Whats Next?

[squeek2334]

Ok so I have finished Year one and i loved it. I have read many threads about what to read next and what are great trades and all of that. But what about Batman: Year Two and Year Three? I did a little research and found these. Whouldn't it make sence to contiune to read these for continutiy? People say thet Batman: The Long Holloween is the real year two. If that is the case then why is there a Batman: Year Two? Someone please help me understand this madness lol:smile:

[JohnShil]

I'm fairly certain Year Two (and probably Year Three) were retconned out of existence. Long Halloween / Dark Victory take place not long after Year One and are still in continuity, so they would be the unofficial replacements.

[squeek2334]

I'm fairly certain Year Two (and probably Year Three) were retconned out of existence. Long Halloween / Dark Victory take place not long after Year One and are still in continuity, so they would be the unofficial replacements.

Well I do know that i can buy year two and three online so thats why i was asking. Should i even bother?

[Vidocq]

Batman year three is still in continuity, but unlike the others is told in flashbacks and you get the complete story in Dark Victory. Is also the first appirience of Tim Drake. Is a good Story and it's somewhat of a retroactive sequel to Dark Victory. Since Zucco ''comes back''. To get The complete Year Three you need Year three, Dark Victory and Robin Year One.

If you like to know every single detail of a story you could buy all three or Just Dark Victory and Year Three or Robin Year One, If you just want to know what happen though incompletely Dark Victory would do.

[Chad]

I don't know if Year Two and Three were done to cash in on the success of Year One or if DC was genuinely trying to create a coherent and fleshed out backstory to the post-Crisis Batman. Either way, the Batman stories beginning with Year One in 1986/87 and ending around the time of Knightfall/Zero Hour in 1993/94 portray Batman and his history in a very consistent manner. Despite all the changes going on within the titles, you can read Batman from issue 404 until 500 and perfectly follow the development of the character.

Year Two sometimes gets a bad rap on message boards due to events I don't want to spoil for you. Essentially however, it's how Batman interacts with Joe Chill that tends to draw the most criticism. I see Year Two as the story that defines the moment in which Bruce Wayne discovered that he would have to decide which of his two identities he would have to abandon to persue his war on crime. For that reason, the fact that he catches up with his parent's killer isn't the main focus of the story (at least for me), it's the fact that up until this day, Bruce Wayne naively assumed that he could be happy, go-looking Bruce by day, and a dark avenger by night and never have the two identities interfere with one another. It's a pretty tragic story for that reason as the story shows the future that Bruce Wayne had to give up to remain Batman.

About continuity - DC started undoing Batman's history in 1994/95 by contradicting much of what happened until then with Zero Hour. DC didn't want Batman knowing who killed his parents so they announced that from now on, Batman and the police would never have caught the killer of the Waynes. DC thought it would be a good idea to have Batman be an urban legend who had never been captured on film. For this reason, Year Three had to be thrown into question due to the fact that a key component of that story involved Batman making a dramatic appearance at Haly's circus the night the Grayson's were killed and a later appearance on TV which led to Tim Drake discovering Batman's identity. Despite contradicting all of the stories which were inteded to make Batman's history crystal clear, DC never offered new versions of these events - they simply never refered to Joe Chill, or Tim Drake's origin, or ever explained how Batman could be an effective crimefighter if he had a fear of ever being seen by anyone.

Recently, the urban myth angle was done away with so it would appear that a story like Year Three is now more likely to be canonical than it was say five years ago. Grant Morrison has established that yes, Joe Chill was the killer of the Waynes, but has done so in a way that suggests that Year Two never happened (although I recall hearing that a fan asked whatever happened to The Reaper from Year Two at a con and was told that Morrison would be addressing this - since it hasn't really been mentioned anywhere else that I know of, this may not actually be the case).

I know that Long Halloween was considered outside of continuity when it was released, but parts of it have been refered to. You have to understand, and I can't stress this enough - DC is very, very flexible with it's history. Since Year Three, there have been at least three other versions of Robin's origin - an annual from 1995, Legends of the Dark Knight 100, and Robin:Year One. It's impossible to tell what Batman's history is as of this point in time, and if you're looking for stories that don't contradict one another and are written in a way that develops his back story, Batman Year One, Two, and Three are probably the best places to look.

[squeek2334]

I don't know if Year Two and Three were done to cash in on the success of Year One or if DC was genuinely trying to create a coherent and fleshed out backstory to the post-Crisis Batman. Either way, the Batman stories beginning with Year One in 1986/87 and ending around the time of Knightfall/Zero Hour in 1993/94 portray Batman and his history in a very consistent manner. Despite all the changes going on within the titles, you can read Batman from issue 404 until 500 and perfectly follow the development of the character.

