisonous kiss. NOTES: The placement of Poison Ivy’s debut is a tricky one. The only post-original Crisis debut tale for Poison Ivy is the definitively non canon “Year One Poison Ivy” by Alan Grant from Batman: Shadow of the Bat Annual #3. There are several things that make this story non canon. First, we meet a violently homicidal Pamela Isley from the get-go. Pamela doesn’t doesn’t use deliberately lethal tactics for her debut. (Although, Batman: Poison Ivy does show her unwittingly poisoning some people, including at least one lover, when she first gains her metahuman powers. LOTDK #43 confirms that one of Pamela’s boyfriends is indeed accidentally killed by her poison.) In any case, Poison Ivy’s first encounter with Batman is more playful than murderous, and it is precisely because of this fact that she is released instead of incarcerated. Second, Gordon is a lieutenant. Third, Batman still doesn’t have the Batmobile yet. Fourth, there are vague references to Christmas coming soon. Fifth, Poison Ivy is shown using former Joker and Penguin henchmen. Ivy could have used Penguin’s henchmen, but using Joker’s henchmen, on the other hand, would probably be unlikely since he doesn’t really use henchmen until later on. And sixth, references in Batman #670 hint at a Poison Ivy origin that involves Silken Spider, Dragonfly, and Tiger Moth, meaning that Ivy’s origin is likely a modified version of her origin from Batman #181 (or one that combines it with elements of Shadow of the Bat Annual #3). Therefore, despite whether we completely ignore Shadow of the Bat Annual #3 outright or make mere reference to it, Ivy’s first appearance should still be placed here on the timeline, somewhere during the spring months about one year into Batman’s tenure as Gotham’s vigilante hero—(SOTB Annual #3 actually gets this one year in part correct).^[8]

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #79. Batman meets nude dancer Tabitha and begins using her as an informant.

–REFERENCE: In Hawkgirl #59. Batman busts the arms builder and trafficker known as The Mole.

–REFERENCE: In The Batman Files. Enter author Matthew Manning, who never misses an opportunity to play fast-and-loose with continuity gaps. Regarding Catman, Manning’s The Batman Files (2011) canonizes a version of 1993’s “Heat” by Doug Moench/Russ Heath (LOTDK #46-49), a Thomas “Catman” Blake origin story that features an entirely different version of the character. While “Heat” may have possibly been Moench’s attempt to write a new canonical Modern Age Catman origin in 1993, it was made non-canon a few years later, with the Silver Age Catman origin overwriting it. (It’s also highly possible that, like many other LOTDK stories, “Heat” was always meant to be non-canon in the first place.)^[9] In any case, here is a synopsis, modeled after the original “Heat” story. (Despite that fact that “Heat” can be read more-or-less as-is, I’m hesitant to include it as an outright bulleted inclusion—as opposed to a simple reference listing—for all the complex background mentioned above.) A violent serial killer named Thomas Blake becomes the one-shot super-villain called Catman. Batman begins a very public war with Catman, much to the consternation of Captain Gordon, Mayor Klass, and Catwoman. Meanwhile, a wealthy big game hunter, also named Thomas Blake, becomes obsessed with the case because the serial killer has the exact same name as him. Eventually, Batman busts Catman Blake. The other Blake will eventually be inspired to copycat (pun intended) the man with whom he shares a name. Manning tells us that Catman II will debut a little over a year after Catman I, but since Manning utilizes a slightly different timeline than the Batman Chronology Project, he also mentions that Gordon will be commissioner when Catman II debuts. As such, Catman II won’t come around next year. He’ll make his first appearance two years from now, when Gordon is commissioner.

–“Deja Vu” by Darwyn Cooke (Solo #5) August 2005
This tale is a canonical re-telling of “The Stalker” by Steve Englehart (originally told in 1974’s Detective Comics #439). Batman chases down a group of robbers after they murder a young boy’s parents in front of him. After bringing the villains to justice, Bruce reflects in front of his own deceased parents’ portrait and cries. Very powerful in the 70s and the legendary Cooke treats the story with respect in 2005. (Although, we should ignore Cooke’s poetic license of placing Wayne Manor by the seaside.)

–“Gothic” by Grant Morrison/Klaus Janson (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #6-10)
Late April to early May—this item lasts a couple weeks.^[10] Bruce begins having recurring nightmares about his father and his old boarding school, causing him to obsess over stopped clocks. Concurrently, scared gangsters beg Batman to fight the serial killer Mr. Whisper, who has begun targeting them. Batman exposes Mr. Whisper as his childhood boarding school headmaster, Manfred Winchester, who has semi-immortality and is three-hundred-years-old. After a visit to his old school for clues, Batman follows Mr. Whisper’s trail to Austria where he learns of a dark connection between an abbey at Lake Dess and Gotham Cathedral. Back in Gotham, Batman is captured by Mr. Whisper, who reveals that he designed Gotham Cathedral to be the centerpiece of an occult ritual involving the release a deadly plague-like disease. On the start of Walpurgis Night (April 30), Batman is able to prevent Mr. Whisper’s genocide from happening, after which Mr. Whisper flees the scene only to be killed by the person that originally granted him immortality long ago—Lucifer Morningstar aka Satan! Later, via mail, Bruce receives Mr. Whisper’s heart (a gift from Satan). Batman returns to Austria and throws the heart into Lake Dess, thus ending the curious case of Mr. Whisper.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #42. Bruce meets and befriends the unnamed Dean of Gotham University and the school’s regent Ian Spencer.

–FLASHBACK: From The Batman Chronicles #10. Batman busts some random crooks. An unnamed gangster witnesses the bust, which strikes the fear of the Bat into him. He tells his three partners in crime to beware of Gotham’s protector, but sure enough, the Dark Knight sends them to jail in quick succession. When rival mobsters kill the unnamed gangster’s family, he comes to think Batman is responsible and becomes a vagrant recluse living on the streets of Gotham.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: War on Crime. Bruce meets real estate developer Randall Winters, who works closely with Wayne Industries.

–REFERENCE: In Detective Comics Annual #3. GCPD Detective Sergeant Mark Cord begins working security at Wayne Manor charity events. He will do so for years to come, although we’ll have to imagine these events scattered throughout our timeline ahead. Bruce won’t meet Cord, nor will he take notice of him.

–“Hot House” by John Francis Moore/P Craig Russell (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #42-43) February to March 1993
“Hot House” depicts Poison Ivy’s second encounter with Batman. Gordon references Batman’s first encounter with her as happening “last spring.” While the term “last spring” seems to imply spring from the previous year, we must take Gordon’s reference to mean the most recent spring, or in this case just over a month to a month-and-a-half ago. Thus, this seems like an appropriate place to put “Hot House” onto our timeline. (Note that, in LOTDK #43, a crook says “Christmas in July,” implying that we are in July. However, we shouldn’t regard this as actually meaning we are in July.) In “Hot House,” we learn that Ivy was released from a psychiatric hospital shortly after her first encounter with Batman and is now working at Gotham University. Has she really reformed? No way, Jose. “Hot House” plants the seed (pun intended) for the future of Pamela Isley; she’s manipulative, seductive, and downright out-of-control. Overall, “Hot House” takes about a week to wrap up, during which Poison Ivy frames her rivals for murder and, using her drugs and powers, hypnotizes Batman into falling in love with her. The smitten Bruce pisses-off his unnamed blonde date, accidentally calling her “Pamela” multiple times. For the purposes of our timeline, this unnamed blonde must be Summer Skye Simmonds. It fits nicely in the time frame and double-functions as their official break up. Eventually, Batman travels to Seattle to interrogate one of Ivy’s former colleagues, Dr. Philip Daniel Sylvian. Notably, both Dr. Jason Woodrue and Green Arrow are mentioned in their conversation, although Batman has yet to meet either of them. Following this conversation, Batman realizes Poison Ivy’s machinations. Using a protective salve given to him by Dr. Sylvian, Batman is able to get the jump on Poison Ivy. The salve wears off, proving to be ineffective. Despite this, Batman busts Poison Ivy, sending her to Arkham Asylum. (Note that Batman will have access to the anti-Poison Ivy salve moving forward, but he won’t be able to create a legitimate antidote/antitoxin for Poison Ivy’s seductive lure for many years.)

–FLASHBACK: From the second feature to Countdown to Final Crisis #11—and referenced in Batman: The Long Halloween #2 and The Batman Files. Batman encounters the undead Solomon Grundy in the sewer, later saving a young girl from him. Grundy has been a longtime infamous resident of Gotham, having fought Green Lantern Alan Scott decades ago. Thus, even though Batman only meets Grundy for the first time now, he has been aware of his existence since he was a boy.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #140, Batman: The Long Halloween #1, Batman/Catwoman: Trail of the Gun #1-2, and The Batman Files. Bruce Wayne meets Selina Kyle out-of-costume for the first time. They’ve already met in-costume on a bunch of occasions (and once when Bruce used his scarred-up war vet disguise), but never in their regular civilian personas. Selina, who has falsely established herself as notorious Gotham socialite “Marguerite Tone,” becomes playfully entangled with Bruce. (Selina will drop the fake name almost immediately after using it, although she’ll keep her new socialite status.) Bruce and Selina begin on-again-off-again dating each other. They will cross paths several times over the course of the rest of this calendar year, but those meetings aren’t specifically referenced, so we will simply have to imagine them appearing randomly on our timeline. Furthermore, while Selina has (and will have) no idea that Bruce is Batman, the super-sleuth Dark Knight confirms that Selina is none other than his feline femme fatale foe.^[11]

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Gotham Knights #7. Batman becomes aware that Alfred and Leslie Thompkins are romantically involved. They have been seeing each other on-and-off for years. The Dark Knight will hold his tongue, choosing not to speak about it at this juncture.

–“Stalking” by Lee Marrs/Eddy Newell (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #107-108) June to July 1998
Late May—this is a “summertime” tale, but it technically occurs in late spring, shortly before Batman: Journey into Knight #7-12. A highly-trained motorcycle-driving assassin goes on a murder spree to avenge the death of her husband, a criminal who had been killed years ago by Captain Gordon.^[12]

–REFERENCE: In The Batman Files. Batman and Captain Gordon bust serial killer Dr. Rudolph Klemper, known as The Senior Slasher. His trial is fast-tracked and prosecuted by ADA Harvey Dent. Unfortunately, Klemper is found not guilty by reason of insanity. Dent vents about the trial results, showing his frustration to Batman. Later, in secret, Dent kills Klemper. Note that this item is a modified and highly pared-down version of the non-canon Batman Annual #14 (1990), entitled “Eye of the Beholder,” which was the original Two-Face origin prior to the publication of The Long Halloween (1997).^[13]

–Batman: The Long Halloween #1 Part 1 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1996)^[14][15]
Early June. Harvey Dent has just been promoted from ADA to DA. Bruce attends the wedding reception of Johnny Viti (Carmine “The Roman” Falcone’s nephew) where he flirts and dances with Selina Kyle. (A flashback from Catwoman Vol. 3 #1 shows Bruce and Selina dancing here.) Also in attendance are Sal Maroni, Carmine’s bodyguard Milos Grapa, Carmine’s sister Carla Viti, and Carmine’s son Alberto Falcone. Toward the end of the celebration, Bruce and Selina peel off and get into their respective costumes. Batman chases off Catwoman and still manages to steal a ledger from Falcone’s mansion. Later, the Dark Knight delivers the ledger to Harvey Dent and Captain Gordon atop GCPD HQ where the trio plans their war against the Falcones. (A reference in The Batman Files adds a line about the recent “Klemper Case” to this rooftop conversation.)

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Journey into Knight #7. Early June. Batman gives Captain Gordon a cellphone with which he can reach him on a special “hotline” in case of emergency. In the Silver Age and on the Batman ’66 TV show, the hotline—a red landline phone—was a big deal, getting used all the time. It is very much not a big deal in the Modern Age. In fact, Gordon will only use the mobile device once (in the upcoming Journey into Knight #8), much preferring to use the Bat-Signal instead.

