Origin of Batman for Kids

Here's an older book (now out of print), but it finishes off the trinity of DC super stars for now. Unfortunately, it is extremely divergent from DC canon.


Puckett, Kelley. Batman’s Dark Secret. Illus. John J. Muth. Hello Reader!—Level 3. New York: Scholastic, Oct. 1999. 0-439-09551-4

For young readers aged 6-8, Batman’s Dark Secret adapts the origins of Batman, but Puckett presents a bowdlerized account that subverts the traditional version of the story, which focuses on vengeance as Batman’s motivation to fight crime, to draw a connection between Bruce Wayne as a little boy and the target reader.

Occurring off page, the book opens with the murder of young Bruce Wayne’s parents, and, according to Puckett’s narrative, the boy becomes afraid of the night following their deaths.

Eventually, Wayne tumbles into the cavern beneath Wayne Manor, and there he is forced to face his fears in the form of a giant bat.

By protecting himself from the bat, Wayne regains the confidence he lost following the deaths of his parents, and the boy realizes that he “felt strange, somehow. Different. He would grow up. He would fight evil and win. And he would never be afraid again” (30-32).