Reddit reviews Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls (The New 52)
We found 21 Reddit comments about Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls (The New 52). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Batman Vol 2 The City of Owls The New 52
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401235425/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_cVdEub0W460ZK
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401237789/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_aWdEub1Y4A0Q0
Vol. 1 & 2
For Court of Owls, you only need New 52 Batman volume 1: Court of Owls, and New 52 Batman volume 2: City of Owls. There is a paperback that collects the tie ins (i.e. Nightwing, Robin, Redhood, Batgirl, etc fighting during this event) called Night of Owls, though it spoils a big reveal of City, so I would read it after City of Owls. In fact, the quality of each tie ins varies, with some being really poor in my opinion, so I probably wouldn't even bother with it, there are much better books out there you could be reading. Court and City are great though, and they make the start of Snyder's New 52 run, afterwards it leads perfectly into volume 3: Death of the Family, and then volume 4: Zero Year - Secret City and volume 5: Zero Year - Dark City, and so on. Snyder's run is really great, I recommend the whole thing!
Mr. Freeze is my favorite villain and he actually has some good moments.
By far the best Mr. Freeze stories aren't comics at all, but episodes of Batman: the Animated Series: "Heart of Ice" was written by Paul Dini and set the fundamental origin of Mr. Freeze. Check it out here, episode 14.
Paul Dini also wrote a graphic novel (I don't know if it's standalone or not) called Mr. Freeze. It's kind of hard to find off the net, and I've never read it, but how bad could Dini on Freeze be? :)
Mr. Freeze is one of the villains in Loeb/Sale's Dark Victory, the sequel to Long Halloween. He is very visually interesting in the story, but not the main villain.
There was a miniseries told within Legends of the Dark Knight, I think it went for 3-5 issues or something, called Batman: Snow. It's been collected since.
In the New 52, Snyder and Capullo did Mr. Freeze in Batman Annual #1, rebooting his origin. It was pretty good, but I have problems with his new look. That issue is collected in Volume 2 of Snyder and Capullo's Batman series, The City of Owls.
Freeze was also the main villain in one of Batman: Dark Knight villain month issues, though I didn't read it.
Hope that helps!
P.S. Speaking of Loeb/Sale, they also did a graphic novel called Haunted Knight, which focuses mainly on Scarecrow and Mad Hatter. I don't know if you've ever read any Loeb/Sale team ups, but they're consistently awesome.
If you enjoyed Batman, I would highly recommend checking out the new Scott Snyder setup with the new 52 for Batman. Vol. 1 - Court of Owls and Vol. 2 - City of Owls is a fanatasic story arc that plays well with Batman (and I'm not a huge super hero comic fan).
After that it kinda went wierd, but still enjoyable.
Also would highly recommend Preacher (Careful with Preacher, as you WILL get addicted, and have to purchase all 9 volumes, but amazing story and well written with some adult humor/content btw).
Also Sandman, Y: The Last Man, and Saga all always good choices (Saga is being written as we speak, only volumes 1 through 3 are out, same author of Y : The Last Man. Fantastic mix of fantasy and sci-fi... again adult elements)
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
As for Batman, I would recommend The Court of Owls and its sequel, The City of Owls
If you enjoyed Batman Year One, the writer behind the previously mentioned stories did his own take on the Batman origin called Zero Year that draws a lot of inspiration from Year One. It's also a two-parter. First is Secret City and it's followed by Dark City
If you want more stuff in a similar style to Year One, the same writer has probably the most famous Batman story of all time. It's called Dark Knight Returns
Finally, another essential Batman story would have to be The Long Halloween It has a sequel called Dark Victory and it has its moments but it's eerily similar to the first one and isn't nearly as good.
Personally, I would stray away from events. I'm sure some are alright but most of them just pale in comparison to what the rest of the industry has to offer.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Start with THIS and THIS.
Each of these books cost around $10 from amazon, all come highly recommended:
Flash: Volume 1
Batman: Volume 1 Volume 2. This was a year long arc and both volumes are one story. The current run in Detective comics, called Icarus, is fantastic, but it hasn't been collected yet.
