Must Read Batman Story Arcs?

[king911]

I am trying to collect all the must have batman story arcs.

So far i have

Dark Knite Returns
Year One
The killing Joke
Hush
War Games
Dark Knite Strikes again

anything important i am missing?

whats your favorite batman story?-

[rZi]

You've got pretty much the key ones, hush and killing joke really stand out on that list as great reads. I can't say if it'll be great or not but the current "Ressurection of Ra's Al Ghul" arc feels like it may stand the test of time

[Brack360]

I would definitely recommend The Long Halloween and its sequel, Dark Victory, as definitive Batman stories.

[Choppa]

Well if you consider those on the list as "must haves" then I would add these-

Knightfall 1-3
Batman: Gothic
Batman: Faces
Bruce Wayne: Murderer?
NML 1-5

There's also a sticky thread at the top of the forum with trade descriptions.

[king911]

is Batman: Year Two: Fear The Reaper worth reading ?

[TheFamousEccles]

Actually, while I know there's not too much love for it, I am an enormous fan of "Year Two" and it's follow up, "Full Circle." The main reason for it, I think is that it is very much a breath of fresh air from Miller's gritty "Year One," and creates a much more sweeping, romantic view of Batman's world. The emotions are hypercharged, the action moves quickly, it links into Batman's past well, and Barr manages to somewhat logically explain Batman's gun toting period (I really liked this bit as a nod to when Batman regularly carried a gun.) A clever touch of Barr's is to reveal the identity of the Reaper very early on, so instead of our being focused on figuring out the identity of the villain, we get to focus on Batman's deductive techniques and his work piecing everything together. It's grand melodrama and wonderfully entertaining.

"Full Circle," has some marvelous art from Alan Davis, and there are moments in it that are really quite emotional. The placement of the panels and the way the piece comes together is very rhythmic, and forces you to move along with the story.

The thing that I love about both of these pieces is their work combining these wonderfully quiet moments with plots that move quickly, show us the characters in an archetypal, but freely evolving mode, and some sprawling, well drawn action as well. I'd love to see Barr back on Batman at some point.

McFarlane's art in some of the Year Two books are interesting. Although I've only read an issue or two of "Spawn," there's definitely a precursor to Spawn's cape in the way McFarlane draws Batman's - it's almost a character in and of itself.

Also, the Reaper is actually a great antagonist, and his final moments with Batman are pretty chilling in terms of the age old "hero/villain" comparison moment. In addition, he is a very clear forerunner to the Phantasm in terms of design and Modus Operandi, so there is that connection as well.

While there are better Batman stories, I think "Year Two" is perhaps the most operatic of the bunch. Everything in it operates on a grand scale. It has a love story (that works, no less) with a marvelously bittersweet ending, Bruce having to confront his past through his present (through Joe Chill's presence), and has some fine interactions between Bruce, Alfred and Leslie.

[dancj]

I like year 2. In fact my only real problem with the story is the obvious lack of communication between the creators of this and Year One which means that Gordon aged 20 years overnight.

[swedishmeatballs]

Man who laughs

Lonely Place for dying (Enter Tim Drake)

Gotham Central: Half a Life

Gotham Central: Unresolved Targets

Broken City

[The Batman]

A Death in the Family is probably worth checking out too. Also, I've always been fond of Batman: Venom, and the smaller storied that Breyfogle and Grant did. Something like "The Mud Pack" from 'Tec (Batman vs the combined Clayfaces) wasn't epic or senses shattering and it didn't change everything we know about Batman forever, but it was alot of fun and a good straightforward Batman story.

It was also the first time that I think I ever saw Jason Todd's memory used against Batman.

[king911]

is year 2 fear the reaper or smthing like that good ?

[Choppa]

IMO Year 2 and the follow up (Full Circle I think?) were pretty bad. But if you liked HUSH then they might be right up your alley.

[Rattlehead]

I know it's not the official Year Two, but I find that The Long Halloween works a lot better as a Year Two story than the actual Batman: Year Two.

[Captain Jim]

Welcome to CBR, Famous Eccles :)

[rZi]

This kind of sums up alot of things.....if you like IGN

http://uk.comics.ign.com/articles/624/624619p1.html

[Joe Night]

I liked Batman: Shaman, the first story arc from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight. All of the suggestions have been good. I am torn on Batman: Year Two. I want to like it, but I just can't get myself to.

[scratchie]

Don't forget the Englehart/Rogers run collected as "Strange Apparitions".

I love Seth Fisher's "Snow" story as well (collected in TPB recently).

[Rattlehead]

I love Seth Fisher's "Snow" story as well (collected in TPB recently).

