As every fan knows, there has been multiple approaches to telling our favorite Dark Knight Detective’s origin ever since it was first told in Detective Comics#33, and fleshed out in Batman#47.

From comics with Batman: Year One to Zero Year or Cartoons like Batman: TAS or The Batman or even the countless different movie interpretations of Batman’s origins and how the man became Bat. But recently there has been a new idea, exploring Batman (and other heroes like Black Canary or Catwoman, Mera, Batgirl, etc) as a teen through YA novels. I know multiple comics in the silver age explored Bruce’s childhood or growing up into their heroic adult counterparts (making him Robin, meeting Superboy, etc), but these two are the latest takes on exploring a childhood of Bruce in different ways.

Overdrive : This novel by Shea Fontona explores Bruce becoming Batman through the how the first Batmobile was built from the wreckage of his father’s favorite car. This story does introduce a new character and try to look at Bruce through a more optimistic light, and is more on building Bruce’s relationship with Alfred in the aftermath of his parent’s death. The most similar takes I can compare them to is Scott Snyder’s Zero Year and Gotham.

Gotham High: This take of the Caped Crusader by Melissa de la Cruz is more Gossip Girls with a tinge of Rich, Crazy Asians as described by the author herself. Even though she admits not being familiar with the Batman mythos, she creates a new world from the ground up by revising the characters, not only through ethnicity, but also making them either high schoolers or faculty (Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock) or even making Alfred related to Bruce. This doesn’t try to turn Bruce into Batman at the end of the story, and is more focused on Selina/Catwoman. But this story is a interesting take on Bruce as a detective and really uses the new idea of Bruce’s being a Chinese American and exploring it through a new cultural lens.

Catwoman: Under The Moon : A special mention, even though this is mostly a Catwoman story, Bruce makes a colleague of a teenage Selina as well.



So what are your guys takes on these two different YA novel, and how would you guys explore Batman if another Young Adult novel comes along. Plus one more question: what are your favorite take on Bruce’s adolescence/teenage years?