–Batman: Journey into Knight #7-12 by Andrew Helfer/Tan Eng Huat (April to November 2006)
Early June-early July. Issue #7 of Journey into Knight begins “four months later” after issue #6 and supposedly spans over three months. However, in order to accommodate other stories, notably “Faith” and The Long Halloween, we must compress this part of the arc down to a svelte single month. In a highly elaborate storyline (not a necessarily good one, mind you), Journey into Knight reveals that the higher-ups at Wayne Industries climbed the corporate ladder by utilizing a criminal scheme that involved kidnapping, faking deaths, actual murder, arson, hypnotism, and many other felonies. Anyway, now that Bruce has settled into his role as CEO of the company, these guys stand to lose everything. Thus, the bad guys hypnotize Bruce (with the help of metahuman villain Sister Lailah) and he tries to kill someone. For the first time in his life, Bruce becomes a fugitive from the law! (Notably, this won’t be the last time Bruce becomes a fugitive.) Knowing that Bruce will talk once he snaps out of the trance, the bad guys catch him, dope him up, and secretly incarcerate him in Arkham Asylum! (Notably, this won’t be the last time Bruce is incarcerated in Arkham.) To add to the chaos, Joker, unknown to the outside world, has assumed control of one of the Arkham wings and acts as Bruce’s personal “doctor,” keeping him trapped and drugged for what we are told is three months. There’s just no room for Bruce to be off the grid for a full three months. As mentioned above, we must retcon it down to a more reasonable number, in this case one month, leaving Bruce is out of commission from early June to early July. Eventually, Bruce gets out, is cleared of all charges, and we see a fully-recovered Batman out-and-about. (We are told that Batman recovers for two weeks following his Arkham nightmare, but again due to compression, we really don’t have room for that either.) Note that Journey into Knight #10 contains one of the biggest continuity errors of the entire Modern Age. While rummaging through Thomas and Martha Wayne’s bedroom, Gordon mentions that nothing has been touched in exactly ten years and six months, implying that Bruce’s parents only died that length of time ago. Absolutely ludicrous.^[16]

–Batman: The Long Halloween #1 Part 2 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1996)
Early July. Bruce attends a board meeting for the Gotham City Bank and demands that they not do business with the Falcone family. Bruce is out-voted. Later that night, Batman visits corrupt bank president Richard Daniel and scares him into resigning. The next day, Bruce is elected new president of the bank and nixes any business relationship with the Falcones.

–“Faith” by Mike W Barr/Bart Sears (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #21) August to October 1991
July 5-July 28. “Faith” is an important canonical story, but it contains a big continuity error. Dr. Leslie Thompkins is shown working in a hospital full-time and doesn’t yet have her private clinic, but she actually had her private clinic before Bruce even became Batman. Moving on to the synopsis. Recovering drug user John Ackers winds up in the care of Leslie Thompkins, who helps him rehab. While Ackers rehabs, Batman takes to the streets as he always does, stopping a terrorist bomber on July 9. Ackers checks himself out of the hospital on the 10th, and by the 20th, has formed a vigilante militia known as The Bat-Men, directly inspired by his favorite hero. On the night of July 28th, Batman is in a tough spot against some drug dealers (led by the vile Costas) until the Bat-Men assist him. Note that we see Captain Gordon still using the cloth cutout version of the Bat-Signal, which is correct (!), helping us place this item. “Faith” is also a prequel of sorts to Mike W Barr’s other Year Two story, the aptly named “Batman: Year Two,” which also helps us place this item.

–Batman: War on Crime by Alex Ross/Paul Dini (1999)
Summer.^[17] Batman visits his parents’ graves, after which he does his routine patrol, busting random bad guys left-and-right. He also keeps up appearances (as Bruce) at elite soirées and in executive boardrooms. We also see a shirtless Bruce, with heavy scarring on his upper body, chatting with Alfred and working out in the Batcave. Batman then spends a few days cleaning-up crime in the notorious Bayside District of Gotham—busting street level hoods, shuttering drug gangs, shaking-down a notorious ex-mobster turned club owner, making a positive influence on a young juvenile delinquent, and outing crooked real estate developer Randall Winters to the police.^[18]

–REFERENCE: In Detective Comics #598. Batman builds and secretly imbeds a master password program that he can use to override all internal security for WayneTech’s computer systems. This gives him unlimited access to WayneTech’s computers.

–“Testament” by John Wagner/Chris Brunner (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #172-176) December 2003 to April 2004
Now that we’ve seen the rise of the violent Bat-Men, we’ll start to see the emergence of other homicidal Batman-inspired criminal gangs as well. The gang known as “Rough Justice” burglarizes Wayne Manor and stumbles upon Bruce’s journal, which gives away his identity as Batman! Luckily for Bruce, the whole gang is killed before anyone finds out. Captain Gordon does manage to procure the journal, but he opts not to read it, instead returning it to Batman safely.^[19][20]

–“Faith” (conclusion) by Mike W Barr/Bart Sears (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #22-23) August to October 1991
August 8-10. The Bat-Men have become increasingly violent in recent weeks, starting near riots in the streets as they fight a war against drug cartels. Captain Gordon finally brands them outlaws even though Batman still supports them. Batman goes after Costas, who gets shot in the shoulder by cops and winds up handcuffed to a hospital bed a day later. At the hospital, John Ackers and the Bat-Men try to execute Costas, but Batman intervenes, stopping them. For his trouble, Batman gets shot three times by Ackers as Leslie Thompkins looks on in horror. The Bat-Men kidnap Costas and take off. Meanwhile, Leslie unmasks Batman and learns that he’s Bruce! Leslie, upon discovering Bruce’s dark secret, cannot believe that he has been “hiding it all these years.” “All these years” implies that he’s been Batman for some time… maybe like almost four years or so? The timing of this story works superbly. Leslie saves Bruce’s life and pulls the bullets out of him. The bloody Dark Knight rushes to the Bat-Men HQ and fights his way in, but seconds late to save Costas, who gets bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat courtesy of Ackers. Batman then intimidates the entire militia and brings Ackers to justice. Afterward, Leslie talks about her disapproval of the Batman, but says she will always support Bruce. In future stories, Leslie will become not only one of Batman’s most trusted and allies, but act as a moral compass for him time and time again. As loving as she will become, Dr. Thompkins will often criticize his methods, especially his endangerment of children. In a tangential epilogue to our tale, we see Haly’s Circus touring in a faraway city. Roughly eight-year-old Dick Grayson reads about Batman in a tabloid magazine, excitedly telling his dad John Grayson about the Dark Knight.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman #673—and also referenced in Batman #665. So much unbelievable shit has gone down in Batman’s relatively short career already that he decides to begin keeping a log of bizarre events involving metahumans, supernatural occurrences, aliens, and anything else seemingly beyond the realm of human comprehension. With the ever-changing and growing face of super-crime in Gotham, Batman worries about his own sanity, especially since he gets drugged so often during combat. Therefore, Bruce and Alfred begin compiling this intensive log, which is known as “The Black Casebook.”

–FLASHBACK: From the B&W second feature to Batman: Gotham Knights #47 and Detective Comics #0. The second feature to Gotham Knights #47 shows Batman chasing after an escaped Riddler, perambulatory at first, then in the Batmobile. Detective Comics #0 shows a separate flashback of Batman in the Batmobile, running Riddler off the road. While these two flashbacks were never meant to be linked, they connect quite well, hence my pairing of them here.

–“Secrets of the Batcave: Dinosaur Island” by Graham Nolan (The Batman Chronicles #8 Part 3) Spring 1997
This quick little yarn could easily have taken place a bit earlier, but I put it in here because we have never seen the Batcave dinosaur yet, but it will start showing up repeatedly from this point on. In “Dinosaur Island,” we learn how the giant T rex winds up as a trophy. Batman defeats Stephan Chase, vile owner of “Dinosaur Island,” a theme park complete with robotic fighting cavemen and mechanical dinosaurs. Afterward, Alfred suggests that Batman should start an official trophy collection. In disguise, Alfred purchases the T rex at a police auction. The Dark Knight has already collected a few super-villain items here and there, but the acquisition of the T rex signifies the true start of Batman’s “Hall of Trophies.” We’ll see over the years that Batman will get majorly into prize collection. Notably, the exact arrangement of trophies will be in near-constant flux, thus accounting for myriad artistic liberties that will be taken in conjunction with the display of the trophies in the decades to follow. Also note that Alfred mistakenly refers to Jim Gordon as “Lieutenant” in this item, whereas Gordon should correctly be “Captain.”

–REFERENCE: In Batman: The Killing Joke. September. Batman has just started building his Hall of Trophies, so he will be trying to collect as much as possible moving forward. As such, he now obtains his signature giant penny! Contrary to popular belief, the giant penny is a trophy from the encounter with the “Penny Plunderer” aka gangster Joe Coyne, not from an encounter with Two-Face. The Batman Chronicles #19 has a good Penny Plunderer story, although it’s non-canon not only because Robin is in it, but also because our heroes basically kill Coyne with glee.

–REFERENCE: In Detective Comics #676. September. Last year, Batman kept the Monk’s shroud (his hood) after the events of Mad Monk. Since he is now building his Batcave trophy room, the Caped Crusader puts the shroud on display. Likewise, Batman also puts the original Clayface mask on display in the trophy room too. As previously stated, the exact reference for Clayface’s mask has been lost to me, so if anyone knows, please clue me in!

–REFERENCE: In Nightwing Vol. 2 #101, The Batman Files, and Detective Comics #821. September. Batman continues building his trophy room by putting the Riddler’s giant question mark on display. Batman adds Riddler’s riddle clue notes to a trophy display too. And he also hangs Riddler’s domino mask on display as well.

–REFERENCE: In Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1. September. Last year, Batman kept a Gotham Gazette newspaper with a front page article about Red Hood. Batman now frames the article clipping and hangs it on display in the Batcave trophy room.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: The Killing Joke and Detective Comics #821. September. An encounter with the Penguin earns Batman a life-size Emperor Penguin prop and the villain’s signature top hat. He puts both things on display in the Batcave trophy room.

–REFERENCE: In Detective Comics #676—originally told in Detective Comics #35. September. Gotham archeologist Sheldon Lenox obtains a supposedly cursed Indian artifact called the Ruby Idol of Kila—a tubby corniculate demon statuette. Hoping to undo the curse and make a bit of dirty money, the superstitious Lenox sells the statuette to a man named Weldon. Lenox then enacts an elaborate ruse that involves faking his own death and then sending henchmen (pretending to be a fanatical cult) to steal the idol back from Weldon. In Gotham’s Chinatown, Batman exposes Lenox’s ruse and fights him. Lenox falls to his death, thus proving the curse to be true. Afterward, Batman keeps the Ruby Idol of Kila as a trophy.

–REFERENCE: In Detective Comics #676—originally told in Detective Comics #42. September. The Case of the Prophetic Picture takes place. Anyone who commissions a portrait by the famous Gotham artist Pierre Antal winds up dead. Bruce has his picture painted to solve the case and then hangs it in the cave.

–REFERENCE: In Flash Vol. 2 #210. September. Batman goes on an unspecified case and adds a giant nickel to his giant coin collection.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman #589—and also referenced in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65, Booster Gold Vol. 2 #21, and The Batman Files. Batman’s second encounter with Joker occurs, after which Joker seemingly dies. (Spoiler: He’s not really dead.) After his second official war against Joker, Batman proudly displays a giant playing card alongside his other trophies in the Batcave. Batman also keeps some bloody Joker playing cards (regular size), which the super-villain will use as his signature calling cards from now on. Since we know that Batman goes in disguise as a black man during one of his early encounters with Joker (as seen in Batman #589), we might as well assume that he dons blackface (sigh) during this giant playing card adventure. (The giant playing card trophy is referenced in Booster Gold Vol. 2 #21 while the regular size playing card trophies are referenced in The Batman Files.)

