As Gil and Matt claimed in The Short Report and in Multiversity 101, respectively, the number one problem with Batman fanboys is that they don’t actually know the history of the character they claim to have so much love for. Today’s massive list aims to correct that, by making the reader familiar with the very much abridged post-Crisis on Infinite Earths history of Bruce Wayne, from Year One to R.I.P. Yes, it’s a huge list. Yes, I have too much time on my hands. But if you’re a “true fan” of Batman, you wouldn’t mind taking the jump to check it out, now would you?
A couple of notes before we begin:
- Rather than comment on individual stories one by one, I’ve put certain eras of Bruce’s life in blocks. Most of these blocks can be read without reading other ones, but that is not always the case.
- So the list didn’t double in size, I tried to keep the list constrained to the Batman-Family titles. Even though it’s important that Batman is a member of the JLA, including the history of the JLA would just make the list even more unbearable than it already is. Same goes for company-wide events (other than Infinite Crisis).
- Yes I know that Batman didn’t “die” until Final Crisis, but the reason R.I.P. ended the way that it did was so those who read the Batman books but didn’t read Final Crisis could continue knowing of Bruce’s death. We will look at it the same way.
- Anything marked with an asterisk is optional, but helpful.
With all that being said, let’s begin.
Year One
- Batman: Year One
- Batman and the Monster Men
- Batman and the Mad Monk
- Four of a Kind*
- The Man Who Laughs
- Snow*
In my opinion, this is hands down the best one of these blocks you will read, and, seeing as it’s set in Bruce’s first year as Batman, it is easily accessible to newer readers. The great thing about the Year One is that there is a lot of focus on Bruce’s development as a character, seeing as he’s still new on the job. While many tales have been set in Batman’s first year (most of which were published in the Legends of the Dark Knight ongoing), those four above that aren’t starred are great choices because of the consistent narrative style shared between them (plus, everyone going through a chronological list of Batman stories “needs” the original face-off with the Joker). If you absolutely need more villain origins, Four of a Kind has the origins of Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, the Riddler and Scarecrow, and Snow tells the story of Mr. Freeze’s origin (along with art by Multiversity favorite J. H. Williams III).
The Loeb/Sale Era
- Haunted Night
- The Long Halloween
- Dark Victory
Beautifully illustrated, the Batman stories by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are a great transition from the setting of Year One to one where Batman is more of an established icon. Another block that’s easily accessible to new readers, The Long Halloween was actually the first comic that I owned. While Haunted Night is somewhat odd chronologically (if the story actually took place across three separate Halloweens, that would make Robin not appear until Batman’s sixth or seventh year), the stories otherwise fit into continuity fine, thought Robin’s debut being after Scarecrow’s means that the great Scarecrow: Year One is out of continuity. You should read it anyways.
New Beginnings
- Robin: Year One Continued below
- Batgirl: Year One
- Huntress: Year One
- Nightwing: Year One
In-continuity Batman stories from the time Dick Grayson became Robin to when he became Nightwing are scarce. As such, I find it best to fill this time period with the origins of various members of the Bat-Family. Robin: Year One, Batgirl: Year One and Nightwing: Year One are all co-written by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, and are each some of both writer’s most entertaining works. While everyone’s favorite Robin, Jason Todd, lacks his own separate origin story (in trade, that is), Nightwing: Year One does enough justice to the whiny br-er, I mean, new boy wonder.
Hope Lost and Hope Restored
- The Killing Joke
- The Cult*
- A Death in the Family
- A Lonely Place of Dying
- Robin: A Hero Reborn
As Matt pointed out in his article, this is where things start to go downhill for Bruce. Tragedy strikes two members of the Bat-Family, and Jason Todd takes an…extended vacation (don’t worry, we’ll see him again after a while). If you really want a story featuring Todd before his departure, I recommend The Cult. Sure, whether it’s canon or not is debatable, but man is it a great story. Now, The Killing Joke and A Death and the Family may have led to Batman being much more of a dark figure (again, as Matt pointed out), but many later writers seemed to ignore the whole point of A Lonely Place of Dying (as I read it): Tim Drake becoming the new Robin was meant to counter-balance the grimness that had taken ahold of Bruce’s life. Maybe if DC remembered to reprint it people would catch on to that.
