Question from newbie: How do batfamily New 52 comics tie in to each other?

[MikePA]

I just started reading my first comic yesterday, as I've always loved the Batman/Gotham City cartoons, films, series and ambience, but never read the comics. I picked up the first few trade volumes of 'Batman' from the New 52 era, and I'm currently halfway through 'The Court of Owls'. It's such a nice read that I am curious about the other batfamily series.

But I'm wondering how they tie in to each other in terms of time and plot. I've had a hard time finding these answers myself because I'm trying to avoid spoilers.

Taking 'Catwoman' and 'Batman & Robin' for example, do they take place at the same time as Court of Owls, or before/after, or at an unspecified time in relation to Court of Owls? And do we see plot elements from each series appear in the other series?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas / happy holidays!

(No spoilers please! so no need to be super specific...)

[exile001]

Hi, and welcome to a wonderful new hobby!

The idea is that the events in the main issues are happening around the same time. So, take Court of Owls and Batman and Robin vol 1, Born to Kill. These books were released concurrently, so issue 1 of each would be released in the same month then issue 2 the next, etc. The stories themselves don't really overlap but you can assume that one takes place directly before the other. Or if one book skips a few days maybe the other adventure takes place in there.

Court of Owls eventually crossed over into most other Bat-books (Batman and Robin, Nightwing, etc) with issue 9 I think, which is the point they align.

Honestly, you're going to give yourself a headache trying to perfectly place a timeline across all the books and spin-offs, especially the further you get into the hobby, so a good guide is to assume they took place in the same month or so and whenever a story directly references another you know which came first.

You can find guides for reading orders online by trade paperback title that are pretty spoiler-free to guide you for the times that certain events affect the other books.

You're going to have a little problem with Volume 4 of the New 52 Batman stuff (especially with Batman and Robin) as it ties into Batman Incorporated, the finale of a 5-6 year run that overlapped messily with the New 52 books. It really needs all that context to know what's happening in Incorporated but it does directly affect the other books. You might just need to bite the bullet and take the spoiler but otherwise I'd suggest reading New 52 volumes 1 and 2 of Batman Incorporated after volume 3 of the rest. Hope that made sense.

Also, Batman Eternal was a big deal and I'm not 100% sure where that goes other than after Court of Owls and before Endgame. Probably best after Zero Year.

Otherwise, mostly read Scott Snyder's Batman first as that was the main book in the New 52.

I hope this helps and doesn't sound too daunting. Once you get your head around it it's pretty easy to vaguely place everything in a way that reading it all makes sense.

[jb681131]

I just started reading my first comic yesterday, as I've always loved the Batman/Gotham City cartoons, films, series and ambience, but never read the comics. I picked up the first few trade volumes of 'Batman' from the New 52 era, and I'm currently halfway through 'The Court of Owls'. It's such a nice read that I am curious about the other batfamily series.

But I'm wondering how they tie in to each other in terms of time and plot. I've had a hard time finding these answers myself because I'm trying to avoid spoilers.

Taking 'Catwoman' and 'Batman & Robin' for example, do they take place at the same time as Court of Owls, or before/after, or at an unspecified time in relation to Court of Owls? And do we see plot elements from each series appear in the other series?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas / happy holidays!

(No spoilers please! so no need to be super specific...)

There are 7 major saga to read in this order, the other New52 story are stand alone:

The First Damian Wayne Saga:
- Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus 1-2
- Batman & Robin New52 : Born to Kill
- Batman & Robin New52 : Pearl

The Owl Saga:
- Batman: court of Owls
- Nightwing: Traps and Trapezes
- Batman: Night of the Owls <- the crossover with Batfamilly titles
- Batman: City of Owls
- Nightwing: Night of the Owls
- Talon: Scourge of the Owls
- Talon: The Fall of the Owls
- Batman Eternal
- Batman & Robin Eternal

The Joker Saga
- Detective Comics: Faces of Death
- Detective Comics : Scare Tactics
- Batman: Death of the Family
- Joker: Death of the Family <- the crossover
- Nightwing : Death of the Family
- - Batman & Robin New52 : Death of the Familly
- Batman: Graveyard Shift - fill-ins
- Batman: Endgame
- Joker Endgame <- the crossover

