Batman in the 500's

[Martin Sinescu]

Hi all,

I've been a BatFan for most of my life, beginning sometime in the late 80's. Over the last 20+ years, I've been in and out of comics and have missed a bunch of great stuff along the way. Around the end of Knightfall/Quest/End/Etc. I got burned out and I had graduated from college so needed to focus on other things anyway. I jumped back in when I heard Jim Lee was going to be doing Hush, but only sustained that through the end of the arc (so, about a year).

Over the last year, I've come back and have been catching up on Snyder, Dini and Morrison's work, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I need to get more into Rucka's run on 'Tec as well as the Red Hood arc around the mid-600's, but the major gap in my collection is the time period that covers most of the 500-600 stretch and it doesn't seem like it's talked about much here outside of No Man's Land. I've read the legendary Shaxper thread which details much of the pre-Crisis stuff that I had been ignoring, but the 500's are still pretty far away, so I put it to the BatBoard here, what is worth picking up in the 500's? I've seen a lot of praise for NML and the various build-ups to that, so I'm hoping to pick up a large run and get into it, but are there any smaller arcs or individual stories from this time period that I should pick up to help me get into this neglected era in my collection? I'm open to anything covering basically 1995-2005 (I think that roughly covers the time period I missed) including the main title, 'Tec, LOTDK and any other spinoff Bat-books.

(I should also mention I really am generally repulsed by Kelley Jones's art, both on Bats and Sandman, but I'm willing to suck it up if the stories are compelling)

Thanks!

[JBatmanFan05]

Worth picking up:
Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, Vol. 1 (and Vol 2 when it comes out maybe next year)....why?:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...atman-515-552/

The Joker : Devil's Advocate by Chuck Dixon...classic Joker one-shot that any Joker fan must own (has not been recollected recently (you're unlikely to see it a store), but will only cost you about $30 on Amazon)

Batman: Legacy/Contagion TPB (when it comes out in March 2016)....fun big story, if you like Dixon, then you must own this

DC Comics Presents Batman The Demon Laughs #1 (half tpb): Collects LOTDK 142-145 The Demon Laughs..like Aparo's last Batman story, Joker & Ra's team up

DC really hasn't collected Dixon's non-event Detective Comics run that ran opposite Moench/Jones, but I hope they do, until they do...get any of those single issues

Batman by Ed Brubaker Vol. 1 TPB (when it comes out in Feb 2016) Collects Batman #582-586, #591-594

Batman: False Faces by Brian K. Vaughan, collecting Batman #588-590, Detective Comics #787, Wonder Woman #160-16

Batman: Absolution TPB by J.M. DeMatteis


I'm sure there are lots more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

[nepenthes]

100% Contagion and The Demon Laughs, for the reasons above. I'm a Moench fan but even I admit that the great draw of the Moench/Kelly run is Kelly, so if you're not into his style then yeah. Also,

Death and the Maidens a down to earth and emotionally charged Demon family mini from Rucka.
Gotham Central next buy if you haven't read already
Dark Knight Strikes Again forget what haterz say it's beautiful

[Mace Dolex]

I got burned out right after KnightsEnd and was not interested in Kelly Jones' work, I pretty much skipped Contagion, Legacy and No Man's Land for the fact that it led to too many crossovers with the other Bat-family of titles that I detest immensely.

[Slim Shady]

I guess Jones is one of those artist you either love or hate. I love his stuff. Bat-cowls with ears that are four feet high. Capes so long they overflow onto the next page. Dark and trippy.