(Part 3) Top products from r/batman

I have previously made a post describing the different editions of Knightfall, and how best to collect that series, and about both of these runs of interest, I hope you don't mind me repeating that information. There are recent omnibuses and trade paper backs of both series', depending on what you prefer, and I will detail what is the most up to date versions in collecting these series.

For Knightfall:

Omnibus: 1, 2, 3

Trade paper back: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The 3 omnibuses contain the same material as the 9 trades. As for what to read before Knightfall, people often recommend the Legends of the Dark Knight story arc Venom for introducing the chemical substance Bane uses but otherwise has little bearing on the story (it's probably cheaper to buy digital copies of the trade/individual issues, as I believe the trade is out of print), or Sword of Azrael for introducing Jean Paul Valley, as he has a lot gong on in the background with him. (Note, there are two versions, the 1993 version which is often out of print, though tells just the Sword of Azrael introduction, or the modern 2016 version, which contains both the introductory arc to be read before Knightfall, though also containing a post-Knightfall arc for JPV). In terms of what you need before hand, I read the 2012 editions, and I felt lost without Sword of Azrael and Prelude to Knightfall. It does showcase a lot of odd characters here and there, I feel like if you have a somewhat familiarity of Batman's villains (i.e. Arkham or BTAS experience) then you would be fine.

Knightfall happens early enough in the post-crisis continuity, which helps for the purpose of being a new reader. Morrison's run, on the other hand, happens at the end of the post-crisis continuity. I'm not saying reading all of post-crisis is necessary, I mean I hadn't before starting, but it does draw a bit from post-crisis knowledge (things like Hush, Under The Red Hood, etc.), though crazily enough, Morrison made everything canon. Not in a way that not reading everything is prohibitive, more so in a way that embraces even the Gold/Silver/Bronze age Batman stories. The pre-crisis stories Morrison drew influence from are collected in The Black Casebook, but really, I never found it necessary to read, it is just interesting from a history perspective. The rest of Morrison's run is fairly easy enough to follow. This infographic describes the order for reading in trade paper back format, though if I recall correctly, they have recently started putting Morrison's run in omnibus format.

Trade Paper backs: Batman and Son (New edition comes with The Black Glove arc, too), (optional Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul), Batman RIP, then, it gets a little messy, as you might consider reading the DC wide event Final Crisis, which isn't Batman specific, but has huge ramifications for Batman going forward, but admittedly, without broad DC knowledge, can be confusing, anyway, following that is (optionally Battle for the Cowl and Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?, which are not written by Morrison, but BftC is plot relevant to Batman going forward, and Gaiman's WHttCC? is a short and extremely well made reflection on Batman) then Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn, Batman and Robin: Batman Vs Robin, Time and the Batman, The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman and Robin: Batman and Robin Must Die!. This is followed by the post-crisis Batman: Incorporated, but DC rebooted mid-Morrison run, so that it is finally completed with the New 52 Batman Incorporated volume 1: Demon Star and Batman Incorporated volume 2: Gotham's Most Wanted.

All of this (at least the Morrison parts, not any of the optional sections) are collected in omnibus editions: 1 containig Batman and Son, The Black Glove and RIP, there is a Final Crisis Omnibus, which I have heard is more complete, and there is 2 containing Time and the Batman, the first 3 Batman and Robin volumes, as well as The Return of Bruce Wayne. Lastly, there is the Batman Incorporated Absolute Edition finishing the all the Batman Incorporated stuff.

So Morison's may seem a little messier or harder to start, I wouldn't necessarily say it is harder, if you follow the list I have provided. I would recommend attempting it after a little more experience with comic Batman however, but it's hard to really say how much experience is needed. Some start with it, and have a great time. Another thing to consider is that with so much comics, especially omnibuses and absolute editions, it does get very expensive. I would recommend tackling it in bite sized chunks, like maybe just the first arc of Knightfall, or initially the pre-Final crisis Morrison stories, making sure you like either enough to commit to buying and reading more. I hope this has actually been helpful and informative, and hasn't made any of this seem too hard to follow!

No Man's Land - was originally collected into 5 trades but is being recollected into 4 much larger (including more issues) higher quality trades. Volume 1 was released in December, volume 2 comes out in april, 3 in august and 4 in this coming December. I read the original 5 volumes and it was a good story.

