The Batman: First Knight is a new DC Black Label comic written by Dan Jurgens and drawn by Mike Perkins. Set in 1939 Gotham on the cusp of World War II, the comic portrays a bleak and anxiety-ridden city still lingering in the effects of the Great Depression, about to endure yet another tragedy in the form of Hitler and WWII. These tumultuous times have left Gotham restless and violent, birthing a series of murders across the city. Commissioner Gordon is called out in the middle of the night to a spaghetti house to investigate one of these newest murders, the beheading of one councilman Vincent Hodges.
Arriving on the scene, we first see Gordon surveying the evidence with his men and getting acclimated with the crime scene. Right away, something one of the officers does seems worth mentioning: when Gordon lifts the sheet and finds the Councilman’s head gone, placed on another diner table nearby, the officers behind him begin giggling and even making jokes. It could be nothing, but it could also be foreshadowing for the Joker later on.
“Sorry, Commish. Long day. Nothing worth losing your head over,” the officer quips.
Gordon scolds the man and then goes on to question Hodges’ 'lady friend' about what she saw when it went down. But unfortunately, the woman offers little besides the idea that there were two assailants involved. The lack of information leaves Gordon frustrated, and he heads back out onto the street for another smoke when he spots none other than Bruce Wayne waiting for him, leaning against the fender of his speedster.
“Care to leave the hyenas and jackals behind, Commissioner?” Wayne asks, offering to take Gordon for a ride away from the insistent press, no doubt to pick his brain. Gordon agrees, and the two go on a little drive through the city back to the precinct, chatting about how the crime in the city has gotten worse, especially after the pro-Nazi rally a few weeks before. Bruce slyly brings up the rumors about the Batman vigilante, seemingly trying to put Gordon off the scent. He says it could very well be one of Gordon’s own cops taking things into his own hands. Gordon’s response is what one would expect, that officially he could never condone such behavior, but he can’t argue with the results the Bat is getting either. We’re also informed at this point that Alfred is not a part of the story - at least not yet, as he is said to have left when Bruce went off to college and the two haven’t seen each other since.
Arriving back at the precinct, the two bid farewell, and then Gordon recites some typical backstory to a fellow cop he meets up with on the sidewalk. The cop asks Gordon why he and Bruce are friends, and Gordon explains that he was a friend of Bruce’s parents first until the night they were gunned down in front of the boy. Since then, he’s felt some obligation to look after him, and it worries him that Bruce seems to lack ambition and is apparently content to idle away his family’s fortune. At the same time, we are also shown the reality of the situation, which is Bruce arriving inside a warehouse somewhere after leaving Gordon to don his cape and cowl.
The scene switches to the Mayor after that. He is yelling at Gordon over the phone in his mansion when the doorbell rings. The butler goes to get the door, but the mayor tells him to ignore it since it's probably just more reporters looking for the scoop. There’s a miscommunication, though, since he’s still on the phone with Gordon. He hears a ruckus downstairs and goes to investigate, only to be met with the sight of the butler lying on the floor, now knocked out, with two deformed-looking men standing over him in regular attire.
Terrified, he tries to get away, but the beast-like and incomprehensible men grab him, obviously intent on killing him. Before they can, Batman shows up by way of busting through the glass ceiling. He wrangles with the men while the mayor scrambles away, and eventually leads them to the roof where the three go at it. One of them heaves Batman into the alley below, and now hurt and dazed, he tries to regain his wits with the two beasts closing in. Thankfully for him, he fell right in front of a synagogue, and the Rabbi grabs him and pulls him inside. The two end up talking about Germany for a minute, forming an acquaintance ship.
When Bruce finally leaves and goes back to Wayne Manor, we get to see him engage in more of his double life. He wraps his broken ribs in the old barn outside the manor he’s using as a lab while also having to throw on a suit and placate a few movie actors who decide to show up unannounced. Apparently, they’re upset because they were supposed to film that day and couldn’t due to Bruce’s company pulling the funding.
He assures them, though, that it had nothing to do with him, and that it must’ve been someone that works for him. He makes a phone call and fixes the problem, then once the two leave he gets back to dusting the knife he retrieved from one of the deformed men for fingerprints. Once he’s successful in recovering a print, he realizes he still needs help in the way of suspects to compare it to, so he visits Gordon in his office at the precinct as Batman, and for the first time, he offers Gordon the option of their iconic alliance, and after some persuading Gordon accepts.
Batman then makes a hasty exit out the window over to a brothel where he knows the street-wise owner to ask about the beast-men. The owner knows nothing, but one of the working girls tells him that one of her johns was bragging about his job working for “Johnny The Whip,” and how it was easy as pie now that they have the two “dead men” to do the dirty work.
Batman checks up on Gordon and the fingerprint after that, and Gordon relays they did find a match but it belongs to a dead man named Luigi Annunziata who was killed in the electric chair a few months prior. The information gives Batman some kind of a hunch, and he asks Gordon if the execution that was supposed to take place at Black Gate Penitentiary is still set to take place. The issue ends with Batman stopping that execution, but then being beat up by the guards and thrown into the chair himself.
What will happen next?
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