Warning! Spoilers for Detective Comics #1040 and Daredevil: Born Again
Batman is currently ripping off Daredevil’s most iconic story, Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again. Fans have always pointed out the shared DNA between the Dark Knight and the Man Without Fear, but now their stories are truly overlapping.
Throughout the two vigilantes’ histories, there have been a number of parallels between Gotham City’s Caped Crusader and the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. From their childhood traumas, to their self-made superhero personas, it feels like they would get along if the Marvel and DC Universes ever collided. A few of their most defining stories, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, and Daredevil: Born Again, happen to be written by Frank Miller, and two of them were illustrated by David Mazzucchelli. The strange similarities continue in Detective Comics #1040, written by Dan Watters and Mariko Tamaki with art by Max Raynor and Dan Mora.
Batman’s latest storyline in Detective Comics echoes Daredevil, with specific parallels to Born Again. Just like when Kingpin blew up Matt Murdock’s home, the Penguin has done nearly the same exact thing with Batman. Framing Murdock for a crime, Kingpin gets the better of his horned vigilante nemesis in Hell’s Kitchen. Similarly in Detective Comics #1040, the Penguin attempts to kill Batman with Worth, while also trying to demolish Bruce Wayne. Believing that Wayne is responsible for the murder of his daughter, Worth has slightly more sympathetic motives than Wilson Fisk. The most ironic visual similarity is that the Penguin and Worth are both overweight crime bosses, who practically look like alternate versions of Kingpin.
The list of commonalities goes on, as Worth and the Penguin even have a villain of their own they plan to reveal on Batman, similar to how Kingpin had partnered with Nuke. Both of these storylines revolve around reimagining their main heroes as grounded versions of themselves. Frank Miller accomplished this by elevating the stakes of seemingly mundane circumstances and turning the world against blind lawyer Matt Murdock. As Batman gets this treatment, it feels like a risk, since Bruce Wayne’s persona is already so far removed from mundanity. Batman might seem like a relatively realistic superhero compared to his fellow Justice League members, but there is still something about him that feels awkward to bring down to Earth so drastically.
Since both Born Again and the ongoing Detective Comics premise revolve around their heroes losing everything, it might be easy to predict where things are headed for Bruce. Miller’s vision for Daredevil led Murdock to become homeless and suffer from mental illness, forcing him to eventually build himself back from the ground up. It seems that’s what is currently happening to Batman, as he has lost his wealth and is now accused of a crime he didn’t commit. If everything goes accordingly, the Dark Knight will soon be back on top of Gotham, bringing the Penguin to justice.