Wasn't that one of the last story arcs in Legends of the Dark Knight? And it's a retelling of Mr. Freeze's origin right?

[earl]

I've been getting caught up on all sorts of Batman in the past couple of years, here is some of the stuff that I really liked.

Batman & the Monster Men
Batman & the Mad Professor
Prey - Legends of the Dark Knight 11 to 15
Terror - Legends of the Dark Knight 137 to 141

I really liked both of the two mini-series by Matt Wagner. They are set early in Batman's career and feature Hugo Strange. Prey and Terror are story lines by Doug Moench with artwork by the excellent Paul Gulacy which also spin around Hugo Strange.

Batman Year One
Shaman - Legends of the Dark Knight 1 to 5
Gothic - Legends of the Dark Knight 6 to 10
Robin Year One
The Long Halloween/ Dark Victory

These are all stories set at the start of Batman's career except Robin Year One which tells the story of Dick Grayson becoming Robin from his point of view. Batman Year One is by far one of the more obvious titles to check out. Shaman is by veteran Batman writer and editor Denny O'Neil. Gothic is one of the first stories that Grant Morrison did for DC. I think both hold up.

All of those Legends of the Dark Knight issues are not that expensive or hard to find as back issues.

Broken City - Batman 620 to 625

This is a collection by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso who also do the 100 Bullets comic. I liked it quite a bit, it is very dark and shows a different angle on Batman, plus I like how they decked out Killer Croc in this one. It is probably not all that important continuity wise or anything, but I think it was a pretty good story.



Ed Brubaker's run on Batman and Detective is really solid. There is some really good stories in his run. He really uses The Penguin well in his run of stories. Paul Dini's recent run on Detective was also very good.

The Dark Knight
The Killing Joke

Those are classic stories, but I have not read them since the 80s.


Strange Apparitions (Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers/Walt Simonson/Len Wein)
Tales of the Demon (Denny O'Neil/ Neal Adams/ Irv Novick)
Batman in the Eighties

These are some compilations of older Batman works that are really good. Tales of the Demon is the early and crucial issues with Ra's Al Ghul.


There are plenty of others that are OK that outline the whole Jason Todd and Tim Drake Robin sagas, but honestly I don't like them as much as the stories above. They are important if you want to understand the relationships in the current titles.


Mike Barr & Alan Davis also did a small run on Detective that ends with the first issue of Year Two in Detective that is excellent. Batman Year Two is just OK, but the issues they did before that are great. One issue is in the Batman 80s collection.

A cool old pre-crisis Batman miniseries that is worth checking out is the Untold Legend of the Batman which is by Len Wein with art by John Byrne and Jim Aparo. It was a 3 issue miniseries of the origin of Batman from the early 80s and is a good historical read even though not all of it applies in modern continuity. I tracked that down and they are not real expensive, but it is a good read.

[ggersten]

The original run of Englehart and Rogers is a definite must. It's hard to understand how "different" it felt - and so alive. With the Simonson "Manhunter" backup - it was quite a time to be reading Batman.

Not an arc, but there was a short story where Bruce Wayne is out camping with some young boys. Each of the boys claims to have seen The Batman and describes what they saw - each more fantastic than the other. Then Bruce appears as The Batman and the kids all laugh, because that's not how The Batman looks.

Also, there was a silent Neal Adams/Denny O'Neill Batman story in the late 70s as well that was outstanding.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

I'd recommend Matt Wagner's "Faces" (Legends Of The Dark Knight #28-30*), James Robinson & Tim Sale's "Blades" (LOTDK #32-34), Paul Dini & Bruce Timm's Batman Adventures: Mad Love, or the Doug Moench & Kelley Jones monthly run (Batman #515-552) if you're up for some Bat-stories off the beaten path a bit.


*also in an out-of-print trade paperback.

[pringlesman]

Not an arc, but there was a short story where Bruce Wayne is out camping with some young boys. Each of the boys claims to have seen The Batman and describes what they saw - each more fantastic than the other. Then Bruce appears as The Batman and the kids all laugh, because that's not how The Batman looks.


Which issue did that happen in.

[Choppa]

Which issue did that happen in.

It's called "The Batman Nobody Knows" from Batman #250. And the kids laugh because the Batman's image doesn't scare the innocent, only the guilty.

[scratchie]

I love Seth Fisher's "Snow" story as well (collected in TPB recently).Wasn't that one of the last story arcs in Legends of the Dark Knight? And it's a retelling of Mr. Freeze's origin right?Yes, that's the one. Obviously you have to like Fisher's art to enjoy it, but I loved it. The story is quite good, too.

