Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

Batman comic recommendations?

Page: (1)2

14:17 / 16.06.05

Just saw Batman Begins last night and I am now unbelievably jazzed about Batman. Yay Batman!

I'd like to read more of the comics, but I have no idea of which ones are the good ones. It seems like every time I step up to the shelf, I keep running into things like Batman: Dreamland or god knows what. I'm just looking for solid Batman stories, not gimmicky ones.

Can anyone recommend any good Batman collections? I read Year One and The Dark Knight Returns a while back and enjoyed them very much.

14:52 / 16.06.05

The two volumes of Batman: Black and White are worth a look - anthology collections of short stories that ran as back-ups in Detective Comics. A variety of artists and writers are given free reign to do whatever type of Batman tale they wish, in black and white. They're a mixed bag to be sure and there are definitely some clunkers, but there's also a lot of standout stories by artists who'd never usually do Bat-stuff (like Katsuhiro "Akira" Otomo!).

D Terminator XXXIII

16:11 / 16.06.05

I may be wrong, but I thought Batman: B & W originally came out as a 4 issue mini, which was then followed up as a back up in the 'Tec comic proper...

However it may be, I second it.

17:19 / 16.06.05

you are correct, bambling.

17:20 / 16.06.05

I would recommend Greg Rucka's run on DETECTIVE COMICS, which is in paperback. You don't need the very end of his run, which is Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive, just read everything up til then, it's great.

19:02 / 16.06.05

I would have to agree with the Rucka Tec, which I felt was some of the best Batman in the last five-ten years. Avoid Hush (and especially all the followups in Gotham Knights), it made me want to tear my comics to pieces. The first ten ish of Gotham Knights is not bad. Not that amazing, but it has a fairly solid storytelling, and some of the little writing by Devin Grayson that I like. And of course, Englehart's run on Tec (around 475 I believe).

I am also a fan of Dixon's Nightwing.

20:06 / 16.06.05

I like Dixon's Nightwing too, although I know it's fashionable round these parts to attack Dixon for his politics and recently shitty comics. Totally fair, I don't like Dixon's politics either, nor his recent shitty comics, but back in the day, he was writing solid Batman, Robin and Nightwing books - fun superhero entertainment, the equivalent of a good decently-written action movie, not the deepest of stories but fun well-told Batman stuff.

20:09 / 16.06.05

trying to think of paperback stuff that's out there and easy to find - hmmm, The Cult is OK but not all that great, the paperback collecting the Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams Ra's al Ghul stuff is pretty good. The Killing Joke by Moore and Bolland, I guess, for the heck of it... but not a lot of brilliant Batman stuff that's in paperback currently, it seems... maybe the paperback LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, if it's still in print...?

Haus of Mystery

20:22 / 16.06.05

Batman and The Dream of Horses is excellent stuff. Or the classic Batman and the Ice Cream Shoes mini-series.

I'd also recommend the Batman: What 'choo talkin' bout Willis? prestige special from a while back.

Maybe.

22:12 / 16.06.05

Also check out Loeb & Sale's
THE LONG HALLOWEEN & if you like that one, there's a sequel, DARK VICTORY.

22:22 / 16.06.05

No, no, no. Sale is great, but Loeb is rubbish.

Batmans I have enjoyed:

Any Frank Miller, obvs.

Ahhh. The Rucka one has really nice duotone art (Martinbrough, iirc) and covers. That's good.

I've read one volume of B&W, which was excellent.

Planetary/Batman had a good look at some Batman types.

01:30 / 17.06.05

I liked Batman: The Killing Joke, even though the story's writer, Alan Moore, hates the living crap out of it.

I also like Arkham Asylum: a serious house on serious Earth. Alan Moore hates that one, too.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:11 / 17.06.05

I like Dixon's Nightwing too, although I know it's fashionable round these parts to attack Dixon for his politics and recently shitty comics.

Is it really fashionable? Is that why people do it? Because it's in fashion and they want to be in fashion? Or do they do it because they actually have come to the conclusion themselves that Dixon's politics and comics are shitty?

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:02 / 17.06.05

Actually, I am now committed to defending Chck Dixon's comics, precisely because it so politically correct and fashionable to criticise him. I believe this to be ironic.

Haus of Mystery

11:52 / 17.06.05

it astounds me that you can publish any kind of stories you want trashing the USA and be lauded as "daring." But portray terrorists as the animal scum they are and you're dragged over the coals.”

What's not to love?

11:59 / 17.06.05

Fashion victim.

12:17 / 17.06.05

Nice! Thanks for the recs!

I think my local library might actually have most of these - they have an astounding collection of graphic novels and trades. I'll go and take a look.

Woo hoo, Batmantastic!

13:14 / 17.06.05

make fun of my syntax all you want, but remember that I also wrote:

>> Totally fair [to criticize him], I don't like Dixon's politics either, nor his recent shitty comics [I would say that includes all his work ever since he stopped writing Batman DC stuff about 6 years ago - and I felt even his Batman stuff got stale & crappy in his final year at DC, although his recent Nightwing Year One was decent, althought not as good as his former DC stuff ,IMO], but back in the day, he was writing solid Batman.

and I stand by that statement [with clarifications so you all can see that I too don't like Dixon's politics and said it was 'totally fair' to criticize him for such, and some expansion on my thoughts of the quality of Dixon's work recently].

Anyway, on topic, I really like Shawn Martinborough's art on the Detective Rucka run.

Was trying to think of other good Batman stuff that's in paperback, and it's surprisingly hard to think of --- there are lots of mediocre Batman paperbacked stories out there, but not a lot besides the ones we've mentioned here that I think are exceptional. You know, there are a lot of stories that hit all the major Batman marks, themes, tone, etc., but not a lot of Truly Great Batman stories.

