Batman Year 3: The Deluxe Edition by Marv Wolfman, Pat Broderick, John Beatty and Adrienne Roy (graphic novel review).
In many respects, Batman: Year 3 should really be called ‘Batman: Year 13’. Yes, it goes back to the time Dick Grayson became Robin, but it also connects to events following Jason Todd’s death and before Tim Drake appears, with Grayson already established as Nightwing. All this plays out across the four-part Batman #436–440 storyline from 1989. Having recently read the interview with Pat Broderick in Comic Book Creator #42, this is my first real sampling of his work at DC Comics. I thought his work on The Micronauts for Marvel was outstanding. Here, I’m less convinced. Batman’s thigh muscles could crack walnuts, and there are some awkward poses throughout.
This version of Batman is still grieving after Todd’s death, unwilling to take on another sidekick in case the same fate befalls them. Nightwing reflects on his own time as Robin, after his parents were killed by the gangster Anthony Zucco and he became a ward of Bruce Wayne. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to make the Graysons’ acrobat costumes so similar to what would later become Robin’s outfit, but it’s a terrible one. It’s bad enough that Robin only wears a small mask that barely conceals his identity, but this is a glaring clue to who he really is — which would surely point straight to Bruce Wayne as Batman. That’s only a good idea if you want to give up crime-fighting altogether.
Much of this story is spoiler territory. Anthony Zucco is released from prison and has concealed a book detailing crimes committed during his time outside. He begins arranging assassinations of certain crime lords while blackmailing others across Gotham. Batman ultimately finds himself helping to stop the chaos.
I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but in civilian clothes Grayson seems to dress very much like Wayne. Grayson might insist to Alfred Pennyworth that he isn’t the same as his mentor, but really?
Too much time has passed for this to have much relevance today, but you would have thought its editor, Dennis O’Neil, might have spotted some of these issues at the time. Treat this book as a curio as much as anything else.
GF Willmetts
April 2026
(pub: DC Comics, 1989; reprint 2025. 112-page hardback graphic novel. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-79950-243-2)
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