Heart of Hush - Hush Returns kinda sucked, Heart of Hush was a lot better.

Make sure you get the most recent release of Death in the Family as it includes A Lonely Place of Dying (Tim Drake's introduction as the 3rd Robin) which was not included in the many older versions.

JLA: Tower of Babel is a great Batman centric Justice League story. It is the inspiration for the recent Justice League: Doom animated movie but the source material has enough differences to be worth reading.

Most runs that have an overarching plot-line have been collected into trades.

Besides Snyder's work in DC and Batman, my favorite writer's run would be Alan Grant's run on the Shadow of the Bat title. It's 1-82 in the title, but unfortunately most issues were never collected. The floppies are fairly common on eBay, and the few local comic shops I frequent have had multiple copies of almost all of the issues. Also, they're available on Comixology, if you prefer digital reading.

Doug Moench's second run on Batman in the '90s was fairly solid, though there were some real dud issues. It ran from 481- 559. His run with artist Kelley Jones was recently collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones. These are some of the better issues from his run.

Loeb and Lee's run on the Batman title resulted in Hush, one of my favorite stories. Their run covered issues 608 - 619, and has been collected in multiple formats. This also segues nicely into Judd Winick's run from Batman 635-650, with a brief hiatus on issues 642-644. This was collected in the Under the Hood trade.

Paul Dini (The Animated Series writer) had a nice run on the Detective Comics title. It was a bit sporadic, but was 821-824, 826-828, 831, 833-834, 837-841, 843-850, and 852.

Both Moench & Jones and Under the Hood has plenty of Black Mask action. In the Moench trade, Batman is hunting down Black Mask after the events of Knightfall. In Under the Hood, Black Mask has become one of the top gang bosses in Gotham.

There have been plenty of other great runs, but these are fresh in my mind, as I just finished Moench's complete run a few days ago.

I just read through Morrison's whole run, and the issue you're looking for is actually in a one-shot called "Batman: The Return". This issue is collected in Vol. 3 of Morrison's B&R run, "Batman & Robin Must Die! I gotta say, if you want to read Batman Inc., you really should read the rest of Morrison's run first, or you really won't get his full Batman run. I highly recommend getting the optional collection called Batman: The Black Casebook as well, it collects a lot of the silver age stories that Morrison was inspired by. Final Crisis isn't necessary and won't really enhance the run, but it does have a pretty big moment of it. Feel free to PM me for more details about his run! Also, as a bonus, here's a picture of his whole run that I took for the /r/comicbooks swag bag Friday a while back!

That's a really good list! The only additions I'd make are Detective Comics 871-881. That's just before New 52 and was Scott Snyder's first job at writing Batman. It's completely optional and the stories don't really have much significance in the big picture. But it's Snyder's first Batman stories featuring Grayson as Batman!

It's collected in Batman: The Black Mirror

[EDIT] AH I totally forgot. If you are going to read Morrison's run...that's the perfect opportunity to read Heart of Hush. It's set before Final Crisis (So read it before Final Crisis) and focuses heavily on the Batman-Catwoman relationship, Hush's past, and was written by BTAS scribe Paul Dini. He also wrote 'Streets of Gotham' that has some Damian stuff in it too. Again, all of this is optional if you just wanna get the Morrison stuff, but 'The Black Mirror' and 'Heart of Hush' are amazing Batman stories that happen during Morrison's run.

Oh, one more thing.

This and this come before the Death of the Family arc (13-17). They have gotten mixed reviews from what I've heard, and I honestly can't say if they're essential to understanding Death of the Family, but it's good to know, since Batman #13 picks up from the end of this Detective Comics arc.

Hope that helps! Again, if anyone who's actually read this material (I haven't yet) who might know a bit better wants to chime in, please do!

Also, highly recommend novelization by Greg Rucka https://smile.amazon.com/Batman-Mans-Land-Greg-Rucka/dp/0671038281/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=no+man%27s+land+batman&qid=1565374354&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-7

It is out of print, but used copies are available cheap. Also, Kingdom Come novelization by Eliot Maggid is also excellent from around same era. They were both nice compliments to the comic versions.