The Breaking of the Bat
- Sword of Azrael
- Knightfall: Broken Bat
- Knightfall: Who Rules the Night
- Robin: Flying Solo*
- Knightfall: Knightsend
- Prodigal
Some people feel that the early 90’s Knightfall is one of the most classic story arcs for the caped crusader. I think it was made to show why Batman shouldn’t become X-TREME like everything else in the 90’s was. Either way, it’s an essential part of Batman’s history. Dennis O’Neil’s Sword of Azrael is one of the few things by O’Neil that I didn’t care for too much, but it is absolutely essential to this block (if nothing else). Flying Solo is a good choice not only because of it being the only Knightquest tie-in collected in trade, but also because it introduces the Spoiler, who becomes especially important later (unfortunately).
A Shattered City
- Contagion
- Legacy
- Cataclysm
- No Man’s Land (collected in 5 volumes)
One of the best times for all of the Batman-Family titles were the late 90’s, a time when the books were in almost perpetual crossover. Despite what you may think, this actually worked out very well. Contagion was alright, Legacy was great, Cataclysm was good and No Man’s Land is tied with DC One Million for the best crossover ever published, in my humble opinion. This was also the now famous Greg Rucka’s first foray into mainstream comics, and remains to be one of his greatest contributions to the industry. While the idea of buying 5 trades for a single event may seem a bit much, believe me when I say that it’s worth it (plus, to really understand most events nowadays you need to buy that much anyways, even if they’re just labelled as tie-ins).
New Gotham
- Officer Down
- Bruce Wayne: Murderer?
- Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (collected in 3 volumes)
Continuing from his success with No Man’s Land, Greg Rucka worked with Ed Brubaker and the rest of the Batman team to create another set of crossovers. Officer Down was an enjoyable mystery arc that lead to James Gordon leaving the police force, as well as showing how the friendship between him and Bruce had developed over the course of No Man’s Land. Bruce Wayne: Murderer?/Fugitive is another entertaining arc that really shows the importance of the family aspect of the Batman mythos. The real conclusion really happens in the second of the three Fugitive trades, while the third mainly serves to tie up loose ends, such as the departure of Sasha Bordeaux. Speaking of Bordeaux, no trades have her first appearance (despite her being a very important character to Greg Rucka), but the intro of Murderer? does a fine enough job of introducing her.
Crises Abound
- Hush
- Hush Returns*
- Robin: Unmasked*
- War Drums
- Death and the Maidens
- War Games
- Identity Crisis
- Under the Hood vol 1
- War Crimes
- Under the Hood vol 2
- Infinite Crisis*
A very hit or miss period for Batman, the mid-2000’s are best known for Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Hush, which is often recommended to newer comic readers. In my opinion, the story is rather mediocre (I’m slightly worried for my life after typing that), but man if Lee’s work has ever looked better. Hush Returns is rather important to the later story Heart of Hush, but I’m pretty sure it’s the second worst Batman comic ever written (Fortunate Son definitely being the worst). Skip it unless you choose to suffer for continuity. I feel I’m one of the few people who enjoyed the War Games arc, but all that enjoyment disappeared upon reading the follow-up War Crimes. Normally, I can excuse a retcon, but anyone who thinks One More Day was the worst-handled retcon ever written hasn’t read War Crimes. The main problem with this period is Under the Hood‘s second volume being heavily reliant on Infinite Crisis. While I wanted to avoid company-wide crossovers in this list, if you’re unfamiliar with Infinite Crisis the end of Under the Hood can be quite confusing. If you want to read Infinite Crisis for its effect on Batman, I recommend grabbing the O.M.A.C. Project tie-ins, the Batman tie-ins (a.k.a., Under the Hood), the Nightwing tie-ins and the Gotham Central tie-ins and use last week’s list to make sense of it all. Similarly does Identity Crisis have an important effect on Tim Drake, but it doesn’t require any tie-ins to understand.
The Beginning of the End (Which is a Beginning)
- Face the Face
- Dini’s Detective Comics* (in three volumes, not including Heart of Hush)
- Batman and Son
- The Black Glove
- The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul
- Heart of Hush
- Batman R.I.P.
- Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?*
While 52 covers what Bruce did the year following Infinite Crisis, both Face the Face and the flashbacks in Grant Morrison’s run on Batman give a good enough summary of what he had been doing. While both Matt and I have extolled Morrison’s Batman run more than enough, I feel Paul Dini’s Detective Comics run is sorely under-appreciated. While most of his run consists of one-and-done stories, they’re a great break from the otherwise continuity-heavy stories this list is made up of. His final arc, Heart of Hush, is a great story featuring Dustin Nguyen’s incredible art (it was so good it made me like Hush as a character again). After finishing Batman R.I.P., I recommend picking up Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? as a sort of summation of the character of Bruce Wayne, and an all-around nice way to end this massive endeavor.