Zero Year
- Batman: Zero Year - Secret City
- Batman: Zero Year - Dark City
- DC: Zero Year - the crossover

The Second Damian Wayne Saga:
- Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus 3
- Batman & Robin New52 : Requiem For Damian
- Batman & Robin New52 : The Big Burn
- Batman & Robin New52 : The Hunt For Robin
- Batman & Robin New52 : Robin Rises
- We are Robin vol.1
- Robin War <- a crossover
- We are Robin vol.2
- Robin, Son of Batman

Superheavy Saga
- Batman: Superheavy
- Detective Comics: Blood of Heroes
- Batman: Bloom
- Detective Comics: Gordon at War
- Batman: Epilogue

All-star Batman
- All-Star Batman: My Own Worst Enemy
- All-Star Batman: Ends of the Earth
- All-Star Batman: The First Ally
- Batman & The Signal

The full end of Snyder's World happens in the big Metal Event latter on.

[MikePA]

Ok, thanks very much to both of you. I can already see that my collection is about to inflate quite quickly.

Take care!

[Restingvoice]

I just started reading my first comic yesterday, as I've always loved the Batman/Gotham City cartoons, films, series and ambience, but never read the comics. I picked up the first few trade volumes of 'Batman' from the New 52 era, and I'm currently halfway through 'The Court of Owls'. It's such a nice read that I am curious about the other batfamily series.

But I'm wondering how they tie in to each other in terms of time and plot. I've had a hard time finding these answers myself because I'm trying to avoid spoilers.

Taking 'Catwoman' and 'Batman & Robin' for example, do they take place at the same time as Court of Owls, or before/after, or at an unspecified time in relation to Court of Owls? And do we see plot elements from each series appear in the other series?

Thanks, and Merry Christmas / happy holidays!

(No spoilers please! so no need to be super specific...)

Each of them tells their own stories since it's focused on different characters but existing in the same universe, so they have occasional references if they meet up or guest star in the other books, up until the crossover.

Some examples that I remember:
Detective Comics Vol. 1 Faces of Death was the earliest story
Batman and Robin Vol. 1 Born to Kill began in September 2011 in story
Batgirl Vol. 1 The Darkest Reflection began in autumn 2011 and ended in Christmas 2011 in story
Teen Titans Vol. 1 It's Our Right to Fight ended in New Year 2012 in story
Nightwing Vol. 1 Traps and Trapezes began around the same time as Detective and Robin but ended at the same time as Batman Vol. 1 The Court of Owls

Anyway, most of the books have nothing to do with The Court of Owls during their first trade paperback volume, since each character are doing their own thing, some are not even in Gotham and only started getting involved in their second book.

The Night of The Owl crossover specifically takes place in a single night, and each tie-in issues have time stamps marking when everything takes place, for example, Batgirl's begin in 6 PM, while Batman Annual #1 happened at midnight. The single issues are marked with Night of The Owls banner on the cover. Most of them are issue #9, excepting characters directly involved with the main plot like Batman and Nightwing.

Then after that crossover's done, they each went back to where they left off with their own plot, until the next crossover.

Red Hood, for example, traveled the world until he returned to Gotham at issue #7, gets involved in the crossover in issue #9, guest star in Batman and Robin issue #10-12, then in Red Hood and The Outlaws #10 he went out of town again until he returned to Gotham in issue #14 to begin the next crossover.

However since Night of The Owls were almost immediately followed with Death of The Family, some of volume 2 of the Bat-family books began with a Night of The Owls tie-in and ended with a lead up to Death of The Family.

Red Hood and The Outlaws Vol. 2 #14 takes place before and after Batman Vol. 3 #15
Batman and Robin Vol. 2 #13-14 takes place after Batman Vol. 3 #13 and Batman Incorporated Vol. 1 Demon Star #1 but before Batman Vol. 3 #15

It's getting more complicated and hard to avoid spoilers if you read Trade because of that but that's only a concern if you want to read all of them