Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

Author Brad Meltzer teams with Bryan Hitch for a retelling of the first Batman story

New %27Detective Comics%27 issue celebrates 75 years of the Dark Knight

Frank Miller%2C John Layman%2C Scott Snyder%2C Paul Dini and others also star in the issue

Everybody knows Brad Meltzer as a Superman guy, but in reality he's always been a Batman guy.

So when the Bat signal went out and DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio asked him to be a part of a celebration of the Dark Knight's 75 years, Meltzer couldn't say no.

"It was that one thing I love, which is history," says the author and well-known comic-book scribe (Identity Crisis, Justice League of America) that's part of an all-star crew honoring the Caped Crusader in a special Detective Comics No. 27, out Wednesday.

"This is one of the great histories of American mythology, and to me the opportunity to try and do it justice was vital."

The 96-page issue features the first chapter of the "Gothtopia" story line by John Layman and Jason Fabok; a futuristic tale by Batman writer Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy; stories from the creative teams of Peter J. Tomasi and Guillem March, Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen, and Gregg Hurwitz and Neal Adams; and a variant cover by comics icon Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns).

For his part, Meltzer teams with artist Bryan Hitch for a modern-day version of the first Batman story from the original Detective Comics No. 27, which introduced the superhero in an issue cover-dated May 1939.

While his is billed as a retelling, Meltzer insists that original six-page story in the 10-cent issue "doesn't need to be retold. It's a classic for a reason. Its like colorizing movies — you can redo them, but in some way when you do that you rob it of its soul."

Instead, Meltzer's take on "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate" — which introduced the "Bat-Man" as "a mysterious and adventurous figure fighting for righteousness and apprehending the wrong doer" — retells the story and keeps the murder-mystery plot but lets it examine why Batman exists.

"Of course, 75 years pulls out so much more of his psyche, but the pieces are all right there," Meltzer says of Batman's motivations. "It's almost like having all the pieces of Monopoly and you just don't have the instructions yet. You can still play the game."

He made sure to put in the two best parts of Batman for Meltzer: obsessiveness and determination.

When Batman goes to save a man in the story, "he literally leaps into the death trap selflessly and stubbornly, like the beautiful mule that he will always be," the writer says.

"When you look back at it 75 years ago, he frees himself from the death trap by grabbing a wrench, even though he's wearing a utility belt. It's funny to see how Batman gets out of things."

When Meltzer wrote his 15-page story, he made sure to keep a track of the panel count. The 1939 version, with word balloons chock full of characters spouting their motivations, had 55 panels — the same number Meltzer had when he finished.

"I just thought, 'OK, I'm stepping away from the computer at this moment.' Of course, Hitch had to add a couple panels and ruin my beautiful synchronicity, but it's Bryan Hitch. I forgive him," says Meltzer, adding that he's already bought the original art for his two favorite pages.

The writer, who also hosts his History Channel series Decoded and has the children's books I Am Amelia Earhart and I Am Abraham Lincoln out this month, admits he used to wear a Batman costume around his house all the time as a little child.

Justice League of America No. 150 in 1978 might have been the first comic he ever actually read, but before that he was given a copy of Detective Comics issue 475 that same year when he was 7 — the image of the Joker on it with "laughing fish" scared him too much to get past the cover.

Batman will always be "his first," he says, and it's because of his human side, "that spirit that won't ever give up in the face of anything. The core of Batman is every day he knows he can't win, and every day he goes out and tries again.

"I never will be Superman," Meltzer adds. "I don't have lasers that come out of my eyes, I can't fly, I can't lift a car over my head, but I can be Batman because Batman is just a stubborn guy who refuses to give up."