Batman is 75 years old so what better way to celebrate than counting down his best stories of all time? Yes I realize I did this with Spongebob last week but I'm doing it again because I'm lazy. I must also note, although I love Batman I have read nowhere near every story so this is just my list of the stories I have read, some notable stories I have yet to read include Year One and Knightfall (Nobody got time for that!) also I've focused on Batman centric stories, sorry kids no Killing Joke or Arkham Asylum.
10. Daughter Of The Demon
Ra’s and Talia had been around for a little while before the famous first duel between Batman and Ra’s took place.
Batman fakes Bruce Wayne’s death and takes on the identity of Matches Malone for the first time (Malone is introduced and is killed in these issues, leaving the identity available for Batman to use). He teams up with a scientist who had worked with Ra’s (not of his own volition) and they race to stop Ra’s and Talia from unleashing a deadly plague. Through the story, Batman gets aid from some unlikely sources, like a famous skier!!
Ultimately, Batman tracks them down only to discover Ra’s dead. He takes Talia into custody but is then confronted by Ra’s – this is the first time we see the use of the Lazarus Pit. Batman is quickly subdued and Ra’s and his daughter take off.
This is probably the first “wow, Batman is tough” scene, as Batman manages to catch up with them and confront them again in the desert. Ra’s is suitably impressed. This absolutely DEFINED Batman comics of this era. Heck, this pretty much defined Batman for the entirety of the 1970s!
9. Zero Year
I would imagine that as time goes by, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Danny Miki’s Zero Year will only rise in my mind, but it is understandable that a story that has just finished to be judged fully. However, we’ve been treated to a powerful epic, split into three parts (Secret City, Dark City and Savage City).
This is sort of a re-telling of Batman’s origins, but it is SO much more than that. It is a man still learning how to be the best symbol that he can be, but it is also one of the Riddler’s most notable stories of all-time. The basic gist is that the Riddler has been manipulating people and events to the point where he basically has taken over Gotham City, cutting it off from the rest of the world. This runs through the background of Secret City and comes to a head in Dark City, leading to Savage City, where Riddler is in charge and Batman has seemingly failed. However, you know that can knock the Bat down, but you can’t KEEP him down…
8. The Black Mirror
Scott Snyder’s first extended Batman story is a twisty tale of Dick Grayson (as Batman) and Commissioner Gordon as they each deal with problems with their past. In Dick’s case, he encounters the daughter of the gangster who killed his parents while Gordon is dealing with the return of his psychologically disturbed son, James (the kid who Batman saved from dying in a fall from the bridge in Batman: Year One). Their intertwined stories make up the 11 issue arc, with short stories combining to form the larger narrative. Snyder is joined by two brilliant artists, Jock (who does the Batman stuff) and Francesco Francavilla (who does the Commissioner Gordon stuff).
One of the most impressive aspects of this story is that Snyder initially was telling the Batman stuff as a main story with the Gordon stuff as a back-up tale and then lost the back-up tales shortly after his run began but still managed to make it all work very well. It is a dark, character-driven work that deals strongly with the idea of whether people can change and how you can always trick yourself into looking past the problems in the people you care about.
7. The Dark Knight Returns
The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most influential Batman comics, well, ever, really. In his four-issue series set 10 years after Bruce Wayne retired as Batman, Frank Miller (with inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley) basically established the way Batman would be presented in comics for the next…well…28 years and counting!
The comic is literally about the return of the Dark Knight, as Bruce Wayne realizes that his city needs Batman again, so he, well, returns. Miller plays with the concept (not originated by Miller but certainly cemented by Miller) that perhaps Batman’s existence draws OUT the crazies in an action-reaction deal.
As soon as Batman returns, so, too, does Two-Face and the Joker.
The other major characters in the story (besides Alfred) are Carrie Kelly, the teenaged girl who becomes the new Robin… And Superman, whose conflict with Batman makes up the finale to the series (Superman is depicted as a servant of the United States) where we see perhaps the debut of the whole “if Batman had enough prep time, he could beat anyone” mode of handling Batman.
