18 Answers

• Reputation: 143 Q&A: 2 0 3 55 12 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  5 1 Whatever you do, do not get Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. ianto answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 2 Q&A: 0 0 0 3 1 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  3 1 These are all great suggestions. If you're wanting to get a real sense of the history of the Batman in comic book form, I highly recommend "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" and "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told". They collect stories from every great era of the comic and give you a nice overview of the various artists, eras and styles that Batman has gone through. It looks like you can get some used copies through amazon for just over 5 bucks. Rock Palace answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report 1 comment by ianto… 0 0 I really agree with picking up the anthology/showcase type trades--you really need a decent background in the subject before reading many of the Batman graphic novels like Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Arkham Asylum or Hush. ianto commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 2 Q&A: 0 0 0 3 1 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  3 1 One that no one has mentioned, but should be standard, is Paul Pope's 'Batman: Year 100'. It's very recent, and is another 'future' look at Batman, but it's ingeniously written and beautifully drawn. Pope, working largely with original but familiar elements, weaves a hell of a Batman tale, unlike anything else being done with the character lately. Johnny Murdoc answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 3 Q&A: 0 0 0 5 2 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  3 1 Year One was great. I really didn't care for The Dark Knight Returns, though most people seem to love it. Just started Arkham Asylum and I'm really enjoying it so far. Very dark, and has great art from Dave McKean if you like the creepy Sandman look. Don Wurster answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 1 Q&A: 0 0 0 1 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  1 0 All your answers are here http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=292917 green_underwear answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 6 Q&A: 0 0 0 6 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  1 0 Like everyone else is saying, Year One is essential. I'll second the recommendation on Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely's current Batman & Robin run, and add picking up some of Morrison earlier run on Batman, specifically the Black Glove arc, which has incredible art from JH Williams III. (You can skip the whole Batman RIP thing though.) Gotham Central, by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka focused on the Police force in Gotham, sort of like Law & Order: Special Batman Unit. Really, really excellent street-level view of the weirdness that is being a cop in a city full of supervillains and heroes. Christopher Hong answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 41 Q&A: 1 0 0 23 2 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 1

  2 1 Dark Knight Returns and Year One. Everything else is filler. G$ answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 387 Q&A: 11 0 3 128 21 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  3 2 Year One, Long Halloween (don't listen to Rotten666, this is the book Nolan used as inspiration for The Dark Night Film), Killing Joke, The Joker, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader. Andrew Beck answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 366 Q&A: 3 0 5 216 10 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  2 1 Seconding Year One and the Killing Joke. Both absolutely engrossing, and fantastic art styles. I read The Dark Knight Returns a long while ago but remember feeling ambivalent about it. From there on, though, it's a bit of a crap shoot. Gotham by Gaslight comes up now and again and I thought it was rather mediocre, especially if you liked League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Gloria answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 1 Q&A: 0 0 0 2 1 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  2 1 I'm following the current run of Batman and Robin on the floppy-end of the comic book spectrum. To recap: Batman is missing and presumed dead. Nightwing takes Batman's place while Bruce Wayne's son Damian assumes the Robin mantle. They're in the middle of reclaiming Gotham City as it's ravaged by new criminal elements. The story is by Grant Morrison and the fantastic art is by Frank Quitely. The series has just started and issue #3 only came out recently. If you choose to wait, the compiled edition hits the streets in April 2010. Johanns Fernandez answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 229 Q&A: 1 0 4 176 47 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  3 3 The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is quite enjoyable. IGN has a list of the twenty five best Batman graphic novels , but since it lacks The Dark Knight Returns I doubt it's worth much. Amazon has a list of the twenty best batman graphic novels , and considering that The Dark Knight Returns is number four, I suspect the reviewer has a better sense of what makes a good Batman. B Strand answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report 1 comment by "Cagey"… 0 0 Absolutely second the nomination for Dark Knight Returns... but given that it's a collection of FOUR graphic novels that build to a conclusion, get the trade paperback OR the bigger collection of Frank Millers' "Complete Batman". Be warned, the artwork is very stylized and not for everyone, and the story really doesn't pull many punches... this is a Batman of the future...when he's 60 and retired...and comes back with a vengence! (It's also where we got the first taste that Robin had been killed by the Joker.) "Cagey" commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 0 Q&A: 0 0 0 0 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  0 0 Batman comics help - Best books for New Readers, Best Trades of All Time, Catching up, Current titles & Trades http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=337852 Grog_Burton answered in Arts & Music about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 1 Q&A: 0 0 0 1 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  0 0 The first Batman: Black & White collection is an excellent collection of possible interpretations of the character by a lot of comics luminaries. Don't bother getting the second one, though. Kiru Banzai answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 306 Q&A: 2 0 9 137 56 1 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  0 0 The Batman/Grendel crossover is decent, but I'll be damned honest and say that it's a very rare occasion that they put a good writer on Batman. If you want to see Batman at his best, read the Grant Morrison run of JLA. Gitai Ben-Ammi answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 151 Q&A: 0 0 6 28 7 2 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  0 0 Year One is essential. I have mixed feelings about Frank Miller's entries, but regardless of what I think they've become "classic" Batman. It's technically more of a Superman story and not even canon at that, but "Red Son" is an alternate timeline one-off where you get to see Batman as a sort of crazy Cossack, complete with a furry headcap instead of a cowl. Jon answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 1 Q&A: 0 0 0 3 2 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  2 2 Recently, Brian Azzarello's "Joker" Graphic Novel was a great character study of Batman's archnemesis. If you enjoyed the Nolan films, I would check out "The Long Halloween," as that's the primary source material they used for the framing. Any of the "Demon" storylines by Dennis O'Neil are decent as well. Jeff Morrison answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 896 Q&A: 12 0 33 864 868 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0 "Cagey"