I did enjoy the Thrillkiller Elseworld seriers; thought that was one of the better Elseworlds series (written by...Chaykin, I think? And definitely painted by Dan Bereton)

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:26 / 17.06.05

I wasn't making fun of your syntax. I was asking if you thought the reason people slagg off Dixon is because it's fashionable.

Do you?

13:30 / 17.06.05

Nope, I honestly don't...I just notice that last time this came up, no one else thought Dixon's 80s/90s Bat-material was good and I got the sense that no one was separating the quality of that work from his twisted conservative political views and last several years’ worth of crap comics.

13:57 / 17.06.05

Where's the Denny O'Neill love?

Batman: Tales of the Demon

There are also some related Mike W. Barr stories, of varying quality:

Batman: Son of the Demon
Batman: Bride of the Demon
Batman: Birth of the Demon

14:25 / 17.06.05

mentioned up above (Tales of the Demon).

I guess the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers paperback is pretty decent too, although some of it seems a bit dated to me.

14:29 / 17.06.05

The Batman: Son of the Demon graphic novel is notable for Bats and Talia having a child - but this is pre-Crisis and was treated as nonexistent after the Crisis. Would be fun to see Bats' kid return via Hypertime or something like that.

14:39 / 17.06.05

The recent Greg Rucka/Klaus Janson Ra's al Ghul miniseries, collected in paperback, was ok too - featured Ra's final (?) "death" and introduced another daughter of Ra's, an evil psycho named Nyssa. There's a nice bit in the story where Bruce gets a visit with the spirits of his dead parents, courtesy of Ra's (as a bribe to get Bruce to stop destroying Ra's Lazarus Pits).

15:06 / 17.06.05

Bruce's kid with Talia appears in Kingdom Come.

15:29 / 17.06.05

D'oh! Of course he does - totally forgot about that. Then he shows up again in the Kingdom one-shots in the not-so-great follow-up KINGDOM event (his name is Ib'n Al-Fuscach or something like that, which is "Son of the Demon" and he ends up dating the daughter of Nightwing and Starfire).

20:56 / 17.06.05

Actually, it's "Son of the Bat". But I'm guessing you just had a thinko

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

04:44 / 18.06.05

He only shows up a few times, but I quite like the portrayel of Batman, and the overall writing, of Rucka's "Gotham Central". There's this one scene in the second trade, I won't spoil it, but...man. You just get this look at the Bat through the eyes of regular folks, and you realize just how uncanny and supernatural he really can make himself seem.

"Killing Joke" is a GREAT book.

I know a lot of folks don't like it, but I'm a bit partial to "No Man's Land". Then again, as many know I'm a HUGE Oracle fan, and love to see Babs get a good portion of screen time.

"Murderer" and "Fugitive" gave some really nice peaks into Bruce's psychology. You really get to realizing just how much he has adopted the Batman as his true identity, and Bruce Wayne literally is just an alter ego...an identity he wears because its useful and convenient.

14:52 / 18.06.05

yep, Mario, thanx, that was another mental glitch on my part.

I rather like the Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle runs on Detective Comics and Batman from the late 80s, but these are not collected in paperback anywhere.

16:20 / 18.06.05

'Batman Year Two'
A decent graphic novel, I believe the artwork is early McFarlane, so it's pretty good.

Jake, Colossus of Clout

19:38 / 18.06.05

I really enjoy the Englehart Batman stories from the '70s- collected in trade as Strange Apparitions, I believe. Easily the best non-Denny '70s Batman. Also, the Matt Wagner Legends of the Dark Knight run featuring my fave bat-baddy Two-Face (called Faces, it is available in trade)was great, as was Batman/Grendel. I love Matt Wagner.

20:22 / 18.06.05

Anti-topical I know but having asked a sales assistant in a comic book shop once for a good Batman TPB I was recommended Hush. I should have been more discerning or at least thought the enthusiastic description of it as having "all the batman villains in it and superman" and being "really cool" to be more than a little suspect. So in short as x-himy said avoid Hush at all costs.
Seconding Arkham Asylum also, the style of art can obscure the storytelling a little sometimes but (I) found it to be very enjoyable, dark, comic at times with an interesting premise and a reasonably good story.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

21:30 / 18.06.05

'Batman Year Two'
A decent graphic novel, I believe the artwork is early McFarlane, so it's pretty good.

This may be threadrot, but I'd like to argue that one. I personally found Year Two almost unreadable, in that the artwork was painful in a "looks-retro-but-all-the-characters-look-identical", the writing was, as I remember it, unspeakably bad, with a depressing reliance on sort-of-puns on the villain's name ("...and then, all Gotham will learn to...FEAR the REAPER!"), and really, really ugly character design on said villian. Whatever you do, don't spend any money on it...

His name's the Reaper, and he makes people afraid (like Batman), and it's like the Blue Oyster Cult song, DO YOU SEE, and he wears a skull mask and has scythes for hands. Because he's the REAPER. DO YOU SEE?!!?!!1!!

23:53 / 18.06.05

The only thing worse than Year Two's shameless cashing in of Year One is Full Circle, in which The Reaper's costume is stolen and worn by the son of Joe Chill. So incredibly stupid, all the way around.

Skip Year Two and just rent Mask Of The Phantasm. That was the better Reaper.

00:20 / 19.06.05

Grant and Breyfogle's stuff was fantastic - they should collect it. That was the Batman (with Jim Apro on art on the Batman book) that I remember most from being a young'un.

I know it's not strictly a Batman book, but his appearence in Swamp Thing was great. Isn't there a collected Alan Moore's Batman book - he did a good Annual once with Clayface (think that was Breyfogle's art) and a Penguin story.

Page: (1)2