Every DC Year One Comic, Ranked Chronologically

The Year One format by DC Comics was a genius way of introducing the origins of a character for a new continuity in a condensed manner. This has led to the company putting out dozens of stories with the label, trailing on the iconic status of the first one with the subtitle— Batman: Year One.

There are three distinct camps of these Year One stories. Many have been released as one-shots in annual issues through 1995; some are spinoffs that cover the later stages of a hero’s career, like Batman: Year Two— but the rest range from miniseries and maxi-series to one-shots and annuals. Over twenty Year One stories have been published across several decades, each exploring the respective characters to various success.

Batman: Year One Started It All

This comic started the trend of Year One comics for both DC and the comic industry overall. One of the first Batman comics written during DC’s Post-Crisis initiative, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli made waves with their noir-driven, mature take on Batman’s mythology, a perfect intro to the new Batman. While it only spanned four issues, the atmospheric story was a nuanced character study of both Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon.

Perhaps the best part of Batman: Year One is its pacing, as it was one of the few stories under the Year One branding that had a story that took place over one year instead of a much shorter timeframe. It wowed readers with its potential and accessible formatting, and as such, it’s little surprise that it caught on so quickly.

Guy Gardner is a character who is a bit rough around the edges, a loudmouth with a tendency to anger many of the people he meets. But he, of all characters possible, was granted one of the first Year One comics in the early days of his solo series.

This tale may seem unapproachable due to how it ties in with the story of Guy’s clone and the many complications that ensued, but Guy Gardner: Year One otherwise does a good job of showing its lead’s early life—long before he was made a member of the Green Lantern Corps. While none of this is condensed to a year, another mark of Year One comics yet to come not living up to their names, readers are introduced to the abuse Guy suffered as a child and why he pursued a career as a counselor and physical education teacher.

Oracle: Year One Was A Deeply Personal Story

Barbara Gordon was slowly on the outs as Batgirl and had been for a moment—even before her maiming at the hands of the Joker in The Killing Joke. DC was fine with letting her fade into obscurity, but the creative duo of Kim Yale and John Ostrander wasn’t. Yale, in particular, was invested in utilizing Gordon to her fullest potential, and she more than delivered with the “Oracle: Year One” story in Batman Chronicles #5, the first Year One comic to be a one-shot.

The story was a real depiction of someone grappling with a newfound disability and battling against letting it ruin their life—Barbara overcame her pain and became a hero more powerful than Batgirl could ever be: Oracle. She didn’t need to throw a punch to save the day, and that was more than enough. The story also carried a personal and extremely powerful energy to it, as Kim Yale took on the project to process her own breast cancer diagnosis, knowing that she wouldn’t beat it. She passed away less than a year after its publication in 1996, leaving readers with a profound legacy.

Establishing the beginnings of a team like the JLA seems like an insurmountable task. Still, it was one comics icon Mark Waid was willing to do, with a fun twist— not a single member of the Trinity was present as a founder of the Justice League. Wonder Woman hadn’t yet left her homeland and the World’s Finest duo of Batman and Superman had minimal roles.

Instead, readers witness Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman start the iconic superteam on their own. The series also had the benefit of lasting twelve issues, so fans could see the Justice League’s “year one” play out in real-time. While it’s been softly retconned in some regards, it’s a fan-favorite story that serves as a nice entry point to the Justice League.

Robin: Year One Was The Start Of A Trilogy

The Batfamily has to be the group with the most number of Year One stories and it’s little surprise as to why that’s the case. Three of them were even written by the same creative team, Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, leading to a neat little trilogy of sorts that began with Robin: Year One.

Dick Grayson’s beginnings are widely known, even among the casual audience, but it was this story that fleshed out his early days as Robin after being recruited by Batman, taking elements from Batman: Dark Victory and Batman: Year Three to streamline them into something stronger and standalone. The comic also had a solid use of Two-Face, establishing the villain’s long-running rivalry with the Boy Wonder.

Batgirl: Year One Improved The Hero’s Early Days

Batgirl: Year One was arguably the peak of Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty’s Year One Batfamily trilogy. While Robin: Year One was a solid installment in the Boy Wonder’s many origins, Batgirl: Year One was a powerhouse that brought pathos to a character’s unexplored early days.

Barbara Gordon presented herself as a force to be reckoned with, a witty and brave underdog readers are endeared towards almost instantly. The series’ longer issue count, nine issues instead of the usual range of four to six, also gave it more room to breathe. As a result, its implementation of characters ranging from Killer Moth as Batgirl’s first foe to the first meetings with Barbara’s closest ally, Dinah Lance/Black Canary, is very smooth. It’s a nice precursor to Oracle: Year One in a few ways, foreshadowing Barbara’s future and how she’ll face it head-on.