–REFERENCE: In Batman #657 and The Batman Files. Being a history buff, Bruce begins collecting antique armor (such as the garb of a Roman centurion), which he puts on display in a new museum-like “Hall of Armor” section of the Batcave. Moving forward, Bruce will add similar items to this collection (and to the Hall of Trophies) from time to time.

–“Scarecrow: Masters of Fear” by Doug Moench, Bret Blevins, Mike Manley, & Stuart Chaifetz (Batman Annual #19) September 1995
Late September—Scarecrow will have a few appearances and/or mentions in the coming weeks (leading up to Halloween), hence this date specificity. Significant portions of Batman Annual #19—which itself is loosely based on World’s Finest Comics #3 (1941) and Batman #189 (1967)—have been heavily retconned, but don’t worry, I’ll go over the entire complicated history of changes in a footnote below. Here’s a basic synopsis of the plot. Jonathan Crane, professor of psychology at Gotham University, is fired from his job. Crane becomes the super-villain Scarecrow, enacting 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.^[21] Batman investigates, discovering that Scarecrow is Crane. Batman learns more about Crane’s past (including the fact that he wore a proto-Scarecrow outfit to kill two co-eds during his senior year of high school) and about Crane’s family. (As referenced in Batman: The Long Halloween #8 and DC Universe Holiday Special 2009 Part 11, Batman learns about Crane’s grandmother Marion Keeny and mother Karen Keeny-Crane. There’ll be more on the Keenys in our retcon history footnote below.) Batman then visits Crane’s boobytrapped apartment where he experiences the effects of Fear Gas for the first time. Eventually, however, Batman busts Scarecrow in a cornfield, sending him to Arkham Asylum afterward. (Scarecrow’s defeat in Batman Annual #19 is also shown via flashback from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #137-138.)^[22]

–Batman: The Long Halloween #1 Part 3 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1996)
Late September-early October. Carmine Falcone orders a hit on former Gotham Bank president Richard Daniel, who gets whacked by Johnny Viti. A few days later, Viti is murdered in his home. Viti’s mystery killer leaves a jack-o-lantern and a .22 caliber gun at the scene. Thus begins the “Holiday” serial killings that will specifically target mob families for the next year. Batman meets with Gordon and Dent to discuss the murder, and then meets with Catwoman, who tells him how to follow Falcone’s money trail.

–“Wings” Part 1 by Chuck Dixon/Quique Alcatena (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #5) 1995
Early October. In 1995, LOTDK Annual #5 (“Wings”) replaced the non-canon Secret Origins Vol. 2 #39 (1989)—which itself was loosely based on the Silver/Bronze Age’s Detective Comics #400—as the official Modern Age Man-Bat origin story. “Wings” starts shortly after the time when Batman begins his trophy displays in the Batcave and will run on-and-off for the next ten months. Batman battles the gang of masked acrobatic thieves called The Ridgerunners (aka The Blackout Gang from Secret Origins Vol. 2 #39) three times in a row. And three times in a row, Batman is defeated. Elsewhere, Dr. Kirk Langstrom and his girlfriend Francine Lee work on a genome project involving bats.

–“Flyer” by Howard Chaykin/Gil Kane (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #24-26) November 1991 to January 1992
October. “Flyer” is Batman’s official eighteen months-in story. Batman mentions his recent strange encounters with both Hugo Strange and Mr. Whisper. This story also has a direct tie-in to Miller’s “Year One” and here’s how: In Miller’s “Year One,” Batman uses an ultrasonic technology to bring a flock of bats to his location, which functions as a chaotic black cloud to mask his escape from the law. “Flyer” reveals that one of the GCPD officers, Curtis Eisenmann, was seriously injured during this memorable Miller scene. Eisenmann’s mother, Birgit, who happens to be an ex-Nazi scientist, decides to turn her paralyzed son into Darth Vader, giving him a flying cyborg body and razor sharp teeth to exact revenge on Batman. Enter an anti-queer Nazi cyborg with an Oedipus complex. Wait, it gets better. After Curtis captures Batman, his mom reveals her thoughts that the Dark Knight is the perfect über-man. The plan all along was for Batman to father her child and start a new White supremacist herrenvolk! After some electrical torture to loosen up Bats for the sexual ride of his life, Oedipal-Curtis decides his mom’s plan of action is just too damn creepy and betrays her. Batman barely escapes with his life and the Eisenmanns perish in an explosion.

–“Playground” by James Robinson/Dan Brereton (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #114) January 1999
October. This story, like “Flyer,” also takes place roughly eighteen months into Batman’s career. The Dark Knight travels to Chicago and gets his ass totally handed to him by the murderous villain known only as Rhodes. The killer is about to claim victory when he’s mobbed by a bunch of homeless people. Talk about deus ex machina.

–“Wings” by Chuck Dixon/Quique Alcatena (continued) (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #5) 1995
Mid October. Weeks after his last confrontation with the Ridgerunners/Blackout Gang, Batman confronts them again, and once again gets bested. Meanwhile, Kirk Langstrom injects a bat DNA serum of his own invention into his bloodstream, giving him increased hearing ability. Kirk and Francine then announce their engagement, but the serum takes further effect, turning Kirk into a monstrous bat creature. Man-Bat goes into hiding.

–“Terror” by Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #137-141) January to May 2001
Mid October. “Terror” is the follow-up to “Prey.”^[23] Hugo Strange returns and frees Scarecrow from Arkham Asylum in order to use him as a pawn against Batman. Instead, Scarecrow turns on Strange by impaling him on a spiked metal weather vane, leaving him for dead at a rundown mansion on the outskirts of Gotham. The self-proclaimed Master of Fear then sets up the mansion to be a killing ground for eliminating “jocks” that picked on him in high school. But before he can tackle the jocks, his focus is on Batman. In order to lure him in, Scarecrow kidnaps Catwoman. Batman saves Catwoman and chases off Scarecrow. The next day, Bruce and Alfred pause to visit the graves of Thomas and Martha Wayne. This scene contains a major error—seemingly depicting their final resting place at a public cemetery when it should be at the private graveyard adjacent to Wayne Manor. Batman reluctantly teams up with Catwoman to fight Scarecrow at his mansion. They rescue some of Scarecrow’s abducted former high school classmates before Catwoman sets the mansion ablaze. The Cat/Bat team (and Scarecrow) are stunned when Strange then makes a dramatic return. Turns out he was stuck with the weather vane impaled straight through his chest for three days and, despite massive exsanguination, survived by eating live rats! Jesus. Strange angrily attacks the terrified Scarecrow, allowing Batman and Catwoman to bust the latter. Strange, however, goes missing. “Terror” is also notable because Captain Gordon finally paints the Bat-symbol onto the Bat-Signal. He had previously been using a cloth cutout of a bat and placing it over the spotlight. Also, Bruce does a massive upgrade of Wayne Manor’s security during this tale. From this point forward, as referenced in Red Hood: The Lost Days #2, Bruce will revamp Wayne Manor security every single month.

–Batman/Catwoman: Trail of the Gun #1-2 by Ann Nocenti/Ethan Van Sciver (2004)^[24]
This tale does a great job of developing Catwoman’s character. When word of a futuristic prototype smart-gun that fires heat-seeking bullets hits the streets, Catwoman (and every other Gotham thief) begins to salivate. Batman hears that Catwoman is thinking about stealing the weapon and asks her to help him in an illegal gun-bust in order to teach her about the deadly consequences of unlicensed firearms. Catwoman, who isn’t quite won over yet, heads over to a metahuman dive bar (Gotham’s seediest thieves’ den) and assembles a crew for the job. Catwoman’s team breaks into the shop where the smart-gun is on display only to realize that two separate crews are already there with the same MO. A bloody gunfight ensues and nearly everyone dies. Catwoman gets blamed for mass murder! In the end, Catwoman is able to shake down one of the other thieves, Gotham’s top burglar extraordinaire, Pike Peavy, who publicly proves her innocence. Peavy, on his deathbed, passes the “king of thieves” torch onto Catwoman. Finally, Batman is able to convince Catwoman that guns are not cool. Catwoman ponders whether or not she might be a hero instead of a villain.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1. Bruce meets a socialite named Hoisch.

–REFERENCE: In The Batman Files. Late October. Batman is tickled by the fact that Batman Halloween costumes are among the most popular and sought-after costumes this holiday season.

–“Choices: A Tale of Halloween in Gotham City” by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1) December 1993
Halloween weekend. This tale is titled “Fears” in the TPB. The month of the Scarecrow continues! Jonathan Crane is already on the loose again (it’s likely he never made it to Arkham Asylum or escaped custody immediately following “Terror”) and has been wreaking havoc for a nearly a whole week. Batman easily busts Scarecrow. When Captain Gordon debriefs Batman, the former mentions his wife Barbara by name and Batman seems to not remember who she is at first, but this slip-up can be chalked up to the fact that the Dark Knight hasn’t slept a wink in over three days. (Either that or Batman is simply trying to distance himself from his Bruce Wayne persona. For later that night, Bruce hosts a lavish Halloween party at Wayne Manor, during which he chats with Captain Gordon specifically about Barbara.) At the party, Bruce meets Harrison Ford and a beautiful femme fatale named Jillian Maxwell. That same night, Scarecrow escapes custody. Batman goes after him, but winds up busting a smalltime Native American-themed crook named Billy Bear and his cowboy-themed sidekick instead. (Batman knows all about these guys from his vast Bat-network criminal database.) In the morning, Bruce is seduced by Jillian. Batman eventually battles Scarecrow and defeats him. Later, thanks to Alfred, Bruce learns that “Jillian” is a con-artist/black widow serial killer that’s only after his cash. After being outed, Jillian flees to Brazil. The epilogue to this story—which features Batman shaking down Jillian—occurs a bit later on.^[25]

–FLASHBACK: From Batman #527. October 31—Halloween. Dent, Gordon, and Batman meet as usual, but this time Dent asks Batman to illegally obtain evidence to help put away criminals that have evaded justice through legal loopholes. Dent goes so far as to imply that Batman should fabricate evidence even if it doesn’t exist to ensure that known criminals serve time. Batman refuses, of course. The relationship between the trio continues on, but this is an early sign that Dent is becoming more and more obsessed and unraveled.

–Batman: The Long Halloween #1 Part 4 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1996)
October 31—Halloween. Batman and Harvey Dent, thanks to Catwoman, find Falcone’s warehouse full of millions of dollars in cash. In the blink of an eye, Batman and Dent burn the warehouse (and all of its money) to ash. Later that night, Dent returns home to his wife Gilda Dent, but a bomb—set by Falcone’s hired Irish thug Mickey Sullivan—explodes in their home.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: The Long Halloween #2. October 31-November 1. Harvey and Gilda miraculously survive their home explosion and are relatively unharmed. However, Harvey, as part of a plan contrived by Captain Gordon and Batman, lets the media believe he has died in order to help the investigation.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman #0 and Batman: Ego. Batman meets with Captain Gordon atop police HQ to discuss an unspecified case (likely stuff related to The Long Halloween).

–FLASHBACK: From Batman: Black and White #3 Part 2. Batman rescues a kidnapped five-year-old girl named Karen, who had been missing for a week.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: The Long Halloween #10 and The Batman Files—originally told in Batman #49. November 8. Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch) debuts, robbing a yacht club that is being photographed by photojournalist Vicki Vale. After the robbery, Batman busts Mad Hatter. (This item is also reimagined in the Silver Age 80-Page Giant #1 Part 2. However, this reimagined account is non-canon since it involves Robin and also paints Mad Hatter’s yacht club scheme as his second heist, not his debut.)

