Batman Chronology “Year One” - “No Man’s Land”

[Emanresu]

Wrestler, great list! Obvi you’re missing a lot but keep at it my man!!

[charliehustle415]

Great project!

This is my definite era for Batman; when I'm old and retired this is what I will read from beginning to end

[jb681131]

Great project!

This is my definite era for Batman; when I'm old and retired this is what I will read from beginning to end

How do you know that ?
Have you read the great stories the previous era by Jim Aparo, Denis O'Neil, Neal Adams, Steve Anglehart, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Alan Brennert, ... It's also fantatic.
Or Have you read the era after by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Paul Dini, Grant Morrison, Jae Lee, ..; <- all of them Award Winners

[Emanresu]

Among other things, I need to remember to detail the “Justice League, Trinity, Ra’s Al Guhl, Robin, Green Arrow, Teen Titans” situation. Haha!

Trying to build a mega reading order for Batman is tough. Even with sites like The Real Batman Chronology Project as a guide, you’ll still have your work cut out for you.

As for the above quote, this was probably my biggest challenge, so I wanted to lay it out for anyone else making a similar reading order. Feel free to research it yourself, but I think this is the best way barring a few setbacks.

Also, I should note that The Real Batman Chronology Project doesn’t see LOTDK # 127-131 (Green Arrow!) or Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity as canon, but I threw them in there anyway.

The following storylines should be read in this order...

Season 1

Episode 64 - “The Demon’s Head” (TEC # 411, Batman # 232, 235, 240, 243-245) *According to BatChronProj, 242 isn’t canon.

Episode 68 - “Trinity” (Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity # 1-3)

Episode 69 - “Justice League” (Secret Origins # 32, JLA: Year One # 1-12)

Episode 75 - “The Emerald Archer” (LOTDK # 127-131)

Episode 76 - “Teen Titans” (Teen Titans: Year One # 1-6)

I finally worked out this order by figuring out which came last, and building backwards.

Naturally, Teen Titans must be last in this order. We need to introduce Flash (Justice League), Wonder Woman (Trinity), Aquaman (Justice League), and Green Arrow (Justice League, LOTDK) before we can meet their teen companions. Easy Peasy.

LOTDK 127-131 is next to last. Why? Because this story must follow Green Arrow’s introduction in Justice League. And Justice League must follow Trinity and “The Demon’s Head” as I’ll explain in a bit. A quick note.. BatChronProj says this tale isn’t canon but I decided to leave it in there. Later on in the series, Oliver will return in “Fables” and he will help Batman try to rescue Shondra Kinsolving during early issues of Knightquest. Since Oliver makes these return appearances, I felt it necessary to keep this tale of their “first official team up”.

Again, moving backwards, we reach Justice League! There’s really only one reason I place this after Trinity. Which is absurd because I will outright ignore things in the comics to make my chronology fit. But this was too fun to pass up. During the midst of the Trinity’s first adventure, Batman is in the ocean driving his bat boat under water when out of nowhere, he comes across Aquaman! They lock eyes for a moment, and then Aquaman swims away. Batman is clearly confused in his reaction to seeing Aquaman, so that means Aquaman hasn’t made his presence known to the world yet.

Next up, moving backwards, Trinity! And the reason this goes after “The Demon’s Head” is simple. Ra’s is the villain in Trinity, so naturally he must first appear in “The Demon’s Head”.

Here’s one of my big issues with this order though.

Originally, I had Ra’s Al Guhl first appear toward’s the end of Dick Grayson’s run as Robin. However, because of all the tales that must be put behind the first appearance of Ra’s, now this tale takes place towards the start, or middle of Dick’s Robin run. All you have to do to make this work is ignore any and all references to Dick being in college during “The Demon’s Head”. A little mental gymnastics and boom, it fits.

I’ll be back here and there to explain other parts of my order, but wanted to get this out of the way first. Enjoy!

[charliehustle415]

How do you know that ?
Have you read the great stories the previous era by Jim Aparo, Denis O'Neil, Neal Adams, Steve Anglehart, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Alan Brennert, ... It's also fantatic.
Or Have you read the era after by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Paul Dini, Grant Morrison, Jae Lee, ..; <- all of them Award Winners

I've read some of Adams & O'Neal stories, but for my modern brain I cannot get into older stories (from the ones I have read). I think it is because of growing up with modern comics; I started DC with No Man's Land and went backwards sporadically and read Knightfall, Year One and all of the rest to fill it in.

[Emanresu]

A few quick notes. This list isn’t completed yet. I still need to find room for “Two Face: Crime and Punishment” one shot, as well as places for the GCPD mini, and the two Gordon minis. Also, I’m sure I’ll come across other comics I’ve missed every once in awhile.

Also, originally I tried my damndest to go the Christopher Nolan route and tried to do a chronology with zero other heroes. Impossible. It actually is possible until Jason Todd dies. But during that storyline, Big Blue shows up. And Supes can’t just show up out of nowhere. So then I had to include his earlier adventures with Batman (which I’ll outline in a future post).