The arc that followed that in Legends of the Dark Knight (with art by Chris Weston) was quite good, too.

[The Batman]

The Untold Legend of the Batman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untold_Legend_of_the_Batman)

I was just talking about it on another forum, but I think it's something worth checking out if you can get your hands on it.

http://www.thebookcave.com/images/Batman1.JPG

http://members.aol.com/killermoth/culb1.gif

[Alan2099]

If you can track down the Going Sane arc, I'd highly recommend it. It's without a doubt one of the best Joker stories ever. I'd go as far as saying it's even better than Killing Joke.

[gwor]

Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told is a nice collection.

I think the Englehart/Rogers issues are in a trade, as well as the Adams Ra's Al Ghul saga, simply excellent stuff.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

The arc that followed that in Legends of the Dark Knight (with art by Chris Weston) was quite good, too.

"Blaze Of Glory," yeah. Whenever someone goes on about how much Pfeifer's Amazons Attack! sucked (not to say it didn't, mind you), just stick this right into their hands.

Chris Gage's two stories in Legends's final year (#201-203's "Cold Case" and #214 with Deadshot) were nothing to sneeze at, either.

[The Batman]

Batman #312. (http://www.batmanytb.com/comics/titles/batman/301_400/batman312.php)

Not really a story arc, just a good single issue Batman vs. Calender Man story. It was the first Batman comic I remember reading and the first time I saw him outside of Superfriends or reruns of the Adam West show and it was awesome.

[OPTIMUS_PRIMEversionKT]

if u can get ur hands on CONTAGION & LEGACYStory arcs.cant give you complete issue runs but its my favorite.I DONT KNOW HOW OTHER THINK BOUT IT BUT I DONT GIVE A DAMN coz I'm GODDAMN BAT...OOPS SORRY JUST CARRIED AWAY....& WELCOME 2 CBR.

btw these stories are pure action packed...include BATS,NW,ROBIN,BANE, HUNTRESS,TALIA,ORACLE,SHIVA & RAs:D

[dancj]

If you can track down the Going Sane arc, I'd highly recommend it. It's without a doubt one of the best Joker stories ever. I'd go as far as saying it's even better than Killing Joke.
Easily done. They've just solicited a TPB of it

[Mia]

The original run of Englehart and Rogers is a definite must. It's hard to understand how "different" it felt - and so alive. With the Simonson "Manhunter" backup - it was quite a time to be reading Batman.

Not an arc, but there was a short story where Bruce Wayne is out camping with some young boys. Each of the boys claims to have seen The Batman and describes what they saw - each more fantastic than the other. Then Bruce appears as The Batman and the kids all laugh, because that's not how The Batman looks.

Also, there was a silent Neal Adams/Denny O'Neill Batman story in the late 70s as well that was outstanding.

I truly envy people who were able to collect or read Batman and ‘Tec from the 70’s. I think that era showcases the best of Batman.

Bruce is written as Kane and Finger intended him to be. The ultimate man. Being that he’s a businessman, tremendous athlete, adventurer and ladies man. And fighter for the common man. The stories aren’t ‘kiddiesh’. He has no teenage boy running around after him ( which was a true disservice to the character—I mean what kind of person wants to hang out with a child?)

There have been a few authors in recent times who have captured that era. But it’s been mostly through one shots and small stories.

Mostly we have been saddled with is a lite one dimensional version of the Punisher.

I truly wish that I had enough money to get the entire 70’s run.

[Lorendiac]

It's called "The Batman Nobody Knows" from Batman #250. And the kids laugh because the Batman's image doesn't scare the innocent, only the guilty.

They also laugh because it is obviously just Bruce Wayne in that silly costume. (Funny how practically nobody else ever spots that at first glance . . . :) )

As I recall, that story (very short) is reprinted in my copy of the old TPB "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" (Volume 1). Volume 2 was published around the time of the movie "Batman Returns" and thus it was mostly reprints of old Catwoman and Penguin stories, if memory serves . . .

Moving on to another point: Some of the story arcs I would really like to recommend have never been collected in TPB editions. Should I mention them anyway? Or am I just going to be seen as cruel if I urge people to go rushing off to comic book shops or conventions and start digging through long boxes full of back issues, hoping they can find a bunch of old issues of "Batman" and "Detective Comics" at affordable prices? (As opposed to being able to click your mouse a few times and order a TPB version through Amazon.com or some other online retailer?)

[dupersuper]

I'll add Turning Points, Kessels 10 part Worlds Finest, Gibbons 3 part Worlds Finest, Morrisons JLA, Ego, and Arkham Assylum to the ones already listed. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.