–FLASHBACK: From Superman/Batman #75 Part 6—and referenced in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65. Joker resurfaces, and Batman fights him. This is Batman’s third encounter with Joker, who once again appears to die at the climax of their confrontation. (The Man Who Laughs/”Do You Understand These Rights?” combo counts as the first Batman versus Joker brouhaha while the fight that nets the giant playing card is numero dos.)

–“Infected” by Warren Ellis/John McCrea (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #83-84) June to July 1996
Batman spends two weeks shaking down a crack ring. (It might make sense to shorten this two week timeframe in order to better fit “Infected” onto our timeline.) Meanwhile, two US Army soldiers have been injected with a test serum designed to make them into metahuman super-warriors capable of shooting bone fragment bullets out of their bare hands. After being dosed with the formula, they escape and begin rampaging through Gotham, coming to blows with both Batman (who has just finished his drug gang case) and the Lieutenant Branden-led SWAT Team. One of the soldiers eventually commits suicide while the other gets an infection and becomes a walking-plague-like threat. Batman figures out exactly what’s going on and passes the lab details to Captain Gordon, who passes them along to Mayor Wilson Klass. Batman winds up taking the plague soldier down with a cattle prod and a gun—yes, you heard me right, a gun! Relax, he uses the gun to shoot at and disarm the renegade soldier’s bone spewing hands, not to kill him. However, Batman winds up killing the soldier anyway, by knocking him into the Gotham Reservoir. There’s an argument to be made here that the guy is more beast than man by the time Batman offs him, but this is still technically a killing, albeit in self-defense.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #169-170. November. A politician named Gill wins Gotham’s mayoral election, besting incumbent Wilson Klass. Mayor-elect Gill, following his inauguration in a couple months, will remain Gotham’s top official until his assassination in Bat Year Six.

–“The Sleeping” by Scott Hampton (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #76-78) October to December 1995
Bruce Wayne is injured in a car accident and goes into a coma for two weeks. (Note that creator Scott Hampton places this story specifically on August 30 through September 12. However, there’s no August/September spot that isn’t already filled in these early years, so we must ignore the specificity. In fact, it probably makes sense to ignore the two week length as well.) While in the coma, Bruce (as Batman) enters a surreal realm that resembles Hell, battles a demon-like creature called a Soul Eater, and learns what his life would have been like had he not become a superhero (he falls in love, marries, etc). We never learn the name of the strange land that Bruce is astrally-projected into, but it is possible that he enters “The Dreaming” from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series (Sandman Vol. 2) or some dark side-realm connected to the Dreaming. There is also a notable line in “The Sleeping” where Bruce mentions having previously “played mind games with” Joker and Scarecrow, indicating that they are two of his most cerebral adversaries to date. Batman will meet another Soul Eater in roughly fifteen years (as seen in Batman: Gotham Knights #17).

–“Tao” by Alan Grant/Arthur Ranson (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #52-53) October 1993
Batman exerts his dominance over Gotham City’s Triads (specifically the Chinese mob). We also see flashbacks to Bruce’s training in China where he studied under the priestess Shao-La and dealt with her rivals H’Sien-Tan and Dragon. There is a nice splash page that has contains a mural of Batman’s rogues—past, present, and future. Everyone seems appropriately big time, except for the Spook and the guy at the top. Who is that, Dracula? Our mystery man could be Carmine Falcone, as was pointed out to me by a few people. As told to me by site contributor Marcelo Millicay, it could be minor villain Mortimer Kadaver. But as revealed to me by site contributor Bardia, it’s mostly likely the original Clayface, Basil Karlo.

–Batman: The Long Halloween #2 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1997)
Late November. After a short altercation with Solomon Grundy in the sewers beneath Gotham City, Batman captures Mickey Sullivan and immediately connects the Irish hired-gun to the Falcones. However, evidence is circumstantial at best. Mickey and his pals (Donny Boy Sullivan, Jimmy Slick, Dapper Kevin, and Willie Two Times) refuse to implicate Carmine Falcone, refraining from even mentioning his name in front of an Irish-disguised Harvey Dent, who reveals to the public that he’s alive and well. On Thanksgiving, Batman leaves a turkey dinner in the sewer for Solomon Grundy. Across town, Holiday (aka The Holiday Killer) strikes again, murdering Falcone’s top Irish henchmen, including Mickey and his pals. Holiday leaves behind a cornucopia and the signature twenty-two pistol calling card.

–REFERENCE: In the second feature to Detective Comics #782. Late November—the anniversary of Batman’s parents’ deaths. Batman continues his annual tradition of placing two roses on Crime Alley on the anniversary of his parents’ murders.

–“Going Sane” by JM DeMatteis/Joe Staton (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65-68) November 1994 to February 1995^[26]
Late November to mid December. At the beginning of LOTDK #65, Joker kicks off the arc by saying that it’s “a sunny day in February.” Already, we should be cautious of taking Joker at face value, as our story begins on a decidedly snowy day with no sunlight at all. Joker also calls his plastic surgeon Dr. Epstein, but his name is Elias Bruckner. That’s more likely a bad joke, but it goes to show that we really can’t trust Joker when he says anything in this arc. Suffice to say, we shouldn’t take any topical or time references at face value (whether or not they come from Joker). In order for “Going Sane” to fit neatly on our timeline, this arc must not only start in November, but also be mega-compressed, going from an original duration of six months down to one month. Here’s a synopsis! Joker bombs a group of people, hoping to draw Batman into his fourth official encounter with the Harlequin of Hate.^[27] Joker’s bombing gets Batman’s attention, but the villain ain’t finished. He kidnaps and beats-up Councilwoman Elizabeth Kenner. After thrashing Joker’s henchman Frank Maguire (who Batman recognizes from his crime-files), Batman tracks Joker to the small town of Accord, about two hundred miles north of Gotham. Joker, having already released Councilwoman Kenner, challenges Batman in the woods. During the subsequent fight, Batman is injured to such an extent that Joker believes he is dead and leaves him as such. Dr. Lynn Eagles stumbles upon the injured Batman and takes him into her care. Luckily for Batman, Dr. Eagles is someone he’s saved in the past. Thus, feeling indebted to him, she decides not to inform the authorities, to treat him personally from her home, and also to keep his identity a secret. After life-saving surgery, Bruce wakes up and realizes that this may be a way out of the hard life he’s chosen. He’s injured enough that he thinks he may never be able to function as an effective crime-fighter again and he’s in a calm little town where no one knows him. In fact, Bruce is so set on this idea that he doesn’t even contact Alfred to tell him he’s okay. (Poor Alfred!) Taking the name “Lazarus,” the wheelchair-using Bruce begins rehab and settles into a quiet life in the small scenic village. Wait a minute… where’s Joker, you say? Batman’s “death” is such a shock to Joker’s system that the Clown Prince of Crime regains some semblance of sanity, as there is no antagonizing force to torment his evil nature. After some plastic surgery, hair dye, and a steady diet of pills for his skin condition, Joker (as “Joseph Kerr”) starts a new straight life. Joe Kerr gets a nice apartment, a job, and even meets a lovely gal named Rebecca Brown! Meanwhile, a blissfully contented Bruce begins dating Dr. Lynn Eagles while rehabbing his injuries. Soon though, the honeymoon period begins to fade. Sensing Bruce’s growing restlessness, Lynn reveals that she knows all about his prior life as the Dark Knight, reminding him of a time when he once saved her. This talk prompts Bruce to return to his roots. He realizes that his destiny lies with the mantle of the Bat (and also that he’s been a dick to Alfred by not communicating with him for months). Meanwhile, as per LOTDK #66, Joker (as a cleaned-up and sane “Joseph Kerr”) is now engaged to be married to Rebecca! Batman ends his Accord retirement and returns to Gotham. The Dark Detective greets Alfred, chats with Captain Gordon, and chases a few Joker leads. After confronting Dr. Elias Bruckner’s wife and reviewing comedy video tape rental histories, Batman learns the whereabouts of the elusive Joker. “Joe Kerr” has gone on vacation with his fiancée in Pennsylvania. The Caped Crusader now knows all about Joker’s “sanity.” In PA, Joe Kerr reads a newspaper highlighting the return of Batman. Upon learning Batman is back on the scene, Joe Kerr politely excuses himself from Rebecca and travels back to Gotham. There, he slips right back into being the old super-villainous Joker (much to the dismay of his unsuspecting fiancée). Joker picks up right where he was before he “went sane”—by kidnapping Councilwoman Kenner and trying to kill Batman. Batman saves Kenner, puts Joker back in Arkham Asylum, and sends flowers to Lynn.

–“Blades” by James Robinson/Tim Sale (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #32-34) June to July 1992
Mid December. Hands down one of the best LOTDK stories ever written, this story takes place about twenty months into Batman’s crusade and lasts for a little over a week. We are introduced to Hudson Pyle aka the original Cavalier (not the villain who uses the same name and similar costume years later). The Cavalier has been on the scene for a mere week, but quickly becomes Gotham’s most beloved swashbuckling superhero, not only because of his genuine effectiveness against crime, but also because he embraces the public eye as well. He even apprehends the Riddler (who we must assume has escaped from incarceration). However, when his girlfriend is blackmailed by a crime-boss named Randolph Salt, the Cavalier is forced to commit petty crimes to protect her. He winds up being outed as a criminal and eventually murders Salt. After a duel with an exhausted Batman, who has just captured the serial killer Mr. Lime, the Cavalier sacrifices his own life by charging into a hail of police gunfire. There is a nice panel in issue #3 of “Blades” where Batman refers to his three toughest foes so far. Can you guess who they are? Our chronology is making even more sense as we move along—the three are Joker, Hugo Strange, and Riddler.^[28]

—^[29]

–“Favorite Things” by Mark Millar/Steve Yeowell (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #79) January 1996
Mid December. It’s beginning to look a lot like Xmas in Gotham. Unfortunately, the holiday season has come with an uptick in the activity of criminal gangs, like the Joker-inspired Joy Boys and the chess-inspired Chess Men, who are running amok all over the city. In fact, the Chess Men have gone one step too far—they’ve stolen a very precious possession from Wayne Manor. What is it, you ask? Information leading to the secret identity of Batman? No. A nuclear device? No. Ultra-high-tech Bat gadgetry? No. A toy train that was given to Bruce as a child? You got it! Oh, Mark Millar, your cloying attempt to pull on our heartstrings has failed miserably. Bruce ditches out on his own Wayne Manor holiday party to search for his toy. Batman shakes down known fence Eddie Mulligan (who he knows from his crime-files) before busting the Joy Boys and Chess Men. (Note that Batman is inexplicably shown wearing his yellow oval costume in three panels of his Mulligan beating, but is in his correct duds both on the cover and in all other scenes. The yellow oval must be an art error, and we should regard it as such.) After trouncing the leader of the Chess Men, Batman then confronts the toy thief and recovers his train. While we don’t see any giant chess pieces in LOTDK #79, the Chess Men must’ve had some lying around, right? As referenced in Detective Comics #569, Batman has a complete chess set (with pieces that are ten-feet-tall) in his trophy collection. I’ve fanwanked that Batman obtains this from the Chess Men. Try and tell me otherwise! In the Golden Age, Batman got his chess set following the mysterious “Case of the Chess Crimes,” which was merely a reference without any specific story detail.^[30]

–FLASHBACK: From Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #69. December. This flashback occurs ten months prior to the main action of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #69-70. Batman fights a gang of thieves led by a man named Vince. One of Vince’s men, Crown, turns on Vince and saves Batman’s life, allowing the Dark Knight to defeat Vince. Vince, Crown, and the rest of the crew go to jail.

