Batman: Year One

A merciless crime turns a man into an outlaw.

RELEASED 27 Sept 20111h 4m★ 7.3 TMDB

A wealthy playboy named Bruce Wayne and a Chicago cop named Jim Gordon both return to Gotham City where their lives unexpectedly intersect.

WATCH NOTE

This entry covers the Batman: Year One feature. Its home-video release also packages the separate DC Showcase: Catwoman (2011) animated short, catalogued independently. Watching the bonus short is optional; its runtime and characters are excluded from this feature's coverage.

Why it matters in DC

Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon arrive in Gotham with different roles in confronting its problems. Following both men makes the city's institutions part of Batman's beginnings, giving this origin an emphasis distinct from adaptations that primarily follow Bruce alone.

Watch these first

4 titles to watch before Batman: Year One — 21h 55m in total.

Batman: Under the Red HoodOptional background1h 15m★ 7.8
A separate adaptation of Batman; useful for comparison, but unrelated to Batman: Year One’s story continuity.
DC Super Friends: The Joker's PlayhouseOptional background0h 17m★ 5.2
A separate adaptation of Batman; useful for comparison, but unrelated to Batman: Year One’s story continuity.
MADOptional background19h 4m★ 8.0
A separate adaptation of Batman and Batgirl and Catwoman; useful for comparison, but unrelated to Batman: Year One’s story continuity.
Superman/Batman: ApocalypseOptional background1h 19m★ 7.2
A separate adaptation of Batman; useful for comparison, but unrelated to Batman: Year One’s story continuity.

Opens the planner with just these titles, so you can set your own pace.

How these titles are selected

Story prerequisites are curated. Likely prerequisites are inferred from sequel numbering or explicit synopsis references. Recommendations are earlier stories in the same continuity; background picks are separate adaptations. Series lists cover whole shows, not an episode-by-episode watch order.

Explore the full viewing guide

Where it fits in the DC universe

Batman: Year One is title 17 of 118 in our Animated Elseworlds viewing sequence. Year One is a separate animated account of Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon's early Gotham lives. It is an origin-focused viewing choice rather than the first instalment of every animated Batman sequence. Batman Begins and other screen origins cover comparable ground in different interpretations, so they are alternatives rather than prerequisites.

Explore this viewing sequence