Hello everyone! I apologize for the long absence, I honestly have kinda been overwhelmed by life, and there has been so much going on here between movie announcements, the finale of Secret Empire, the ongoing Metal series, that it's honestly hard to narrow a single thing down to write about, and for that I apologize. It's not an excuse, but at the end of the day, I am just one person, so it's a bit daunting. Honestly I got 3 quarters of the way through a September 11th post for you guys that I had to delete because it took me too long to put out (thanks work). Anyways, today we do have something to celebrate in that it is another year under the belt for one of comics most revered comic book heroes: Batman. It's the birthday of the night prowling, Gotham vigilante and so today we celebrate him and the massive universe that he belongs to. What better way to do that then by putting a list of great Batman stories for you guys to check out!
Dark Knight Returns
When it comes down to Batman Stories, it's impossible to not discuss Frank Miller's iconic Dark Knight Returns. This story shows a Bruce Wayne that had stepped away from the cowl after the death of the second robin Jason Todd, and is looking for a proper exit from life, a good death. However, in his absence, Gotham has reverted, criminals no longer look over their shoulder and the city is the worst it's been in a long time. Sickened by the city's lack of will to fight back Bruce dons the cowl once more and restarts his war on crime. The story serves as an amazing commentary on the morality of Batman's crusade and shows us a much darker look at the Dark Knight, delving deep into the character's psychology.This story in particular has served as inspiration for Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and even Snyder's Batman vs Superman. It has also been adapted into animated form and the animated feature as Peter Welling (Robocop) voicing the aged Batman. It's a fairly polarizing book that provokes a lot of thought.
Court/City of Owls
As a whole, the 2011 reboot of DC universe, New 52, can be described with one word: disappointing, there were some silver linings, and one of the major ones was the Batman run. Written by the acclaimed Scott Snyder and art done by Greg Capullo, the New 52 Batman run was stellar from the start. Kicking the series off with Court of Owls and City of Owls, this dream team introduced quite possibly one of the most pivotal members of the Batman rogues since the Joker. The Court of Owls is an Illuminati style organization of the top 1% of Gotham that work the strings of the city behind the scenes, in the darkness. "Be good or the Court will send it's Talon out for you," is how the nursery rhyme goes for the children of Gotham. This arc is filled with everything that you need in an amazing Batman story: layered mystery, detective work, visceral fights, and most importantly an opponent that proves both a physical and mental match for the Batman.
Batman: Year One
Frank Miller might have the most polarizing writing record when it comes down to the Dark Knight. One day he'll do something amazing and game changing like the aforementioned: Dark Knight Returns and then the next he'll pop out something like All-Star Batman and Robin and make the entire community cringe. Batman: Year One is one of his better stories. Frank Miller re-imagines the origin of Batman in this classic story line. The story focuses on both Bruce Wayne, who has just returned from abroad and is becoming Batman, and Jim Gordon, who was transferred to Gotham as a pseudo punishment for exposing corrupt cops in his old beat. Jim is tasked with tracking down the Gotham Bat, and Bruce Wayne must take on Gotham's criminals as well as their corrupt police force. The comic has more than a few iconic moments, and one of them landed itself in Christopher Nolan's Batman begins where Batman uses a sonar device to summon a swarm of bats to provide the concealment he needed to escape from GCPD's Swat. It's a great story and a truly worthy reimagining of Batman's beginnings.
Batman: Zero Year
Frank Miller wasn't the only person to re-imagine the story of the Bat. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo published the arc Zero Year to show the first year of Bruce being Batman in the New 52 universe. The arc puts Bruce coming home to a Gotham war torn by crime syndicates and the rise of a nefarious criminal named Red Hood. The story also serves as a launching point for several different Batman rogues such as the Riddler.