–“Rules of Engagement” by Andy Diggle/Whilce Portacio (Batman Confidential #1-6) February to August 2007
After witnessing two murders, Batman returns home to the Batcave where he shows the gun that killed his folks to Alfred. (Bruce took Joe Chill’s gun out of police evidence and has had it for some time now.) During this scene, Batman also mentions having started his costumed war on crime “over a year ago,” cementing placement here in Year Two. The first official meeting between evil business tycoon Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne occurs, and it’s filled with over-the-top robots, cyborgs, and explosions as LexCorp and WayneTech (specifically the Wayne Aerospace division) vie for a lucrative government defense contract. Also present is Lucius Fox, who will later become Bruce’s most trusted business partner. After some cutthroat actions by Luthor, including sabotaging WayneTech’s OGRE robot and framing anti-Luthor US senator Harold Crabtree for murder, LexCorp gains the defense contract. As per the contract, Luthor introduces an army of GI Robots, retooled US Army tech that hasn’t been used since Vietnam. (Bruce will co-opt these GI Robots many years later for his Batman Incorporated organization.) As part of his attempt to expose Luthor as a fraud, Batman debuts the brand new Batplane, but Luthor is able to corrupt the Batplane’s computer systems, briefly turning it against its owner. Eventually, Batman challenges Luthor’s army of robots in the desert, defeating them with the Batplane, Batbike (aka Batcycle), and a computer virus. However, the Dark Knight is unable to tie any criminality to Luthor, who proves he is truly above the law. Afterward, Bruce sees that he must be a wholly different type of millionaire than his vile business counterpart. Thus, Bruce officially ends the Wayne Foundation’s focus on real estate, mergers, acquisitions, and finance. Two of Wayne Enterprises’ main three subdivisions will now have new mission statements. Wayne Industries will still deal in the industrial sector with no real changes; WayneTech will still deal in R&D, but it will no longer take any defense contracts or build munitions; and the Wayne Foundation will now basically be re-created from scratch, switching from a focus on business ventures to a focus on philanthropic humanitarian activism and charitable aid for the poor and destitute. (Bruce’s dad, long ago, had originally created the Wayne Foundation as a charitable venture, but that was changed after he was killed. Thus, Bruce is finally returning the Foundation to its roots.) Bruce appoints Senator Crabtree as the chairman of the new Wayne Foundation. As referenced in Batman #403, Bruce, mostly through the Wayne Foundation, now starts contributing vast sums of money to charity and other philanthropic ventures in an attempt to make Gotham a better place with both his fists and his checkbook. Bruce will donate to just and needy causes for the rest of his life, although the majority of these kind acts will remain invisible on our timeline.^[31]

–“Choices: A Tale of Halloween in Gotham City” Epilogue by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1 Epilogue) December 1993
Batman discovers Jillian Maxwell is in Brazil trying to seduce, marry, and murder yet another unsuspecting sap. He sends her a threatening note, commanding her to turn herself into authorities. Presumably, she does.

–Batman: The Long Halloween #3 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1997)
December 24-25. Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum, obsessed with finding out Holiday’s identity. Batman and Captain Gordon visit Calendar Man in Arkham to gain some possible insight on the motives of Holiday, but they get a bunch of hooey instead. As Joker terrorizes Gotham, Holiday acts on Christmas Day, executing Falcone’s bodyguard Milos Grapa.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Gotham Knights #10 Part 2 (Black and White), DC Retroactive: Batman – The 80s #1, and The Batman Files. “Batman: Year Two” (originally told in Detective Comics #575-578 by Mike W Barr and Alan Davis, 1987) and its sequel (Batman: Full Circle by Barr and Davis, 1991) were both made out-of-continuity following Zero Hour in 1994, but the references attached to this item function as DC’s attempt to canonize Detective Comics #575-578 in some form. However, because the original arc revolves heavily around Joe Chill in ways that contradict Batman #673 (including Batman revealing his ID to Chill and Chill’s death at the hands of the Reaper), we must imagine a heavily updated version of this tale on our current timeline—one where Chill isn’t a part of the narrative at all (or where his involvement is limited). Notably, the references attached to this item do not mention Full Circle, which shows Batman in his yellow oval costume, features Robin, and adds emphasis on Chill and his extended family. As such, the narrative from Full Circle is completely non-canon. Here’s a synopsis for the updated version of “Batman: Year Two.” Now that Bruce has reverted the Wayne Foundation back to its philanthropic roots, he’s brought the kindhearted Leslie Thompkins onboard to help with a few things. First order of business, Bruce orders construction of a brand new Wayne Foundation headquarters. Ground is broken and work begins. Bruce and Leslie Thompkins oversee the construction of the new Wayne Foundation Building (which will become the famous Wayne Enterprises Tower aka Wayne Tower and future location of the penthouse residence and Bat-Bunker). Bruce meets and becomes enamored with Leslie’s friend Rachel Caspian, who—unfortunately for Bruce—is set to become a nun. Batman then fights the decades-old vigilante known as The Reaper (Rachel’s father) for the first time, getting his ass handed to him. A distraught and battered Bruce takes the gun that was used to murder his parents and contemplates breaking his vow to never lethally use firearms. Bruce falls further in love with Rachel when he learns that she lost her mother in a similar fashion to how he lost his. (Kinda creepy reason, but it marks them as kindred spirits.) Despite Rachel’s pending Catholic sisterhood, Bruce charms and woos Rachel, starting a whirlwind affair. Bruce is so head-over-heels, he proposes to Rachel, giving her a custom fortune cookie engagement note. Rachel accepts! Soon afterward, the Reaper falls to his death from high atop the Wayne Foundation Building construction site while tangoing with Batman. Immediately afterward, a frazzled Rachel breaks off her engagement to Bruce and becomes a nun as previously planned. Rachel returns Bruce’s engagement note and ring to a heartbroken Bruce.

–Batman: The Long Halloween #4 by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale (1997)
December 31—New Year’s Eve. Alberto Falcone seemingly winds up dead in Gotham Harbor, with a snow globe and twenty-two caliber pistol left on the deck of his father’s ship. Meanwhile, the Dents have dinner with the Gordons. As the New Year’s Eve ball drops in downtown Gotham, Batman recaptures the fugitive Joker, who has commandeered an airplane.

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<<< PREVIOUS: YEAR ONE <<< | >>> NEXT: YEAR THREE >>>

1. ^[1]VALHERU: Catwoman Vol. 2 Annual #2‘s climax (Catwoman versus Hellhound) is on the same night Joker attacks Bruce Wayne, Judge Lake, and the reservoir in The Man Who Laughs.↩
2. ^[2]COLLIN COLSHER: Speaking of the Gotham reservoir, CIA medical researcher Ted Galvin would have been dosing the city’s water supply with the experimental drug known as Neurotrol for the past thirty years (as referenced in LOTDK #206). The contaminated H₂O is a direct catalyst for the creation of so many of Gotham’s villains that we will meet all throughout the “Early Period.” Furthermore, as revealed in the Shadowpact series, hundreds of years ago, an evil warlock was buried in an underground tomb in what would later become Gotham City. The demonic spirit of the so-called “Doctor Gotham” would influence generations of Gothamites, acting as yet another catalyst for the city’s strange and dark inhabitants. Talk about a double-whammy of bad-juju. Drugs in the water supply combined with the influence of a ghastly ghoul sure explains a heck of a lot about Gotham.↩
3. ^[3]COLLIN COLSHER: While I’m not a fan of the Batman Confidential series, the majority of its arcs are canon. However, such is definitely not the case for “Lovers and Madmen” (Batman Confidential #7-12) by Smallville and Heroes TV writer Michael Green. Here’s why: First of all, the charitable version of the Wayne Foundation would not have returned yet. (The original Wayne Foundation, which was a charitable venture prior to the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, currently only deals with real estate, mergers, acquisitions, and high finance. Only later will Bruce return the Wayne Foundation to its roots as a charitable organization dedicated to helping the needy). Also, the story tells us that Batman already tried the yellow oval costume and found it to be “silly.” While this is not outside the realm of possibility, it doesn’t reflect anything else in canon. What truly is silly is the reveal that Joker pays for Harleen Quinzel’s medical school tuition after meeting her at a bar. Furthermore, at one point Batman authorizes a mob hit on Joker. Huh? That sure doesn’t sound like the Batman I know. And finally, while it isn’t necessarily a bad idea to change Joker’s origin to a gangster, the Red Hood origin (from The Killing Joke) is without a shadow of a doubt still canon to this day. In fact, the Confidential story “Do You Understand These Rights?” clearly references the Red Hood origin and even shows the red-hooded pre-Joker falling into the vat of chemicals! I should also mention that Green’s storyline was written in conjunction with the release of the film The Dark Knight and it is obviously meant for an audience less familiar with the details of the comics. Basically, this tale is the offspring of Warner Bros synergy and designed to tie-in with the movie, which is yet another reason why it is non-canon. To reiterate, Confidential, like LOTDK, is a series that can and will contain some out-of-continuity Elseworlds-style stories. Comic book guru/scholar Mike Voiles has been a huge inspiration for my project, and I wholeheartedly agree when he says on his website that “‘Lovers and Madmen’ is the last version of the Joker’s origin.” But when Voiles says, “‘Lovers and Madmen’ [conforms] with the reality rebuilt by Superboy-Prime,” that is incorrect. (Maybe one could argue that Superboy’s punches—from Infinite Crisis—altered reality temporarily, making “Lovers and Madmen” Joker’s new origin for a short time until it reverted back to The Man Who Laughs, but that is the only argument one could conceivably make and it’s an incredibly flimsy one at that.) The Man Who Laughs is the last published Modern Age Joker story that does not contradict other post-Infinite Crisis New Earth DCU canon tales, and therefore, it is the canonical Modern Age Joker origin.↩
4. ^[4]ELIAS M FREIRE: At the conclusion of Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Gordon seemingly shows Batman the Bat-Signal for the first time. (Batman says to Gordon, “So, was that your idea?” Gordon replies, “The mayor’s actually. Should have seen Grogan’s face when he heard about it. Thought he was having an aneurysm.” Gordon then says, “Let’s see how it looks.”) However, the debut of the Bat-Signal already happened in “Prey.” This is not a continuity error, though. “The mayor’s idea” is not the creation of the Bat-Signal, but simply making it GCPD official, thus allowing Gordon to use it more openly while simultaneously acknowledge the contribution Batman brings to the city. Nevertheless, Gordon will keep using the cloth version, and won’t paint the Bat-symbol onto the spotlight until “Terror,” by which time Batman will have gained more of his trust.↩
5. ^[5]COLLIN COLSHER: An important note about Bruce’s sex life. Matthew Manning’s The Batman Files attempts to include and order Bruce’s lovers during this early time period of his crime-fighting career. It does so via a tabloid newspaper article. Because of this, the information given comes from an unreliable narrator. Coupled with the fact that The Batman Files already has a dubious canonical status, we must take the tabloid writer’s order and lengths of Bruce’s love affairs with a grain of salt. The tabloid list is given in the following order: Viveca Beausoleil, Julie Madison, Skye Peters, Jillian Maxwell, Julie Madison, then Linda Page, which overlaps with Selina Kyle until Bruce officially breaks it off with Linda. (Note that the addition of Linda is simply Manning’s Easter Egging. She never appeared in a single Modern Age comic book.) In order for our timeline to work correctly, especially with Penguin’s debut (since The Batman Files links Penguin’s debut to Bruce dating Linda), the correct order of Bruce’s love affairs should be: Viveca Beausoleil, Julie Madison, Vicki Vale (whom Manning curiously omits), Linda Page, Skye Peters, then Selina Kyle, which continues in an on-again-off-again fashion, briefly overlapping with Jillian Maxwell.↩
6. ^[6]COLLIN COLSHER: According to our chronology, Journey into Knight #1-6 takes place around 1990, so technically there is some sort of primitive Internet (which is mentioned in-story). Topical references to the Internet (and other things) are added by DC editors in an attempt to make Batman seem younger and more contemporary. There is a “Year One Era” story (maybe even Journey into Knight) which mentions the TV show American Idol. These topical references must be taken with a grain of salt.

