Favorite Underrated Batman Stories

[Bad Witch]

I love all of matt wagners batman ****. I really liked batman year 100. I liked paul dini's barman story about being mugged. I liked the dark Prince charming or whatever it was called. I liked gotham noir a lot. There are so many batman stories I love. I'm not a bat family fan so younger batman with no servants and detective style boots on the ground is my batman.

[JBatmanFan05]

I love all of matt wagners batman ****.

I agree. Faces, Monster Men, Mad Monk, Grendel/Batman, Trinity, etc.....all good, great characterization of Batman.

[K7P5V]

I agree. Faces, Monster Men, Mad Monk, Grendel/Batman, Trinity, etc.....all good, great characterization of Batman.

LOL! First time I've heard anyone praise Wagner's Trinity, but thanks!

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I agree. Faces, Monster Men, Mad Monk, Grendel/Batman, Trinity, etc.....all good, great characterization of Batman.

I just re-acquired Mad Monk and Monster Men. I forgot how good they were.

[JBatmanFan05]

LOL! First time I've heard anyone praise Wagner's Trinity, but thanks!

I've never heard or read anyone criticize it. Fun read, good story, good action, great characterization, kind of a Golden Age-ish feel.

[K7P5V]

I've never heard or read anyone criticize it. Fun read, good story, good action, great characterization, kind of a Golden Age-ish feel.

When I was posting in the Superman section of the CBR Forum, I mentioned this series & there were a few who didn't think too highly of it.

Whatever the case may be, you gave a good description of why I found this series most enjoyable. Thanks again.

[Alpha]

Imma add Batman Creature of the Night, since I don't see people talk about it very often

[Jim Kelly]

BATMAN 5 (Spring 1941)--3rd story, "The Case of the Honest Crook" by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and George Roussos; r. BATMAN 241 (May 1972):

"The Case of the Honest Crook" used to be rated as one of the most significant and influential stories, but seems to have been forgotten on any modern "best of" Batman lists.

It starts out with the Dark Knight tackling a thief running away from a store. The shop owner says this young man stole six dollars. It seems curious that he only took that exact amount and no more. The thief, Joe Sands, explains to his accusers that his wife, Ann, is sick and he needs medicine for her which costs six dollars.

Joe Sands then unfolds his hard luck tale. Two years earlier, he and Ann were saving up money to get married. He was working at a garage when one night a mobster named Matty came to the garage with a hot car that he wanted Joe to keep there overnight and for which Joe would get two hundred bucks. But after talking it over with Ann, Sands realized he couldn't get himself in deep with the mob and told Matty to take the stolen vehicle elsewhere.

However, that wasn't the end of it. Matty and his pals framed Joe as a drunk driver, so Sands got sent up the river for a two year stretch. After he got out, Joe and Ann were married, but with a criminal record he couldn't find a job and then Ann fell ill and needed medicine. Hearing his tale of woe, the shop owner is willing to forget the whole thing and the Batman gives Joe Sands some money to tide him over.

The Darknight Detective investigates the mobster that framed Sands. He connects Matty with the Smiley Sikes gang and busts up their joint. Smiley is duped into confessing that it was Matty Link who framed the young man. But before the Batman can hunt down Link, Smiley has one of his men murder Matty.

Next Robin is sent to search Matty Link's flop for evidence that might clear Joe Sands. However, the Boy Wonder is waylaid by two members of the Sikes mob and beaten to a bloody pulp. Finding the broken body of his partner, the Batman believes that Robin is dead.



But then there are faint signs of life and the Dark Knight brings the boy's body to a doctor's office, threatening the doc if he doesn't save the kid. After leaving Dick with the M.D., Batman heads to Smiley's retreat and lays into all the mobsmen there. Sikes plugs the Grim Gangbuster with bullets, but the Batman does not fall and beats a confession out of Sikes, dragging him off to the police station.

