Batman: The Dark Knight #0

Time once again for an early story from Batman's career! When we last saw Bruce Wayne, he had set up his crime fighting headquarters in Crime Alley. Alfred warned him that people were going to quickly guess that Bruce Wayne was the new vigilante on the scene. Gordon paid Bruce a visit which proved Alfred was correct. Gordon was way too close to figuring it all out. Perhaps this story will be about Bruce remembering the scary caves beneath Wayne Manor and moving his headquarters back there. Also a bat might get caught in his hair and inspire his new vigilante name.

Except this comic isn't about that at all. This story takes place not long after Bruce's parents are killed. Bruce is just a young child going through his parents' things and thinking sad thoughts about not having gotten to know them or them having gotten to know who he'll become. Who would Batman have become if his parents had lived? I guess that's a question that could drive anyone crazy, considering who you would be had one very major life event not have changed you in the significant way it did.

Young Bruce remembers that his father said there was a reason for everything and that the search for meaning separated people from animals. I think that's why I like animals so much better than people. They don't run around making shit up so that the random chaos surrounding them was meant to be their. No, no. It's not. That's what we get: random chaos. That doesn't mean I don't think people should find something that means something to them. Or to live in a way meaningful to the here and now without attaching some grander universal or spiritual theme to it. Anyway, Bruce remembers his father's words and heads back to Crime Alley to find the reason behind his parents' murder. Because there's no way it could have been a random piece of universal bullshit, could it?

Or maybe it could have! Perhaps Bruce will learn it was completely random. Which will drive him even harder to protect the people of Gotham from as much of this random shit as possible.

Because you were afraid and wanted to leave the movie early, you little shit!

Bruce gives this guy his dad's watch to tell him what he saw and the jerk just shoves Bruce in the garbage and takes off. He didn't see anything.

Later, Bruce is a bit older and he's still looking into the death of his parents. He's still asking questions because he's positive there must have been a reason. He learns that his father made a lot of enemies not because he was a ruthless businessman but because he was a good man that wouldn't pay off the mobsters. So a lot of criminal businessmen felt that Wayne took advantage of them and cost them their businesses.
 
Still later in college, Bruce continues to research what happened. Perhaps he'd find something on the gun or the person that bought the gun. Anything. Something. Somewhere. But he doesn't really get past anything except "a lot of people might have done it."

He's definitely not getting his degree in Detectivology!

Eventually Wayne heads back to Crime Alley and finds the same man that took his father's watch from him. The man tells him the murderer was a guy named Joe Chill. Bruce also gets his watch back.

Bruce begins his investigation anew since the name Joe Chill appears nowhere in any documents or histories he's found. He scours Gotham for this man and eventually finds him. And while he wants Joe Chill to be punished for the murder of his parents, what he mostly wants is the people behind Joe Chill. He wants the people that will give meaning to his parents' murder; the people that will provide a reason for it and all he's suffered.

If this were a Scott Lobdell comic, Harvest would have planned the whole thing simply to create Batman so that Batman would eventually train Tim Drake so that Tim Drake would eventually be bitten by a vampire and live forever and become Harvest so that Harvest could come back in time (ignoring Flashpoint) to make sure that Batman became Batman so that he could train Tim Drake so that... You get the point. I don't like Lobdell's writing!

And here it is. Joe Chill. Bruce demands to know who was behind his parents' murder. Who told you to pull the trigger? What was the reasoning behind the murder plan?

This comic is like the Anti-Lobdell story!

I really like how Bruce doesn't lose any faith in his father's advice when his search for meaning didn't turn up any meaning at all. He simply continues to remember the things his father told him that still apply to the situation. Bruce, as Batman, continues to search for meaning in his detective work. But he also faces off against the most insane and chaotic monsters in Gotham because he now truly understands that not everything is part of a well-organized plan. And of course he retains his empathy, his compassion. And those traits, more than any other, really make Batman who he is. Eventually we see he doesn't kill because he must separate himself from these other monsters. But why does he continue to help the people of the city? Well, to increase the values of all of his properties, of course! But, you know, also his empathy. He suffers when the people of his city suffer.

Finally! A good issue of The Dark Knight! Yeah, probably because it's philosophically on the same wavelength as me. But that's what makes it so good!

Batman: The Dark Knight #0 Rating: If Scott Lobdell had written this, Batman would have been on the rooftop above Crime Alley: "How do I know what happened? Because I was there! I mean, I was there again as Batman and not just as little Bruce! And maybe I can save my parents!"