Read "Batman" Vol 3. It contains the main story. The Joker book contains all the tie-in issues of the other bat-family members during the main story.

This only collects all of the Tie in issues and is missing the main story.

You will need to buy Batman Vol 3 For the Main Story.

You will also need http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-Death-Family-The/dp/1401242340/ref=bxgy_cc_b_text_a to have the (more or less) complete version of the story. The Joker hardback contains the tie-ins while the Batman one contains the Batman issues #13-17.

Just a small PSA: if you want to get the collected Death of the Family book, there are two different ones:

• Batman: Death of the family (as seen here)
  
  
• The Joker: Death of the family (as seen here
  
  The second one contains only the tie-ins, so if you get that one you won't understand a thing.

Well "Joker - DotF" is just a collection of tie-in issues for the main story line that is collected in Batman Vol. 3.

The Joker collection is so-so. Some issues where great, but others were really weak.

Batman Vol.3 on the other hand is a great story.

This is the one you're going to want to get, but it doesn't come out until October.

Well Vol. 3 is already available.

Vol. 4 will be out in about six weeks.

Volume 4 is going to be fairly short, only collecting issues 0, 21-24, and annual 2. Then it will be several months before Vol. 5 is out.

Personally, I trade wait. I like being able to devour a story in an afternoon, rather than be left wanting more each month. But that's just my preference. Honestly, you could probably find issues 18+ on eBay fairly cheap. Or check your local comic store if you have one. Most are decent about having some back issues.

It's personal preference if you want to hunt back issues for the Zero Year arc, or wait six weeks to get half the story then several months for the second half. I'd recommend hunting the back issues if you're going to start collecting the monthly releases at issue 30. That way you'll be caught up on the story when issue 30 comes out next month, as opposed to waiting for the volumes to be released. Otherwise, you'd have no way of knowing what happened between the end of Vol. 3 (issue 17) and issue 30 until you collected Vol. 4 & 5.

It appears they are doing that with New 52. The first runs have been collected via Batman Vol. 1: Court of Owls (Batman #1-7), Batman: Night of Owls, (Batman #8-9 + assorted Bat family titles) and Batman Vol. 2: City of Owls (Batman #8-12 + Annual #1).

Batman #13-17 will be collected in Batman Vol 3: Death of the Family and its accompanying stories in Joker: Death of the Family.

Well for current stuff he may have comics, but they also have come out with action figures recently. They released Justice League set that includes Batman and Superman though you can buy them individually. Though depending on when you plan on giving it they will also be releasing more action figures: Batman, Nightwing, Talon, and Riddler. He won't have them since they haven't been released yet, but won't be out until next year. Jim Lee has also done quite a few iconic Batman and Superman covers in the late 90s and early 2000s so can always try and track them down( I think it was Superman 204 and Batman 608 that the covers reflect each other and Batman 612 that has both of them on the cover) so you can try tracking a lot of those issues with those covers and frame them so even if he does have them they are a nice display piece. Also he may have the Death of the family comic books, but they are releasing it in trade and the first printing will have a cool cover that you can lift the lithograph and The Joker's muscles and whatnot under his skin and Snyder also said he added some interesting stuff into the trade. You have a lot of options; especially for $200 and if you want to be closer to the $200 mark there are quite a few variant covers for the current run that are around that range and look nice so might be good display books to frame and display.

fuuuuck, I did not know this existed (or will exist, as it seems), although the hardcover I bought with the joker face coming off dust jacket is pretty awesome.

Yes that is it! I don't know anything about the boxed set but I wouldn't be surprised if it was out there. This is the Batman storyline, although it looks like each of the other series (Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, etc...) have trades for this storyline as well.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401242340/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_Ohxstb13K8HAG

You could start at the New 52, which is the reboot that happened in 2011. The reboot is a good starting point because there's not much necessary background information needed. Volume 1 and Volume 2 are out, and Volume 3 will be out in less than two weeks. After this, you could wait for Volume 4 to come out in May or start buying the individual issues that come out.

In the Batman new 52 series, vol. 1 & 2 appear to be out, but on Amazon vol. 3 isn't http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-Death-Family-The/dp/1401242340/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377179732&sr=8-2&keywords=batman+the+new+52

But I've seen people on this sub talking about it, how it should've ended, etc. Am I just missing something here?

I'm mostly a comic book buff and right at this moment I am reading Batman: Death of the family it's pretty awesome so far. Other then that, I also finished Thor God of thunder: The accursed, it's good but not better then Godbomb.

Nice! Just a head's up, DC collects things in weird ways sometimes. Death of the Family has two main volumes: The Joker one (which you got) and Batman volume 3, which is not in the picture. Batman volume 3 is the main story, while The Joker volume collects all of the tie-ins, with a few bits from the Batman title. I have only read the Batman volume, so I can't personally vouch for the Joker one, but I've heard that The Joker volume doesn't flow as a single narrative, but serves better as supplementary reading to the Batman volume. Batman can be standalone, while The Joker volume is supposedly best read alongside/after Batman.

Woah. Did not see this. Sort of late comment.

Okay. I am a huge comic book fan. I am not sure what you would be in to, but my strong point is superheros so I will recommend you some.


Batman Vol. 1 of the New 52 series (DC's remake on 52 comic series) is a great one, mostly because the story line is pretty amazing and batman is one of the most popular series.

Another good starter is Nightwing Vol. 1. This story follows Dick Grayson, a former robin who is now a solo hero (nightwing.) Batman Vol. 1 and Nightwing Vol. 1 are sort of tied together so if you get this, although it would be optional and you would still understand the storyline, I highly recommend you also get Batman.

Other batman issues I recommend picking up are the new 52 issues 21-29 (Zero Year) and also batman #30 (Zero Year - Ravage City) I picked up #30 yesterday and it was superb. One of my favorite issues ever. I was also recently recommended Batman Death of the Family, which is inbetween the Court of Owls (1-12) and Zero Year (21-29)

Other than that, you could try starting on another New 52, such as the Flash, Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Action Comics, Detective Comics, or Green Arrow, just to name a few.


Have fun :)



Edit: Just noticed you like dark and intense storylines, which makes this even better because thats basically all batman is (lol).


Edit 2: I would also recommend looking into some comic book subreddits, such as /r/comicbooks /r/batman /r/marvel /r/DCcomics

Edit 3: Saw this below, but The Walking Dead would be great if you like zombies, although it would be quite hard to catch up to.

Edit 4 (SO MANY EDITS): If you would like to know some other NEW 52s, I have some on my wishlist here (shameless plug)

back again, http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Vol-Death-Family-New/dp/1401242340/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid= if i found something like that, it would contain a full story arc?

21 I believe is the start of the run titled Zero Year, so they are the same thing. I'd start with 1 so you're not jumping into it in the middle. Here are some links for you.

1-6

7-12

supplemental material for the above

13-17

supplemental material for 13-17

The supplemental material isn't required to get what's going on (I'm not really worrying about it, I've only read 1-12 to this point and am waiting for 13-17 to come out in one volume), but it does help give you a greater understanding of the full story, from what I've heard.

edit: not sure why ppl are downvoting? If there's any inaccuracy in this please comment by all means.