What are the best Chuck Dixon Batman stories?

[dancj]

Personally I thought he was on fire during Knightquest: The Crusade. Particularly with the Death of Batman (I think it was called) whe the Joker tries to make a movie about Batman's death.

Devil's Advocate on the other hand seemed like a missed opportunity and a real low-point of Dixon's Batman work

[Captain Rabbit]

Personally I liked his short "Shadow Box" arc from Batman 467 - 469.

[Nick Soapdish]

Agreed. DC started this off on the wrong foot by printing the issues in the wrong order. Part 1 is in Secret Files (which came out a week after #1), and most people skipped it. If you're going to read this, I recommend reading Secret Files first and then the mini. Reading the tie-in stories in Nightwing, Robin & BOP (all by Dixon) will also help. Then forget about all of the other tie-in's across the DCU.

I think that it's biggest flaw was the organization. A lot of it was un-developed or underdeveloped. The Shilo stuff should've been stuck in the Secret Files all by itself with the Secret Files moved into the story proper. I think that would've given it a few extra pages to flesh it out better. And finally, those three tie-ins should've been official or something.

I think that the story problems were compounded by DC going away from their original plan to abstain from Joker stories for a year before hand and having at least two major ones (Emperor Joker and maybe something in Wonder Woman?) almost immediately before.

[The Lucky One]

Then forget about all of the other tie-in's across the DCU.

Except the Young Justice one. As usual, Peter David spun straw into... well, if not gold, at least silver.

-D

[Captain Jim]

Except the Young Justice one. As usual, Peter David spun straw into... well, if not gold, at least silver.

-D

I didn't mean that none of the others were good stories; just that they have no organic connection to the main storyline.

One of the tie-in writers later admitted that he had no idea what TKJ was about.

[tylenoljones]

Personally I thought he was on fire during Knightquest: The Crusade. Particularly with the Death of Batman (I think it was called) whe the Joker tries to make a movie about Batman's death.

Devil's Advocate on the other hand seemed like a missed opportunity and a real low-point of Dixon's Batman work

That Joker story during KnightQuest is one of the few JPV Batman stories I enjoy. Good Stuff.

I'm one of the few that like Devil's Advocate. They should've gone the elseworlds route, though, and actually done a real "we're sending the Joker to the electric chair" story. As it stands, most people have a hard time defending Batman's actions in the story (even though most would acknowledge that Batman doesn't kill, and wouldn't likely let someone else take the blame for a crime and the real killer run free).

[TZDEKA]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, guys. I did want to note that I went ahead and checked out a few of the one-and-dones mentioned in this thread and 725 was indeed great. I really haven't liked a lot of what I've read from the No Man's Land era, but this issue was definitely well done. I particularly liked that moment where Bruce is describing how he always envisioned creating a bright, shiny Gotham, but one without him, and then compares it to the fact that he's still around but now Gotham's a heap of rubble. Really emphasizes how personally devastating the quake would be for Batman: it really would seem like everything he had been working toward was gone and ruined. But I also liked that he wasn't acting like a total douche about it, which is something he actually does in NML proper. If he had acted more like he does in this issue, where he's very much aware of how hopeless his mission seems but doesn't do out-of-character/editorially-mandated, over the top douche-y stuff I might've enjoyed what I read of NML more. 711 was also good, though it really seems to emphasize the weird "Batman is celibate" thing they were doing for a while there, which is an aspect I'm glad they seem to have put the kibosh on now. I know he's sacrificed tons of stuff for his mission, but the idea that he'd refuse to have sex completely puts a somewhat twisted spin on it I'm not sure I like.

So yeah, thanks for all the recommendations so far. But don't take this to mean the discussion should end or people should stop sharing their opinions on what the best stories are, I'm just thanking all those who have participated thus far.