Nightwing: Year One Was A Bit Disappointing

Nightwing: Year One was the conclusion to Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty’s Bat Family Year One story and was, unfortunately, the weakest of the bunch. Not only did it feel dissonant from the previous two due to the absence of Marcos Martin in art, but its story felt very rushed, with strange depictions of most of its characters.

While Dick Grayson was portrayed quite well, many of his supporting cast suffered from varying degrees of Flanderization to prop himself up. Combine this with pacing that could be called “sporadic,” and Nightwing: Year One doesn’t quite stick the landing. It’s a fun story for those looking to explore Dick Grayson’s transition as solo hero Nightwing, but it isn’t anything that wasn’t done better previously.

Year One: Batman/Scarecrow Was A Great Showcase Of A Classic Batman Artist’s Work

While the Bat Family isn’t starved for choice when it comes to getting a Year One story for their origins, neither were some of Gotham’s greatest villains. Scarecrow was the first villain character to get a Year One comic, a duology consisting of two double-sized issues.

Jonathan Crane was given a Carrie-esque origin, complete with a religious zealot of a maternal figure, social ostracization, and violently lashing out against those considered to be “bullies”. This was interspersed with his first crime spree as the Scarecrow in the present day, with Batman and Robin investigating. The story is generally forgettable, though it is notable for being one of Sean Gordon Murphy’s first Batbooks before his long tenure as the creative architect and backbone of the Batman: White Knight universe.

Year One: Batman/Ra’s Al Ghul Didn’t Live Up To Its Title

Year One: Batman/Ra’s Al Ghul quickly followed up Year One: Batman/Scarecrow, and to a fan conscientious of their release dates, it was easy to see why that was the case— both were made to promote Batman Begins, a film that had just been released.

Year One: Batman/Ra’s Al Ghul was also not the most memorable comic, as it wasn’t a true origin for the character of Ra’s al Ghul, with the little scraps of his past relegated to flashbacks. The main story is about Batman trying to investigate Ra’s plan to make it so that nothing would ever die, as the corpses of Gotham are brought back as borderline zombies. That premise was interesting but not given any room to breathe—it wasn’t even Batman’s first encounter with the Head of the Demon, making the Year One branding of this comic particularly pointless.

Until this point, “Year One” stories had been exclusive to Gotham-centric characters or were the name of an arc in an ongoing series rather than its own title. Green Arrow: Year One was the first Year One miniseries published on its own, about a character with precious little to do with the Bat Family.

Created by Andy Diggle and Jock, the top-tier team who had also done The Losers— a Vertigo cult classic—, Green Arrow: Year One was a fantastic modern take on its titular character’s origin. It felt more in line with the mature tone of Mike Grell’s time on the Green Arrow character, fleshing out Ollie as a deeply flawed man who still wanted to fight for the right thing. It’s little wonder why it became the de facto origin for the character from then on, even being adapted for the first season of the CW’s Arrow.

Metamorpho is one of those characters that gets pulled in and out of DC’s rotation fairly often, pushed more in some decades than others. The last fifteen years have been a time for this, as the so-called Element Man appeared in shows like Beware the Batman and had his own Year One miniseries.

The series was an attempt to streamline the character of Metamorpho, whose last origin had been shown in his original series decades earlier. Another effort to modernize him, taking him out of the sixties and putting him in the then-current day and age, landed fairly well with solid writing and engaging art. The general plot beats of Rex Mason’s start as an unusual hero were kept intact, from his relationship with the Staggs to the campy method in which he got his powers.

Teen Titans: Year One Is One Of The Team’s Best Runs

The Teen Titans are one of DC’s most recognizable brands, and it makes lots of sense why. They’ve got a foundational history, and the team is fairly approachable and modern in its modern state. However, their older comics can be a bit tricky to get into to understand the Teen Titans’ formation.

This is where Teen Titans: Year One became a useful book. The book was an updated look at the team’s early days as children, initially existing in the shadows of their adult mentors in the Justice League—until the League fell under the influence of the villain Antithesis, requiring the Titans to save them and proving the team of young heroes could stand on their own.

Huntress: Year One Elaborated On An Origin We Saw Little Of Prior

The Helena Bertinelli iteration of Huntress has always had origins that have jumped around since her debut, with no reboots needed to overhaul them. Huntress: Year One was an attempt to flesh out the backstory provided in Greg Rucka’s Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, done by first-time comic writer Ivory Madison.

