Reddit reviews Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year- Secret City (The New 52) (Batman: The New 52)

There actually is a recent comic book story featuring the Riddler. It doesn't really go into depth into his origins, but is a great read and shows a lot about his character.

Batman: Zero Year Part 1 and Part 2/3

It's a retelling of Bruce's first year as a vigilante. And features the Red Hood, Dr. Death, and the Riddler. The Riddler takes over Gotham, claiming to do it to make the citizens smarter, but is really doing it to prove that he is the smartest man in the city. This is as cool as the Riddler will ever get.

Right, basically some of these rely on pre New-52 continuity until stated otherwise. All volumes referred to below will be New 52 unless otherwise stated. That being said...

11-7 years ago: The Zero Year storyline by Scott Snyder currently running throughout the Batman title had a series of backups detailing Bruce's training (in current continuity). This is covered in Batman Vol 4.

Also see Batman and Robin Vol 1 which I believe covers Bruce's Ninja training, though only in flashbacks.

6 Years Ago: You're in luck for this one. The current, in continuity take on Batman's first year is being told in the current Batman title. It's a 12 part story called Zero Year, dealing with Bruce crafting the persona, meeting the Red Hood, Riddler etc. It's in progress at the moment and well worth a look. The volume referred to above is the first part, and the entire storyline has great art by Greg Capullo.

6 Years Ago: Batman's first encounter with the Justice League is found, naturally enough in Justice League Vol 1.

However, Superman and Batman's first encounter was detailed in, again naturally enough, Batman/Superman Vol 1

Dick Grayson's time as Robin can be found in the zero issue of Nightwing.

4 Years Ago: Batgirl's zero issue.

3 Years ago: I'm actually kind of week on this one in current continuity. Jason's death and return are here.

2 Years Ago: Read Tim Drake's new, bad origin in Teen Titans #0 or the most recent issue of Secret Origin, I think it was #3. They both tell roughly the same story. That story is bad.

1 year ago: Going to have to go out of continuity, as I'm nearly sure the founding of Batman Inc. is only covered in the pre New-52, as part of Grant Morissons Bat saga. The first volume is here, but you really need to look up everything else that preceded it, see below. This also goes for dead Batman being replaced by Dick Grayson, which is recounted in Batman and Robin, first series, Vol 1.

The origin of Damien, however, is handily recounted in Batman and Robin #0. This is in New 52 continuity.

Now: Woo! Nearly there. Breathe. So the Court of Owls story basically starts in Batman #1 pretty much, and can be found here.

Batgirl's return to superheroics can be found here, in Batgirl Vol 1. Barbara is still only just reacclimating to life as Batgirl as the series begins.

Joker removes his face in, maybe one panel or so in Detective Comics #1.. Spoiler, issue's shit. Get Snyder Batman instead.

Joker returns, sans face in Batman Vol 3, Death of The Family.. That link contains only the main story told in Batman, but it tied into several Bat-Titles as well. The HC contains these, though the quality varies a bit, IMO.

Tim forms the Teen Titans in Teen Titans Vol 1.

Again, not sure, but I think the Anti-Fear stuff was in Dark Knight.

Happy Reading!

NANANANANANANANA BAT-EDIT: I am by no means a Batman authority, I read nearly all of these, but feel free to correct or append if you are more knowledgeable. Bonus sassy batman

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.

Good pick-ups. Enjoy your read through. Also, Batman Vol 4: Zero Year- Secret City is available in hardcover already, with paperback dropping in just under a week, if you want to keep it rolling.

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.

It looks like it'll be released into 2 volumes, hardback and paperback.

Batman Vol. 4 is #21-24, #0 and Batman Annual #2


Batman Vol. 5 is #25-31. Comes out in Oct. 2014