I want to read Batman...all of it. Where do I start?

[OSUNightfall]

This is my first post. To keep it short, the time has come. I've decided to delve into the printed material concerning perhaps my favorite hero of all time, Batman. But when it comes to comics, I'm a real light-weight. Didn't have the money to collect them when I was younger, and now that I'm older and have an interest in reading them, I have no idea where to begin, or even where to end. I'm also a light-weight in that most of my love of Batman comes from the DC Animated series, and its successors. So I come to the pros.

I want to read everything I can related to Batman, but the portrayal of Batman I'm interested in is his somewhat darker portrayals, anything along the lines of The Animated Series or darker. So I ask: what do I read? Which series, which anthologies, which specific issues? As I said, real comic light-weight, so from my standpoint knowing *what* to seek out and read is like trying to find a haystack in another, larger haystack.

Perhaps you fellows can help me? In the meantime, back to waiting on my Complete Animated Series dvds....

-Nightfall

[Triforce]

All of it? I hope you have a lot of spare time on your hands! Haha.

Just start with:

Year One
The Long Halloween
The Dark Knight Returns
Hush

And go from there.

[Triforce]

Also read this thread:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=288087

[nepenthes]

What you want are tpb collections or "trades", books that collect several issues in a series

All of it? I hope you have a lot of spare time on your hands! Haha.

Just start with:

Year One
The Long Halloween
The Dark Knight Returns
Hush

And go from there.

These trades are perfect for starting out ^

One thing to realise is that you'll never read all of it, and you wouldn't want to. Start with the classics, then onto a few major storylines, then characters or creators that begin to interest you. And do not worry about reading it "in order", there's no such thing.

If you like The Animated Series I'd particularily suggest Long Halloween, which is set in the early days of Batmans career. It's similar to The Dark Knight film except without the Joker as the main villain
Year One is the origin story, or "Batman Begins"
Hush will introduce you to the crazy modern world of Batman
Dark Knight Returns is a very important Batman story that was hugely influential to the whole idea of Batman today and also one of the major superhero comics of all time. Dark and dense

[OSUNightfall]

Thank you for the replies. I'll begin with what's been suggested. I realize it may seem like a tall order, but I did much the same thing with Wolverine a few years ago. All it takes is a bit of time. :)

[Spiffy]

All of it? SEVENTY years worth of comic books (often as many as six or seven titles running at a time, if you count "different continuities")?

Yeah. Okay.

How about "all of it in the past ten years?" That's at least slightly possible, if still pretty hard.

To be honest, if you want "dark" the Animated series version isn't really all that dark in comparison to lets say... Frank Miller or Grant Morrison's versions. But if TAS is what you were SPECIFICALLY looking for, THAT very version has been in printed comics in a book called "The Batman Adventures".

[Optic Rage!]

Thank you for the replies. I'll begin with what's been suggested. I realize it may seem like a tall order, but I did much the same thing with Wolverine a few years ago. All it takes is a bit of time. :)

There are a LOT more Batman comics then Wolverine ones. Thousands more. It's not even close. Wolverine's ongoing started in...83? Batman has been in detective since 1939.

[yadadaimhollaing]

if you want to collect the series in single issue, comic book format id suggest starting at batman 401 and collect from there to current issues. theres a handful of issues that are expensive but for the majority of the issues you can pay $1-2 per issue buying from online comic shops and ebay.

[Sn4tcH]

Check the links in my signature.

[The Fifth Horseman]

these are ure essential purchases:

batman archive - start with vol. 1 and get more the more you want to read batman archives starts with his first appearances in detective comics

dark knight archives - the first batman comics the first issue has the first appearance of joker

and then the following graphic novels -

hush
year one
killing joke
return of the dark knight
long halloween

[earl]

For the most part, there is not too many stories that are really used for current continuity before the Crisis, so starting with Batman 400 and the Alan Davis/Barr run on Detective is a pretty good place to start if you want to go with the main two titles.