For No Man's Land, maybe read http://www.amazon.com/Batman-No-Mans-Land-Vol/dp/1401232280 and then vol2 and 3?

Bonus: An issue titlted "Spiritual Currency" in No Man's Land also has a small substory featuring Killer Croc and Zasz.

For Knightfall, I think the first part is the main one in my opinion. The second part is good, but the first part is where all the great stuff is (especially if you want to focus on the villian).

Also, for Red Hood, check out

1. Under the Red Hood (The animated film is great and worth a watch. I would even recommened it over the actual comic)
   
   
2. Arkham Knight (the video game). (This suggestion could fall under scarecrow's category too).
   
   Finally also check out the Court of Owls storyline.

Alright, so I just dug out my copy and based on your description, that is indeed the book you are looking for. As for other books about the movie, I am not sure. I know there is a novelization and a comic based on the movie.
If your boyfriend likes Batman and the gadgets in general, I would suggest DK's Batman Guide: http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Ultimate-Guide-Dark-Knight/dp/0756611210/ref=cm_lmf_tit_10

There is also the Batman Encyclopedia which is also really awesome. I have spent countless hours randomly flipping to a page and reading: http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Batman-Encyclopedia-Robert-Greenberger/dp/0345501063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416840409&sr=8-1&keywords=Batman+Encyclopedia

You can also find some prop replicas floating around. I know I have an '89 Batarang in my collection and it wasn't that much. This is a folding variant that is a little pricey, mine is non-folding and was a third of the price: https://www.etsy.com/listing/184153497/batman-89-batarang-folding-2-sided

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Get the Greg Rucka novelization of No Man's Land. It's a much better story, if you don't mind a book without any artwork, aside from a killer map of Gotham. The comic arc is good, but it gets bogged down with side stories that don't go anywhere, just to fit in some of the rogues gallery. The novel cuts that stuff out.

https://smile.amazon.com/Batman-Mans-Land-Greg-Rucka/dp/0671038281/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1550960147&sr=8-12

Also, there were two PF one-shots released in 1995 to promote "Batman Forever", one with Riddler and one with Two-Face, and they ended up being AWESOME. The Riddler one is called "The Riddle Factory", and the Two-Face one is "Crime and Punishment". They're super cheap, too.


Edit: Noticed you need more Elseworlds, too. Check out Gotham by Gaslight, Red Rain, & Holy Terror.

Batman and the Monster Men and its sequel, Batmand and the Mad Monk. These are both really, really good and don't have a lot of the more 'tragic' elements of Batman. Plus there's a solid love interest in there as well that actually serves the plot

From Batman: What Ever Happened To The Caped Crusader?
>"I'm the Batman, I protect the city. I rescue people. I investigate crimes. I guard the innocent. I correct the guilty. And I GET it. I mean I REALLY get it. The end of the story of Batman is he's DEAD. Because in the end the Batman dies. What ELSE am I going to do? Retire and play golf? It doesn't work that way. It CAN'T. I fight until I drop. And one day, I WILL drop. But until then, I FIGHT."

The image

From Batman Year One
>"Ladies. Gentleman. You have eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. It's spirit. But you're feast is nearly over. From this moment on -- none of you are safe.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|Spain|www.amazon.es||
|France|www.amazon.fr||
|Germany|www.amazon.de||
|Japan|www.amazon.co.jp||
|Canada|www.amazon.ca||
|Italy|www.amazon.it||
|India|www.amazon.in||
|China|www.amazon.cn||




To help donate money to charity, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

Try The Cult (a personal favorite), Shaman (a pre-Year One origin story), Dark Moon Rising (Batman's first encounters with the paranormal; Monster Men and Mad Monk together), and the Black and White TPBs (a collection of stand-alone one shot stories by the best of the best artists and writers in the industry). The Long Halloween is required reading.

There's a book that is like a novel of No Man's Land, it's pretty good. That would work if you just want the story.

I LOVE Doug Moench and Kelley Jones' run on Batman. Really makes me feel like kid reading it.

If you're interested.

