Despite Warner Bros. prepping a new onscreen version of the Caped Crusader in The Batman, DC is harkening back to 2005's Batman Begins movie for a new 10-issue series titled Batman: The Knight from writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico.
Batman's origins are hardly new territory for DC in comic books. Batman: Year One, Batman: Zero Year, and other high-profile stories have explored various aspects of Batman's earliest adventures, from his path to becoming Batman to his first cases in Gotham City. But Batman: The Knight takes things one step further, showcasing the time between when Bruce Wayne left Gotham as a young man, and when he returned to the city of his birth to become a crimefighter.
For those familiar with Batman Begins (and who isn't, at this point?), the story premise and accompanying imagery will hit home right off the bat (no pun intended).
And for those more versed in Batman's comic book history, it seems the aim of Batman: The Knight is to offer a concise picture of how Bruce Wayne trained to become Batman, taking in the various aspects of the tale that have previously been told in comics, and putting them through a familiar lens.
And lest anyone think we're digging too deep on the concept here, DC is fully leaning into the Batman Begins movie comparison in its advance solicitation text for Batman: The Knight #1, which coyly asks "How did the Dark Knight…begin?"
Here's a gallery of unlettered interior pages from Batman: The Knight #1, along with all three covers:
DC promises Batman: The Knight will offer a "definitive" take on Bruce Wayne's training as Batman.
At the same time, Detective Comics is prepping a big story from writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Mora which reunites the 'World's Finest' friends Batman and Superman - meaning classic Batman nostalgia will be all over DC starting in January.
Batman: The Knight #1 is due out January 18 and will feature variant covers by Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion and by Gerald Parel.
Stay tuned for DC's full January 2022 solicitations, coming later this week on Newsarama.
You don't need to be a detective to keep track of all the new Batman stories coming up - you just need our complete listing of all the new Batman comics planned for 2021 and beyond.
