Batman: Year One

DC Universe's original animated movie takes on one of the most acclaimed texts among Batman fans: Frank Miller's Year One, which retold the Dark Knight's origins as a crime fighter from a decidedly hard-boiled point of view. The feature follows Miller's story arc faithfully, with young Bruce Wayne (voiced by Benjamin McKenzie of Southland) arriving in a vice-ridden Gotham with a decade's worth of martial arts training and a head full of vengeance over his parents' murder. At the same time, new police transfer Jim Gordon (Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad) settles into his job, where he discovers that the police are often worse than the criminals. What follows is an inversion of the traditional superhero story, with both men, ostensibly on the side of law and order, taking the business of saving Gotham into their own hands, with Gordon untangling the web of corruption around the city while Wayne, as Batman, adopts a more hands-on (read: violent pummeling) approach.

*DC Showcase: Catwoman, Audio Commentary, *Heart of Vengeance: Returning Batman to His Roots, *Conversations with DC Comics, *Reinventing Gordon

• Bruce Timm Presents 2 Bonus Cartoons: "Catwalk" from TAS and "Cult of the Cat" from The New Batman Adventures