Working off an already strong framework provided by Rucka, Madison spent time shading in the details of Helena’s upbringing as a member of a crime family, having more time to do so as she didn’t need to jump between flashbacks and a present-day story. It really dived into Helena’s anger and desire to protect women while setting up her future clashes with characters like Batman and Barbara Gordon. It did struggle with pacing, especially in the back half, but is otherwise one of the Huntress’ best stories.

Two-Face: Year One Was A Half-Hearted Tie-In

Two-Face: Year One was another villain origin that was made to release alongside a feature film, in this case The Dark Knight. But it was fighting an uphill battle from the start—not only did it have to compete against the iteration of Harvey Dent in Nolan’s upcoming movie, widely considered one of the best comic films of all time by fans and critics, but the prior success of comic origins Batman Annual #14’s “Eye of the Beholder” and Batman: The Long Halloween stacked the deck against it.

Unfortunately Two-Face: Year One did not meet the mark. It heavily relied on The Long Halloween‘s iconography and plot beats, which seems to defeat the point of it being an introductory origin comic. It had some unique ideas, such as Two-Face trying to run for political office, but none were executed well, leading to a comic that faded away in the shadows of much better stories.

Black Lightning: Year One Was The End Of An Era

The New 52 did not have a single Year One comic released during its five-year run, though fans did get a series of “Year Zero” annuals. It makes sense, as it was a reboot with many runs focused on detailing character origins anyway, but that left one comic as the last installation of the line before a lengthy hiatus: Black Lightning: Year One.

A look at Jefferson Pierce‘s humble beginnings, the series was a fantastic look at the more down-to-earth hero and his personal life. Pierce‘s civilian role as a teacher and connection to his hometown of Metropolis’ Suicide Slums are essential elements of his character that set him apart from his peers, and this Year One comic utilized them both excellently.

Wonder Woman: Year One Set The Hero On A Brighter Path

Rebirth was a soft reboot for DC after the events of the New 52, a status quo that tried to present itself as approachable for all kinds of readers. Some characters remained the same despite the relaunch, but for others, it was seen as a great chance to provide them with a clean slate—cue Wonder Woman: Year One, a new origin penned by veteran Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka.

An attempt to roll back her controversial New 52 iteration, Wonder Woman: Year One released every other month alongside a story set in the present day to reveal the heroine’s new backstory to readers slowly. While a bit rushed, a notable trend in many Year One books, it did a fine job at revitalizing her origin for the modern day—especially considering the origin it was following up.

The Flash: Year One Was The Redux Of A Better Origin

The Flash: Year One was not the first time the hero had a Year One-esque origin. One of the earliest examples was Mark Waid’s Born to Run storyline about Wally West in the early days of Post-Crisis. But The Flash: Year One was about Barry’s roots, this time set in the all-new Rebirth continuity.

There is perhaps a joke to be made about Barry borrowing yet another aspect of his character from Wally West, but this Year One comic strayed away from copying any beats of Wally’s story. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much with Barry’s story either, feeling too tethered to the events of Joshua Williamson’s run to stand alone or add anything constructive to the Flash’s history.

Superman: Year One Misfired

The Black Label imprint was DC’s attempt to create a new iteration of the iconic Vertigo imprint, a vehicle to tell mature stories with a creator-driven vision. One of the first series under this imprint was the long-awaited Superman: Year One origin, one of many new takes on the Last Son of Krypton’s early days.

The book should have been a smash hit, with the creative talents of industry veterans Frank Miller (the originator of the Year One concept, mind) and John Romita Jr. Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat, with a forgettable plot, wonky art, and redundant Superman origin done much better by comics that came before.

Deathstroke the Terminator is one of DC’s most iconic villains, and as such, has been given a smattering of comic runs over the years. One of the most recent was Deathstroke Inc., which had a six-issue arc going into Slade Wilson’s first year as a mercenary-for-hire.

While it didn’t do anything too special, it was a fun adventure partly bolstered by Dexter Soy’s engaging artwork. It’s not mired in any other story Brisson is telling during his run, acting as a fast-paced refresh of the mercenary’s history. There are some interesting ideas with him as an experiment gone wrong, looking for vengeance and alienating his family in the process.

Many Year One comics follow a hero, villain, or team in the DC Universe. But Gotham City: Year One was more ambitious than the standard origin comic venture. Set a few generations before Bruce Wayne was born, it goes into a noir-driven tale about the rot in Gotham City, narrated by the classic DC character Slam Bradley.

The book pulls no punches in its societal commentary while hooking readers in with an engaging mystery. However, it indulges a bit too much in its efforts to subvert a reader’s expectations and deconstruct the myths of Gotham, leaving it feeling a bit lost in the sauce.