Witness The New 52 origin of The Dark Knight in BATMAN: ZERO YEAR from its initial sketches!

BATMAN ZERO YEAR: THE DIRECTORS CUT #1 is a behind-the-scenes look at the already acclaimed “Zero Year” story arc that launched in BATMAN #21. Built from the stunning pencil art of Greg Capullo, this collector’s item also includes the full, action-packed script from writer Scott Snyder.

“We felt it was time to tell the old story in a brand new way,” Snyder recently explained about “Zero Year” in an essay he wrote for THE NEW YORK POST. “Not Batman as he’d looked in all the comics I’d read… not impossibly muscled, not smiling, no silly gadgets… But a Batman who looked human and yet still terrifying and heroic.”

“Certainly things look different by virtue of what they are,” Capullo explained to THE NEW YORK POST. “We don’t have the Batcave, we don’t have the dark shadows, we don’t have all the alleyways -- you know, all the things I’ve been drawing up until this point, which have become familiar and fluid, are now gone. There are new environments and a lot of them are bright and a lot of them are open and clean.” Fans are “going to see scenery and a Gotham that they never imagined they were gonna see in a Batman book.”

BATMAN ZERO YEAR: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT #1 is available in stores today. And look for the next chapter of “Zero Year” in BATMAN #23, in stores August 14.