I am fairly new to comics. Needless to say, my favorite is Batman. I'm currently reading Detective Comics and Batman and Robin. I hopped on, so to speak, when DC relaunched everything with the New 52, figured it would be a good starting point for new readers, and, so far, it seems to be true---at least for me. Still, these last few weeks I've found myself on wiki catching on on things, different characters and what have you in the Batman universe. I've also found myself buying different graphic novels, different comics to give me a better understanding of Batman. I can say that he is really fleshed out good.

My question is do any of the stuff pre New 52 count? I've read on several sites, forums, etc. that the Batman time line is messed up. I was under the impression that the new 52 was a hardrelaunch, so even Batman's time line was new, too. So do great stories like Hush, The Black Mirror, The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween, a Death in the family,etc great stuff from the past does not count. Is this true? I ask because I was reading Zack Miller's Batman Year One (excellent work). and from my understanding that is the accepted origin story of Bruce Wayne. I am confused because Zero Year is also an origin story. Is Batman's time line wiped clean? Thank you in advance for any insight.

New 52 was a soft reboot for Batman. They haven't been clear about what counts and what doesn't but then again they've never been clear about that (Batman's 75 year history has a lot of things that have drifted in and out of continuity). You get things like Dick was still Robin then Nightwing then Batman but Stephenie was never Batgirl (or anything for that matter).

There are too many great stories to jam into a single lifetime for Batman but, personally, I don't care what is and what isn't in continuity. The Dark Knight Returns was never in continuity, Arkham Asylum, the Killing Joke, and the Long Halloween were always in and out of continuity.

Some stories are in continuity, some are not. And for some, only parts of them are in canon. Out of the ones you listed, here you go:

Hush: Not in canon since Catwoman doesn't know Batman's identity in new 52, and she does in hush.

The Black Mirror: Possibly in canon. Nothing says it wasn't, and dick was batman for some time in the new 52 continuity, so it could be. Probably won't be mentioned in new 52 though.

The Killing Joke: Yes. This is mentioned quite a few times in new 52. However, in Zero Year Scott Snyder alludes to a different origin for Joker, so the one presented in The Killing Joke (which likely may have been an origin story Joker simply made up) definitely isn't his canon origin anymore.

The Long Halloween: Not in canon. All of it doesn't completely line up with new 52.

A Death in the Family: In canon. Has been mentioned many many times.

All of Grant Morrisons work on Batman is also in canon since there was a new 52 batman inc. series that was connected to his older work. Zero Year is a new origin story for new 52 batman, so *Frank Millers Year One is no longer canon. But it is still essential reading, and Snyder used some of the ideas from it in Zero Year to pay homage.

As you can see, it can get complicated and blur the lines between what's canon and not. It can be hard to tell. The only things we know for sure are canon are Bane breaking Batman's back, Barbara being shot by joker and paralyzed, Jason dying, and Grant Morrison's batman work. For the rest, you can decide yourself if its canon or not unless it directly goes against new 52 stuff. Not all of Batman's timeline was wiped clean, but a lot of it was.

I don't think that the origin presented in Killing Joke was canon. I think that they already said that the origin that was showed in the Killing joke, is just some origin that the Joker imagined.

@black_arrow: This is true, but most people accepted it as his origin. Either way, is definitely not his canon origin now. I'll edit my post.

Thanks a lot for the clarity. Seems like the consensus is that a lot of stuff has been done away with. I'll probably still get some of the older stuff, great writing at the end of the day. I'll just have to go forward, keeping in mind that it doesn't count. Looks like I'll be buying Zero Year after all. Apart of me is confused, though. Batman and many of the characters are fleshed out so well, just to have it all start over. *shrug* I guess it made it easier for new people like me to hop on. Hopefully DC can make an explicit timeline so us fans of this great batman universe can know for certain. 75 years is a lot of story with good history. Again, thanks for the input, every one.

@jay_russ: So here is my late answer and own interpretation of the reboot.

The reboot came after Flashpoint event (which I haven't read yet). This event messed up with Flash and parallel universes. The New 52 reboot just tells what's happening in another parallel univers. As I know about parallel univers theory, is that there are an infinit amout of parallel univers each having a little difference with each other, thus same events (or similar ones) might have happened in many univers.

So some Modern age Batman events are vaguely referenced in New 52 Batman, but are they exactly the same, will they be retold ? Some did get retold : Death in the family/Death of the family, Year one/Zero year, ...

In fine, you can read New 52 without caring about pre-new 52 stories. But in my opinion, New 52 Batman has so so stories so far (at least the main Batman title by Snyder).