There’s plenty of reasons for a Batman comic to become a hot commodity in the collector community. Some books introduce new fan-favorite characters who become major heroes or threats in the larger DC Comics universe. Other issues may play pivotal roles in significant line-wide events, making them must-haves for collectors. In the case of 2018’s Batman: Damned #1, however, the book is sought after solely because of Bruce Wayne’s bare genitals. Seriously.
Damned was the launch title for DC Black Label, an imprint aimed toward the publisher’s older readers that wouldn’t shy away from graphic violence, profane language, and, at least in the case of the premiere issue, nudity. The three-issue miniseries from writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo opens with the apparent death of the Joker before spiraling into a supernatural odyssey featuring John Constantine, Enchantress, Deadman, Spectre, Swamp Thing, and many more. But none of that is what the series is really remembered for.
Toward the end of the first issue, Batman returns to his cave to assess the damage his adventures have wreaked upon his body. While removing his iconic costume, cape and cowl, Bruce Wayne’s nether regions are just barely visible for exactly three panels, all of which are cloaked in so much shadow that a reader would have to squint to make anything out. Despite Black Label being explicitly made for a mature audience, a minor backlash ensued and the panels were censored before the book even made its way to digital platforms. Similarly, all reprints of the book would be altered so as to obscure the Dark Knight’s naughty bits in any additional runs. The response was so overwhelming that DC execs publicly said they wished they’d never released the uncensored version. The book, which fans have come to colloquially refer to as the “Batawang” version, sold out of its initial run of 115,000 copies, meaning that any of the remaining originals are now in the hands of private collectors (no pun intended).
As such, the copies still floating around in the world have become somewhat of a coveted item. There’s been speculation of this having been little more than a publicity stunt to help launch Black Label, and if that was the case, DC achieved its goal in spades. The situation was covered by outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and even became the fodder of late-night talk show hosts with both The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert and Late Night‘s Seth Myers cracking jokes at the absurd controversy. “I’m old enough to remember when it was a big deal to see Batman’s nipples,” Colbert tweeted during the fracas.
But what this situation meant for the comic’s value was no laughing matter. With a cover price of $6.99, first-run copies quickly started going on the market for hundreds of dollars. The Batman phallus trade seems to have settled down some since the initial bedlam, though. With a bit of luck, copies can now be found on sites like eBay starting at around $50. But even at $50, that’s a more than 700% increase in value over the course of less than two and a half years. And those are just the opening bid prices for ungraded copies. An officially graded copy, at least as of the time of this writing, will set a buyer back hundreds more. And since the book became so obscure and so infamous so quickly, any savvy collector would have begun to preserve their copy’s quality as quickly as possible, meaning there are almost certainly mint or near-mint condition copies still out there.
Black Label was a big move for DC, switching gears to target a different base demographic. It’s not unlike what Marvel did years earlier with its MAX imprint, which gave readers their first look at characters like Jessica Jones. Black Label has produced some stellar work since its introduction, so hopefully, time will be kind and the fact that Batman goes commando while fighting crime won’t be the imprint’s legacy in the comics world.