Thank you for your response! I've heard really good things about the Court of Owls. So the link that you provided is the first story arc and I'm guessing this is the second?

https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Scott-Snyder-Greg-Capullo/dp/1401271472/ref=pd_sim_14_10?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1401271472&pd_rd_r=XJMJD2WA16PW7Y6FJ3SG&pd_rd_w=Vo3be&pd_rd_wg=JlIlb&psc=1&refRID=XJMJD2WA16PW7Y6FJ3SG

How do these differ from the Absolute Court of Owls collection?

https://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Batman-Court-Scott-Snyder/dp/1401259103/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496239714&sr=1-1&keywords=Absolute+Court+of+owls

Happy birthday.

My personal favorite is not on your list.

Batman Noel

Looks like Amazon has a copy for $13.99 at the moment. Better grab it! https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Mad-Monk-Matt-Wagner/dp/1401212816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465581561&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+mad+monk

Batman Encyclopedia (NOT a list of stories):
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Batman-Encyclopedia-Robert-Greenberger/dp/0345501063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+encyclopedia&pebp=1422692629398&peasin=345501063

Another Batman Encyclopedia:
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Comic-Book-Heroes-Original/dp/1401213553/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-5&keywords=batman+encyclopedia

The DC Encyclopedia:
http://www.amazon.com/DC-Comics-Encyclopedia-Updated-Expanded/dp/0756641195/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-7&keywords=batman+encyclopedia


Batman: The World of the Dark Knight (has overview entire run, plus story synopsis for some stories)
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-World-Knight-Daniel-Wallace/dp/0756692490/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1422692616&sr=8-3&keywords=batman+encyclopedia

I don't particularly recommend any of these books, but you kept saying that word encyclopedia so, well, those three may interest you.

You can find Sword of Azrael on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Sword-Azrael-Prelude-Knightfall/dp/156389100X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376855000&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+sword+of+azrael

I bought it and read through it recently and honestly found it to be pretty boring though.

There's the entire Red Hood and the Outlaws from the New 52.

The book Batman:Under the Red Hood, as well as the matching movie, are also good ones.

It's basically A Christmas Carol starring Batman. Amazing artwork. Amazon link.

There was a special edition Court of Owls Box Set Available at my Comic store for 25 bucks. I would check your local store.

Edit: It's right here on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Court-Owls-Mask-Book/dp/1401242855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380855340&sr=8-1&keywords=court+of+owls

read the sword of azrael, nice art and background story for jean paul. Dick Grayson is taking care of his own city by then as nightwing, so bruce decided not to bother him.

try also reading Venom and Prodigal. Venom is slightly connected to Bane origin, and in Prodigal, DG gets the mantle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/156389100X

If you're looking for the original appearance of Zur En Arrh, check out the Black Casebook TPB collection put out somewhat recently. It collects all the Golden age Batman comics Morrison refers to in his RIP run.

Batman Noel is a graphic novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Noel-Lee-Bermejo/dp/1401232132/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409319018&sr=8-1&keywords=Batman+Noel

It's a self contained story and is not part of the New 52.

Hey everyone if you want to preorder it here is the amazon link.

Amazon links. it's generally 2 separate books

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Monster-Men-Matt-Wagner/dp/1401210910/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401212816/

I'm really fond of the tremendously underrated Penguin: Pain and Prejudice

Under the Red Hood is another masterpiece that really highlights how Black Mask can be an A-List villain.

There really are so many though.

Do yourself a favor and read the novelization of No Man's Land by Greg Rucka. [Here] (http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Mans-Land-Greg-Rucka/dp/0671774557/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410936281&sr=1-1&keywords=batman+no+mans+land+novel)

I've read the novel but not the comic so im not sure if they are close.
Going to end up reading the comics anyway though.

Check out The Black Mirror, it's a great book and more ontopic it actually addresses the issue.

Dick builds a huge crime lab for GCPD to use but they basically refuse out of pride.

The Essential Batman Encyclopedia?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0671038281/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1520204758&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=no+mans+land+rucka&dpPl=1&dpID=416E0WTFMSL&ref=plSrch

You can buy this book for only 7.98 on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Knightfall-Dennis-ONeil/dp/0760754381/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454252749&sr=1-5&keywords=batman+knightfall

This One.

I'm guessing you mean the series by Moench and Dixon, not the one by Rucka?

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Battle-Cowl-Tony-Daniel/dp/1401224172 ?

