Reddit reviews Batman: Venom

There's a very prominent storyline called [Venom] (http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Venom-Dennis-J-ONeil/dp/140123383X) that deals with Batman's abuse of the same drug that gives Bane his powers

Batman Venom is exactly what you are describing.

As you said, Sword of Azrael is collected but largely out of print (though you can find used ones on Amazon for around $20). The Batman: Venom story arc of Legends of the Dark Knight is available in trade. While not directly a prelude, it does serve as a loose starting point for the Knightfall epic.

As for the Batman and Detective Comics issues, no. Not collected anywhere. I've been hoping they'd collect those issues for years now. When they announced the re-release of the Knightfall story, I had hopes that they'd also release a Prelude trade (it was the perfect time for it). But alas, still no. I think DC's missing a huge opportunity here. The new Knightfall trades are good, but you certainly feel like you're being dropped into the middle of a story, rather than the very beginning.

I have found those issues individually for relatively cheap over the years, though.

OP, Knightfall was a long saga in the 90's, and it has taken them a very long time to present even a complete collection of the saga, being (some suggest Sword of Azrael (the first being just the SoA story, but is old and may be out of print, the second being a newer edition, which also collects some post-Knightfall Azrael stories :) and Venom preliminarily, but I haven't read those, so can't comment, other than it really just blowing out and being more to have to read/buy) the nine 25th anniversary editions of Knightfall/Quest/End (which I will link below). The thing I would recommend is, get maybe the first volume or so, and see if you even like it in the first place before deciding on reading the whole thing, as it is a huge investment, in both time and money, and if you do what I did (I bought the three huge 2012 TPB's all in one go, only to find out I very much did not like Knightfall), you may regret it. Or you may not, many people love Knightfall, it just depends on taste.

As for what each story contains:

Venom: Originally told in Legends of the Dark Knight. Does not explicitly tie in to Knightfall, it's about batman's own failures and brief addiction, but Venom the substance was later repurposed to fuel Bane in his appearance.

Sword of Azrael: Introduces the character. I hadn't read it before Knightfall, but Azreal has so much just going on with the character that I found it hard to understand everything he is going through [spoiler](/s "Like, I never got that the ghosts of St Dumas, and that of his late father, the previous Azrael, were two separate entities, playing something of a shoulder angel and shoulder devil, until they both fought each other, only at the end of Kingtsqeust, because their designs are both so over the top and too similar for me, and both generally just lead to more babbling from Azrael for me to be able to engage with.")

Knightfall, the first part, comes in three sections:

Prelude to Knightfall: I never read this, as it wasn't collected for me when I bought into it. It sets up things like what Killer Croc, Riddler, Bane, Azrael where doing immediately before Knightfall. Don't know if it's good, but I was confused without it.

Knightfall - part 1 and part 2: The actual story proper, (and really my problem with this whole saga, there's so much pre-reading and extra stuff weighing it down. Not to mention, I found forcing you to collect both Batman and Detective Comics, and later Legends of the Dark Knight and Shadow of the Bat, which should be four separate titles, to be a dubious marketing practice, even more so that they all generally seemed to just be repeating each other, and comprising filler). Basically, this is the "story" proper. Bane lets loose all of Batman's villains, and he fights them all one by one. I found it to be filling for time, and more forced writing to be part of an "event" rather than actually being a good story, but for people who like B and C list characters who often don't make many appearances, this has them covered.

Knightsquest - The Crusade part 1 and part 2: This follows the events of the rest of the Gotham characters, as told from Azrael's perspective. A lot of people hate Azrael, so hate reading this part. It also doesn't help that the writing is generally bad. For me, I saw this being the only part of the whole saga that had any real meaning behind it, or any actual story to tell [spoiler](/s "That being, a demonstration of why Batman refuses to use guns, being the escalation of force that you allow yourself to see as necessary, once you already start making concessions with yourself and your morals"). Though, again, I found it terrible, because of terrible writing and terrible characters.

Knightsquest - The Search: I never read this, as it was not collected until recently, but basically, this tells you what Bruce was doing in the meantime, while Azrael was being Azrael in Gotham city. Can't comment on quality, but I guess to "complete" the story line, you would have to read it, as before now, many readers were lost on this whole element.