   VALHERU: Journey into Knight seems the most out-of- or at least fuzzily-in-continuity of the “Early Period” storylines, and specificity may be in vain. JiK #1-6 seems to work better in November of Year One, but Bruce’s birthday must place it in February of Year Two.

   ACE FACE: There are problems trying to fit Journey into Knight into continuity. Some are superficial, like Gordon telling Batman to call him “Jim,” or Gordon’s rank being “lieutenant” throughout. But a bigger problem is that this story is meant to occur in Year One, which is an impossibility (and the reason we have it here in Year Two). Bruce visits the family solicitor on his birthday, which means the first part of this story must be in February. According to Year One, Batman doesn’t make an appearance until April, so this must be February of Year Two. A few weeks later, Bruce gets locked up in Arkham Asylum for three months, taking the story to at least September. However, the biggest problem is the private wing in Arkham. In “Do You Understand These Rights?”, Arkham had only just re-opened with Joker as inmate number one, so if the second half of Journey into Knight is really written as a Year One tale, the Wayne Enterprises Board members could not have been there all that time. Also, I find it hard to accept the ease with which Joker can be allowed out of his cell to act as Bruce’s doctor. Where are all the “real” Arkham staffers? This man is an extremely dangerous and manipulative murderer!

   COLLIN COLSHER: Okay, here is the full rundown on Journey into Knight. Bruce’s birthday does occur, so issues #1-6 must take place in February here in Year Two. The superficial continuity issue of Gordon telling Batman to “call him Jim” unfortunately must be ignored. Batman has been calling Captain Gordon “Jim” ever since Batman and The Monster Men—which brings us to the error of referring to Captain Gordon as “Lieutenant Gordon” throughout Journey into Knight. Writer Andrew Helfer is simply wrong on both of these points. Furthermore, in order for Journey into Knight to jibe with other stories about Joker and Arkham, including The Man Who Laughs and “Do You Understand These Rights?”, its second half (issues #7-12) has to begin in early June of Year Two (and must be compressed/shortened). In regard to the ease with which Joker is allowed to act as Bruce’s doctor for such a lengthy period of time, we must assume that the corrupt Wayne Enterprises Board of Directors has a strong influential hand in this.

   ELIAS M FREIRE: In Journey into Knight, Batman is shown driving what appears to be a regular vehicle that doesn’t look like the Batmobile. However, this is the Batmobile. As previously seen in Batman: The Man Who Laughs, the Batmobile has a camouflage mode that enables it to appear as a regular car.↩

7. ^[7]LANE McD: Detective Comics Annual #8 is only canon as long as you ignore one Two-Face reference in Riddler’s line of dialogue: “I wasn’t going to play second fiddle to the Joker or Two-Face or any of the wannabes.” Two-Face wouldn’t have debuted by this point on our timeline. Since this is the definitive Modern Age Riddler origin, we must ignore that quote.↩
8. ^[8]LANE McD: To avoid any confusion, SotB Annual #3 is collected into a TPB entitled “Batman: Four of a Kind.”

   VALHERU: The Poison Ivy story in SotB Annual #3 appears as if it is in mid December of Year One—Alfred keeps adding things to Bruce’s Christmas list (a Batmobile and a spectrometer). If it were canon, it would be definitely after the debuts of Joker and Penguin since Ivy’s goons worked for both of them. Not sure I’d throw it out of continuity entirely, but I agree that enough of it doesn’t quite fit that it’s suspect.

   COLLIN COLSHER: SotB Annual #3 is definitively non-canon, but you could use it as a sort of skeletal framework that represents Poison Ivy’s debut (if you ignore the killings and other continuity errors). Even if one were to enter into such a dubious practice, the SotB Annual #3 as a whole has too many errors. It contains enough legit continuity goofs that there’s no way it can be canon.↩

9. ^[9]JACK JAMES: “Heat” fits here in Year Two for several reasons. First, Catwoman is still fairly new, not to mention her short hairstyle matches this time period. Second, the Batcave looks like it fits in this early era. Third, Klass is still mayor. Fourth, Bruce and Selina have yet to meet each other out of costume, so this item should go in somewhere in the months prior to that occurrence. (At the end of the “Heat” storyline, Batman directly confronts an unmasked Selina, so it makes sense that he goes on to meet her as Bruce Wayne following this encounter. Also, while it isn’t 100%, this strongly hints that he knows Catwoman’s secret identity! And frankly, after the events of “Her Sister’s Keeper,” it’d be wild to think Batman wouldn’t know since he seemed aware of who she was in that storyline. The Long Halloween and Dark Victory never clarify, but it’s left up in the air in those stories, so I’m tempted to say he did know. As for The Batman Files retcon of making the primary Catman a copycat of another Catman while having them both have the same name of Thomas Blake, it’s undeniably ridiculous, but then again the second Catman’s origin is already ridiculous to begin with. Blake II goes from an plump, middle-aged, dark-haired domestic abuser to a dignified Brad Pitt-looking badass in the span of what can only be a few years, so for me to think that same dude would’ve started off with something as silly as “That Cat-Killer has my same name and I also like cats, so I must become Catman!” is actually kinda logical, haha.↩
10. ^[10]ISIAH: “Gothic” goes in Year Two because the gangsters in the story are scared of Batman at this point (some shocked at his very existence), and the Dark Knight seems like he is just starting out. Plus, with no Robin, no Batgirl, and a bare bones Batcave, this placement seems like a good fit.↩
11. ^[11]COLLIN COLSHER: Due to vague hints in Catwoman #3-4 and Legends of the Dark Knight #1, it’s possible Batman knew Catwoman’s secret identity right from the start. (At the very least, he likely had a hunch who she was under the mask.) But it’s not until now that we can be almost certain that he knows. Of course, the references to Batman learning Catwoman’s secret ID on the chronology here and now (in Legends of the Dark Knight #140, The Long Halloween #1, Batman/Catwoman: Trail of the Gun #1-2, and The Batman Files) are, like the earlier ones, a bit vague, merely hinting at Batman finding out. Because of this haziness, various arguments can be supported. Furthermore, over the course of the next seven years, we’ll see that Batman’s interactions with Catwoman—and Bruce’s with Selina—are coy enough to keep things deliberately vague. So, while we are at like 90% certainty that Batman knows Selina is Catwoman right now, it won’t be all the way until Year Nine—via flashback from Catwoman Vol. 3 #50 (2006)—that we learn definitively that Batman knows Catwoman’s secret ID. However, for the purposes of our chronology, 90% is pretty darn good. Therefore, all signs point to Batman learning Catwoman’s secret ID here and now (if not earlier). This is your personal headcanon call, though.

    SELVÅRV STIGÅRD: The significant event of Bruce Wayne meeting Selina Kyle socially is conspicuous in its absence from the Modern Age Batman mythos. In Miller’s “Batman: Year One” they fight (seemingly) without any idea of who the other one is. Later in that story, and then in “Her Sister’s Keeper,” Mad Monk, “Prey,” and “Terror,” they encounter each other as Batman and Catwoman. Then in The Long Halloween, Bruce and Selina already know each other well enough to dance and start dating. In one sense, it’s intuitive that these two have been flirting and getting to know each other for more than a year, but none of it has been as their “real” identities. The first time DC publishes anything depicting Bruce meeting Selina (socially, without masks or other disguises, and without punches and kicks) is the scene at Johnny Vitti’s wedding (in The Long Halloween #1), and they’re already on a familiar, first-name basis.

    COLLIN COLSHER: It’s true that there never was any scene in any issue or even a flashback which showed Bruce and Selina hitting it off (or even simply meeting) in their regular civilian IDs in the Modern Age. The Long Halloween is indeed the first time we see them interact chronologically. The Long Halloween implies that Selina and Bruce have a prior relationship (outside of the relationship between Batman and Catwoman). Thus, we have to assume that this relationship begins sometime after the end of Batman’s first year and before The Long Halloween starts.

    PURPLEGLOVEZ (TIPTUP JR 94): In Legends of the Dark Knight #1, Bruce’s text-box monologue seems to suggest he was aware that the sex worker he fought on March 11 was Selina Kyle. Thus, a strong indicator that he might also have always known her identity as Catwoman immediately upon her debut in Year One. However, it is interesting to note that The Long Halloween and Dark Victory both craftily avoid outright confirmation that Batman knows who Catwoman is. He seems to almost definitely not know at Johnny Viti’s wedding, and it’s equally unclear at the Falcone wake that opens Dark Victory. When Selina leaves Bruce her letter, he reads it in her voice – “soft, yet strong—not at all like Catwoman’s low and sultry sound.” (Though, that could be interpreted multiple ways.) In issue #7, Bruce and Alfred seemingly discuss Catwoman and Selina as if they’re different people. Bruce never calls her or thinks about her as Selina, nor does he seem to put the pieces together when Catwoman resurfaces at the end. I’m sure this was an intentional choice, it’s just… kind of strange. In the flashback from Catwoman Vol. 3 #50 (Year Nine), the Justice League knows Selina is Catwoman (therefore, so does Bruce), making it the earliest confirmed instance of Bruce knowing—LOTDK #1 notwithstanding.

    JACK JAMES: As I mentioned above, after the events of Year One’s “Her Sister’s Keeper” (Catwoman #1-4), Batman seems to know that Catwoman is Selina. “Heat” (LOTDK #46-49)—which is referenced in The Batman Files—seems to reinforce this as well. Again, neither tale is definitive, giving interpretation room to the reader.↩

12. ^[12]HEARTHESNAP: In regard to the placement of “Stalking”: First, our main antagonist resorts to bellowing out that she has “NO IDEA” of the existence of Batman and does not even remotely know who he is. While it is possible that she is simply ignorant, this seems unlikely. Secondly, in LOTDK #108 both the opening page and page ten of the story itself shows Baby James Gordon as an infant (as opposed to the young boy we will later see in stories like “Loyalties”)—Baby James is still young enough (and drawn as such) that Jim can raise him up over his head like a small tot and warrant being buckled into a car seat while drooling on himself. And thirdly, we must assume that since Jim bemoans about having shot so many criminals in his past, the death of the motorcycle killer’s husband likely took place in Chicago. This fact would also ply credence to our anarchist being ill informed of Batman’s doings in Gotham.↩
13. ^[13]COLLIN COLSHER: The conclusion of The Long Halloween, which occurs next Bat Year, will function as the canonical origin detailing Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face. Originally, the excellent Batman Annual #14 (1990) was the official Two-Face origin story, remaining canon for nearly seven years until it was replaced by The Long Halloween in 1997. To this day, scholars and fans alike argue about which is the better Two-Face origin. Some purists refuse to replace Annual #14 with The Long Halloween, citing it as utter blasphemy. These stories can’t coexist since they contradict each other in many ways, so no matter how your personal cookie crumbles, I’ve chosen to go with DC’s official version of events, which definitively has The Long Halloween as canon above all else.

    Despite the heated debate over Two-Face’s official origin story, 2011’s The Batman Files tries its best to placate both parties by retroactively sliding in a cute little reference to Batman Annual #14 into the very pages of The Long Halloween #1 Part 1. This simply means that The Long Halloween is still numero uno in regard to official continuity, but the opening part of Batman Annual #14 (the Rudolph Klemper case) is also canon, albeit as a modified and pared-down version of its original. It occurs immediately before the start of The Long Halloween, as listed above.↩

14. ^[14]COLLIN COLSHER: The Long Halloween is the big one, the story that changes everything. And it is, arguably, the most important story during the “Early Period” besides Miller’s “Year One.” This is the story of how the organized mobs of Gotham fade away and become completely overshadowed by the costumed super-villains. Its second half forms the definitive Two-Face origin story, with the rise and fall of the Batman/Gordon/Dent union. It also begins to more fully develop the Catwoman/Batman love affair that will last for years. The Long Halloween is a direct follow-up to Miller’s “Year One,” which is why it begins here in Year Two. Originally, the Batman Chronology placed the start of The Long Halloween in Year Three in order to accommodate a bunch of other stories, namely “Venom,” “Going Sane,” and Journey into Knight. However, it makes much more sense to put The Long Halloween on a higher pedestal as it is date (holiday) specific and will directly influence storylines for decades to come.

