Secret Origins Special #1

History

The one-shot was the sole Special published as part of the second Secret Origins ongoing series (vol. 2, 1986–1990), which ran for fifty issues and three annuals and was DC's primary post-Crisis vehicle for codifying revised character backgrounds. Published under a cover date of October 1989, the issue arrived in the same summer that the Tim Burton Batman film broke box-office records and spiked mainstream interest in Gotham's villains, making a prestige villain-origin anthology a commercially logical editorial choice. The framing story ('Original Sins') was written by Gaiman with interior art by Mike Hoffman and Kevin Nowlan; Alan Grant and Sam Kieth handled the Penguin chapter ('The Killing Peck'); Gaiman returned with penciller Bernie Mireault and inker Matt Wagner for the Riddler segment ('When Is a Door'); and Mark Verheiden with Pat Broderick and Dick Giordano closed the issue with an untitled Two-Face story narrated by Grace Dent.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Cover date: October 1989; published by DC Comics as the sole Special tied to the second Secret Origins ongoing series (vol. 2, 1986–1990).
• Three villain origin/character studies in one volume: the Penguin (written by Alan Grant, art by Sam Kieth), the Riddler (written by Neil Gaiman, pencils by Bernie Mireault, inks by Matt Wagner), and Two-Face (written by Mark Verheiden, pencils by Pat Broderick, inks by Dick Giordano).
• The wraparound framing story 'Original Sins' — written by Neil Gaiman with art by Mike Hoffman and Kevin Nowlan — follows a reckless TV documentary crew attempting to 'humanize' Gotham's criminals, with Batman unable to stop them; the Joker makes a wordless cameo at the story's chilling close.
• John Constantine appears in a brief cameo during the man-on-the-street interview segments of the framing story, according to the Grand Comics Database character listing.
• The Riddler segment's giant-prop warehouse setting is called the 'Finger Junkyard,' a deliberate tribute to Batman co-creator Bill Finger, who famously used oversized novelty props in his scripts during the Golden and Silver Ages.
• The cover was illustrated by Brian Bolland, whose previous Batman work included Batman: The Killing Joke (1988); the cover image has been reprinted in the DC art retrospective Batman: Cover to Cover (2005) and Cover Story: The DC Comics Art of Brian Bolland (2011).
• All four stories from this issue have been reprinted multiple times across formats, including in Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (2009/2010), The DC Universe by Neil Gaiman Deluxe Edition (2016), The DC Universe by Neil Gaiman (2018), Two-Face: A Celebration of 75 Years (2017), and The Penguin Special #1 (December 2024).
• The issue exists in two editions: a Direct Market edition and a Newsstand edition.

Full credits

Variants (1)