Knightsend: Again, I didn't really see a point to this, other than trying to make a big event out of things, and returning Gotham to the status quo. By this point, the writing really gets repetitive, as they tell the exact same stories across all 4 Bat titles of the time, but this completes the "story". With a few little postscript notes to come after.

Prodigal - Fans were mad that editorial allowed [spoiler](/s "Azrael to become Batman, and not Dick"), so this tells a story with Dick acting as Batman in Gotham for a while, with Tim as his Robin. Is it good? It is only as good as what came before it, that's for sure. You get to see Dick tie up the loose ends of a few different villains let loose from Knightfall, and then confront Two-face, as a follow up to events that I'm sure were not even told in the post-crisis continuity anyway. And lastly ...

Troika: Again, I don't believe this was collected when I bought in, so I can't comment. Many found it bland. Batman got a new fully black suit to make him look like the movies, and it really just bridges the gap until the net saga, No Man's Land.

So that was my (albeit, incredibly biased) review of the Knightfall saga. I hated it, really for how much of an undertaking it was, for a story that in the end, I just couldn't resonate with, or found to be not that good. Many people swear by it, though I'm not sure if that is the whole saga, or just the main 1 or 2 Knightfall bits. The only real way to know is to try it for yourself. There is always debate over what is "necessary" to read in comics, i.e. do you have to read in chronological order? I would recommend maybe trying just Knightfall parts 1 and 2, and if they grab your interest, then filling out the rest of the timeline, because starting with Preludes and everything before it I feel is a good way to get worn out, on stories that haven't even got to the story part yet. I hope this helps at all, and I would be happy to answer any of your questions!

Try reading Batman: Venom. It's probably the closet story to the themes you are talking about.

I own part 1 and 2 of the Batman & Robin Reborn story... and then I have Batman: Venom... and then a bunch of comics.. so I haven't read a whole story arc :P

Some extra stuff that wasn't mentioned already:

No Man's Land (1-4 + Road to No Man's Land 1 and 2)

Batman Murderer and Fugitive - The art was all over the place, but I really liked the story. Ed Brubaker is amazing!

Batman: Venom

Batman: The Cult

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Vol. 1 - one of the best Batman runs, and it all starts here!

Batman: Ego and Other Tails mostly for Ego.

Batman: The Court of Owls

Batman: War Games (1 and 2)

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I've looked into this myself as I was also impressed with these. I believe only ones that are still being printed consistently is Batman: Gothic and Batman: Venom (as far as I know, some of the other arcs MIGHT still be being printed) the rest would have to be purchased as the old used copies and they may or may not be a good price.

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Gothic-Deluxe-Grant-Morrison/dp/1401255167

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Venom-Dennis-J-ONeil/dp/140123383X

The rest are available through resellers, but Batman: Shaman, the first arc, for instance, is pretty expensive (50 bucks). On the other hand I got Faces for only six or seven dollars. So it varies.

Basically do a search for each of these on Amazon (type in "Batman [title]") and see what pops up under resellers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Legends_of_the_Dark_Knight#Story_arcs

I will say that one site I use is Better World Books, because it includes the shipping in the price and gives a more accurate price, or in the case of some of them may simply be cheaper. For example, here is "Faces" on Better World Books, that is where I bought my copy:

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/batman-faces-id-9781563891267.aspx

You want to pay attention to the condition of the book, though, as they often resell old library copies that have been donated to them. But if they says "very good" condition they are usually pretty nice copies.

This is a bit cheaper than the Amazon page prices:

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Faces-Matt-Wagner/dp/1845768620/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463203230&sr=1-1&keywords=batman+faces

EDIT: The arcs that crossedover, such as "Destroyer" and "Knightsend" and "No Man's Land" are probably also in print? I don't know.

ANOTHER EDIT: This looks like a good buy, as it has three of the arcs in it:

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Collected-Legends-Dark-Knight/dp/1563891476/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463203677&sr=1-9&keywords=legends+of+the+dark+knight

This also has three of the arcs in it:

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Monsters-Various/dp/1401224946/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=51Hs1xW2fkL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR210%2C320_&refRID=0VQQ6P6Z07X3DSYEAFED

I bet more can be found.

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Venom-Dennis-J-ONeil/dp/140123383X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372376549&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+venom