Green Arrow: Volume 4. Don't read books 1-3. You'll thank me later.
Green Lantern carries on from the old series, which starts here
I would also recommend the Wonder Woman series (starts here) and the Aquaman series here (Aquaman rocks now, in case you haven't heard).
I hope you have lots of fun reading and collecting comics, it really is a great hobby.
Ok so I'm pretty new here with comics and I got a few questions
First, I heard the Court of Owls books are good. So do I just read this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1401235425?pc_redir=1397560477&robot_redir=1
And this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1401237789/ref=pd_aw_sims_1?pi=SL500_SY115
To get the full story?
Also for Nightwing is the new 52 good?
Batman by Snyder & Capullo is generally the most acclaimed Bat-book at the moment.
Manapul and Buccellato were incredible on The Flash. Their run goes through Volume 5. The new team starts with Volume 6, but I can't speak to quality.
Morrison's Action Comics was the best Superman title for a while. After that, we'll skip Volume 4 because it's bad and contributes nothing to anything. Volume 5 starts Greg Pak's run, which runs into the Doomed crossover.
Peter Parker returns after a short absence (where Doc Ock inhabited his body,) and goes almost immediately into the huge Spider-Verse crossover.
Since you mentioned Gotham, I'll go with Batman. Fortunately, the New 52 Batman series is really fucking good. Now there's a whole family of Batman books (Batman and Robin, Batman Eternal, Detective Comics, Batgirl, etc.), but you'll be fine with just Batman to start with. Here's the first trade on Amazon, and [here's the second, which concludes that story arc] (http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-The-City-Owls/dp/1401237789/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1414103317&sr=8-3&keywords=court+of+owls).
Now, I'm a Green Arrow fanboy, so here's my copypasta for GA recommendations.
>[Green Arrow:The Longbow Hunters] (http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-Longbow-Hunter-Graphic/dp/1401238629/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409974410&sr=1-1&keywords=green+arrow+longbow+hunters), [Green Arrow:Quiver] (http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-Quiver-KEVIN-SMITH-ebook/dp/B00FKLSU6U/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409974439&sr=1-1&keywords=green+arrow+quiver) , Green Arrow:Year One, and New 52 [Green Arrow Volume 4:The Kill Machine] (http://www.amazon.com/Green-Arrow-Vol-Machine-Graphic/dp/1401246907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409974510&sr=1-1&keywords=kill+machine).
The Kill Machine was incredible and recent, so I would pick that (and Volume 5, which just came out) up if you go with the Emerald Archer.
As far as I know, and I hope I'm right because that's how I'm buying them, the graphic novels (Court of Owls, City of Owls, Death of the Family, and Zero-Year - Secret City) are mostly complete. There are three issues that come between Death of the Family and Zero Year - Secret City that are not included in either. To be honest, I don't know how much they contribute to any story arc because I have had some trouble finding them online. I'm waiting until I can get back home from college to try to find them in store. Amazon tells you which issues are included in each graphic novel in the description of the product.
Court of Owls
The City of Owls
Death of the Family
Zero Year - Secret City
Additionally, click here for the complete list of the issues published in the New 52 Batman so you know what is not included in the graphic novels. I hope this helps!
Edit: After looking at some other threads in this sub I found this site. You can buy a digital copy of each issue individually in case they are not included in the graphic novel volumes.
Is this it? http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-The-City-Owls/dp/1401237789
New 52 Batman Trade Reading Order
Check these out:
Trust me, this is how I wish people would have told me how to start.
To an outsider, comic books are difficult to delve into. There's so many series and you don't know how they fit into the overall timeline and you know you can't just jump into the middle. I get it :P
Let me go a step further and help you out. I'm going to link the "trade paperbacks" of each of these story arcs I listed. These are thicker books that combine the issues together, so you don't have to track down each issue individually.
Then with the Death of the Family storyline, you can go of it two ways.
You can stick to only Batman's involvement. So you'd collect these comics:
Or you could get really deep into Joker.
