Best Batman stories of the 21st century

[cactusmaac]

I though I'd start a thread detailing all the more recent excellent Batman stories rather than the usual group of DKR\Year One\Killing Joke etc. Chip in with your own candidates.

1) Batman: Year 100

An excellent effort from Paul Pope detailing Batman vs corrupt authority in the year 2039. This should be handed out to anyone wanting to write a Batman story.

2) Batman: Detective #27

I think this was the last Elseworld they put out. Written by the Batman movie producer Michael Uslan with a fun tale of Bruce Wayne as part of a secret society trying to thwart a decades-old plot in 1939. Features one ingenious plot twist.

3) Batman: Broken City

Great noir from the 100 Bullets team of Azzarello and Risso. Reads very well in trade.

4) Batman: City Of Crime

By David Lapham. It didn't make many waves here but I just got the trade and I love it. The 8-page preview in Detective Comics #800 would get my vote as being the most definitive Batman story ever published.

5) Cold Case in Batman:LOTDK #204-206

By Christos Gage of Deadshot fame. I really liked this. It reminded me of the glory days of Grant\Breyfogle.

6) Batman #603-4

From the Bruce Wayne: Murderer crossover. By Ed Brubaker. Fantastic story(s) as Batman realises he is in fact Bruce Wayne and always has been. Made me a Bru fan 4 life.

[trickster]

Gotham County Line.

[snipe]

City of Crime? Good? It's probably the worst Batman story I've read in my 20 years of reading.

[Chad]

Great topic. Despite all the publicity surrounding the major crossovers since 2000, these tales are the ones that stick out in my mind:

1) Batman:Gotham Knights 59 - wedged in between Liebermann's unfinished issues is one of the best Mr Freeze stories of all time. Trapped together after having his latest plot foiled by Batman, Mr Freeze decides to kill time by telling Batman that he knows what's going through his mind. He knows how Batman blames himself for every death he can't prevent and how he blocks out emotions he can't handle, "You have no idea what I feel" Batman smirks.
In the conversation that ensues, Batman destroys everyone of his enemy's assumptions about how dark and cynical he is.

2) Batman: Gotham Knights 8-11 - I'm going to spoil the catch in this story here simply because it's what makes this story a classic. Hugo Strange returns almost certain in his knowledge that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Knowing this and the fact that Strange should be able to confirm this simply by catching Batman and Bruce Wayne using the same mannerisms in the minutest of ways, Batman takes measures to throw him off his trail.

Robin and Nightwing haven't been clued in on what these measures are and are completely baffled when Bruce Wayne claims to have no knowledge of who either of them are, what's a Bat-Cave, and why he owns a Batman costume. When Wayne pleads for his life to Strange rather than assist his team-mates, things get bizzare until the big reveal. To protect his identity as thoroughly as necessary, Bruce Wayne hypnotized himself to forget that he's Batman.

3) Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 168 - one-shot story in which after falling from a building, Batman has to deal with Gotham's fastest growing gang and his amnesia. Without his memory, he begins to question the absurdity of the way he does things. It's an interesting way to tell this story - Batman is offered a gun for protection which he absolutely refuses ("but doesn't it make sense to be armed if you're going up against an army? Why don't I use a gun?") but there are certain things which the author refuses to joke about. Despite having been battered to a pulp, Batman is shown as noble rather than foolish for running to the protection of a woman being beaten by her pimp.

Without his memory, this story is an exploration into what the average person thinks of Batman as that's all he has to go on. Some funny lines too. A couple helps him after his initial fall and reminds him that he should have a car nearby. "Isn't it called the Bat-Car or the Mobile-Car or something?" "Mobile-Car? That sounds stupid?" And there's a twist ending as well, which I won't spoil here either. Suffice it to say, you find out what exactly Batman was up to when he fell from that roof.

[Gary Joyce]

2) Batman: Gotham Knights 8-11 - I'm going to spoil the catch in this story here simply because it's what makes this story a classic. Hugo Strange returns almost certain in his knowledge that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Knowing this and the fact that Strange should be able to confirm this simply by catching Batman and Bruce Wayne using the same mannerisms in the minutest of ways, Batman takes measures to throw him off his trail.

Robin and Nightwing haven't been clued in on what these measures are and are completely baffled when Bruce Wayne claims to have no knowledge of who either of them are, what's a Bat-Cave, and why he owns a Batman costume. When Wayne pleads for his life to Strange rather than assist his team-mates, things get bizzare until the big reveal. To protect his identity as thoroughly as necessary, Bruce Wayne hypnotized himself to forget that he's Batman.


I was gonna say this story as i loved it when i was reading it.I like Hugo Strange probably because hes one of the bat-villains who rarely gets used so when he does it feels special.

As for other great stories I quiet liked Dead Reckoning which was in Detective 777 - 782.
It's about a killer that knows secrets about some of Gotham's rogues and then comes back to town to seek revenge against them.

We have Riddler, Penguin, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Joker, Two Face, the Killer Moth (sort of) and they're all tied into the mystery.

We also get a new villain The Charlatan.

Also for great stories i would just say Rucka and Brubaker runs on Batman and Detective were full of great stories.