Bat to the Past: Review of Detective Comics #574

Hello, Caped Crusaders! In honor of today being Batman Day, I’ve decided to review a comic made for the 47th anniversary of Batman.

Today’s comic is Detective Comics #574, from May 1987. It was written by Mike W. Barr, featuring art and cover by Alan Davis and Paul Neary, colors by Adrienne Roy, and letters by Richard Starkings. The story is called “…My Beginning… And My Probably End.” This story is a half-flashback story that retells bits of Bruce’s origins, focusing more on Bruce working to become Batman than his first time as Batman. I actually find this a very compelling retelling because of the way it focuses on Bruce as a person even as he insists on his identity as Batman.

The story begins with a brief description of how Park Row turned into Crime Alley, with a slow focus onto Dr. Leslie Thompkins’ clinic. We see the silhouette and legs of Batman as he chases off two addicts who are intent on breaking into the clinic, but Batman doesn’t seem to be paying them too much attention. As we see on the title page, this is because he’s carrying a dying Jason Todd, whose been shot by the Mad Hatter. When Leslie takes Jason to operate on him, Bruce waits and remembers his parents’ murder.

This scene is fairly standard to every retelling of the Wayne murders, but what struck me about this particular version is the fact that all of the panels are seen from eight-year-old Bruce’s point of view. We see only his hands and the things he sees from the angle of a child. It’s a very startling choice, but a very powerful one. This “view from a child” ties into what Bruce says later in the comic about why he took in Jason. All in all, it’s a very well done scene, and definitely a great example of artist and writer working well together.

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In the next few scenes, Leslie and Bruce are talking about his childhood immediately following the death of his parents. (Interestingly, in this adaptation, Leslie became Bruce’s foster mother; I don’t remember her role being that official in other tellings, but I haven’t read them all so I could be wrong!) It’s their next conversation that’s rather intriguing to me. Bruce tells Leslie about how he went crafting the “Bruce Wayne: playboy” personality in college, so he could have privacy and so no one would suspect what he was really trying to learn. It even has him going as far as disguising himself as a visiting student to ask particularly hard questions, or even breaking into his professors’ offices to find their notes. This portrayal is particularly interesting, because Bruce talks about it in an almost happy manner, as if he truly enjoyed his college days.

“I liked those times. In those days, I really thought I could make a difference…” -Batman, Batman #574

Leslie asks Bruce why he does it, why he goes out when he thinks he can’t make a difference, so he asks her the same thing. She replies, “Because I /have/ to.” I think that, of everything, makes them understand each other, and really sums up why Batman does what he does. He doesn’t feel there’s any other choice. He doesn’t want to allow anyone else to suffer the same fate he did, and since he /can/ help, he’ll do what he can to fight crime. It may not ever be perfect, crime may always come back, but Batman will always keep trying because he has to.

In the last (and my favorite) section, they talk about Jason, who is currently Robin in this issue. It’s not only that Bruce doesn’t want anyone else to go through what he did, but he especially doesn’t want Jason to /grow up/ the way he did. The loneliness and isolation Bruce felt as a boy is something he never wants Jason to know (something shown in an adorable panel of a smiling Jason playing baseball). Bruce says,

"“I didn’t know what to do… Didn’t know how to fight my war until my youth was /gone/…. I wanted to give Jason an /outlet/ for his rage…wanted him to expunge his anger, and get /on/ with his life…”"

When Jason awakens, Bruce goes to him, cowl down, and apologizes for him getting hurt, telling him that he “won’t force you to do this any[more].” Jason just smiles at him and says, “Are you kiddin’, Bruce? We’ve got work to do.” The comic ends on a large panel of the images of Batman and Robin over the clinic, ready to go back into action.

This comic is fantastic for a lighter, less grimdark Batman. It really showcases Bruce’s thoughts about himself, his work, and his life, but it also paints him as a father-figure, something that’s so often missing from newer Batman works. Batman has been a father or father-figure to all of his Robins and, even though bad things do happen to them (Jason getting shot here, a mention of Leslie’s about a “close call” with Dick), things can still be happy and loving in the Batfamily.

There are so many great things in this story that I can’t cover (including an accusation from Leslie about Batman only focusing on the lower social classes), but the final thing I will mention is that this comic also gives us an approximate age for Batman. Leslie says, “You’re still that little boy I took home 25 years ago…” If we assume that Bruce was eight when his parents died (as most canon says), that means that, at the time of this comic, Bruce was about 33. It’s fun trying to figure out from that what the age difference is between him and Dick, along with extrapolating that to future Robins.

Overall, this is a really great comic. It’s available on Comixology (though, sadly, not part of their awesome Batman sale), and I highly recommend getting it! It’s a fantastic comic for anyone who enjoys a happier Batman and learning a little more about the life before the Bat.

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