    Essentially, having The Long Halloween begin in Year Two brings balance while reducing error in the “Early period” (Years 1-10). With The Long Halloween starting in Year Two, Robin now debuts a year earlier, which makes more sense (and is closer to where DC places his official debut). The Long Halloween was always intended to be a story beginning in Year Two, and it makes the most narrative sense as such. With this placement, we can also keep “Batman: Year Two” in Year Two, along with key Leslie Thompkins and Wayne Foundation stuff. Prior to having The Long Halloween in Year Two, stories like “Going Sane” and “Journey into Knight” were dictating way too much of the flow of my timeline—particularly the former, a 1994 story that most people don’t even consider canon! (“Going Sane” is still on my chronology, but I’ve compressed it. The idea that I wouldn’t compress something like “Going Sane” when more important tales like “No Man’s Land” and “Knightfall” have been undeniably compressed seemed plain wrong.) In conclusion, the amount of fanwanking and retconning is actually significantly less than before as a result of these shifts. (There are dozens less caveat notes required.) The timeline is much stronger and way more cohesive in its current form.

    MILO NOUSIAINEN: Year Two sans The Long Halloween causes an unnecessary and awkward break from Batman’s main narrative development during his early years. Having The Long Halloween begin in Year Two (where it properly belongs) makes the timeline feel fuller and more connected. Furthermore, with The Long Halloween starting in Year Two, the “pillars” of Batman’s early years (“Year One,” The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Robin: Year One, JLA: Year One, Teen Titans: Year One, Batgirl: Year One, Huntress: Year One, “Nightwing: Year One”) are more tightly knit, and provide a better overall framework for the “Early Period.”↩

15. ^[15]CHIP:The Long Halloween and its sequel Dark Victory are fine stories, but they do prevent a lot of other stories from fitting in, or cause some awkward placement. It is therefore necessary to alter and compress them. (Scholar Chris J Miller, for example, has both stories compressed down to a couple of months and has moved scenes all around on his timelines.)

    COLLIN COLSHER: While it is true that The Long Halloween and Dark Victory prevent a lot of other tales from fitting in neatly, I have treated their narratives as pure gospel and have scrupulously tried to avoid compressing or editing either of them, especially since their narratives revolve so heavily around topical dates and holidays.↩

16. ^[16]COLLIN COLSHER: While we are addressing continuity errors in Journey into Knight, let’s not forget the others in this series. This is already mentioned in a footnote linked to Journey Into Knight #1-6, but it is apropos to Journey into Knight #7-12, so I will reiterate. All of Journey into Knight contains the error of referring to Captain Gordon as Lieutenant Gordon. Writer Andrew Helfer is simply wrong about this. Furthermore, in order for Journey into Knight to jibe with other stories about Joker and Arkham (including The Man Who Laughs and “Do You Understand These Rights?”) its second half (issues #7-12) has to occur right here in Year Two. In regard to the ease with which Joker is allowed to act as Bruce’s doctor for such a lengthy period of time, we must assume that the corrupt Wayne Enterprises Board of Directors has a strong influential hand in this. And as I’ve already mentioned above, it isn’t possible for there to be a three month gap of non-action for Batman during this time period.↩
17. ^[17]COLLIN COLSHER: This item could seemingly go anywhere on our timeline. We know it is summertime because of an outdoor pool scene. Batman is known but still regarded by many as an urban myth, so it’s definitely early in his career. But Batman is also heavily-scarred on his back, meaning he’s been doing vigilante action for an undetermined amount of time. (As stated previously, it also speaks to his years of brutal training abroad.) Bruce is also fully in charge of Wayne Enterprises. As such, here in Year Two, shortly after Journey into Knight, seems like a fine place for this beautifully illustrated tale.

    JACK JAMES: War on Crime could technically be set anywhere, since there are really no specific indicators of when it takes place. However, there are clues. First, Gotham’s criminal element in War on Crime does not feature mainstream costumed super-villainy, seemingly placing the tale during Batman’s earliest years. The way Batman describes crime in Gotham, it’s very grounded with no real indication whatsoever of super-villains having become ubiquitous at this point. By late Year Two, Gotham will have pretty much already become a hotbed of costumed villainy. Second, in War On Crime, we also get a shot of Bruce in the Batcave, which seems quite minimalistic. No giant dinosaur, no trophies—just a gym there, which could suggest it’s before he gets all that. Third, Bruce’s internal monologue implies implies that he hasn’t been on his Batman business for too long. Fourth, Jim Gordon makes a brief cameo, and while we aren’t told his rank, he seems to wield more authority than a mere lieutenant (but less than a commissioner).↩

18. ^[18]JACK JAMES: Chronologically-speaking, War on Crime is the first story on our timeline that highlights racism on the police force. Randall Winters mentions to Bruce that he knows “a few moonlighting cops willing to keep away the undesirables,” to which Bruce sits there while containing the urge to beat him up. Our first story to deal with police racism directly (as its primary focus) is coming up next year in LOTDK #44-45 (“Turf” by Steven Grant, 1993). So, there is a direct connection between War on Crime and other tales in these first three years.

    COLLIN COLSHER: If Winters knows any cops at all, then he definitely knows racist cops. Disturbingly, “Turf” and War on Crime are both just as relevant today as they were when they were published decades ago. After all, when it comes to policing in America, we’ve had a systemic racism problem that dates all the way back to the enslavement of Black people. If the GCPD is reflective of any major police force in the States, then it is inherently racist at its core. Guys like Jim Gordon are a rare exception, but even he (and Batman) help empower the broken system by taking part in it. That’s an important (and necessary) conversation for another time, though.↩

19. ^[19]VALHERU: “Testament” (LOTDK #172-176) takes five days—Rough Justice’s rampage is four days, not including the next-day coda with the new deputy commish. And because we’re dealing with deputies, we can assume that this is during Grogan’s commissionership when Gordon hadn’t yet become a “political force” in the GCPD. An editorial note says that this item occurs “many months” into Batman’s career, which is a bit specious since it has been over a year-and-a-half at this point. The only legit clues we have to placement, besides the aforementioned deputy stuff, are that: a) Gordon and Batman are “friends”, so we’re after Miller’s “Year One”; b) there’s a Batmobile, so after Year One; c) there’s a Bat-Signal, so after Year One; but d) it’s before Gordon’s promotion to commissioner (or deputy, for that matter). (There’s also the fact that Bruce’s card says he’s President and CEO of Wayne Industries, which fits only after Journey into Knight.) “Testament” could also theoretically be concurrent with “Shaman” in December of Year One, but it just feels like a calendar-Year Two tale.↩
20. ^[20]LUKASZ: Contributor MiTT3NZ suggests that the journal entries Bruce wrote in 2nd part of Journey into Knight (issues 7-12) could be “The Black Casebook.” However, that probably is not true since there was nothing supernatural about that story. Also, Bruce’s entries are very personal and inspired by his father’s suggestions to write down his thoughts and problems. Despite being wrong on these points, “Testament” should still go after Journey into Knight #7-12. It seems reasonable that, even if Bruce decided keeping a journal was too dangerous, he still would take Thomas Wayne’s teachings to heart and keep a “safer” journal for special purposes: “The Black Casebook.” Plus, we know for a fact that Batman journals for the entirety of his career.↩
21. ^[21]COLLIN COLSHER: In Batman Annual #19, details about chemical plants and their owners are crucial to the narrative of the story. Therefore, dialogue pertaining to them shouldn’t be glossed over. In Batman’s in-story journal entry, 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. While Batman’s journal entry dialogue implies that the arrival of market competition happened recently, that would be erroneous if true—as there have been a handful of chemical companies active in Gotham for a while. Nevertheless, the implication that market competition emerged recently is false. This line of dialogue can also be (and should be) read as Batman simply going over the history of chemical companies in his journal. As per Batman: The Killing Joke, Ace Chemical’s Gotham plant has long been active. In fact, Batman: The Man Who Laughs specifically says that Ace opened roughly twenty years before Batman’s debut. Notably, in Batman #682, Apex Chemicals is said to have been bought out by Ace after supplying Dr. Death in Year One. In Batman/Scarecrow 3D #1, Wayne Chemical and Morrison Chemical are both mentioned, so its likely that one of these is the other chemical company mentioned in Batman Annual #19. Batman: Ego, in a nod to Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), also mentions Axis Chemicals in connection to Joker, but this is a continuity error which should have instead said Ace. Axis is only canon in Burton’s film universe.↩
22. ^[22]COLLIN COLSHER: The Batman Annual #19 Scarecrow origin story ends at Arkham Asylum, but, as mentioned, there is a long and winding history of retcons regarding Jonathan Crane’s origin, so let’s address that now.

    First, in Batman Annual #19, Batman says that he’s already faced Two-Face, and the story even shows Scarecrow going to Arkham in a cell next to Two-Face. At the time of Batman Annual #19‘s publication in 1995, Two-Face debuting prior to Scarecrow was actually the status quo—Joker, Two-Face, and Scarecrow all debuted in Year One. (Batman Annual #19 even has “Year One” cover-dressing.) Batman: The Long Halloween #8 (1997) retconned this, making it so Scarecrow debuts before Two-Face. Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 (October 1998) and Batman: Dark Victory (1999-2000) reinforced this change as well. Eventually, Batman: The Man Who Laughs (2005) pushed Joker’s debut into early Year Two, thus sliding Scarecrow’s debut into Year Two as well. As such, anything about Two-Face in Batman Annual #19 (along with the issue’s “Year One” cover-dressing) must be totally ignored.

    Second, in Batman Annual #19, we are told that Crane is only twenty-three-years-old, 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.) In Batman Annual #19, we also learn 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. While Crane’s actions to get his job are still canon, his age and the recency of the event are not. A retcon in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #202 (“Cold Case,” 2006) places 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 happened in the 1960s, meaning Crane has been a teacher for decades and is currently much older than twenty-three. Notably, parts of Batman Annual #19—including Crane’s negative high school experience, his high school murders, his mentor’s suicide, and his takeover of his mentor’s job—are also shown via flashback from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #137-138 (“Prey,” 2001). These items, again, thanks to the aforementioned retcon, occur in the 1960s.

    Third, a line-wide retcon in 2008 tells us that Crane is (or was, at least) a practicing psychiatrist in addition to being a professor. Joker’s Asylum: Scarecrow #1 (September 2008) makes mention of his psychiatry practice while Detective Comics #847 (October 2008) shows a young Tommy Elliot meeting with Crane—a “driven young intern” at the university psychiatric hospital—in 1971. This is 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. Joker’s Asylum: Scarecrow #1 and Detective Comics #847 not only confirm the LOTDK #202 retcon about Crane’s older age, but also that Crane has 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 be in 1971 would be around twenty-six-years-old. This means he is around forty-five now (born in 1945). (Several 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 being in his twenties right now. However, the overall history of Scarecrow retcons flies in the face of that direction.) It’s worth mentioning that both Batman #523-524 (1995) and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #140 (2001) indirectly address Scarecrow’s age by showing him target people who bullied him in high school. In both arcs, 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.

