The Associated Press is reporting that Batman will be getting some new backstory in an upcoming story arc to be written by Scott Snyder.

Though key elements of Bruce Wayne’s past will not be changed (his parents will still have been murdered) the character’s growth from Bruce Wayne to Batman will receive a makeover. The 11-part story will detail Bruce Wayne’s first encounter with a super villain and show him building the bat cave. It will also reveal a new story on how the character eventually donned the now-famous Batman costume. The story arc will be called “The Zero year.”

Snyder told the AP that he and other DC Comics writers “tried to preserve as much of Batman’s history as we could.” He also mentioned that DC is “not going to take apart ‘Year One,” referring to Frank Miller’s 1987 Batman story that recounts Batman’s early crime fighting. Many of the elements from that story were used by Christopher Nolan in the most recent Batman film adaptations, including Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

“The Zero Year” will begin as Robin, the Boy Wonder, has been killed off in the comic Batman Incorporated. The most current Robin was the son of Bruce Wayne, suggesting that, perhaps, the introspection of “The Zero Year” will shape Batman as a character going forward.

(Image courtesy DC Comics)