The Bat Out Of Hell

The 1990's. A point in comic book history that saw the drastic change in how stories were told and how art was drawn. Long time comic fans refer to this period as The Dark Age of comic books. A time when sales made the books, a time when violence, outrageousness and action dominated the ink panels. It was during the 90's that Batman would face new characters, for better or worse, as penance for how his acclaimed graphic novel changed the industry. Today we'll be taking a look at how the 1990's effected Batman and comic books as a whole.

First, let me explain why 90's comics were the way they were. Frank Miller's 1986 graphic novel, "The Dark Knight Returns" pulled Batman out of his campy and light-hearted nature by returning the character to his grim roots. This book focuses on a 55 year old Bruce Wayne in a grimmer Gotham city. After years of retirement, Bruce becomes Batman again to stop both revived enemies and new threats to his city. Without spoiling too much, this story included realistic violence, political bashing, continental war, and many other controversial topics. This book was so influential it drove comic books companies to push the elements of violence and ultra-realism. Spider-Man's horrific villains Venom and Carnage were given a push, the X-Men's Gambit was created with the intent of looking cool and many characters who were violent got more to fight while less violent characters were driven to be more violent. Luckily, Batman escaped the trend he started, but not without consequences. Enter the character of Jean-Paul Valley Jr in 1992, Valley was a computer scientist who was-unknown to himself-the sleeper agent of a religious group called "The Sacred Order of Saint Dumas". It was after his father's murder that Valley's religious brainwashing kicked in and he became the vigilante Azrael to murder his father's killer, at the request of The Order. In search for the killer, Azrael comes across Batman and through working with him Azrael learns killing criminals is not the righteous way to stop crime. Together, they arrest the killer and Azrael decides to forge his own destiny free of The Order's will. After working alongside Batman and Robin for a time, Valley takes on the mantle of Batman after Bruce Wayne's back is broken by the steroid-powered criminal, Bane. Against Bruce's orders, Valley uses enhanced body armor to defeat Bane. While Bruce is left to recover, Valley lets the power of being Batman go to his head. He allows the death criminals, refuses to collaborate with the GCPD, seals off the Batcave from Wayne Manor and almost kills-the then Robin-Tim Drake. Bruce eventually returns better than before to confront Valley, he manages to trick Valley into removing his body armor which had been furthering his decent into madness. Valley is forgiven and temporarily banned from working with Batman, Bruce regains his title and all seems well. Eventually, Valley would return as Azrael and continue to assist the Batman family.

Considering how popularity seems to influence comics these days, it's easy to imagine back in the 1990's the most profitable change to make for Batman would be to make him more like his interpretation in "Dark Knight Returns", but luckily writers behind "Knightfall" had a better idea. By replacing Bruce Wayne's Batman with the more unstable and extreme Jean-Paul Valley Jr, the Caped Crusader was able to both dodge the 90's trend while also complying to it. Readers received a more over-the-top Batman without our original Dark Knight falling into the de-characterization that other comic book characters fell into. It's ironic that the one comic book superhero to avoid the adrenaline-fueled influence of the 90's, also happens to be the reason behind that era's trends. But, then again, Batman is an expert escapist.