    Fourth, Batman Annual #19 mentions that Scarecrow’s parents are dead. Thanks to a reference in Batman: The Long Halloween #8, Batman even learns that Crane strangled his own mother to death. In 2005, Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 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, both of whom were still alive, factoring heavily into the narrative of the story. However, for various reasons, including the contradictory inclusion of his parents, contradictory inclusion of Robin, and anachronistic return to use of “Year One” cover-dressing and titling, Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 was always regarded as non-canon. Cut to 2009 and the release of the DC Universe Holiday Special 2009, which includes “Unbearable Loss,” 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” functions, at the very least, as a retcon that canonizes 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. The fanwank here is simply that the story of Crane’s parents being dead (including his mom’s strangling) is 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 your own personal headcanon, though. Is it possible that “Unbearable Loss” wants to canonize the main narrative of Year One: Batman/Scarecrow #1-2 too? If that were so, the story 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.

    Check out my article about the complicated history of Scarecrow origin retcons in the Modern Age for more information.↩

23. ^[23]COLLIN COLSHER: I originally had this tale much later, but it should correctly go here with some big caveats. First, the mention of Two-Face must 100% be ignored since Two-Face hasn’t debuted yet. Second, Bruce’s decision to ramp up his father’s Wayne Foundation philanthropy must also be ignored. While Thomas’ Wayne Foundation was indeed philanthropic, it hasn’t been since his murder. Bruce will return the Wayne Foundation to its charitable roots, but not until later this year. However, in spite of these flubs, “Terror” indeed goes here for a bunch of legitimate reasons. First, writer Doug Moench’s narrative heavily insinuates that this takes place not that long after “Prey.” Second, the relationship between Catwoman and Batman is much too cat-and-mouse (cat-and-bat?) to go later, as she is still a fugitive on the GCPD’s radar more-so than a menace that has been put on the back burner. Plus, if Bats and Selina were star-crossed lovers at this point, “Terror” completely forgets this aspect and the kiss in the alley reads as one of their first. Third, “Terror” seems to show Scarecrow’s first foray out of Arkham Asylum after he has fully embraced his role (before he gets all “macabre’d-up” in “Choices” and The Long Halloween). Thus, in a sense, “Terror” functions as an important character-developing moment for Scarecrow. Fourth, “Terror” directly references Scarecrow’s initial defeat in the corn field, making this his second official appearance. Fifth, Catwoman mentions that she is planning to change her “looks, haircut, and attitude” in the near future, hinting at her new socialite persona that is soon to come. Phew.↩
24. ^[24]AVINOAM YAGUR: Trail of the Gun comes somewhere between “Terror” and The Long Halloween #1 Part 4 because Batman and Catwoman are much more familiar with each other in this story than in “Terror” (or previous tales). Additionally, in Trail of the Gun, Catwoman doesn’t know Batman’s secret ID, but she seems to hint that Batman likely knows who she is. Also, due to the length of Selina’s hair in Trail of the Gun, which is mostly grown out, it makes sense for this item to be here (after “Terror” where it was shown to be in the process of growing out).↩
25. ^[25]COLLIN COLSHER: Batman: Madness – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special aka LOTDK Halloween Special #2 (1994) and Batman: Ghosts – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special aka LOTDK Halloween Special #3 (1995) are both awesome Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale books, but both are out-of-continuity. Madness (LOTDK Halloween Special #2) is non-canon for two main reasons. First, it takes place right after Babs is adopted by Jim Gordon. On our chronology, that doesn’t occur until late Bat Year Four (and not near Halloween). Second, James Junior is still a baby (which makes sense if it goes here, but not if it’s during the time when Babs first gets adopted by Jim). James Junior should therefore more correctly be around four or five-years-old when Babs finally gets adopted. Ghosts (LOTDK Halloween Special #3) is non-canon mainly for one reason. It tells the story of how Bruce decides to establish the charitable Wayne Foundation. In Ghosts, Bruce is visited by the “ghosts of Halloween’s past,” a nightmarish and eye-opening experience that convinces him to create the brand new Foundation. However, this story contradicts Batman Confidential #6, where Bruce decides to return the Wayne Foundation to its charitable roots after meeting Lex Luthor, and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #136, which shows us the Wayne Foundation has existed in some form since before Bruce was born. If Ghosts were canon, it would take place during the exact same Halloween weekend as Choices (the first Halloween Special by Loeb/Sale).

    HEARTHESNAP: Batman: Madness – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special aka LOTDK Halloween Special #2 (1994) is non-canon for all the reasons mentioned above. However, if one were to ignore its obvious errors pertaining to the Gordon family and try to shove into headcanon, the story could function as a very early Scarecrow appearance (maybe even his debut), and also function as an important (and frankly missing) character-developing moment. In Madness, Scarecrow certainly feels like a rookie (with especially-green characterization and belief that Batman is the biggest bully around town). No matter how you spin it, Jonathan Crane’s origin is one of the muddiest in all the Modern Age. Scarecrow really lacks character clarity in these early years. He is unpredictable, with his personality often shifting randomly from title to title. A point of consideration for those reading in chronological order: Never assume things you may already know about future stories, particularly when it comes to Scarecrow.

    ANTHONY FALLONE: Batman: Madness – A Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special aka LOTDK Halloween Special #2 (1994) is an important story that should be canon (albeit with any necessary caveats about Babs incorrectly being a part of the Gordon family in Gotham). The only error in Madness pertains to the Gordon family and Babs’ adoption, so if we simply ignore that stuff (or retcon the story so that Babs is simply visiting Gotham for a short stay), then the story can fit right here quite well. This wouldn’t be the first time details were ignored or reinterpreted to fit the timeline.↩

26. ^[26]COLLIN COLSHER: Is “Going Sane” really in-continuity? Who the hell knows? Some consider this story to be one of the classic highlights of the 1990s while others regard it as nothing more than just another throwaway LOTDK tale. And it doesn’t help that JM DeMatteis’ story-arcs usually take months or even years to wrap up—in this case, over six months. However, in order to fit in any capacity, “Going Sane” must be compressed to death, going from six months-plus to one month tops. It should still go here in Year Two because its narrative tells us that Joker has only fought Batman a couple times at this point (three if we go by retcons). Of course, The Long Halloween (the other major Year Two story) takes precedence over “Going Sane.” (“Going Sane” is not only a questionably-canonical LOTDK tale, but it was published prior to The Long Halloween.)↩
27. ^[27]COLLIN COLSHER: In “Going Sane,” Batman’s opening dialogue reads: “Twice I’ve faced [Joker]—and twice he’s ‘died.’ What made me think the second time would be any more permanent than the first?” This basically tells us that “Going Sane” is meant to be the third encounter between Batman and Joker. But hold up. Not so fast. In 1994, when LOTDK #65 was published, DeMatteis’ intention with this line was to reference/canonize Batman’s first two Golden Age encounters with Joker, after which the villain seemingly perished (at the conclusion of both). However, The Man Who Laughs (2005) and its connected “Do You Understand These Rights?” (2008) combine to form Batman’s first official encounter with Joker. And he doesn’t “die” at the end. No matter what, we must include at least one encounter between Batman and Joker that ends similarly to his early Golden Age appearances. This covers our bases for part of Batman’s history lesson in regard to Joker. Moving onward, we have some options: a), ignore the other “death” and leave it at that, adding a retcon caveat saying that Batman should only have said one “death” instead of two or b) retcon Batman’s dialogue to infer that, following his initial Man Who Laughs/”Do You Understand These Rights?” encounter with Joker, the Dark Knight then had two more fights against the Clown Prince of Crime that each resulted in “deaths” for the villain. Either way, there’s definitely a retcon at play here. I’ve opted with the latter scenario because it allows me to creatively lump in some other early free-floating Batman references (notably, trophy gathering) to the two Joker appearances. This means, on my timeline, this is not Batman’s third encounter with Joker. Instead, it’s his fourth.↩
28. ^[28]MILO NOUSIAINEN: From both a continuity and thematic point of view, “Blades” following after “Going Sane” makes sense. It is alluded to in “Blades” that Batman is ready to consider quitting his career in the wake of solving the Mr. Lime case, which would leave Gotham under the protection of Cavalier. We can imagine Bruce thinking that he could then have a life with a woman, perhaps even Dr. Lynn Eagles from “Going Sane.” But at the very end of “Blades,” seeing how Cavalier’s relationship to the woman he rescued led to disaster (Cavalier’s death), Batman decides that he can’t have love and must continue as a costume crimefighter. This is purely headcanon, but it’s interesting to think how these tales might fit together back-to-back to continue the ongoing master narrative.↩
29. ^[29]COLLIN COLSHER: “Destiny” by Mark Kneece/Bo Hampton from LOTDK #35-36 (August 1992) was the very next story released after “Blades.” In the story, Batman meets the Norwegian superhero known as The Viking. After a visit to the local library, Batman and the Viking learn that, according to Norse folk-legend, their respective ancestors supposedly once fought alongside one another against the forces of evil. So naturally, they team-up and travel to Norway to take on an evil and monstrous waste management company that is dumping toxic materials underground. I use the words “evil” and “monstrous” to describe the company, not as a staunch and militant environmentalist, but because the executives are literally a bunch of hunchbacked, ogre-like homicidal kidnappers. Hell, they even have a dungeon! Anyway, this LOTDK arc is definitively non canon, not because it’s a bad story, but for a couple other reasons. First of all, Batman is too well known. It seems highly unlikely that people in a remote part of Norway would know so much about him. Plus, Zero Hour probably would have canceled out stories like this. Another reason this tale is non-canon; it ends with Batman setting off a bomb that floods a cave, drowning all the villains. Seems a bit out of character!? Furthermore, the Norse folk-tale relates the history of an ancient Viking version of Batman known as “The Bat Man.” This Viking Bat Man is supposed to be Bruce’s ancient ancestor. Yeeaahhh. Moving on…↩
30. ^[30]MiTT3NZ: “Favorite Things” connects well to Bruce’s “nothing from his childhood should be moved” belief stemming from Journey into Knight.

    BLUEXY: In “Favorite Things,” there is a frame showing the Batcave with both the dinosaur and the giant penny. Thus, it must go after the acquisition of these trophies.↩

31. ^[31]FRANK FERNANDEZ: At first glance, it might seem odd to see “Rules of Engagement” appearing this early, especially when subsequent books on the timeline don’t show the Batplane or Batbike. (In “Venom,” for example, Bruce is still chartering planes.) However, there are good reasons for placing “Rules of Engagement” here anyway: First, now is a good time for the re-christening of the Wayne Foundation (in close proximity to “Batman: Year Two” stuff). Second, Batman and Gordon (who is still a captain) are working together but they don’t have a strong rapport yet, not like what we’ll see post-The Long Halloween. Furthermore, one could argue that the Batplane and Batbike were so badly destroyed in “Rules of Engagement” that he had to charter planes and use simpler transport for a while afterward (giving us a fanwank for the aforementioned note about “Venom”). Even so, it still feels weird to see so much tech so early in Batman’s career. However, “Rules of Engagement” is a decent fit shortly before “Venom” and overlapping with The Long Halloween—also jibing with Luthor’s mention of metahumans in the tale. The rise of the metahuman is definitely upon us.

    COLLIN COLSHER: The placement of “Rules of Engagement” is indeed because of the Wayne Foundation re-christening, the Batman-Captain Gordon relationship, and Batman’s own comments about it being Year Two. And I like and will use your theory regarding the damaged Batplane and Batbike to further defend my placement. Some might feel that the tech in “Rules of Engagement” is too-over-the-top or advanced for the time period in which the story is supposed to take place, but it really isn’t. The tech shown in this arc is on par for the advanced fictive world of the DCU, even in these early days. Plus, “Rules of Engagement” is the first arc of a new series (Batman Confidential), so even though this is meant to be early on in Batman’s career, DC publishers didn’t want to depict an old school/quaint lo-fi world; they wanted to show a contemporary/hyper-modern environment while delivering an explosive high-octane vibe.↩