After that, I was going to do a chronology with only Superman as the only other hero. But then way down the line, in Shadow of the Bat 36, Black Canary shows up. And Batman speaks highly of her but in that original chronology, she had never made an appearance before so it felt weird. Then I realized Black Canary would work with Oracle later and so I better come up with an origin tale. After trying to find a post Crisis tale detailing Batman and Canary’s first meeting, I came up with zip. So I had to include JLA: Year One, and from there I decided “all heroes are welcome”. You might notice waaaay down the line in “Boneyard Blues”, I only include certain pages from Batman # 540-541. That’s because originally I erased all pages of The Spectre in those issues. I will fix that eventually.

[jb681131]

A few quick notes. This list isn’t completed yet. I still need to find room for “Two Face: Crime and Punishment” one shot, as well as places for the GCPD mini, and the two Gordon minis. Also, I’m sure I’ll come across other comics I’ve missed every once in awhile.

Well you for one are missing a lot of "No Man's Land" aftermath :
- New Gotham
- Gotham Central
- Catwoman by Brubaker
- ...
Also I believe your placement of "Turning Point" right after No Man's Land is not the right place.

You also skipped all the "Zero Hour" tie-ins. any reason ?

[Wrestler]

Emanresu, why do you put Shaman after The Man Who Laughs and all these stories, when the plot happens between and right after Year One?

[jb681131]

Emanresu, why do you put Shaman after The Man Who Laughs and all these stories, when the plot happens between and right after Year One?

Easy, because the other stories also happen between and right after Year One.

[Wrestler]

Easy, because the other stories also happen between and right after Year One.

The Man Who Laughs seems to happen like roughly one year after Year One (Gordon saying "I'm not all that surprised, all the changes Gotham's been through in the last year. Like the Batman..."), while Shaman happens between Year One (first chapter) and maybe some months after in the next chapters.

[Emanresu]

Emanresu, why do you put Shaman after The Man Who Laughs and all these stories, when the plot happens between and right after Year One?

Good catch! Originally, because of Christmas, I thought this happens at the end of Bat Year 2. Clearly though, there is no Bat signal, Bat mobile, and they’re in the process of building the Bat cave during this storyline. I will fix this!

Jb, you’ve brought up some great points. I swear I’m not ignoring you, some points I agree and some I don’t. I’m working a double today (yes I’m an “essential” worker lol) but will try to answer you tonight or the coming days.

Please continue to go through and find mistakes! I need all the help I can get.

[Wrestler]

Another one who comes to mind Emanresu, sorry, I'm a sucker for details man.

In my reading order, I can't put Four of a Kind (especially The Riddler and the scarecrow editions) together with The Long Halloween/Dark Victory. I'll tell you why, Batman encounters both The Riddler and Scarecrow AFTER two-face in these stories, and in the long halloween/dark victory saga, batman already knows scarecrow and the riddler BEFORE Harvey Dent becomes two-face.

I try to avoid the Poison Ivy edition of this trade either, because they mention Gordon as a lieutenant in there and I tried to build a chronology reading order with his rank right until Dark Victory (that's my thing I guess), after that is impossible and like I said before, you just have to ignore it until the rank Comissioner becomes normal in all the editions.

I guess the only edition we can fit in there is of man-bat, but I'm not sure, I have to read it again.

[failo.legendkiller]

Wow, this is awesome!
I've started reading following this order and I've rediscovered the pleasure of reading comics. Batman comics specifically.
I had already read many of it, not in this order though. And others for the first time as Batgirl year one, Chuck Dixon rules!

Probably due to me aging and not being open to changes anymore, i'm enjoying it as i'm 15 again!
New 52 ruined everything, nothing published after has the same taste for me.

This is my era, these are the stories I love, the Batman I love, the batfamily I love.
Dixon, O'Neil, Loeb, Brubaker, Miller, Moore, Dini... thank you!

[jb681131]

Wow, this is awesome!
I've started reading following this order and I've rediscovered the pleasure of reading comics. Batman comics specifically.
I had already read many of it, not in this order though. And others for the first time as Batgirl year one, Chuck Dixon rules!

Probably due to me aging and not being open to changes anymore, i'm enjoying it as i'm 15 again!
New 52 ruined everything, nothing published after has the same taste for me.

This is my era, these are the stories I love, the Batman I love, the batfamily I love.
Dixon, O'Neil, Loeb, Brubaker, Miller, Moore, Dini... thank you!

Yes Chuck Dixon rules !
You'll see that after No Man's Land, Greg Rucka rules a lot toot !

And no New52 didn't ruin everything ! There are lots of great runs:

• The Owl Saga by Scott Snyder - a good starting point.
• Detective Comics by John Layman - no too bad, especially the Wrath storyline
• Detective Comics by Francis Manapul - real detective work and outstanding art !
• Detective Comics by Benjamin Percy - short but perfect
• Batman, The Dark Knight by Gregg Hurwitz - Some of the best short stories on vilains !
• Batman Inc. by Grant Morrison + Batman & Robin by Peter J. Tomasi + We are Robin by Lee Bermejo + Robin, Son of Batman by Ray Fawkes - An epic ongoing story !
• Batman / Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtles I, II, III by James Tynion IV - very dynamic
• Li'l Gotham by Dustin Nguyen
• Batman Eternal by various + Batman & Robin Eternal by various - could have been better, but still very enjoyable

And during Rebirth there a also a few interresting stories. But you know, the pre-flashpoint era has its lot of awfull stories too.

I don't find Miller, Moore & Loeb that great on Batman. And you forgot to mention: Rucka, Milligan, Moench, Anglehart and Wein.