Year Two sometimes gets a bad rap on message boards due to events I don't want to spoil for you. Essentially however, it's how Batman interacts with Joe Chill that tends to draw the most criticism. I see Year Two as the story that defines the moment in which Bruce Wayne discovered that he would have to decide which of his two identities he would have to abandon to persue his war on crime. For that reason, the fact that he catches up with his parent's killer isn't the main focus of the story (at least for me), it's the fact that up until this day, Bruce Wayne naively assumed that he could be happy, go-looking Bruce by day, and a dark avenger by night and never have the two identities interfere with one another. It's a pretty tragic story for that reason as the story shows the future that Bruce Wayne had to give up to remain Batman.

About continuity - DC started undoing Batman's history in 1994/95 by contradicting much of what happened until then with Zero Hour. DC didn't want Batman knowing who killed his parents so they announced that from now on, Batman and the police would never have caught the killer of the Waynes. DC thought it would be a good idea to have Batman be an urban legend who had never been captured on film. For this reason, Year Three had to be thrown into question due to the fact that a key component of that story involved Batman making a dramatic appearance at Haly's circus the night the Grayson's were killed and a later appearance on TV which led to Tim Drake discovering Batman's identity. Despite contradicting all of the stories which were inteded to make Batman's history crystal clear, DC never offered new versions of these events - they simply never refered to Joe Chill, or Tim Drake's origin, or ever explained how Batman could be an effective crimefighter if he had a fear of ever being seen by anyone.

Recently, the urban myth angle was done away with so it would appear that a story like Year Three is now more likely to be canonical than it was say five years ago. Grant Morrison has established that yes, Joe Chill was the killer of the Waynes, but has done so in a way that suggests that Year Two never happened (although I recall hearing that a fan asked whatever happened to The Reaper from Year Two at a con and was told that Morrison would be addressing this - since it hasn't really been mentioned anywhere else that I know of, this may not actually be the case).

I know that Long Halloween was considered outside of continuity when it was released, but parts of it have been refered to. You have to understand, and I can't stress this enough - DC is very, very flexible with it's history. Since Year Three, there have been at least three other versions of Robin's origin - an annual from 1995, Legends of the Dark Knight 100, and Robin:Year One. It's impossible to tell what Batman's history is as of this point in time, and if you're looking for stories that don't contradict one another and are written in a way that develops his back story, Batman Year One, Two, and Three are probably the best places to look.

Thanks for the Help. As it stands i have only read Batman: The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One. I just bought Batman: The Dark Night Returns and am going to start that. I also have bought Batman Four of a Kind, Batman: Riddler and the Riddle Factory, and Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Vol. 1. Main the first two because of the Riddler and the other one because i just really like reading these comics. The next thing on my list if proably Long Holloween. I would love to have continuty but i have relized that most of the stuff out there, there really is no continuty and you just have to read. Again Thank you for your help.:smile:

[Captain Jim]

Ok so I have finished Year one and i loved it. I have read many threads about what to read next and what are great trades and all of that. But what about Batman: Year Two and Year Three? I did a little research and found these. Whouldn't it make sence to contiune to read these for continutiy? People say thet Batman: The Long Holloween is the real year two. If that is the case then why is there a Batman: Year Two? Someone please help me understand this madness lol:smile:

Year Two and Three were written to follow up on the success of Year One, but by creators of considerable less storytelling ability. And, well, some stories "stick" and some don't. You don't hear a lot about these anymore because, frankly, in comparison to a lot of other offerings, they really aren't anything all that special.

[Captain Jim]

Thanks for the Help. As it stands i have only read Batman: The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One. I just bought Batman: The Dark Night Returns and am going to start that. I also have bought Batman Four of a Kind, Batman: Riddler and the Riddle Factory, and Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Vol. 1. Main the first two because of the Riddler and the other one because i just really like reading these comics. The next thing on my list if proably Long Holloween. I would love to have continuty but i have relized that most of the stuff out there, there really is no continuty and you just have to read. Again Thank you for your help.:smile:

There is a general continuity, but details are fluid.

The Long Halloween is a great choice, though (as is the sequel, Dark Victory).

[Captain Jim]

I know that Long Halloween was considered outside of continuity when it was released,

Only by fans who were obsessed with details. I had correspondence with Jeph Loeb at the time and he clearly considered it in continuity. And he said that no one at DC had told him anything otherwise.

[nepenthes]

Just buy Long Halloween, it's over-rated but it will still be more satisfying than Year One or Year Three