Batman: War on Crime
When you think Batman there are a few names that come to mind: Frank Miller, Jeph Leob, and Paul Dini. The latter of which is one of the many genius writers behind Batman The Animated series, co-creator of Harley Quinn, and even wrote the script for Arkham City and Asylum. So when you take the genius writing of someone like Paul Dini, an pair it with the hyper realism art style that is Alex Ross, it's going to make an impact. Batman: War on Crime shows Batman contemplating on if he would still be doing his crusade if he weren't born into a life with the means by which to do so. Throughout the story Batman witnesses similar events unfold to a young boy named Marcus that happened to Bruce when he was 8. The slope is slippery and Batman sees this young man faced with the same darkness that Bruce faced as a boy, but instead of conquering the fear and loneliness, begins to succumb to them and be worse off. The story in and of itself is brilliant, as one should expect from a part of the wonder team that produced BTAS (Batman the Animated Series), but the thing that really stands out about this book is the art. Alex Ross truly is a master of his craft and delivers beautiful painting style panels that bring Gotham a breath of life that not even live action films have been able to accomplish. His emphasis on dark and light really highlight the moral ambiguity of the character and his environment.
Batman Beyond: Mark of the Phantasm
In the spirit of talking about the Animated Series, there is a comic that exists in the same universe that should be discussed. Batman Beyond 2.0 was a digital series that followed Terry Mcginnis in his adventures as Batman Beyond that extend past the events of the acclaimed animated feature Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. In this series, Terry has separated from Bruce and has instead been working under the supervision of Dick Grayson. That's not to say Bruce isn't around, but more along the lines of the fact that Terry and he aren't on speaking terms. Mark of the Phantasm is an event that explains just why that is, but more importantly, it is the returned in quite possibly the one of the most unknown rogues gallery members: Andrea Beaumont, better known as the Phantasm. Andrea made her first appearance in the cult hit, animated feature: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and to fans of the Animated Series, she is considered to be one of Batman's best villains. However, for whatever reason, DC criminally decided to NEVER use her in anything else or bother to make her canon, so to say that fans were excited to see Andrea back in the spotlight and in the future going against Terry no less was an understatement. While the arc does a few risque things, it's overall a great read and completely makes you understand why nobody in the Beyond future likes Bruce at all. Batman Black & White: "Good Evening Midnight"
Batman Black and White are a series of black and white, short one shots about Batman made by various different writers and artist. All of them are excellent reads, so if you are looking at picking up the collection I would totally recommend it, but if you are looking for just one that stands out from all the rest "Good Evening Midnight." takes the cake. The comic takes place on Bruce's birthday, and it goes back and forth between Bruce saving kids on a hijacked bus, and Alfred reading a letter written to Bruce by his father Thomas Wayne. It's both equally heart wrenching and affirming to see how far Bruce has strayed from the hopes Thomas had for him while simultaneously growing up to be the very man that Thomas had expected of his son. They made a motion comic of it, and it's amazing. So watch, or read, either way is a more than ample way to spend Batman day.
Batman: Hush
Every now and again there is a story that leaves a mark on you and becomes the iconic version of the character for you. For me, that book was Batman: Hush. Drawn by Jim Lee and written by Jeph Leob. Hush pits Batman against a good chunk of his A list rogues gallery in a mystery that constantly is unfolding a new layer. It has excellent moments for every character in it, and has an ending that I guarantee will surprise everyone who reads it. Hush is a villain who appears to be pulling the strings on various crimes around Gotham, getting members of his Rogues gallery to think outside the box. Hush has his face wrapped up in bandages to hide his identity and so Batman is trying to uncover who exactly this menace is. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but I will say that the puppet master pulling all the strings is a villain that until this point I had never taken too seriously and that this comic completely changed my opinion of him as a villain. Batman: Endgame
A lot of people consider Alan Moore's The Killing Joke as the most iconic encounter between Batman and the Joker, and while it is a great read, I don't hold the same opinion. There are a lot of factors that lead into that, one of which being a great disdain for Alan Moore (despite his clear talent as a writer, the lack of respect for the genre which made his career is honestly unforgivable to me), and on top of that at times the book feels like it is needlessly grotesque. However, if there is a story that perfects the dynamic of Batman and the Joker, it is Endgame by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Some seventy plus years of story telling have lead to this story and boy do they deliver. The arc revolves around the possibility of Joker being an immortal. Joker uses this to toy with Batman's brain and it is their ultimate showdown. Honestly, this is probably the best final confrontation between the Batman and the Joker that I have ever read. A lot of my love for this book also comes from the fact that just a few arcs prior DC had done Death of the Family during which Joker had cut his own face off. While there were certainly a great deal of people who appreciated this look, I was not one of them. Seeing the Joker with full face in tact and back to his usual schemes with Joker toxin was a refreshing return to form. Endgame provides a story where we see Joker at the scariest part of his game and Batman has to push himself and every resource he has to new heights.