Batman: The Black Mirror, Dark Victory, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Heart of Hush, Prey, Trinity

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Whatever-Happened-Caped-Crusader/dp/1401227244

Batman - Under the Hood

You don't really need to, it is the first issue of this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Batman-Detective-Comics-Faces-Death/dp/1401234674/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=


The Detective Comics Series and Batman ran side by side but the stories remain separate.

$18.17 on Amazon

Couldn't he also get the DotF tpb and the joker dotf books to cover everything in the arc?

They have box sets: https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Scott-Snyder-Greg-Capullo/dp/1401271472/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526269243&sr=1-9&keywords=batman+zero+year

Is this it? In its entirety?

https://www.amazon.com/Batman-Sword-Azrael-Prelude-Knightfall/dp/156389100X

I'm trying to find the complete Knightfall saga in one book. Can't seem to find anything, the only one I found is here I'm not sure if it's the whole thing though, doesn't give that great of a description.

The Batman Volumes are the main storyline (Batman issues). The Night of Owls and Joker: Death of the Family are collections of the side stories provided by the Bat Family titles (Nightwing, Batgirl, etc). I would purchase the volumes first, and then if you want the full picture/additional stuff, grab the side story collections.

The Joker having his face cut off was Detective Comics #1. You could grab Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death, collects issues #1-7, or if you just want the one issue, see what you can find on ebay (unless you are a collector and you really want that #1 issue, I suggest going with the TPB from amazon).

Good choice.
I'd also recommend (in no particular order):

• [Year One] (http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Year-One-Frank-Miller/dp/1401207529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405986279&sr=8-1&keywords=batman+year+one)
  
• Joker
  
• Arkham Asylum
  
• The Dark Knight Returns
  
• The Killing Joke
  
• Knightfall
  
• The Long Halloween
  
• No Man's Land
  
  Aaand...that's it...those are all the Batman comics I've read. *sob*

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.

• Court of Owls Volume One (Batman #1-#7)
  
  
• City of Owls Volume Two (Batman #8-#12)
  
  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:
  
  
• Detective Comics #1
  
• Death of The Family (Batman #13-#17)
  
  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.
  
  
• The Joker: Death of the Family
  
  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!

If you want the lead up to his death too, you need the whole Morrison run.

http://comicsastonish.com/2012/01/04/a-readers-guide-to-grant-morrisons-batman/

If you want some amazon links:

Batman: Batman and Son

Batman R.I.P.

Batman: Time and the Batman

[Final Crisis] (http://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-New-Grant-Morrison/dp/140124517X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422589571&sr=8-1&keywords=final+crisis) Somewhat optional

Battle for the Cowl Also optional

Batman & Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn

Batman & Robin, Vol. 2: Batman vs. Robin

Batman & Robin, Vol. 3: Batman & Robin Must Die

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

Batman Incorporated

Batman Incorporated Vol. 1: Demon Star (The New 52)

Batman Incorporated Vol. 2: Gotham's Most Wanted (The New 52)

I think Knightfall and No Man's Land are the best. Here are some other novels available though:

Batman: Dead White

Batman:Inferno

Batman: Fear Itself

Batman:Rise of Sin Tzu (novelization of the game based on the animated series)

Batman: The Stone King

And here are some Justice League/ DC Universe novels that feature Batman:

Enemies and Allies

JLA: Exterminators

Helltown (Also features The Question)

Inheritance

Damian dies in Issue #8 of Batman, Inc which was published Feb 27, 2013 in the New 52.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Incorporated#The_New_52

It was TOTALLY RETARDED for DC to publish such a huge and important event in a spinoff series instead of the main Batman series. They literally confused EVERYONE with that bullshit and its the kind of thing that both DC and Marvel do on a regular basis.

This collected volume covers 1-8 and has what you are looking for:

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Incorporated-Vol-Demon-Star/dp/1401242634

And

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Incorporated-Vol-Gothams-Wanted/dp/1401246974/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420752715&sr=1-2&keywords=batman+incorporated

Damian's death is in Volume 2.

One last bit: His resurrection is detailed in the one shot, Robin Rises, Alpha and Omega:

http://www.dccomics.com/comics/robin-rises-alpha-2014/robin-rises-alpha-1
http://www.dccomics.com/comics/robin-rises-omega-2014/robin-rises-omega-1