Hello,

I have little doubts about Batman Family quality in New 52. So I need your advice in one thing. Basically I know that whole ,,Batman" series is good and, of course improtant for Batman story in New 52, but what about other members of Batman Family? I have read few issues of other series (those in crossovers), but I'm at Forever Evil and I don't know if I should read whole Nightwing series to understand anything better. I know that ,,Dark Knight" is complete crap, and heard that Red Hood is even worse, but what about Eternal or Detective Comics? Most important for me is if series, have any impact on history. If not, I will probably read it but somewhere in future. So for example, I don't know if Eternal is important. I'm a little bit lost in what's happening in New 52 now, I had some break and now I need to catch all things again. I read some interviews with Snyder, and I don't get the connection between Eternal and Zero Year, something that will shock readers. Maybe I understood something wrong, but if anyone can clear this up for me, I would be glad. So:

-Which Batman series are good

-Which series are important for history

-When I should read Batman Eternal (after Zero Yeat, during, before?)

Thanks

Read it after Zero Year, and BTW Red Hood is actually starting to get better.

Batman, batman and robin, and detective comics are good.

Read batman eternal whenever, but it takes place after zero year.

As far as Batman books go I'd recommend Detective comics by Layman. They're not as epic or expansive as Snyder's Batman but they are fun, self-contained stories in the vein of a more mature BTAS. Detective Comics by Manapul and Buccelato from what I've heard is really good and closely follows Batman's detective roots and street-level crime.

Definitely get the Batman and Robin Series by Tomasi!

I can't really say about Batman eternal. Since it's a weekly series and spans multiple issues I would recommend waiting for the trades to get the whole story. Eternal is supposed to break the status quo of the Batman mythos but we'll see I guess. Zero year is basically a new, modified origin for Batman so you should definitely read that before Eternal and I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's a fun, bombastic take on the character's beginnings.

As for bat-family books I heard that Nightwing was pretty good and I am planning to get the trades. I've read some pretty good reviews of Gail Simone's Batgirl. Red Hood, and Red Robin in the Teen Titans is not really that good.

As for Catwoman.... ugh, I don't like to say anything negative about anyone but it is terribly written and the character doesn't even feel like Selina. Nocenti simply does not get the character.... stay away from it.

I hope that helps!

Thank you all, that helped me really much. I think I will read whole Batman series once again to the Requiem point, then Batman Inc. And after that I will read rest of Batman series to the current point, then Eternal, Detective Comics and finally rest of family in random order. Thank you again.

Should read new 52

Batman

Detective Comics (issue 13-current)

Batman Eternal (Has been very fun and likely better than something else already on your pull list.)

Batman and Robin

Any of the family titles depend on how much you like the paticular character, Seelys' Nightwing was decent and the first issue of Grayson was solid.

Eternal can be read at anytime, in a published interview Snyder said issue 34 on will be post Eternal and the weekly would tell the back story of events leading to the new staus quo. The interview was on Newsarama posted in two parts.

Some history on current events in Batman and Robin can be found in Batman/Superman 1-4 which was a very good story in its own right and the highlight of that titles run thus far.