It has long been accepted, at least as far as the writer of this newsletter is concerned, that Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One story arc is one of the best stories (if not the best story) ever told about Batman. It strips the character down to his mask and his mission, with Jim Gordon serving as a secondary protagonist who discovers just how rotten Gotham City really is. The art is really crisp, there’s a great moment that teases the running joke(?) of Gordon always knowing Batman is Bruce Wayne, and the ending is so cool that it’s one of the few things Christopher Nolan lifted straight from the comics for his Bat-movies.

1987’s Year Two is basically totally unrelated, beyond the fact that it’s an early-years Batman story. It has a different creative theme, a different tone, and a different take on the Dark Knight himself. If Year One strips everything down, Year Two is about Batman adding layers on top of his mask and his mission. He starts using more gadgets, he starts expanding his circle of allies, and, most importantly, he faces off against a costumed villain who forces him to decide what kind of hero he wants to be.

But the big hook is that, at some point, Batman picks up a gun — and not just any gun, but the gun that a lowlife named Joe Chill used to shoot Thomas and Martha Wayne one fateful night in Crime Alley. It’s all because of the return of a grim vigilante called the Reaper, who has returned to Gotham after a few decades away (coincidentally, the father of a woman that Bruce Wayne is becoming romantically involved with has also just returned to Gotham after a few decades away, but that can’t be related).

Unlike Batman, the Reaper uses giant blades and guns to slaughter criminals, and his reckless disregard for human life immediately puts him on the Dark Knight’s bad side. Near the end of this first issue, Batman faces the Reaper and loses, causing him to consider pulling Joe Chill’s gun out of a drawer and taking drastic measures to prevent further bloodshed. We’re only officially talking about the first issue here, but later chapters — which feature a slight downgrade in the quality of art, to be honest, with an up-and-comer named Todd McFarlane replacing Alan Davis — force Batman to take even more drastic measures… even though he doesn’t really end up using the gun very much.

It’s an interesting story, seeing how a younger and less-experienced Batman will respond to a threat that he can’t beat one-on-one, but Year Two has one huge flaw that entirely not its fault: The 1993 animated film Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm exists and is better in every way. The movie, created by the same people as Batman: The Animated Series, is up there with Year One as one of the best Batman stories ever told in any medium, and while the inspiration it took from Year Two is fairly superficial, the similarities are hard to miss.

For one thing, the Phantasm is a much cooler villain with a much more compelling argument to make, and (if we may dance around the spoiler a little) there is a fun twist in Mask Of The Phantasm that is not present in Year Two. It’s just a more straightforward story, which isn’t really its problem, because Mask Of The Phantasm had the advantage of coming out years later and building on everything from The Animated Series and everything that had been done in Batman comics since Year Two.

In a previous installment of this newsletter, we mentioned that Captain America is a character who changes as time goes on to reflect the world he exists in. Batman, then, might be a character who grows and deepens as time goes on — or at least one who has the potential to do so. It’s part of his mythical nature. Every story told about Batman informs every subsequent story told about Batman, and when a modern story is such a marked improvement on an older story that it almost reduces it to a footnote, well, it’s all about building on the legacy of the Dark Knight.

I’ll think of something before next week, I promise, but I don’t have anything specific in mind just yet. But that makes this a perfect opportunity for you to send me some suggestions with the Search Term Suggester! Type “Spider-Man” or “monster trucks” or “pepperoni” and maybe I’ll land on something worth covering. Just click the button below!