DC Teases “Major Changes” to Batman With Story Revisiting the Dark Knight’s Origin

85 years ago, DC Comics revealed Batman’s origin story in the pages of 1939’s Detective Comics #33. Long before it was retold, retconned, and rebooted, “Legend: The Batman and How He Came to Be” recounted for the first time the oft-repeated origin: orphaned after witnessing the murder of his parents as a young boy, Bruce Wayne swore an oath to wage a one-man crusade against crime. To strike terror into the hearts of superstitious and cowardly criminals like the mugger who gunned down Martha and Thomas Wayne, Bruce became a vengeful creature of the night: Batman.

As it turns out, that’s not the whole story. Eight decades and over a thousand issues later, the long-running comic is set to revisit the Dark Knight’s origin story in Detective Comics #1090. DC’s just-announced All In initiative will see a new creative team — writer Tom Taylor (Titans: Beast World, Nightwing) and artist Mikel Janín (Batman, Justice League Dark) — take over the book from Ram V., whose “Gotham Nocturne” storyline will conclude this fall. Taylor and Janín’s Detective Comics run will kick off in October with new story arc “Mercy of the Father.”

“Long ago, the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne changed Gotham forever,” the issue’s official synopsis reads. “But there is something you never knew about the Dark Knight’s tragic origin, which has been lying in wait to strike at Batman ever since that fateful night in Crime Alley. And now, all these years later, this piece of Gotham’s past begins to unravel itself.” 

According to DC, Detective Comics #1090 is a Batman story that will “rattle the very foundations” of the character and “result in major changes for the Dark Knight — and things may never be the same again.”

The issue, which hits stands in the wake of the status quo-shattering Absolute Power finale and the Absolute Line-launching DC All In Special #1 by Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson, is out October 23rd. The all-new Absolute Batman #1 by Snyder and Nick Dragotta drops Oct. 9th, in-between the bi-weekly Batman (Oct. 2nd and Oct. 16th).

Following the “Mind Bomb,” “Joker: Year One,” and “Dark Prisons” arcs in recent issues of Chip Zdarsky’s Batman, that ongoing run continues with a new arc by Zdarsky, Jorge Jiménez, and Carmine DiGiandomenico. “The Dying City,” spanning Batman #153-154, features the return of the Riddler, a mysterious new superhero named Commander Star, and the shocking murder of one of Gotham City’s greatest citizens.