Eisner Award winner Tom King (Batman, Mister Miracle) and the legendary artist Phil Hester (Namor, Ant-Man) have teamed up on a new six-issue origin story of Gotham City that launches on October 4, 2022. GOTHAM CITY: YEAR ONE will describe how the once glamorous and glorious city turned into the current cesspool of violence and corruption.

GOTHAM CITY: YEAR ONE takes place two generations before Batman. Private eye Slam Bradley gets wrapped up in the “kidnapping of the century” when Helen, heir to the Wayne empire, disappears in the middle of the night. And so begins the hard-boiled, epic tale of a man living on the edge and a city’s descent into darkness.

“Having written a ton of Batman comics,” said King, “I can say it’s incredibly rare to write book like this, where you can add something large and essential to the mythos of the Dark Knight, as Scott did with Court of Owls or Grant did with the introduction of Damian or Frank did with, well, everything he touched. In GOTHAM CITY YEAR ONE, Phil and I will take you to a noir drenched past, where the secrets that made Gotham become Gotham, the sins that made Batman become Batman are finally and violently revealed.”

King and Hester will be joined by Eric Gapstur, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles. Here is what Hester had to say about his collaboration with King:

“Tom has crafted a story that will echo across Batman lore past and present,” continued Hester, “and I hope the storytelling techniques Eric, Jordie, Clayton and I are bringing to bear will augment his razor-keen approach. I’m honored to play a small part in bringing Siegel and Shuster’s landmark creation to a new audience, and in giving one of DC’s oldest legends the white-hot spotlight he deserves.”

The new series will debut with a variant cover drawn by Ryan Sook and a 1:25 variant cover by David Marquez. The series will run between October 2022 and March 2023.

Gotham City: Year One Cover, courtesy of DC Comics

And here are sample pages from the new book:

Gotham City Year One Page 1.10

Gotham City: Year One sample page
Gotham City: Year One sample pages, courtesy of DC Comics

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