DC released a book that not only collected Detective Comics #1 and Batman #13-#17, but collected Joker's appearances in Nightwing, Robin, Suicide Squad, Batgirl and the rest of the whole damn family.
The book puts all the comics in reading order and trust me, Joker is much more maniacal in the total story than the small amount of Batman comics. The things he does to Harley...Nightwing...ROBIN?! So good. But you wouldn't know unless you read it.
So I recommend this. It's not for everyone, but it's a comprehensive tale that deserves to be read in entirety.
It's probably more-so a companion piece to the Death of the Family (Batman #13-#17) book, so if you consider going this route then I would still recommend reading the Batman-only arc first.
Hope I helped more than confused!
On Amazon they cost about £10, I can't remember how much they cost in Waterstones, I think it's about £13.99. For Flash you should pick up volumes 1-4, make sure you get the new volumes as there were two volumes before New 52 called Dastardly Death of the Rogues and Road to Flashpoint, and you will probably be lost if you read them. Flash changes writer after Volume 4 and it gets awful. Batman is pretty good from Volumes 1-10, however you could skip 4-6 if you're on a budget, 4-5 are a retelling of Batmans origin and 6 is just filler issues that hadnt been collected in trades.
If you go on Amazon and look at other sellers for the item you will be able to get it New slightly cheaper, Amazon sells Flash for £12.99 but other sellers sell them for about £5+P&P
The Flash Volume 1: Move Forward TP (The New 52) (Flash (DC Comics Numbered)) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401235549/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_v6zqxbMES0BZ6
Flash Volume 2: Rogue's Revolution TP (The New 52) (Flash (DC Comics Numbered)) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401242731/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_C7zqxbQHD6MBP
The Flash Volume 3: Gorilla Warfare TP (The New 52) (Flash (DC Comics Numbered)) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401247121/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_37zqxb4NHS2WD
The Flash Volume 4: Reverse TP (The New 52) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401249493/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_n8zqxbP6DZFPG
Batman Volume 1: The Court of Owls TP (The New 52) (Batman (DC Comics Paperback)) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401235425/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_k-zqxbJTPZ80Y
Batman Volume 2: The City of Owls TP (The New 52) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401237789/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_R-zqxbBWZTXE3
Batman Volume 3: Death of the Family TP (The New 52) (Batman (DC Comics Paperback)) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401246028/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_f.zqxbEBF0Z98
Batman TP Vol 7 Endgame https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401261167/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_O.zqxbM7Z5RSZ
Batman Volume 8 has only just come out so it will be more expensive and Volumes 9-10 will be out later this year
It gets a little more complicated after that.
The next arc (Night of the Owls) is a crossover. The main story is told in the main Batman book, but all the other Batfamily books did tie-in issues. So, if you are going through TPBs, you can either go with the next volume of Batman and ignore the tie-ins:
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-The-City-Owls/dp/1401237789/
Or, you can read the TPB that collects the Batman issues plus the tie-ins:
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Night-Owls-The-New/dp/1401242529/
I went with the latter because I thought it would be a nice way to survey all of the related books without buying trades of all of them. It sort of was, but it also was kind of tedious to read all of the tie-ins at once because they tend to be pretty similar and it means you're reading a lot of side issues for not much movement of the main plot.
So i should both of these? [The Court of Owls] (http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-The-Court-Owls/dp/1401235425/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382655613&sr=8-2&keywords=The+Court+of+Owls) and [The City of the Owls] (http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-The-City-Owls/dp/1401237789/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1382655613&sr=8-3&keywords=The+Court+of+Owls)
https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-City-Owls-New/dp/1401237789
Court of Owls is the first story arc in the main series. Just pick up these two books. It's just a great place to start reading some relatively new books.
Batman Vol 1: Court of Owls
Batman Vol 2: City of Owls
The Batman and Robin series is pretty good too, my personal favorite.
Check out /r/DCcomics and /r/comicbooks as well. Batman Eternal is a weekly series and it's gonna be a little price and intimidating to get into, but check out the first issue and see if you want more.