5 Comics To Read Before Watching The Batman

"Batman: Year One" is weighted equally to Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne, who arrive in Gotham City at the same time, one by train, the other by plane. Gordon memorizes his new, corrupt cop partner's Green Beret moves "for future reference" and hopes that his wife isn't pregnant because Gotham is no place to raise a family. Batman kicks down trees and punches guys through brick walls, but he's still a "lucky amateur" who is learning the vigilante ropes.

Even if you've never read "Year One," you may already be familiar with certain moments through "Batman Begins," such as the scene where a SWAT team corners Batman in a building and he summons a flock of bats to escape. There's also the scene where the crooked cop Flass witnesses Batman bust up a drug shipment, and the scene at the end with Gordon on the rooftop teasing the Joker's emergence.

The core ethos in "Year One" of "a credible Batman, grounded in a world we recognize," as artist David Mazzuchelli put it, contains the pseudo-realistic seeds of Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy. For "The Batman," Reeves has Jeffrey Wright playing Gordon, and he's adopted the short-haired Selina Kyle of "Year One." Dano's Riddler shows up in the "Nighthawks"-esque diner where Gordon and his mistress, Sarah Essen, regularly meet for coffee in the comic (which names the diner "Hopper" in a nod to the painter).

As much as "Year One," first published as "Batman" #404—407 in 1987, may have influenced Nolan and Reeves, it also drew influence from earlier movies. Mazzuchelli's version of Wayne is modeled on photos of Gregory Peck, the same actor who would inspire the look of the older Wayne in the Elseworlds tale, "Kingdom Come." When Wayne dons an army jacket for a reconnaissance mission in Gotham's red-light district, Frank Miller's script notes, "The clothes should make him look like he's trying out for the Travis Bickle lookalike contest."

The one-shot "Batman: Ego" was the first project that the late artist and writer Darwyn Cooke did for DC Comics in 2000. This collection includes that comic and most of Cooke's other Batman-related work. "Batman: Ego" is subtitled "A Psychotic Slide Into the Heart of Darkness," and it does see Bruce Wayne indulging in some self-described "morbid introspection." Here, the Batman side of him acts as the Ghost of Christmas Past, walking him back through his childhood memories and trying to talk him into a "self-induced psychosis," or "voluntary splitting" of personalities.

We see how, at an early age, it became a primordial symbol of death and the fear that lives within him, a fear he would later turn against criminals. Cooke likens it to the spirit of a great warrior inhabiting a simple tribesman in some ancient culture. Now, that spirit wants to be let off the leash so it can kill the Joker and thereby put an end to his homicidal sprees once and for all.

Pattinson's Batman, likewise, struggles to control his rage, and he's bound by the same rules of engagement as his comic book counterpart. "Ego" shows the precedent that some superhero films have ignored when it has Wayne tell his Batman persona, "There is a line we may never cross. No killing. It is the only difference between us and them."

The version of "Batman: Ego" that's out there now is a collected edition that includes the 2002 graphic novel, "Catwoman: Selina's Big Score," which sees Selina embarking on a train heist. That, and the 11-page Batman and Catwoman story, "Date Knight," with Cooke's words and Sale's art, should help get you primed for the interactions between the Bat and the Cat in "The Batman."

Though "The Batman" is set during the second year of the Caped Crusader's crimefighting career, it doesn't appear to be pulling much from the actual "Year Two" comics storyline. However, there are a few indications that it is utilizing elements of "Zero Year," Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's arc from "Batman" (vol. 2) #21–27 and #29–33.

This story was published from 2013 to 2014, then reprinted in two volumes before being collected in a new single volume in 2021. Taking place after one of the many relaunches that has reset DC's continuity over the years, the story follows Bruce Wayne's early days in Gotham. He's 25 again, ready to declare, "I shall become a bat," as he did in "Year One," only this time, he's got a more aerodynamic haircut. At various points, we see him as Batman on a motorcycle without his cape, similar to what we've glimpsed in set photos from "The Batman" (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Trailers and TV spots for "The Batman" have shown the streets of Gotham flooding and Batman leading people through the dark with a red flare. In "Zero Year," after Batman blacks out a few city blocks (in the shape of a bat, naturally), the Riddler does him one better and takes control of the power grid, plunging the whole city into darkness. Gotham's citizens, including Jim Gordon, draw bats on flashlights and searchlights and use them as makeshift Bat-Signals. There's also a super-storm bearing down on the city and Riddler blows the retaining walls and floods the streets.

Don't expect to see Paul Dano playing destructive dominoes with buildings, or Batman hanging upside-down from a blimp or flying his own dirigible, or the hot mess that is Dr. Death, a revamped eyesore villain whose body is a beanstalk of bones. ("Put your claws in the air," Gordon tells him.) Not everything in comics translates well to movies ... but if you've recently read or reread these five comics, you might be able to spot some cool Easter eggs in "The Batman."