Cover: Todd McFarlane & Pablo Marcos

Detective Comics #576

Jul 1987 · DC · 0.75 USD; 1.00 CAD; 0.40 GBP

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“Batman Year Two Chapter Two: Deal with the Devil”

About this Issue

Detective Comics #576 is the second chapter of 'Batman: Year Two,' the 1987 Mike W. Barr storyline that served as a direct narrative companion to Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli's 'Batman: Year One,' pushing the early-career Batman into his most morally compromised position yet by forcing him to train with a firearm and ally with Gotham's organized crime families. The issue deepens the arc's central dramatic irony — that the man the underworld assigns as Batman's armed partner is Joe Chill, the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents, who remains entirely unaware of his new colleague's true identity. It also delivers the in-story backstory of Judson Caspian's transformation into the Reaper, a mirror-image origin to Batman's own that gave the villain unusual psychological weight for the era. The arc as a whole — and this chapter's cover in particular, depicting a gun-wielding Batman — became an enduring reference point in discussions about Batman's 'no-kill, no-gun' code and what happens when that code is tested to its limit.

In "Batman Year Two Chapter Two: Deal with the Devil," Bruce's growing bond with Rachel takes a backseat as Batman confronts the Reaper once more—this time by allying with a shadowy cabal of mob bosses. With the stakes higher than ever, he teams up with Joe Chill, a ruthless enforcer, in a dangerous gamble to stop a killer who believes in a twisted code of justice. Written by Mike W. Barr and brought to life with bold, dynamic art by Todd McFarlane, the issue's cover by McFarlane and Pablo Marcos captures the dark, high-stakes tension of a hero walking a razor's edge.

writer Mike W. Barr · artist Todd McFarlane · inker Alfredo Alcala · colorist Adrienne Roy · letterer Agustin Más · cover Todd McFarlane, Pablo Marcos

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (VF) $9

CGC 9.8 · 412 in census $115

CGC 9.6 · 278 in census $52

CGC 9.4 · 167 in census $44*

CGC 9.2 · 86 in census $39*

CGC 9.0 · 45 in census $34*

CGC 8.5 · 26 in census $29*

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CGC 8.0 · 20 in census $26*

CGC 7.5 · 13 in census $24*

CGC 7.0 · 4 in census $23*

CGC 6.5 · 2 in census $22*

CGC 6.0 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 none in existence

CGC 5.0 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 4 in census $20*

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History

Writer Mike W. Barr originally conceived the story as a treatment titled 'Batman: 1980,' but the project was retitled 'Batman: Year Two' to align with the cultural moment created by Frank Miller's 'Batman: Year One,' published just months earlier in 1986–87. The arc ran in Detective Comics #575–578 (cover-dated June–September 1987) under editor Dennis O'Neil, with Alan Davis penciling the opening chapter and Todd McFarlane — then a relative newcomer — taking over interior pencils from issue #576 onward, inked by Alfredo Alcala; McFarlane also produced the cover for #576, signed alongside inker Pablo Marcos. The story is no longer considered part of Batman's canonical continuity, a status that solidified after Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! established a conflicting account of Joe Chill's fate.

Trivia · 8 facts

Chapter title: 'Batman: Year Two – Chapter Two: Deal with the Devil'; cover date July 1987, published March 31, 1987 (per DC Database).
Written by Mike W. Barr; interior pencils by Todd McFarlane, inked by Alfredo Alcala; cover penciled by McFarlane and inked by Pablo Marcos — representing some of McFarlane's earliest prominent Batman work before his Spider-Man fame.
The issue's pivotal plot turn has Gotham's criminal syndicate assign Joe Chill — the man who shot the Waynes — as Batman's armed partner against the Reaper, with Chill completely unaware of Batman's true identity.
This chapter provides the in-story origin of Judson Caspian as the Reaper: his wife Mary Rachel Caspian was murdered by a criminal (shown in flashback), a tragedy that consciously parallels the Wayne murders and drives Caspian's lethal vigilantism.
Bruce Wayne's romance with Rachel Caspian advances in this issue, with their first date occurring after Bruce steps in for Leslie Thompkins; neither Bruce nor Rachel yet knows the other's father-figure connection to the Reaper.
Leslie Thompkins's moral objection to Batman training with a gun causes her to announce she is leaving Wayne Manor, illustrating how the arc uses supporting cast members to dramatize the ethical stakes of Batman wielding a firearm.
The Reaper (Judson Caspian) first appeared in Detective Comics #575; #576 is his second appearance and the issue that fully establishes his origin and motivation.
The Batman: Year Two arc has been collected multiple times: a 1990 trade paperback, a 2002 edition bundled with the sequel one-shot Batman: Full Circle under the title Batman: Year Two – Fear the Reaper, a 2017 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, and — most recently — as part of DC's Facsimile Edition reprint program launched in early 2026.