The 10 best Batman comics of all time

Batman is one of the world's most famous superheroes and, with over 80 years of history behind him, he has everything we needed when he needed it: an unstoppable black avenger, a indefatigable protector but a noble crime fighter with onomatopoeetic fists.

In eight decades, writers have refined his story to a pure iron, his emblems reduced to an iconic simplicity and his order book growing steadily over the years. Catching up is an impossible task. But here's the good news: I love Batman and I love education people about Batman. This is how I drew up the list of the best Batman comics.

You may not find what you expect here, and it is deliberate. You can search almost all the best Batman stories on Google and find The return of the black knight, The murder joke, and Arkham Asylum: A serious house on a serious land. I would like to offer something more.

In addition to recommending the most famous, most read or most appreciated Batman stories, I want to help you understand what a good Batman story is. is. So I based my choices on two criteria: they were either stories that had a great influence on our modern idea of ​​Batman, or stories that did the best job of turning those many influences into something inspiring.

Long-time comic readers will notice that I've always included a handful of classics, but I hope that by the end of this list, I'll have taught you a few things about Batman. . Especially how to like it.

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Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli / DC Comics

Batman: first year (1987)

By Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

I recommend Frank Miller with reservations. But leaving aside stereotypes of its kind based on race, gender and sexuality, Miller's early work is undeniably the product of a young talent who masters and revolutionizes the form of comics. Batman: first year, which Miller wrote, and that David Mazzucchelli drew, is a magnum opus.

DC Comics invited Miller to tell Batman's story about the implementation of the first line-wide reboot on what had been the continuity of the oldest and longest comic book in the world. The offer was based on the strength of the dark and overwhelming vision of expectations that was The return of the black knight, but instead of invoking the same tone, Miller has created a stronger, deeper, more moving and more timeless scenario.

He refused to draw First year as he had TDKR, asking instead to be paired with David Mazzucchelli, then also an emerging talent (although he is now best known for his more abstract and romantic work as Asterios Polyp). Mazzucchelli people First year with drawings of characters as varied as the work of an audience drawer and just as human. His Batman is strong, but not overtly muscular. The costume is black and gray minimalist. The pallid pallet of colorist Richmond Lewis smeared a dirty city of Gotham on the eyes. Add to that the incomparable work of the incomparable Todd Klein, and the paired account of Bruce Wayne and Police Lieutenant James Gordon almost gives the impression that you are told in your ears.

Beyond the execution of the boats, Batman: first year laid the foundations of Bruce Wayne, James Gordon and Selina Kyle, both in terms of characterization and visual interpretation, for more than 30 years. You may have felt like you've seen Bruce Wayne's parents die about 50 times in the last five Batman movies, but when comic book writers and filmmakers tackle this par excellence moment of Batman's story, they often reflect the magnificent staging of Mazzucchelli Batman: first year visual, echoing – even quoting – Miller's dialogue.

We do not understand how the Batman of 2019 was built without Batman: first year.

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If you like it, literally read everything on this list. Or read The return of the black knight and The murder joke. Congratulations, you have now read all the Batman comics you need to understand Zack Snyder's point of view.

The long Halloween (1996)

By Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

The long Halloween is the best graphic novel of Batman ever written. (And the biggest influence on Batman begins and The black Knight.) The complex story in 13 parts it's really three in one: the story of the new generation of flamboyant costumed criminals who overthrew the mafia families in Gotham's power; the history of Gotham District Lawyer, Harvey of the Crusade, who became the two-faced murderer; and the mystery of the true identity of "Holiday" – a serial killer who attacks once a month to another member of Gotham's criminal class.

Batman writers rarely resist nostalgia for the legendary Rogues Gallery in Batman, which almost always telegraphs their crimes on the theme so you know who is behind all this before getting caught. It's rare that Batman's stories reveal who did, let alone captivating, captivating and focused on a new villain like Holiday. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale express their creativity in the best possible way, while Loeb knows exactly when to use a double page combines with the kinetic forms of Sale and the impeccable composition of the panels. Loeb has a style with repeated choruses that gives the rhythm of each number almost poetic rhythms, and the character design of Sale is comparable to that of Batman: The animated series for me – I'm forever frustrated at not seeing an animated movie Long Halloween adaptation.

