Like many of my generation, I grew up with a love of Batman. The Animated Series was on air, the movies were coming out, and — let’s face it — he was just so damn cool. Hell, I wanted to be Batman. When I first got into (and back into) comics, I read a lot of Batman-centric comics. A lot. So much so that I was able to construct a highly-abridged reading order of his entire career from Year One until R.I.P. In said article I grouped a few stories by their place on the timeline, giving each era only a little blurb — after all, I had a lot of ground to cover! However, there’s one period of time that I think deserves a closer look and a hearty recommendation, and that’s the Year One era as told by Frank Miller, Matt Wagner and Ed Brubaker through Batman: Year One, Dark Moon Rising and The Man Who Laughs, respectively.
I’m always surprised by the amount of Batman fans I run into who read the franchise’s current output but haven’t read Batman: Year One. Now, I’m not going to say that they aren’t “true” fans, because that’s incredibly juvenile, but it is a bit unexpected to see the definitive Batman origin story purposefully passed up. This story arc, serialized across the main Batman title, was the second part of Frank Miller’s attempt to reinvigorate the Batman comics that was started with The Dark Knight Returns. While many claim that The Dark Knight Returns is the better Batman story, as Year One is as much focused on James Gordon as it is on Bruce Wayne, I would say that Year One is the better story as a whole, but that’s just my opinion. If you’re interested in getting into the in-continuity Batman mythos, Year One is the place to start: it’s an origin story set earlier in the mainstream DC Universe, so it’s easily accessible, the writing is some of Frank Miller’s best, and it is beautifully illustrated by David Mazzuchelli. If you haven’t read it yet, get to it. I’ll be waiting right here.
That was awesome, right? Unfortunately, with the sheer volume of Batman comics out there, there’s a lot of crap to sift through, so picking the next thing to read as a newcomer can be tough. That’s why I’m here, though. Have you ever heard of a man called Matt Wagner? Wagner is both a writer and an artist, and whenever he releases a comic it is almost always good and quite frequently awesome. In the mid 2000s Wagner did two Batman miniseries, Batman and the Monster Men and Batman and the Mad Monk, that formed the single story arc Dark Moon Rising. They took place chronologically right after Year One, and Wagner did a great job of matching the narrative style that Miller used in that classic story. The arc focused on the rise of the stranger problems in Gotham after Batman’s debut, and has a great pulpy feel to it, and Matt Wagner’s work always shines when he illustrates it as well as writes it. Again, there’s nothing more needed to enjoy Dark Moon Rising other than Year One, and even then you would probably be fine without the origin story.
Finishing off our trilogy/quadrilogy (whichever you consider it, since Dark Moon Rising is in two paperbacks) we have Ed Brubaker’s fantastic The Man Who Laughs, which details Batman’s first encounter with The Joker. What better way to end than with the Dark Knight’s most classic villain? Like Wagner, Brubaker keeps a running narrative that is reminiscent of Miller’s, with a slight variation to match the change in tone that the inclusion of The Joker has brought. While many of us here at Multiversity have a high regard for Brubaker’s work in general, his superhero work tends to be best when he’s writing street-level characters, and — let’s be honest — Batman and The Joker are the most notable street-level nemeses, rivalled only by Daredevil and The Kingpin in deservedness of the title. His writing prowess is complemented by Doug Mahnke’s penciling, which gives the horror the Joker unleashes on Gotham the grotesque look it deserves (and I mean that in the best way possible). A dark thriller that clearly made an impression on director Christopher Nolan, The Man Who Laughs is a hell of a ride, and will have you on the edge of your seat until the end.
These three stories are great to read on their own, but they’re even better to read in order. I already talked about the narrative and tonal similarities, but there’s also an interesting transition in the choice of antagonists that takes place when you read one after the other. In Year One, it is Bruce against the mob; the closest thing to a supervillain is Catwoman, who only appears briefly. In Dark Moon Rising we are given villains that are more like those in the old pulps, including mad scientists and vampires. It isn’t until we reach The Man Who Laughs that we see the costumed villains that we are used to seeing Batman fight. Jumping from the more grounded in reality Year One into the more “out there” stories of nowadays can be somewhat jarring, almost to the point where it seems like a different character. Going from Year One to Dark Moon Rising and finally to The Man Who Laughs can acclimate the reader to the different ways Batman stories are told, like when you slowly edge into the cold water of a pool. Plus, all three are awesome. Read them!
