Eight Batman Stories Every Fan Must Read

by Luis Loza

As iconic and recognizable as he is nowadays, there are still lots of stories in Batman’s history that are unknown to the everyday person. While the countless movies, shows, and games that feature the Dark Knight do cover a lot of ground, there’s nothing like the original comics themselves. This list is meant to offer a good starting for the prospective Batman fan to enter the vast world of comics available. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, I did try to make sure that a variety of stories were covered for different tastes.

1. Crisis on Infinite Earths – Marv Wolfman

The most logical place to start is the beginning. Well, actually it’s the end, but also the beginning. CoIE is the bold attempt by Marv Wolfman to not only have a fitting event for the 50th anniversary of DC comics, but to also wrap up all the different continuities in the universe into a more easily understandable package. The extensive history and backlog of old stories is something that keeps many would-be readers from taking the plunge into comics. Whether or not Crisis succeeded in eliminating those concerns is debatable, the truth is that this large of an event was mostly unheard of in comics and was mind blowing at the time. Now, be warned that the Bat plays a minor role in the grand events. However, Crisis will set you up for the countless of crisis crossover events to come in the future.

2. Batman: Year One – Frank Miller

This is the obvious starting point in the history of the Bat. The definitive origin, Year One follows Bruce Wayne in his transformation from mere man to an icon after a lengthy hiatus fromGotham. We also follow the story of one James Gordon on his transfer back to Gotham after over 15 years inChicago. These parallel tales of two men trying to clean up their city of crime and corruption create one of the most compelling stories in all of comics, let alone Batman’s history. There is no way around it. If you want to read Batman, you must read this story.

3. Batman: The Long Halloween – Jeph Loeb

Another story that takes place in the early years, The Long Halloween follows another year for the Caped Crusader. This time, a murderer with a holiday theme is terrorizingGotham. Batman works with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent to try to bring him to justice. Not only does it feature the fall of Harvey Dent, but is also a wonderfully woven tale that presents a still green Batman. If you like this one, be sure to check out Dark Victory, which continues the story and features the origins of the Boy Wonder.

4. Batman: Birth of the Demon – Dennis O’Neal

Ra’s Al Ghul is known to be a big villain in the history of the World’s Greatest Detective, if not his biggest adversary. However, few really know the history of the Demon’s Head. Birth of the Demon offers insight into that very subject. If possible, I recommend picking up the collected ‘Demon Trilogy,’ which shares the same title as this story. If you pick up the trilogy, know you may need to brush up on the history of Batman and Talia Al Ghul a little beforehand.

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18 Comments

  1. Grant Morrison is one of my favourite comic book writers! His Batman is awesome.

    I like the story of Year One but the art style really bugs me.

  2. My biggest problem with catching up on Batman, and the whole DCU as a whole, has been time and money. Buying single paperbacks is okay, but getting the bigger storylines can be quite expensive and in many cases the multi-issue crossovers sacrifice scale for story. I don’t mind a multi-issue crossover, but it does get hard catching up on events like final crisis, when they span almost the whole character range of the DCU.
    That being said, Scott Snyder is doing some amazing things with the character as we speak, the Black Mirror goes up there with my favorite Batman stories.

  3. I would’ve switched “No Man’s Land” for “The Dark Knight Returns”. NML was ambitious. but, in my opinion, besides the Rucka and Brubaker stories (the two main series, that is) everything else was quite bad. And those weren’t anything to write home about. Again in my opinion, both Rucka and Brubaker started getting better once NML ended.

  4. Any failure to mention The Dark Knight Returns is an intentional failure that negates most of your other picks and harms the integrity of the piece. I know you want to be original (and including No Man’s Land was much win), but this isn’t an original idea for an article so you’re going to have to deal with the most influential and consensus best Batman story ever old. This is like making a list of definitive 90’s alternative rock bands and leaving Nirvana out. Even if they aren’t your favorite, you simply can’t get around them. And Crisis? Come on. Batman being in the story doesn’t make it a definitive Batman story.

  5. I actually did have Dark Knight Returns on my last revision, but I’m not sure where it ended up. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dare leave it off.

  6. Good list and bravo for leaving off Dark Knight Returns. I know I am in the minority but I find that one extremely overrated. Never got all the love it receives. The Long Halloween is my personal fave.

  7. Yeah, Crisis on Infinite Earths has no reason to be on this list. Batman is barely involved in that and he was one of the few characters whose history wasn’t drastically rewritten as a result of it. There were changes, to be sure, but no where near as significant as the changes to Superman and Wonder Woman. And Final Crisis is just a mess. Swap Final Crisis for Dark Knight Returns and COIE for literally anything else. Maybe Untold Legend of Batman to give a taste of pre-Crisis Batman.

  8. Like many others I was surprised to find The Dark Knight Returns absent from this list, but if you are a comics novice looking to get into Batman then it would probably be more confusing than anything else.

  9. I absolutely hated Final Crisis, and I think I can sum up why in one sentence: Vampire Queen flies a ship in the space between dimensions with Dr. Manhattan so Superman (with a newly acquired 4-D vision) can eventually fight a bag guy as a giant robot version of his self.

    What the fuck?

  10. There’s a really great miniseries from the early 80’s called the Untold Legend of the Batman by the largely overlooked (at least these days) Len Wein, John Byrne and Jim Aparo. I remember reading it dozens of times as a kid. Wish I could find it now…I still like Aparo’s depiction of Batman the best.

  11. Seconding the praise for leaving Dark Knight Returns off the list. It’s okay, but it think it gets more hype then it deserves. I am very glad to see NML here though, as I think it’s one of the best Bat stories, involving and developing and featuring not only the Bat but giving many of his supporting players their opportunity to shine. I especially like the Montoya/ Two Face story.

    I would have to question the inclusion of both Crisis books. I think Batman gets lost in both these tales, and Final Crisis is a horror show.

    In their place I’d include 2 stories from the 1990’s JLA series. Starting off with the opening “New World Order” story. Which features perhaps the single most Batmany moment I’ve ever read. (For those who’ve read it I’m talking about the part with the matches.) The other one I would add is Tower of Babble. It was recently adapted into the cartoon Doom, but that cartoon is a poor imitation.

    Honorable mention goes to Kingdom Come. More a Superman story, but even still Batman has great moments.

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