If you are really interested in capital-C continuity, The long Halloween picks up directly from Batman: first year, and has many of the same characters, although you do not have to read them one by one.

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If you like it, read on, Dark victory and his half, Catwoman: when in Rome, also from Loeb and Sale.

Robin: first year (2001)

By Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, Javier Pulido and Marcos Martin

If you've never really liked Robin because he always seemed to be a hokey against Batman's lurid and lonely image, you have to read Robin: first year.

By the time we decided that superheroes had to have realism mixed with their fantasy (somewhere in the 1960s), a narrative dissonance entered Robin's idea. If Batman is a real guy who is fighting real criminals, why would he have a child partner? Solitude? Weakness? Madness? Even if he chose him, why would anyone around him allow him to do it?

Many writers have addressed this issue, but none has done it as well as Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon (who might be the best Robin writer ever made). Javier Pulido and Marcos Martin have set the course for the cartoon in this book. the silhouettes and costumes have more in common with the Golden Age comics than Modern, but they remain expressive so as to put a lump in your throat. Their Robin: first year is a story about Dick Grayson who learned he had limits and was able to do more than he could have expected. At the same time, Bruce Wayne learned to be a partner and then a parent.

(And if you are going to read Robin: first yearyou might as well read Dark victory, which includes Dick Grayson's original story, but be sure to read The long Halloween first, otherwise you will be spoiled, and at that moment you might as well read Batman: first year – and now I made you read four great books about Batman, MOO HOO HA HA.)

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If you like it, Lily Batgirl: Year Onefrom the same creative team, which will be easy as they are collected in the same book these days.

Alan Grant, Norm Breyfogle / DC Comics

Batman: the last Arkham (1992)

By Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle

The original story of Batman, the rise of Two-Face, the calculation of Robin – the list has been heavy so far on the points of continuity of Batman. The last Arkham, the first and best story of Mr. Zsasz, is different.

This book is exactly the kind of story you are unlikely to get in a superhero movie because it works on the basis of a serialized format: Batman does not save the city, it solves a case. None of his friends dies or changes costumes make return to the status quo at the end. And even, this case.

The bottom line: Someone in Gotham commits murders that look exactly like those of the murderer Mr. Zsasz, but … Mr. Zsasz is locked in an ultramodern cell and recently renovated at Arkham Asylum. What should Batman do? Pretend to murder a police officer in front of several witnesses and ask Commissioner Gordon to dismiss him, so that he can of course discover Arkham's secrets from the inside. Moreover, he does not tell any of rest what he does, there is a secondary plot of Nightwing that organizes a rescue quite reasonable and yet useless.

The writer Alan Grant and the artist Norm Breyfogle are criminally underrated. Grant has a real talent for the dramatic monologue, while Batman, of Breyfogle, walks his terror against his enemies and tenderness towards the innocent. And all this without saying that you should never let Brian Stelfreeze's wallet go by.

Last Arkham takes an already amusing idea – Batman takes refuge under cover as Arkham's inmate – and performs it to perfection. In addition to that, Grant and Breyfogle pin it all on a completely new and terribly banal villain, an important feat.

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If you like it, Lily Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, another Arkham story with a lot less Batman, and a major influence on Rocksteady. Batman: The Arkham Asylum.

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Bruce Wayne: A murderer? and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (2002)

By Greg Rucka, Kelley Puckett, Chuck Dixon, Devin Grayson, Ed Brubaker, Rick Burchett, Scott McDaniel, Scott Damion, Trevor McCarthy, Roger Robinson, Rick Leonardi, Pete Woods and Steve Lieber.

We arrived at the first and almost the only crossbow I have included in this list: Bruce Wayne: A murderer? and his immediate following, Bruce Wayne: Fugitive.

The early 2000s was a golden period for the Bat family, with over 10 years of continuity to give depth to your character, and a whole series continuously just for stories about them. Murderer? and Fugitive were designed to drive readers to the heart of Gotham's family dynamic and connect them forever, starting with a number that costs just 10 cents.

Batman: The adventure of the 10 cents left the reader with the bomb of a cliffhanger: Bruce Wayne is accused of murder and his only alibi is that he was Batman at the time. Other problems only dig deeper: the frame is so tight that even Batman's allies begin to believe it's possible he did it. Then, from his prison cell in Blackgate, surrounded by criminals he has sidelined, Batman makes an unthinkable decision. If becoming Bruce Wayne has become a handicap, he will simply no longer be Bruce Wayne.

