Batman Comics FAQ: Best for New Readers, Current Titles, Top Trades & Recent Events

[Aspirance]

I would check out some 70's Batman with Englehart and Adams. Massive foundation in building current Batman.

Yeah that's the kind of thing I was looking for, reading the foundations so I can get a clear understanding of the modern stuff.

[MohamedRafat]

Hi,

I used to read batman and stopped at issue 33 and I also did read inc up to damian's death so where should I start now as i have been searching and i don't have a complete answer and also what are the tie-ins needed to catch up ?

thanks

[mdotluci]

Hi,

I used to read batman and stopped at issue 33 and I also did read inc up to damian's death so where should I start now as i have been searching and i don't have a complete answer and also what are the tie-ins needed to catch up ?

thanks

No tie ins are needed. You have the End Game trade ,which covers issues 36-40(if I'm not mistaken), coming in a few months. The Eternal Vol.1 and Vol.2 trades are now available as well.

[nepenthes]

Sweet, that's perfect! Thanks for your help

Just note that parts of that thread are now a little out of date...a new one will be up fairly soon

[Tupiaz]

Yeah that's the kind of thing I was looking for, reading the foundations so I can get a clear understanding of the modern stuff.

I will recommend Dennis O'Neil's stories from the 70's (his later work is fine as well).

For the most part, you can really just pick up any Batman graphic novel, and read away. The story itself will give you enough context to follow along, and you don't need to know extensive background history. For the most beginner-friendly reads, I'd recommend:

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller - Classic origin story.
Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb- Old-school detective stories featuring Batman, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Dent.
Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb - A story that introduces the major villains and allies of Batman.
Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder - The start of the rebooted Batman line.

Other must-reads include:
Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder - Dick Grayson (as Batman) and Jim Gordon team up to handle some grisly murders.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - A dark alternate future story with a retired Bruce Wayne. Stay away from the sequel.
Batman: Heart of Hush by Paul Dini - Follow-up to the Hush story.
Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker - First meeting with the Joker.
Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka - A look at the daily lives of the GCPD.
Batgirl/Robin: Year One by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty - Focuses on the early years of the sidekicks.

Hush is probably the most divided character within the Batman universe. Either you like the character or you hate the character (as a concept and not because he is evil). For some it would be better to stay clear of those stories. There is a lot of better stories on the top 25 Batman stories than Hush. For instance Killing Jok, Ego, Haunted Knight (even though it has faults as using Martha and Thomas' deaths as fundament for all the stories). One of the most common Batman troope is connecting Martha and Thomas' deaths as fundament for something related to Bruce. Other stories I will recommend is Gothic (even though it has the same trope as mentioned before) and Venom - in generally stories originally published in Legend of the Dark Knight doing the 90's. LotDK deals with Batman's earliest years under the cowl.

[SCinjection]

I recently started reading some Batman graphic novels and I'm looking to continue in chronological order. So far I've read Year One, Four of a Kind, and The Man Who Laughs. Can anyone help me on what I should be reading next?
Thanks

[masahikotahara]

You should check out my timeline:

http://ultimatebatmancomicswebsite.w...-timeline.html

[Kurtzberg]

Wikipedia has a list of all the collected editions in chronological order of storyline for the Modern Age here

[SCinjection]

You should check out my timeline:

http://ultimatebatmancomicswebsite.w...-timeline.html

I actually looked at that website once before but could never find it again. It's cool to see that you're on this forum. I just have one quick question for you. I just pre-ordered "Batman: Second Chances (Batman: the New Adventures) " Collects BATMAN #402-403, #408-416 and BATMAN ANNUAL #11.

I know that it takes place before "Batman: A Death in the Family" but after what?

Thanks again

[RoboCop]

You should check out my timeline:

http://ultimatebatmancomicswebsite.w...-timeline.html

Wow, you put an incredible amount of work into that. Kudos.

[rorschach51]

Are Batman & the Mad Monk, Batman & the Monster Men, Batman: Shaman & Batman: Prey worth trying to track down? My normal trade stop is sold out of all 4 trades, so I was just wondering if the stories were worth tracking down elsewhere.

[Vakanai]

Are Batman & the Mad Monk, Batman & the Monster Men, Batman: Shaman & Batman: Prey worth trying to track down? My normal trade stop is sold out of all 4 trades, so I was just wondering if the stories were worth tracking down elsewhere.

I can't speak for Shaman, haven't read it yet, but yes they're worth tracking down (try Amazon). Prey is especially good, one of the better Batman works ever done in my opinion (on the level of Year One).

[kuraikawa]

Thanks for making this, it is really hard to find good information about modern Batman stories online. I'm just getting into Batman titles myself, and I was hoping that someone could help me out. I've read The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Hush, Court/City of Owls and really enjoyed all of them. I was hoping someone could suggest more storylines that focus on mystery. I'd prefer modern titles, but I'm willing to go for an older one if the story is good enough. I'm also willing to look into the bat family, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing... I don't know any other DC characters or continuity, so stories that rely heavily on those elements probably wouldn't be good for me.

I have some Batman Inc., as much of Morrisons' run on Batman, and the remainder of Synders run on my 'to-read' list already.

I would like to keep away from stories that resemble the movies, as I don't actually like Batman movies all that much (I saw Batman Begins and didn't bother to see the others).

[joybeans]

Highly recommend Batman: The Black Mirror, as a detective story. It's Snyder's best Bat book. For Batfamily stuff, check out Chuck Dixon's Nightwing, Ed Brubaker's Catwoman, Birds of Prey from both Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone, the current Grayson series, and Bryan Miller's Batgirl.

Also recommend Batman: No Man's Land for the definitive epic Batfamily crossover.

[Diggy]

You should check out my timeline:

http://ultimatebatmancomicswebsite.w...-timeline.html

Damn this is great work. Respect.