When was it the most fun to be a Batman fan?

[Batman Begins 2005]

Batman (1966), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993). Growing up on these are why I'm a massive Batman fan.

Reading Batman: Year One (1987), The Long Halloween (1996-1997) and The Killing Joke (1989) for the first time.

Batman of the Future (1999-2001).

Grant Morrison's 2006-2013 Batman run. Best Batman run ever and best comic book run ever. Re-read it so many times. Love it.

Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) and Batman: Arkham City (2011).

Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo Batman run in the New 52.

[charliehustle415]

No Man's Land: was so fun putting Batman in a new but familiar setting

Knightfall: epic stuff

Morrison Era: BatGod, showing his full potential

Snyder New 52 Batman: Dark brooding and beautiful art.

[CPSparkles]

Batman (1966), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995) and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993). Growing up on these are why I'm a massive Batman fan.

Reading Batman: Year One (1987), The Long Halloween (1996-1997) and The Killing Joke (1989) for the first time.

Batman of the Future (1999-2001).

Grant Morrison's 2006-2013 Batman run. Best Batman run ever and best comic book run ever. Re-read it so many times. Love it.

Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) and Batman: Arkham City (2011).

Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo Batman run in the New 52.

Morrison was peak batman for me followed by the Golden age period when we got a lot of bats. Supes and Robin team ups. The World's Finest era.

[KyleWayne]

1986-99

2002-06

[exile001]

For me, the most fun was the slow but continuous escalation from 1989-1995. Also 1999-2002.

Batman (the Burton film) absolutely blew my 9 year old mind, like fundamentally changed me as a person. It sparked my interest in film, in movie soundtracks and, most of all, I now wanted all things Batman.

However, being a kid and in the UK, there wasn't much I could get. Luckily, my friend's Dad gave him collections of The Greatest Batman/Joker Stories Ever Told, Year One and The Dark Knight Returns that I read all the time.

Then I just kinda waited until 1992 when Batman Returns and The Animated Series released, which gave me a consistent source of Batman (I taped every episode from TV). Batman Adventures (UK reprints) were available from the local newsagents and I had them keep a copy for me.

Eventually, in 1994, I made a friend who collected US comics and showed me Batman #497 and I HAD to read that story. Luckily, I found the two TPBs*!

That was it. My friend gave me the number for the comic shop he used (it was in a different town) and ordered by mail and, when I got a bit older, would take the train once every month or two to buy the new books and as many back issues (which were like 25p each in those days) as I could carry.

My excitement for every single comic I read was unmatched by anything before, except that first watching of Batman. The only other time I've been so excited for comics, and the period I'd go get books every single week, was No Man's Land through the end of the Rucka/Brubaker/Grayson era (when the Superman books were also fire under Loeb!).

*as DC didn't reprint the KnightQuest saga as TPBs, I actually first got the whole story through a BBC radio production that started with Sword of Azrael and went right through Knightsend. It was years later that I had the full collection of individual issues.

[godisawesome]

I’d argue the most consistent time is that ‘89-02 period… but that the best time for the most characters and for the most ambitious stories was the era during RIP and Inc where it wasn’t just Morrison, but also Dini, Snyder, Niceiza, and Miller.

Because I honestly think Morrison was fortunate to have guys like Dini and Miller who could handle the more “human” and more “tense” storytelling than they would in their Batman run, and to have guys like Nicieza and Miller cultivating a supporting cast in a more characterization x focused way than they would.

[Drako]

Batman Reborn era was the most fun i had reading Batman.

[Aahz]

Imo when Denny O'Neil was the Editor

Especially Knightfall and No Man's Land.

[Morgoth]

Morrison/Dini period.
Part of New 52 period also was good, I loved Court of Owls, Tomasi's Batman and Robin also was incredible series.

[failo.legendkiller]

Dixon era was awesome. So many quality titles all connected.
Batfamily at his best.

[Jim Kelly]

For me, it was that time between 1966 and 1968, when the Adam West T.V. show was on the air and there were shed-loads of Bat-stuff I needed to have. There have been other times when I was caught up in what happened with Batmania, but the feeling I had then as a little boy could have powered the North American electrical grid. I was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement.

[Triniking1234]

The Burton films

Batman BEYOND

The Nolan trilogy

Morrison run

Synder run

[Dr. Skeleton]

Definitely between late 80's-early 90's with the two Burton movies and Batman: TAS. Truly a great time to be alive.

[kevink31593]

1992/1993 was the most fun for me, when I first became a fan. There has been plenty of good since then, but in my opinion nothing beats the fun of discovery when you first become a fan.

Batman: The Animated Series launched in the fall of 92 when I was 10, and I was watching from the very beginning. This series made me into a Batman fan. New episodes six days a week! I never missed an episode on Saturday morning or weekday afternoons. (I understand it was on Sunday evenings for a while as well, but I wasn't able to watch TV on Sunday evenings back then).

I then got into the comics right as the leadup to Knightfall was ramping up. After Batman #491, the final prelude issue, I was hooked on the comics. With Knightfall crossing over between Batman and Detective, and with both books coming out twice a month, there was a new chapter of Knightfall every week! Also, the comic book store I started going to during this time sold back issues at half price on Tuesdays, so I was also able to start back filling my collection, which was fun. I've continued buying back issues well into adulthood, especially with the internet now, but getting started on those first back issues was great!

Another really fun time to be a Batman fan for me was in the year 2000, because that was when I first joined the official DC message boards on DC's old website. Back in those days, message boards got a lot more traffic, since Facebook, Twitter, etc didn't exist back then. I was posting on there daily. I remember having a lot of fun conversations, both on topic and off. I've never really had any "in real life" comic book friends, so it was fun to be a part of an online community that shared my interest in Batman comics, for the first time. I remember some of the creators posting on the message boards back then also. Ed Brubaker used to stop by and would do Q&A threads for the members. This was around the time he started his first run on the Batman title after he took over from Larry Hama. I also remember a thread where people were listing their favorite Batman artists. I remember posting a list of about a dozen artists, which included Barry Kitson. Barry saw that, and he sent me a private message to thank me for including him. We ended up emailing back and forth a few times, and he was even kind enough to email me some scans of his pencil work for the (then) upcoming "Bad" arc on LOTDK!. Another fun memory of the old DC boards I have is "Who Wants to Own a Comic Book?" It was a game we played, based on the TV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" It was run by one of the members of the boards, and if a "contestant" made it thru all 15 comic book trivia questions, he would mail them a comic book from his own personal collection as a prize! (We played on the honor system, trusting contestants to not cheat by looking up the answers). I recall playing at least twice, and I won once! My prize was a copy of Tangent Comics: The Batman #1.

Honorable mention to 2008, when The Dark Knight came out in theaters. I love that movie. I saw it 5 times on opening weekend alone, and many more times since then.

[MoneySpider]

For me, it was:

Non-comics: Batman (1966), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman Forever (1995), Batman & Robin (1997)

Comics: Batman comics from Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle