Anyone here read Batman: Earth One?

Yes I did read it. I thought it was very good. I would recommand it to anyone curious enough to see batman slighly reinvented. The story is solid.
There's something amazing about Harvey Bullock. G.Johns managed to make the penguin dangerous again. So yeah, it's good.
 
Thanks for the reply. How would you say it stands up against say, Batman: Year One?
 
It's pretty different. I liked Earth One but it is a lot of sloppy Batman. It's a good Riddler story. Some like Alfred in it but I am not a fan of the depiction.
 
It's pretty different. I liked Earth One but it is a lot of sloppy Batman. It's a good Riddler story. Some like Alfred in it but I am not a fan of the depiction.

Does it give an origin for Riddler?
 
I don't really recall an origin. He's just a jerk who kills people but gives them impossible riddles as an escape. It's not quite Jigsaw as some want him to be though.
 
I don't really recall an origin. He's just a jerk who kills people but gives them impossible riddles as an escape. It's not quite Jigsaw as some want him to be though.

Okay, thanks. Did Batman: Earth One lead to any follow-ups? I know there was a Superman: Earth One, but I've not heard of anything else.
 
There is a volume one and a volume two. Volume two is the one with the Riddler. Volume One is primarily an origin story with Penguin as the main bad. There's also a creepy serial killer of teenage girls named the Birthday Boy. Really disturbing character. Like a fatter more unintelligent Buffalo Bill.
 
I thought it was "aight", I only read volume 1, not something I'd read again or recommend unless you were a huge Batman fan or collector. I wasn't enough of a reinvention to really interest me, like something like Red Son, for example. And all the things they changed, I just much prefer the way they are in the normal Batman mythology. Like Alfred being more of a military guy, a little younger and more involved in the fighting and training, Harvey Bullock is a handsome TV celebrity cop who turns out to be a good guy, I can't remember how they changed Gordon, but I think he started out crooked in the story.


I was a little intrigued by the ending, to want to read the next Riddler story, but not enough to drop 20 bucks on it. So, overall, there's no comparison to the great Batman stories within the normal Batman mythology
 
I thought it was "aight", I only read volume 1, not something I'd read again or recommend unless you were a huge Batman fan or collector. I wasn't enough of a reinvention to really interest me, like something like Red Son, for example. And all the things they changed, I just much prefer the way they are in the normal Batman mythology. Like Alfred being more of a military guy, a little younger and more involved in the fighting and training, Harvey Bullock is a handsome TV celebrity cop who turns out to be a good guy, I can't remember how they changed Gordon, but I think he started out crooked in the story.


I was a little intrigued by the ending, to want to read the next Riddler story, but not enough to drop 20 bucks on it. So, overall, there's no comparison to the great Batman stories within the normal Batman mythology

I've heard mixed things about the book and I know some of the changes they made to characters weren't popular. Do you know if it was intended to kick-start a series? The only other Earth One title I know of is Superman.

Massive fan of Red Son, btw! :up:
 
The whole Earth One series are good. They start with Superman then Batman followed by the Teen Titans. Superman has 3 volumes, Batman has 2 the third one is supposed to come out God knows when and Teen Titans has 2. The Superman titles are more like how MoS (Cavil's Superman) and has some really good stories. Batman is good as well but they are showing how he starts out and how he gets his gear and how the suit is always changing. You really should pick them up.
 
The whole Earth One series are good. They start with Superman then Batman followed by the Teen Titans. Superman has 3 volumes, Batman has 2 the third one is supposed to come out God knows when and Teen Titans has 2. The Superman titles are more like how MoS (Cavil's Superman) and has some really good stories. Batman is good as well but they are showing how he starts out and how he gets his gear and how the suit is always changing. You really should pick them up.

Many thanks. Do you know if Batman: Earth One had any influence on the TV series Gotham? I know that Batman isn't in the show but from what I've heard Sean Pertwee's take on Alfred sounds similar. Are Bruce's very early years in the same vein?
 
I see that there's also a Wonder Woman: Year One, with Aquaman and Flash titles due to be released this year. I think I'll at least give Batman a try and see how it goes from there.
 
[YT][/YT]
Many thanks. Do you know if Batman: Earth One had any influence on the TV series Gotham? I know that Batman isn't in the show but from what I've heard Sean Pertwee's take on Alfred sounds similar. Are Bruce's very early years in the same vein?
No they are not even close. Batman: Earth One is it's own thing and has some good stories. It is IMO better than Batman: Year One mainly because is still learning how to be Batman and how to balance the life of Bruce Wayne and Batman. Superman: Earth One Vol 1 & 2 only resemble the movies because when Goyer was writing both movies those books came out and he lifted a lot of the themes from those books and put them in the movies. Wonder Woman: Earth One is good but just very out there and barely fits in the Earth One world.
 
