Batman: The Dark Knight #1

Jan 2011 · DC · 3.99 USD

📊 ~98,389 copies sold its debut month

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“Golden Dawn, Part One”

★ 1st appearance — White Rabbit

About this Issue

Batman: The Dark Knight #1 (2011, DC — New 52 Vol. 2) is the inaugural chapter of one of DC's four concurrent Batman titles launched as part of the September 2011 New 52 company-wide relaunch, making it a structural cornerstone of that publishing era. Its most durable contribution to Batman mythology is the debut of White Rabbit (Jaina Hudson), a villain with the bio-fission power to split into two bodies, who went on to appear in live-action with the DCU's Peacemaker series decades later. The issue also continued a deliberate editorial effort to keep Bruce Wayne tethered to Gotham's street-level darkness even as Batman Incorporated pulled him into a global framework — a creative tension that defined the early New 52 Bat-line. The earlier Vol. 1 #1 (cover-dated January 2011) deserves equal note: it topped the December 2010 sales chart and introduced Dawn Golden, a childhood friend of Bruce whose disappearance drives that volume's supernatural noir arc.

writer, artist David Finch · inker Scott Williams · colorist Alex Sinclair · letterer Dave Sharpe · cover David Finch

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $12

CGC 9.8 · 171 in census $98

CGC 9.6 · 79 in census $21*

CGC 9.4 · 29 in census $21

CGC 9.2 · 17 in census $21*

CGC 9.0 · 10 in census $21

CGC 8.5 · 6 in census $21

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CGC 8.0 · 3 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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Raw — NM $9.99 1 listing

Raw — VF/NM ▾ $34.95–$97.98 2 listings

VF/NM · Signed · Sketch $34.95 VF/NM $97.98

Raw / ungraded ▾ $1–$16.99 4 listings

Raw / ungraded $1 Raw / ungraded $3.99 Raw / ungraded $7.99 Raw / ungraded $16.99

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History

DC signed David Finch as an exclusive artist in early 2010, and by July of that year had announced he would serve as sole writer and artist on a new Batman ongoing — an unusually ambitious dual creative role for an artist whose previous DC work was limited to Batman #700 and Batman: The Return. The Vol. 1 launch issue shipped December 29, 2010 (January 2011 cover date) and immediately topped the monthly sales chart, but Finch's dual workload produced chronic delays that held the first volume to just five issues before DC folded it into the September 2011 New 52 relaunch. For the relaunched Vol. 2 #1, DC brought in Paul Jenkins as co-writer to share the scripting burden, though Finch retained co-plot credit and remained sole penciller; subsequent arcs eventually transitioned full writing duties to Gregg Hurwitz.

Trivia · 8 facts

Vol. 1 #1 has a cover date of January 2011 but was published on December 29, 2010, and was the best-selling single issue in the direct market for December 2010.
Vol. 2 #1 was published September 28, 2011, as one of the 52 debut issues in DC's company-wide New 52 relaunch.
Vol. 2 #1 contains the first appearance of White Rabbit (Jaina Hudson), a villain with the superpower of bio-fission — the ability to duplicate herself into two separate bodies — who later appeared in live-action in the DCU's Peacemaker Season 2.
Vol. 1 #1 contains the first appearance of Dawn Golden, a childhood friend and romantic figure in Bruce Wayne's life whose kidnapping drives the 'Golden Dawn' story arc and eventually ties into the demon Etrigan.
David Finch served as writer, penciller, and cover artist on both Vol. 1 and the early issues of Vol. 2, making this one of the rare modern Batman titles with a single creator controlling words and pictures simultaneously.
Vol. 2 credits: written by David Finch and Paul Jenkins; pencils by David Finch; inks by Richard Friend; colors by Alex Sinclair; edited by Mike Marts.
Vol. 1 ran only five issues before being cancelled and relaunched as Vol. 2 under the New 52 banner; the Vol. 1 storyline was collected as Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1 — Golden Dawn (Deluxe Edition).
DC later released Batman: The Dark Knight Unwrapped by David Finch — a deluxe edition presenting Finch's raw pencils from Vol. 1 #1–3, Batman: The Return #1, and Vol. 2 #1–7 and #9 without inks or colors.