5 Biggest Changes Batman: Earth One Made to The Dark Knight

Batman’s many comic book stories have often told his origin from different angles, and Batman: Earth One is one of the greatest and most long-standing Dark Knight re-imaginings of all. Batman was one of numerous DC superheroes to be a part of the DC Earth One line of graphic novels, which exist in an Elseworlds universe independent from the primary DC Comics continuity. As such, the origin of Bruce Wayne and his early days as the Caped Crusader gets a major makeover in Batman: Earth One, not unlike the new re-tellings of the origins of Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Teen Titans in their respective Earth One stories.

Batman: Earth One ran for three volumes, with the third marking the de-facto end of the Earth One line (though it was never officially cancelled, DC Earth One hasn’t produced any new graphic novels since, despite similar stories having been in the works for Aquaman and The Flash). Batman: Earth One depicts a younger Bruce Wayne in the very beginning of his life as the Dark Knight, while also making some significant and intriguing changes and alterations to Batman’s backstory. Here are the 5 biggest changes Batman: Earth One makes to Batman.

1) Batman Is a Rookie & Makes a Lot of Mistakes

While Batman has had his share of origin stories told in the comics, such as Batman: Year One, Batman: Earth One only shows Bruce Wayne as being new to the job, but really emphasizes it with the amount of mistakes he makes and injuries he incurs. One particularly noteworthy example is seen early on in Batman: Earth One Vol. 1, the young Dark Knight simply tried to leap from one rooftop to another, a quite simple maneuver by Batman standards, only to fall several stories to the street below and let out a simple “Ow”. Batman: Earth One is full of instances just like that of Bruce making similar mistakes and strategic errors in his early days on the job, a big contrast to most versions of Batman already seeming well-trained and equipped for the job on day one, with the story emphasizing how much on-the-job training Batman is going through.

2) Alfred Gets His Hands Dirty With the Penguin

In Batman: Earth One, Oswald Cobblepott a.k.a. the Penguin is the Mayor of Gotham City (a clear nod to Oswald running for Gotham’s mayor in multiple Batman movies and TV shows), and maintains his criminal activities with the insulation of elected office. While Batman heavily pursues Oswaled in Batman: Earth One, it’s ultimately the usually genial butler Alfred Pennyworth who puts a stop to Oswald, and permanently so with Alfred outright killing the Penguin. It’s definitely a side of Alfred not often explored, and one that Absolute DC has subsequently dove right into.

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3) The Bat-Signal Is Introduced in a New Way

When one thinks of Batman’s relationship with Commissioner James Gordon, the Bat-Signal immediately springs to mind of Gordon’s means of alerting Batman that he is needed, shining a searchlight with a Bat emblem into Gotham’s night sky to summon the Dark Knight. In Batman: Earth One, as Batman and Gordon cultivate their partnership, Batman presents Gordon with a very different communications device in the form of an custom-made cell phone, which he dubs the Bat-Signal. This seems to be a bit of a merging of the Bat-Signal with the Bat-phone from the Adam West-led Batman TV series, and it takes Batman and Gordon’s communications into more 21st century territory with a big re-imagining of the Bat-Signal.

4) Two-Face Is Harvey Dent’s Sister

Like Superman: Earth One‘s gender-swap of Lex Luthor, Batman: Earth One does its own with one of the Dark Knight’s sworn enemies, Two-Face. As in most Batman media, Harvey Dent is Gotham’s district attorney, but Batman: Earth One makes the big twist of having Harvey killed by Gotham’s big crime boss Sal Maroni, who also burns half of Harvey’s face with a Molotov cocktail. Harvey’s mourning and embittered sister Jessica then proceeds to burn her own face on the same side as Harvey’s, with the vengeful Jessica Dent becoming Batman: Earth One‘s version of Two-Face in Vol. 3. Though Batman manages to pull Jessica back from the brink and get her the mental help she needs, her Two-Face transformation is every bit as tragic as that of her brother’s.

5) The Batcave Isn’t Under Wayne Manor (& Killer Croc Helps Build It)

Batman’s famed secret lair, the Batcave, is traditionally portrayed as being housed in the actual cave of bats deep under Wayne Manor, but Batman: Earth One Vol. 3 makes a major change to the Batcave’s location. The story shows Bruce and Alfred along with the future Killer Croc Waylon Jones discovering an abandoned subway station underneath Arkham Asylum, providing an underground conduit throughout Gotham City easily accessible from Wayne Manor. This leads Bruce to designate the subway as his storage area for all his vehicles, tools, and tech in his life as Batman, effectively making the abandoned subways Batman: Earth One‘s re-imagined version of the Batcave.