Behold, Batman’s Best Gadget Is Back After 39 Years

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Warning: Spoilers for Batman and Robin: Year One (2024) #4From Batarangs to Bat Shark-Repellent, Batman is well known to live by the variety of gadgets he employs in the field. But while Batman’s gadgets have evolved over the years, there’s one iconic tool from his early days that seems to have fallen by the wayside – which is why it’s so wonderful to see it again after it defined the Year One story arc nearly forty years ago.

In Batman and Robin: Year One (2024) #4 – written by Mark Waid, with art by Chris Samnee – Batman distracts General Anthony Grimaldi’s goons with a crate of live bats, so he can slip into Grimaldi’s office and interrogate him. When Grimaldi orders his men to attack, Batman bursts out the door and, slipping sonic emitters on his foes, coaxes the swarm of bats to attack them while he gets away.

These sonic emitters are one of Batman’s rarer gadgets, but their presence here is an important callback, as they played a major role in the original Batman: Year One series.

Batman’s Bat-Calling Sonics Make Their Triumphant Return In DC’s Latest “Year One” Series, Reminding Fans Of The Original

Batman and Robin: Year One (2024) #4 – Written By Mark Waid; Art By Chris Samnee; Color By Mat Lopes; Lettering By Clayton Cowles

The original Batman: Year One arc, by Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli, began in 1987 with Batman (1940) #404 and ran through Batman #407. Specifically, in Batman #406, when Batman is pinned down and under fire from the GCPD, he uses a sonic emitter to call a host of bats to his location to cover his escape. The scene of bats drowning out the sunlight so that Batman can slip free is perhaps the defining moment of the entire Batman: Year One arc, helping Bruce Wayne establish “the Batman” as a legendary figure in Gotham in a single outing.

Batman’s arsenal has grown considerably since the events of Year One. Batman’s gadgetry has reached science-fiction levels as technology has grown and developed: he has crafted spy satellites, power armor, his cowl augments his vision with AR, and so on. The technological creep has arguably culminated with Failsafe, Batman’s autonomous robot that could take down the Justice League. As such, his need for such smoke-and-mirror tactics has greatly diminished, leading his bat sonics to largely fall by the wayside. Despite this, they are still an iconic part of his gear, even making a high-profile appearance in Batman Begins (2005).

An Innovation On A Classic

The sonic emitters’ appearance in Batman and Robin: Year One is more than just a wonderful callback. Their presence grounds the story in Batman’s early years, taking readers back to a time when Batman was still defining his approach, his tactics, and how much “bat” would be part of his vigilante persona. It makes perfect sense that the bat sonics would still be a part of Batman’s “Year One” arsenal: the shock value presented by a swarm of bats is second to none, and the setting is early enough in Batman’s career to sell his persona of being completely unpredictable.

Batman’s use of sonics to manipulate swarms of bats into doing his bidding is one of the more gimmicky aspects of the character, but at the same time embodies the theatricality demanded by a man who dresses up in a batsuit to fight crime. Although the days when such devices were a common part of Batman’s approach are long past, they’re an iconic part of his kit; as such, their return in another Year One story decades after the original is a welcome reminder of one of Batman’s best, if oddest, gadgets.

Batman and Robin: Year One (2024) #4 is available now from DC Comics.

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