He then goes back to the doc to get the news that Robin will live, only to collapse from his bullet wounds. The physician digs three slugs out of the Caped Crusader's body and later assures the Dynamic Duo that he never removed their masks when he operated on them. Joe Sands and the shop owner stop by to let Batman and Robin know that Joe's name has been cleared and he's got a job in the store that he once tried to rob.

[jb681131]

Imma add Batman Creature of the Night, since I don't see people talk about it very often

Not really a Batman Story. Well not at all a Batman story. And very disapointed by it.

[jb681131]

Always enjoyed the early stories in Batman: Confidential. Lovers & Madmen comes to mind. Doesn't seem too popular.

I agree, not often recommended. It's good, but not that good.

[Chubistian]

Batman: Prey

I read it years ago, I must've been 10 years old or younger, and it blew my mind. Up to this day, I consider it one of the best Batman stories (though that is a long list for sure). The plot is engaging, the characters are well defined and change throughout the story, and the art is exquisite. I think it deserves to be talk about more often, alongside Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Year One, as one of the best tales of Batman's first years.

Batman Blind Justice

I came to this story because I'd read good things and someone that said it was Knightfall before Knightfall. I think the similarities between both stories are pretty shallow, but it deserves a place as a top quality Batman book. Denys Cowan is a beast and you can't go wrong when you have Dick Giordano's inks. For everything than the Burton's Batman movies may get wrong about the character, here Sam Hamm shows a really interesting Bruce Wayne/Batman. My only "but" is the whole mind-transfer technology. I'm not a fan, though it doesn't ruin my reading experience or anything. Just a nitpick

[JBatmanFan05]

Batman: Prey

I read it years ago, I must've been 10 years old or younger, and it blew my mind. Up to this day, I consider it one of the best Batman stories (though that is a long list for sure). The plot is engaging, the characters are well defined and change throughout the story, and the art is exquisite. I think it deserves to be talk about more often, alongside Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Year One, as one of the best tales of Batman's first years.

Yeah, if it's underrated (which is hard to know sometimes), then it's definitely a favorite of mine. Probably Doug Moench's best Batman story. A psychological thriller really. A great story where Batman is under siege with various villain and institutional forces in the city moving against him, it gets so bad that Gordon has to bow out of helping him.

Always enjoyed the early stories in Batman: Confidential. Lovers & Madmen comes to mind. Doesn't seem too popular.

It is controversial, has those that are not fans of it. I'm not a fan of like really any of Green's Batman stories. But Batman Confidential #49 "Work That's Never Done" is one from that (not so great) series I really like for a one and done Batman comic.

[Restingvoice]

Definitely, my choice would be...

Heat
(LOTDK #46, 47, 48, 49)

Heat is... an interesting take on Catman. I did not expect that after getting used to Gail Simone's version

I guess Prey would be called underrated because only comic fans know that, but among Batman comic fans, it shows up often as one of the good ones.

I like Monster Men but I really don't like Mad Monk, I much prefer the actual supernatural Monk from the original. I do like the Madison family part of the story and how her father grew paranoid that it lead to his death.

For me I think it's Lovers and Madmen. I don't like it that much, I like Gothic and Prey better, but those are already mentioned.

I just did not expect this alternate Joker origin that features his real name and guest starring pre-med student Harleen and young college professor Crane to be entertaining. The climax is pretty tense.

The art is... not my taste, but the story's pretty good, with Bruce also had to choose between a hero and normal life as he fell in love so much and the love interest almost die that he's actually considering quitting. It's a pretty good alternate story.

[Chubistian]

Yeah, if it's underrated (which is hard to know sometimes), then it's definitely a favorite of mine. Probably Doug Moench's best Batman story. A psychological thriller really. A great story where Batman is under siege with various villain and institutional forces in the city moving against him, it gets so bad that Gordon has to bow out of helping him.

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure if it is underrated, I certainly didn't see it named it at all growing up. But, in recent times, I've seen it mentioned more often