Batman Learned His Most Valuable Lesson (Posing as a Teen Detective)
While training to be Batman, Bruce Wayne posed as a “teen detective” and learned a valuable lesson, one that has stuck with the Dark Knight for his entire career in DC Comics. In the story “Blood Secrets,” appearing in 1989’s Detective Comics Annual #2, readers were treated to a story of the years Batman spent training, traveling the world and studying with the best detectives. Yet even then Bruce was showing a tendency towards disguises, posing as a teen detective.
Over the years, writer and artists have spun some of the best Batman stories out of Bruce Wayne’s apprenticeship and early years. Stories such as Year One and Zero Year showed the Dark Knight at more formative stages in his career. Readers met intriguing characters such as Henri Ducard, who had a hand in shaping Batman. In their 1989 annuals, DC explored hidden chapters in the backstories of some of their biggest characters—including Batman. Writers Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, along with penciller Val Semeiks, introduced readers to investigator Harvey Harris, a celebrated detective based in the American South. Seventeen-year-old Bruce Wayne heard of Harvey’s reputation, and approached him to be a mentor. Harris waved him off, refusing to travel to train a “kid.” Undeterred, Bruce created a disguise and goes to Harvey. The issue was also inked by Michael Bair, colored by Adrienne Roy and lettered by Todd Klein.
Related: Batman Explains Why He Gave Himself a Makeover For DC's Silver Age
Bruce, using the alias “Frank Dixon,” creates a cover story that he is a “teen detective,” meets Harvey Harris in Huntsville, Alabama, where Harris is working a case rooted deep in the city’s racist history. At the climax of the investigation, Harris is shot, and as he lays
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