No they are not even close. Batman: Earth One is it's own thing and has some good stories. It is IMO better than Batman: Year One mainly because is still learning how to be Batman and how to balance the life of Bruce Wayne and Batman. Superman: Earth One Vol 1 & 2 only resemble the movies because when Goyer was writing both movies those books came out and he lifted a lot of the themes from those books and put them in the movies. Wonder Woman: Earth One is good but just very out there and barely fits in the Earth One world.

Wow, okay. I'll give Batman a try :up:
 
I really admired how the story was able to balance "Becoming Batman was probably not the best idea" one moment with the "Holy **** he's Batman he's doing it!" another moment.

The best contribution to the myriad other retellings of Batman's early days is definitely fleshing out Martha Wayne. In almost every version, even the great ones like "Year One" and Begins, Martha's just kinda there. It's one of the many things that pisses me off about "Gotham", you'd almost forget that Martha was killed that night too for all the lack of mention she gets from Bruce, Alfred, or Lucius.

But saying she came from the Arkham family? And HER side of the family had dark secrets she wanted to keep from Bruce? Good stuff, and really makes me wish "Gotham" didn't start with the death of the Waynes, but instead let us get to know them first.
 
I don't quite rate it alongside Batman Year One, the Long Halloween or Dark Knight returns.

But, for a modern Batman story its very good, and worth a read.
 
I really admired how the story was able to balance "Becoming Batman was probably not the best idea" one moment with the "Holy **** he's Batman he's doing it!" another moment.

The best contribution to the myriad other retellings of Batman's early days is definitely fleshing out Martha Wayne. In almost every version, even the great ones like "Year One" and Begins, Martha's just kinda there. It's one of the many things that pisses me off about "Gotham", you'd almost forget that Martha was killed that night too for all the lack of mention she gets from Bruce, Alfred, or Lucius.

That all sounds really intriguing...

But saying she came from the Arkham family? And HER side of the family had dark secrets she wanted to keep from Bruce? Good stuff, and really makes me wish "Gotham" didn't start with the death of the Waynes, but instead let us get to know them first.

... especially that! :up:
 
I don't quite rate it alongside Batman Year One, the Long Halloween or Dark Knight returns.

But, for a modern Batman story its very good, and worth a read.

Three books that have pride of place on my bookshelf!

Okay, many thanks.
 
Have you read Snyder's Year Zero? Another great retelling of the Batman origin, IMO. He's really good about taking these interesting factoids from nature or history and incorporating the in some metaphoric way, and reinventing parts of the Batman mythos in a new way, like the story of how Gordon got his trademark trench coat, for one of many examples. And the artwork, dialogue, action, storyline, is all great
 
Yes I've read that and enjoyed it, not as much as Year One (have to admit I'm not generally a huge fan of Scott Snyder) but I thought it was pretty good.
 
Thanks for the reply. How would you say it stands up against say, Batman: Year One?
For me it's not the same. Batman Year One is not a batman story, it's about Gordon. And a pretty good one about Gordon.

I would not compare the 2 books because Year One has now a cult status. So everyone will tell you Y1 is better no matter what. Personnaly I liked Earth1 a lot more than Y1.
Comparing things with something declared as "cult" is not easy, the comparison will always go in the direction of the cult book whatever it is. It's trapped in this cult status and it doesn't allow good or excellent work to be influential anymore.
IMO Earth1 was pretty good.
 
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I really admired how the story was able to balance "Becoming Batman was probably not the best idea" one moment with the "Holy **** he's Batman he's doing it!" another moment.

The best contribution to the myriad other retellings of Batman's early days is definitely fleshing out Martha Wayne. In almost every version, even the great ones like "Year One" and Begins, Martha's just kinda there. It's one of the many things that pisses me off about "Gotham", you'd almost forget that Martha was killed that night too for all the lack of mention she gets from Bruce, Alfred, or Lucius.

But saying she came from the Arkham family? And HER side of the family had dark secrets she wanted to keep from Bruce? Good stuff, and really makes me wish "Gotham" didn't start with the death of the Waynes, but instead let us get to know them first.

Okay, just finished volume 2 and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing :up:

I liked Bruce's and Batman's journey as they started to become more like the Bruce and Batman that we know. I thought the introductions of the various rogues/freaks were well handled. I wouldn't necessarily want all of them in regular continuity, but as alternative takes there wasn't one that I thought missed the mark. And I found myself unexpectedly laughing out loud at some moments!

Loved the Wayne/Arkham connection, which I hope is expanded on in volume three. I'm not normally a huge fan of Geoff Johns; I like his ideas and plots but I generally find his dialogue hit and miss. Thankfully that wasn't a problem here at all.
 
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