Holy milestones, Batman! Detective Comics , where the caped crusader debuted on March 30, 1939, will reach issue No. 1000 on Wednesday , just days before the hero’s 80th birthday. “It is evidence of the greatness and power of the Batman concept that the character has appeared continuously over eight decades,” Peter Sanderson, a comic book historian, said.

Growing up, I saw versions of Batman in comics and on TV, but one of the great leaps forward was Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, a four-part story which presented an older version of the hero coming out of retirement to protect Gotham City once more. Miller’s vision of Batman helped pave the way for Tim Burton’s “Batman,” starring Michael Keaton, perhaps the first time my love of comics was less childish and more socially acceptable.

Since then, we’ve had many film Batmen — his onscreen incarnations have oscillated between campy (Joel Schumacher) and dignified (Christopher Nolan ) — but his guiding principle has remained the same. “Batman never gives up on his mission to protect the innocent from evil,” Sanderson said.