At a time when the Batman office was populated by some of the best writers and artists to ever work on the character, Murderer? and Fugitive is a talented Voltron, the rare crossover story based entirely on character rather than event, and much more accessible to the new player than it appears from the outside.

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If you like it, Lily Gotham Knights.

Bill Finger, Bob Kane / DC Comics

The greatest stories of Batman ever told (1988) and The greatest stories of Joker ever told (1988)

By lots of people

The market for highlights in Batman's story is unfortunately lean. When I look for a collection of influential stories of Batman of the past, nothing eclipse Biggest Batman stories ever told and The biggest joker stories ever told, which brings together the strengths of Batman comics from the 30s to the 80s, rather unleashes the limelight.

None of these collections have been released in digital form, which is unfortunate, as it is a one-stop shop that will introduce you to the Batman classics of the golden and silver ages as Robin dies in the dawn, The revenge of five of the joker, The laughing fish, and There is no hope in the street of crime!. Three of these alone have been adapted into some of the best episodes of Batman: The animated series.

You will find at least that used copies are still floating on Amazon and, in the worst case, you can look at the table of contents and buy the problems piece by piece on Comixology. It will be worth it.

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If you like it, read the 1983 Batman and the underdogs. The end of the pre-crisis world of DC is a fascinating moment in which the modern Batman, and the one who wore a literal rainbow, was still technically the same person. In outsidersBatman leaves the Justice League in angry air because he will not let him do what he wants and creates his own great team of people you've probably never heard of (and Katana and Black Lightning) .

He literally takes out a Lego Batman and tells them he's not Bruce Wayne, he just lives in his basement and uses his money. Then when the underdogs make accidentally discover that it is Bruce Wayne, they decide to respect its borders and pretend not to know. They are even surprised that he will end up telling them. It's a joy.

What happened to the crusader at the cloak? (2009)

By Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert

Superman has What happened to the man of tomorrow?, Alan Moore bids farewell to the Silver Age Superman before Crisis on infinite lands shut the book on him forever. Batman has What happened to the crusader at the cloak?, a meditation on how superheroes never end.

On paper, No matter what happened was a link to the fallout of Grant Morrison Final crisis, in which the world thought that Darkseid had killed Batman, when he had just put in him a memetic virus that ended the universe and sent him on a hectic adventure from the beginning of the man to the end of time to destroy the multiverse. In practice, it is a sweet antithesis of this cosmic explosion, with a dreamlike story in which Batman observes what appears to be his own funeral. Except that each eulogy, each of a different member of his cast, tells a story completely different from his death.

Which is true? Is it happening? Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert do not want to answer these questions, but consider Batman an immortal myth.

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If you like it, Lily Batman: haunted knight, people who did The long Halloween, before they did The long Halloween. It's a collection of three Halloween Batman specials that explore the character with similar quality "Maybe it's hot, maybe it's not".

Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo / DC Comics

Batman: the death of the family

By Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and many others

Forget The murder joke, forget A death in the family, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullos' Death of the family Crossover is the best Joker story of modern Batman comics. Yes Bruce Wayne: A murderer? and Fugitive clinging to the dynamics of the bat family, Death of the family is a horror story that transforms the bonds that bind in razor wire.

In 80 years of Batman's history, Snyder and Capullo have worked from 2011 to 2016 on Batman is young, but already iconic. Capullo's Gotham is an instantly recognizable tecnobrick desert in which Snyder's horror sensibility is unleashed, and nowhere wilder than in Death of the family, their very first story of Joker.

Many of Batman's stories speak very well about how the Dark Knight projects fear into the hearts of criminals. Many less are really good and scary. Reading Death of the familymy heart was in my throat with every problem. But as with all of Snyder's work on Batman, he never lets us forget that the character speaks of hope, not darkness.

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If you like it, Lily Batman: Hush. Silence This is not at all a horror cartoon, but it's another great event that brings the entire Bat family and villains on a flash tour of Batman's story, full of twists that you will never see coming – like a Batman and Superman fight this is not even the climax.