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Detective Comics Annual, #8
Batman Year One, Riddler, origin story.
56 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Chuck Dixon
3,431 books1,033 followersCharles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, perhaps best-known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 8, 2024
3.5/5 Stars
I kept bouncing in between a 3.5 and a 3 star with this one, so I'll just round up.
A lot of things that I wasn't a fan of in this issue, but also a lot of things that were decent enough for the read to not feel like a chore and keep me intrigued.
I kept bouncing in between a 3.5 and a 3 star with this one, so I'll just round up.
A lot of things that I wasn't a fan of in this issue, but also a lot of things that were decent enough for the read to not feel like a chore and keep me intrigued.
December 7, 2016
Το origin του Riddler. Απλα φοβερο! Μεσα απο την ιδιαιτερη, ναρκισσιστικη του αφηγηση, βλεπουμε συντομα πως δημιουργηθηκε ενας απο τους πιο εμβληματικους κακους του Batman.
March 28, 2021
A riddler year one story, there was some words i didnt understand.
But it was a fun read i didn't like his costume.
And honestly i didn't like this riddler i like the riddler of gotham tv series much more.
But it was a fun read i didn't like his costume.
And honestly i didn't like this riddler i like the riddler of gotham tv series much more.
February 27, 2024
+9 Actually a really good and fun origin story!
Hearing The Riddler’s life story from his dramatic and performative perspective made this all the more fantastic and added to his consistent characterisation. Being constantly bullied all his life, no one stood up for him, so he does what he can with trickery, deceit and cheating. It’s actually so cool to see the beginnings of a character who’s literally human go toe-to-toe with Batman, even if he’s scared shitless.
Aside from that, the art’s great too! The pencils have that rough, dirty edge that encapsulates Gotham’s cityscapes and interiors really well, but also makes the characters pop.
This is how you do an origin story!
Alongside this Batman villain origin story annual, three others were published in a collected edition called Batman: Four of a Kind, which I've also reviewed.
[Read and reviewed in February 2023]
Hearing The Riddler’s life story from his dramatic and performative perspective made this all the more fantastic and added to his consistent characterisation. Being constantly bullied all his life, no one stood up for him, so he does what he can with trickery, deceit and cheating. It’s actually so cool to see the beginnings of a character who’s literally human go toe-to-toe with Batman, even if he’s scared shitless.
Aside from that, the art’s great too! The pencils have that rough, dirty edge that encapsulates Gotham’s cityscapes and interiors really well, but also makes the characters pop.
This is how you do an origin story!
Alongside this Batman villain origin story annual, three others were published in a collected edition called Batman: Four of a Kind, which I've also reviewed.
[Read and reviewed in February 2023]
September 7, 2020
Solid Riddler fun from Chuck Dixon. Kieron Dwyer's rough art looks great for this.
November 4, 2023
I really love the Riddler as well as getting a backstory and deeper into who he is as a character.
August 15, 2025
4 stars bc I’m generally not a big fan of the outfit or characterization here - I prefer characterizations of the riddler where he relies more on actually relying on his wits and interest in puzzles to solve them instead of just plain cheating but I still enjoyed it a lot. The curious kid to troubled and constantly bored adult pipeline is so. idk. Personal to me it kind of hurts my brain. Also the ending kinda blew my mind like that all was just in his brain??
2nd read edit: reread this on a whim and I liked it much more than the first time! (some of it might be due to the fact that I have read some really bad takes on him in between the two reads so this stands out by comparison) I guess the rating doesn’t change much (might consider a 4.5 stars) because it’s still not something I would be very obsessed with but the characterization is beginning to grow on me. I love how the Riddler isn’t a genius in this one (he’s certainly still very smart) but tries to convince everyone that he is - his obsession with proving himself to be the smartest person wherever he is but not actually being unrealistically intelligent really humanizes him:) and yes this story still lowkey hurts me in a personal way.
2nd read edit: reread this on a whim and I liked it much more than the first time! (some of it might be due to the fact that I have read some really bad takes on him in between the two reads so this stands out by comparison) I guess the rating doesn’t change much (might consider a 4.5 stars) because it’s still not something I would be very obsessed with but the characterization is beginning to grow on me. I love how the Riddler isn’t a genius in this one (he’s certainly still very smart) but tries to convince everyone that he is - his obsession with proving himself to be the smartest person wherever he is but not actually being unrealistically intelligent really humanizes him:) and yes this story still lowkey hurts me in a personal way.
June 19, 2024
I like this story more than the first time I read it. An interesting origin story for the Riddler. Nice art with a thick ink line for a moody look appropriate for Batman. Recommended for any Riddler fan.
July 18, 2017
Riddler origin story. Pretty good.
June 25, 2024
Edward Nygma I love you
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews