[bdbdbd]

Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P. starts soon and is supposed to be epic and historic to the point where, once finished, it will take it's place among the greatest Batman stories ever told. That got me to thinking, what are the greatest Batman stories ever told?

Bats is surely one of DCs flagship characters. He's certainly one of the most popular and just about every comic writer worth their salt has at least had a try at him.

As a matter of fact, DC recently put out a list of "30 essential graphic novels", eight of which are full on Batman stories, another two feature him, and he appears in three more.


So lets get a conversation going, what are your favourite Batman stories?

[Pun]

The Killing Joke

End of argument

[OpTard]

i'd like to ad a rule to this:

the following stories are excluded due to being obvious and discussed to death (let's face it, none of us need anyone to tell us batman: year one is a great story):

dark knight returns
batman: year one
killing joke
the long halloween
dark victory
hush

basically, no miller, no loeb, no moore. lets hear something we haven't heard about 1000 times.

[OpTard]

woops. forgot to actually talk about a book.

one of my favorite stories is "a lonely place of dying." the story that introduces tim drake. i really like that they introduced him right off the bat as a detective, having figured out bruce and dick's identities. plus as a big robin fan, i like how it stressing how essential robin is to batman.

so that's my pick. whatta you guys got?

[Stu]

Well, the Moore/Loeb/Miller stuff aside, I like the big storylines from when there was a real "Bat-Family" and they'd all work together on it.
No Man's Land and Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive.
NML was good for all the different viewpoints it showed and the post-apocalypse type gang warfare, the tensions between Gordon and Petit, Gordon and Batman (including that great "make up" issue between them were Batman unmasks, but Gordon doesn't want to see his face, Renee Montoya and Two Face, the introduction of the new Batgirl and Harley Quinn's debut in the comics, Huntress finally gets a little approval from Batman, Joker gives Gordon the shaft again, and the stuff with Lex Luthor.
Fugitive/Murderer I really enjoyed for the look at how all the other members of the Bat-Family felt about Bruce, about their doubts or anger at him. The fight between Nightwing and him was pretty awesome to see, and without the storyline, we might not have "Checkmate".

[bdbdbd]

I've always been drawn to two really specific Bat books which take place in the same, um, place: Arkham Asylum. Arkham Asylum: Serious Place on a Serious Earth (Morrison) and Arkham Asylum: Living Hell (Dan Slott). I actually first read Living Hell by accident thinking I was picking up Serious Place, but was glad of the accident and may actually like it more in spite of none of the standard Bat-characters appearing.

[Batman]

I just want to point out the (awesome) Batman artists thread to any n00bs who might not yet have seen it....

A few favorites of mine:

The "Ra's Al Ghul Saga" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams

"Night of the Reaper" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams

The "Man-Bat" stories by Frank Robbins and Neal Adams

"The Player on the Other Side" by Mike W. Barr and Michael Golden

"Little Red Book" by Kelley Puckett and Mike Parobeck

"Death Flies the Haunted Skies" by Archie Goodwin and Alex Toth

"The Laughing Fish" Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers

"The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams

[Stu]

Mar 29, 2008 10:52:03 GMT -5 Batman said:

"The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams

Did you pick that because its title sounds like a porno?