  0 0 I would strongly suggest "Batman: Year One" as very very similar in the vein of the movies. This graphic novel takes Batman through his developing relationship with Gordon, and how Gordon came to trust him. It also hints that Gordon may "know" at some level who Batman really is, but chooses not to look in that direction. The style is a grim, gritty street level look at Gotham and where Catwoman comes from. Also, the captions are excerpts from various character's diaries, journals, daily entries, and time stamps. Read carefully to keep it straight who is narrating which scenes, especially when Salina enters the mix, cause it's easy to get mixed up. Another GREAT read is the Dr. Hugo strange arc from Legends of the Dark Knight. This is a collection of five installments on how Batman develops his "toys" too. What works, what doesn't. (The story may be called "Vigilante", but you should check. It was the second story arc, coming right after the initial "Gothic" 5 part arc.) One of the big thrills was when they wrote the death of Robin into cannon. "A Death in the Family" shows how this came down, complete with on-camera beating death with a crowbar. DC comics held a 900 phone poll in the late 1988-89 time frame and "let the readers vote" on whether he lived or died, supposedly. It was a close vote. And one of my favorites is in "The Greatest Joker Stories ever told" as well as "The Greatest Batman stories Ever told". It's called "The Sign of the Laughin Fish" and it's part of the Marshall Rogers arc which is almost completely captured between the two books. There are some overlaps here, but you'll get a survey of the best stories and why they worked, or how they are representative of the genre'. Good luck. (PS: You might ask this same question at your local comic book shop. There used to be one who advertised here ----------> too! Tell 'em we sent you!) PS:; The Denny O'Neil introduction of Ra's Agoul (spelling?) in the late 1960's only worked because of Neil Adams' artwork. It's considered a classic, as they also introduced "Man-Bat" and made it work too. I'm sure both of these have been collected and reprinted, but I can't think of what they'd be called. "The Ras Saga?" "Cagey" answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 229 Q&A: 0 0 9 82 33 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0

  5 7 some good suggestion already... Don't forget the Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum. Stay the hell away from the Long Halloween. Somebody may suggest it, but that person is an idiot. Rotten666 answered in Arts & Music over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

  Share this answer with a friend: