Gotham City: Year One reveals how the city became riddled with crime

Kicking off a weekend of announcements at San Diego Comic-Con, DC has revealed an upcoming six-issue limited series written by Tom King and Phil Hester – Gotham City: Year One.

How did Gotham become such an active cesspool of criminal activity? Gotham City: Year One will explore the city's fall from grace, two generations before Batman made it his mission to rid his hometown of dangerous villains.

Written by King and Hester, illustrated by Eric Gapstur, colored by Jordie Bellaire, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, Gotham City: Year One will follow private investigator Slam Bradley as he gets caught up in the "kidnapping of the century" – AKA the disappearance of infant Wayne heir Helen.

"Night falls quickly in Gotham City," Hester says in the announcement. "The shadows cut across guilty and innocent alike. I feel lucky to be the artist to show you just how this city got so dark in the first place."

He continues, "Tom has crafted a story that will echo across Batman lore past and present, and I hope the storytelling techniques Eric, Jordie, Clayton and I are bringing to bear will augment his razor-keen approach. I'm honored to play a small part in bringing Siegel and Shuster's landmark creation to a new audience, and in giving one of DC's oldest legends the white-hot spotlight he deserves."

King adds, "Having written a ton of Batman comics, I can say it's incredibly rare to write a book like this, where you can add something large and essential to the mythos of the Dark Knight, as Scott did with Court of Owls or Grant did with the introduction of Damian or Frank did with, well, everything he touched."

"In Gotham City: Year One, Phil and I will take you to a noir-drenched past, where the secrets that made Gotham become Gotham, the sins that made Batman become Batman are finally and violently revealed."

Get a first look at Gotham City: Year One below.

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Gotham City: Year One will go on sale October 4.

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Samantha Puc (she/they) is an editor at Newsarama and an avid comics fan. Their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., The Beat, The Mary Sue, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School.