Top 9 Bat-Writers
No, I did not forget Frank Miller.
As usual, does it really need to be said that these are from my own personal perspective?
List items
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This guy gets criminally overlooked when people discuss the best Bat-writers of the past decade or ever, and that is probably because a lot of his work didn't star Batman. There was his excellent 1999-2002 run on Detective Comics and... that is basically it for Batman as the main character. But that isn't even close to being it for his resume as a Bati-writer. He and Ed Brubaker launched the critically acclaimed Gotham Central series, which he wrote the majority of. He practically took ownership of Renee Montoya and was responsible for almost all of her development as a character. He wrote Cry for Blood, which is still considered one of the definitive Huntress stories. This is also the writer who defined the character of Batwoman. Admittedly, his Death and the Maidens story never did much for me, but that is a one little fluke out of a decade's worth of great contributions to the Bat-franchise.
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Chuck Dixon just about was the Bat-franchise in the 90s. Just look at the sheer number of issues he has written and try to wrap your head around how much of Batman's world we owe in at least a small way to him. He wrote Detective Comics for most of the decade, through Knightfall and up to almost the end of No Man's Land. With that plus over 100 issues of the Robin series under his belt, he defined Tim Drake. Gail Simone's name has become synonymous with Birds of Prey, but he is the reason that book ever existed. He established Nightwing in Bludhaven. I can't even count how many things in the Bat-franchise trace back to him.
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This was Greg Rucka's partner-in-crime right here. While Rucka wrote Detective Comics around the year 2000, Brubaker wrote the Batman series. Then, their collaboration led to them launching the Gotham Central series together. This was after he ha already launched a critically acclaimed Catwoman series on his own. The only thing that cut his Bat-resume short there was Marvel stealing him away from DC to write Captain America. He was a big loss for DC and the Bat-franchise.
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If I'm not mistaken, this is where I start losing some people, who cry foul and start complaining writers injecting political agendas and controversy into stories. None of that matters here. Judd Winick writes a pitch perfect Batman. He is one of the few writers who can portray Batman as this dark and manipulative figure without losing touch with the human being inside the cowl. He is also the only writer who can do Jason Todd any justice and one of the few who portrays Talia al Ghul as a three-dimensional character. Not to mention that he is the creator of one of the newer faces in the G.C.P.D., Josie Mac.
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Now, I'm not giving Paul Dini all of the credit for Batman: the Animated Series and Batman Beyond, but you have to give him some. That alone should get him on this list. I know I said Chuck Dixon practically gave us Batman in the 90s, but I bet a lot of people would argue that the real Batman of the 90s was on our televisions. We wouldn't even have Renee Montoya and Harley Quinn if not for the animated series, and who can measure how much it influences how various other Bat-characters were portrayed. While I personally could never get into his Gotham City Sirens or Streets of Gotham series, his run on Detective Comics is one of the best.
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Is it too early to be naming him? Maybe, and maybe I'll regret putting him on this list. But I doubt it. His work right now on Detective Comics is blowing every other Batman writer away. He gets Batman's world like not enough writers do. He gets Dick Grayson as Batman better than any other writer has. If DC isn't doing everything they can to keep him around and groom him for a bigger role in the Bat-franchise, then the editors there are just hopeless.
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That's right. A guy who mainly just writes Batgirl makes this list. It's important to understand the context here to really get why what this guy achieved is so miraculous. No one can even come close to convincing me that DC has any clue what they were doing with the Batgirl relaunch during Battle for the Cowl. Batgirl was an afterthought. At the last minute, I know they threw Stephanie Brown into the cowl and dumped the mess into Miller's lap. He took that mess and turned it into the most entertaining book in the relaunched Bat-franchise. He not only sold the idea of Steph as Batgirl but redeemed Steph as even just a character. He wrote the only Road Home oneshot that was honestly worth reading. And when other Bat-characters make guest appearances in Batgirl, he does them right. He writes them well. He is actually one of the better Damian Wayne writers.
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Am I about to actually say positive things about Jeph Loeb? I know. Who does that? Look, I'm not a fan of the majority of his work. But when it comes to Batman, I have to give him credit. Whenever someone comes to me looking for some introductory stories to get into Batman, I point them to Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Hush. And it usually turns out well. They may not be perfect stories, but they definitely work as good Batman reads.
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Yes, yes. He's on the list, as he deserves to be. His time working on the Bat-franchise has been very experimental, and that has to be respected. Still, it does get overrated by his fervent fans. More than likely, Damian Wayne as Robin will stand as the contribution he is most remembered and appreciated for, though there is a chance we may see a character or two from Batman Incorporated who manages to endure. Even though not all of his experiments work well, his obvious enthusiasm for them and the effort he puts into them really earns him a spot among the tops. It will be interesting to see what legacy his work leaves on the Bat-franchise years after it ends.
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