Batman: War of Jokes and Riddles
Batman: Under The Hood
Batman is a character that ultimately defines himself very much on the foundation of his own personal loss. If he were to make a list of personal failures, it is without a doubt that the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin, would be among the first of them. While most fans didn't really care too much for Jason, it is undeniable that this was a moment that shook the foundation of Bruce's mission and made him question if he was making the right calls. This would ultimately lead to one of the best character revivals of all time by transforming literally one of the most hated comic side kicks into a fan favorite center piece of the DC universe. Under The Red Hood pits Batman against a new vigilante that has come to Gotham, one without the same penchant for not killing as the Dark Knight. Upon much investigation, Bruce discovers that this new vigilante, going by the Joker's old alias: Red Hood, is in fact the second Robin, back from the dead. Angry that Batman has not only failed to kill the Joker to avenge him, but that Batman had taken up a new robin in Tim Drake. Jason is out for blood. It's an incredible book that keeps you on the edge of your seat (they also made a fantastic animated feature of it starring the voice talent of Jensen Ackles as Jason).
Batman #51
Finally, to top off this list I have the final issue of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's run of New 52 Batman. This singular issue is so good, that it deserved to stand beside some of the greatest stories of the Dark Knight. What makes it so special? The answer is that it is a love letter to fans of the Dark Knight. At face value nothing happens in this issue. In fact, that's kind of the whole point. The issue starts with a power outage in Gotham. The security system in Arkham has went down and so Batman goes to investigate. While all this is going on a narrator is trying to answer the question of: "What is Gotham?" Batman continues to investigate this power outage, assuming the worst because, well, it's Gotham. No coincidences. He checks up on several leads from Penguin, to the Court of Owls, and no one seems to be behind it. He goes to the source of the outage and across the street he sees a flicker of light from an abandoned building. Batman crashes through the window to find a man who he had apprehended in the past, however, he has since turned from a life of crime and writes for the Gotham is column. He explains he was just trying to finish the column he was writing by deadline when the generator went off. Batman leaves him alone to finish his column and it is at this point it is revealed that the narrator has been this columnist. Batman goes around the city one more time seeing a city at peace, families safe in their homes, people being good to each other. The columnist addresses Batman in his column, hoping that while Batman usually sees the city at it's worst, that for just a moment the city can show him their best in return for all he has done. The issue closes with Batman staring out to a peaceful city, the outage a result of a natural tremor, the sun is rising, and the following quote:
And so really, in the end, the answer to the question this column poses is simple. It's what we say to you, and you say to us. Gotham... is you, Always.
I realize that there are plenty of other great Batman stories, and you are more than welcome to post them as comments. However, to me, these are the best at capturing Batman. That's not to say this list was easy to make, stories like Long Halloween, Darkest Victory, and Gotham by Gaslight are just a few examples of stories that I considered adding here as well. At the end of the day though, the stories I listed are the ones that have impacted me most as a fan, and I hope they have a chance to impact you as well!
This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you enjoyed and we will see you next time!
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