The Man Who Falls (Secret Origins)

Opening with a shot of Batman perched atop one of Gotham's many gargoyles, The Man Who Falls is an exploration of the pre-Batman years in flashback.

Now, I've read a lot of Batman comics already, so most of these scenes were not entirely new to me - I had obviously seen the shooting in the alley and the scene in the Wayne Manor study - but I was intrigued by the training scenes. I had never seen reference to Bruce training with the FBI for six weeks, which i thought was an interesting idea. I had seen reference to Master Kirigi (in the New52 #0 comics, I think) and had heard of Ducard from the opening arc of Batman and Robin (New52) as well as from another story involving him which escapes my memory at this time.

I would love to see a sort of prequel comic series which explores Bruce's training in more detail, as there is so much scope to tell interesting stories beyond the few snippets which we have seen. 

I'm a huge fan of the Nolan films, so enjoyed reading one of the stories which inspired Batman Begins so much. It was great to see the scene in the well - it's such a fascinating idea that Batman is born from a childhood fear that Bruce had. Taking your fears and twisting them round so they become a positive is such a central concept of the Batman myth - not to mention the manifestations of Bruce's fears which becomes the driving force behind his greatest villains.

As a story in itself though, there wasn't much to this that Year One doesn't do better. It was interesting to see these hints of Bruce's training and his younger years - especially the 'spoilt rich kid' act that has obviously followed him into his role as the socialite Bruce Wayne - but as it was only a single issue in amongst the origins of other members of the JLA there wasn't much room for these ideas to be fleshed out.

More recently, Bruce's origins have been expanded on with Zero Year, which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far - mainly as it offers a take on the Riddler which I haven't seen thus far. A Riddler who is actually a genuine threat to Batman as an intellectual - maybe I'll come across more interesting stories involving Edward Nygma during my journey through the Batman timeline.

Not much more to say on this one really, so I'm going to get right onto reading Year One (I also have several unread graphic novels which I would like to squeeze in at some point...)

Let me know any thoughts or comments you might have if you have read this story before - or general comments or thoughts about Batman!