For back issues, especially considering they are cheap, one of the best titles to just read good Batman is the series Legends of the Dark Knight. There are bunches of good stories in that run, especially in the first 50 to 100 issues.

Haven't yet read the early part of the run, which supposedly have a few good stories, but Gotham Knights last 25 issues or so is about the worse. I wouldn't even bother on those.

Shadow of the Bat was a pretty good title when it started with Alan Grant. It gets hit and miss later on as there are tons of tie-ins with crossovers.

[Split007]

OSU where should i start on Wolverine

[Triforce]

OSU where should i start on Wolverine

Origin
Wolverine by Claremont and Miller
Weapon X

And then get started on the classics / essentials

[Darthhobbit]

It may offend some people(probably not though) I just looekd at graphic novels and whichever one caught my eye and looked liek what i was looking for. Batman: Year One caught my eye first, then Long Halloween, Haunted Knight and Dark Victory. Now I just loo kat the novels and choose to my liking.....also i spent a lot of time learnnig everything I could about the greatest detective ever so even if I read an intricate novel I knew what was going on.

[Damiean Dark]

If you really liked The Animated Series read the "Knightfall" trades which reads like a slightly darker version then the cartoon imo. Its the story of when a new villain called Bane comes to town and releases all the rogues from arkham asylum.

Its the great underated Batman story imo certainly best Batstory of the 90s it has a great storyline that starkly shows the inner strentgh Batman has while on his last legs putting back away such villains as Joker,Mr Zsass,mad hatter ect ect and on to confront bane at the end of the story only to....

Well that would ruin the ending wouldnt it?:wink:

[Maestro]

start with Batman #1 and keep going from there...

good luck

[ryerye17]

start with Batman #1 and keep going from there...

good luck

Technically start with Detective Comics 27 =)

[Congo Jack]

I want to read everything I can related to Batman, but the portrayal of Batman I'm interested in is his somewhat darker portrayals, anything along the lines of The Animated Series or darker. So I ask: what do I read? Which series, which anthologies, which specific issues? As I said, real comic light-weight, so from my standpoint knowing *what* to seek out and read is like trying to find a haystack in another, larger haystack.
You will probably like the work of Paul Dini (http://dccomics.com/dccomics/search/?q=paul+dini&s=na&f=10933), writer of some of the very best episodes of the BATMAN cartoon.

Read BATMAN: YEAR ONE by Frank Miller and David Mazzuccelli too!

[Doug Side]

here is your reading list.. assuming you want to start post-crisis..

http://www.comicbookdb.com/character_chron.php?ID=48

good luck!

[Mister Blisterfists]

there's just no way.

there's no way you will ever read all of it. Because all of it hasn't been discovered yet.

even if you manage to read every single Batman story published in the US, there are still German stories, and British Stories, and Japanese Stories that are licensed and legitimate, but have never been printed in the United States.

add to that novelizations, and other obscure items, and there's just no way.

even if you read complete runs of Detective and Batman, as well as all the other spinoffs, there's be no way you'd see and read it all.

[matthewaos]

You can start by those Batman chronycles, how do they call them? The TPBs that start from the very beginning and are in chronologycal order.

[blueridgerider]

As stated it is an impossible or at least nigh well impossible. However, you can certainly read good chunks of it.

I am currently reading all of the Detective Comics and Batman runs (at least until I get current with where I came in).

I am also interspersing it with the World's Finest runs. At this point I am uninterested in the spinoffs. I have read many of the modern (80's and up) one shots, mini series and graphic novels, and all of the Legend of the Dark Knight run.

It is interesting and a lot of fun. The Golden Age (considered to be up through 1955) issues are really great and that's where I am right now. Between the two main runs (Detective Comics and Batman) you are looking at about 1500 comics. You can shorten it by just reading the Batman stories in Detective Comics but you'll miss a lot of good reading doing that.

So while I can agree that it is practically impossible to read all of the Batman STORIES, you can have a lot of fun trying.

I'd suggest, like others here, you narrow your focus a bit. Expand it as you begin to wade through the material.