Batman Returns to the Audio Drama Realm
First up — Batman: Year One
The success of Spotify’s various Batman fiction podcasts and the more comedic Audio Adventures from Max has opened the bat cave, unleashing comic book nostalgia and excitement for other classic Batman stories.
Part of DC Comics High Volume newly announced line of audio drama, these new takes on fundamental Batman storylines from the comics will start on April 2. DC comics continues its work with Realm, but rather than make new stories, they’re adapting older ones like “Batman: Year One” followed by “The Long Halloween.”
Released in the 1980s, Batman: Year One was one of the seminal works that Christopher Nolan adapted into Batman Begins. Its sequels, “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” did something similar with “The Long Halloween” and No Man’s Land” for those two films respectively.
An animated movie based on Year One released in 2011 and again ten years later with the commemorative edition. The same treatment occurred again with “The Long Halloween” in 2021, released in two parts and again collecting those two into one movie. “No Man’s Land” is the only story as of 2025, which doesn’t have an animated movie attached to it, though the TV show “Gotham” did a variation on the story during its final season. There was a Graphic Audio version split into two parts back in the day. Those along with many other DC comics and Marvel stories are no longer available to buy. Some of the Marvel dramatizations have been re-released on Audible’s store. The one’s from DC comics have not been, though some comics like Hellboy remain available on Graphic Audio and Audible’s stores.
While DC has confirmed “The Long Halloween” will receive the audio treatment as well, no word on a release date has yet to be announced. The audio dramatization of Year One will be broken into four parts.
Anne DePies, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of DC said: “We want to offer audiences who may be new to DC a jumping on point for the Batman franchise, driving them back to our books, while engaging existing fans, podcast enthusiasts and audiobook listeners with direct adaptations that bring their favorite stories to life as faithfully as possible.”
The cast of Year One will include: Jason Spisak as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jay Paulson as Lt. James Gordon, Reba Buhr as Catwoman/Seline Kyle, Adam O’Byrne as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Mike Starr as Carmine Falcone, Simon Vance as Alfred Pennyworth, Dan Gill as The Joker, Jesse Burch as The Riddler, Michelle Lukes as Poison Ivy and Kevin Smith as The Penguin.
Batman: Year One drops its first two episodes adapting issues 404-405 next month.