Batman Secret Files

    (DC, 1997)
™ and ©1997 DC Comics

Batman, who started as a lone, obsessed vigilante seeking to avenge his parent’s deaths, has accumulated a vast collection of allies, villains, and paraphernalia in his long career. After such a length of time, it becomes necessary to decide what has an official sanction and what is best left forgotten. To that end, DC has published a series of Secret Files titles to delineate and stipulate the facts about their most enduring characters.

The stories in Batman Secret Files range from a powerful character study, detailing Batman’s origin and motivation, to a small vignette that explains how Batman finances all of his marvelous equipment. A clever element in these titles is an interview with a central character as if it were a feature in a slick magazine. Both Bruce Wayne and Alfred are “interviewed” and the resulting “articles” are fun and enlightening. Also featured is a timeline that presents significant events in Batman’s history.

— George Haberberger
Jump to issue:
  • 1
    Oct 1997
    Cover: $4.95
    W: Chuck Dixon, Devin Grayson, Doug Moench, Graham Nolan, Kelley Puckett, Scott Beatty  ·  A: Brian Apthorp, Gary Frank, Graham Nolan, Jim Aparo, Jim Balent, Lee Weeks, Mark Buckingham, Roger Robinson, Scott McDaniel, Staz Johnson, Stefano Raffaele
    Origin of Batman; Background information
    12 copies from $1.99