6. Batman And Son
Grant Morrison debuted his years-long stint on Batman with this story arc with art by Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang that introduced Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul, who has been raised by the League of Assassins. Talia sends Damian to sow discord in Batman’s world and to also draw Batman to her, to give her one last chance to have Batman join her in ruling the world.
Damian was a fascinating addition, especially his interactions with the rest of the cast (his best attribute as a character has always been seeing how others react to him)…
5. The Court Of Owls
This was the re-introduction of Batman into the New 52 and Snyder’s intricate plotting and bold new characters have made it the centerpiece of the Bat-books.This story is about the revelation that there has been a secret organization controlling Gotham City from behind the scenes called the Court of Owls. They collect and train agents known as “Talons” to do their dirty work. Naturally, they take issue with Bruce Wayne having such an influence upon how Gotham City so they decide to kill off Bruce Wayne. Obviously, Batman takes issue with this and soon finds himself trying to take down the organization.
Greg Capullo is a magnificent action artist and Scott Snyder smartly alternates between the mystery of the Court and all out action sequences where Capullo’s pencils practically explode upon the page.
4. A Lonely Place Of Dying
Marv Wolfman theorized that a reason that fans didn’t like Jason Todd was that he was in conflict with Dick Grayson, so in this storyline by Wolfman (spread out over Batman and New Titans) that introduced the third Robin, Wolfman makes sure to directly tie Tim Drake in with Dick Grayson, by having Tim figure out Dick and Bruce’s secret identities and then trying to get Dick to take over as Robin again as Batman is having troubles since Jason died…
3. Batman R.I.P.
Batman R.I.P. is the conclusion of Grant Morrison’s initial Batman run, and it basically is as straightforward of a “Good” versus “Evil” story as there is out there (which is particularly interesting
seeing as how it came out concurrent with another major Good vs. Evil story, Final Crisis).
Batman has been fighting against the criminal organization the Black Glove, but by the beginning of Batman RIP, the Black Glove has struck at Batman through various methods, some physical but mostly psychological, all designed to destroy Batman’s virtue.
Then Batman essentially goes insane, becoming a twisted form of himself…but is that REALLY what’s going on?
Morrison teases the reader with the question – could anyone go through the events that Batman has gone through over the last 60 plus years and NOT go insane?
So that lends some dramatic tension to Batman’s seeming insanity.
But really, R.I.P. is basically a love letter to Morrison’s view of Batman as “Batgod,” as when the bad guys think that they have broken Batman mentally and physically…well, they forgot one thing…
The whole story turns on its head when you realize just HOW prepared Batman is. I love that the story even forces you to go back nearly twenty issues and see exactly when Batman figured out one part of the plan. It’s all there in the story.
2. A Death In The Family
A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Aparo (with inks by Mike DeCarlo) told the story of Jason Todd’s death at the hands of the Joker.
First the Joker beats Jason nearly to death… Then more fatally with a bomb.
This was the story where fans got to vote on whether Jason lived or died and sadly for him, they voted death.
1. Batman: Hush
Hush took a similar approach to Jeph Loeb’s highly successful Long Halloween and Dark Victory comics.
Basically, he took an over-arching storyline and a mysterious villain, and then had each issue work as a spotlight on a different member of Batman’s large supporting cast of heroes and villains.
In Long Halloween, Loeb worked with star artist Tim Sale. Here he worked with Jim Lee, one of the most popular artists in all of comics.
In many ways, Loeb’s intention was simply to give Lee as much cool stuff to draw as possible, and to that end, Loeb wrote the series (where Batman is besieged by a mysterious new villain named Hush) with lots of notable events taking place, including Batman and Catwoman getting together and Batman and Superman having a dramatic battle (Superman was being mind-controlled by Poison Ivy).
