Favorite Batman Story Arcs
Just a few of my favorite Batman story arcs from the comics ranked in approximate order.
List items
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Frank Miller's best Batman story. A very dark and gritty telling of Batman and Gordon's first year on the job in Gotham.
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Instead of a dark and gritty take on Batman's beginnings, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo deliver an excellent action/adventure story depicting their version of Batman's first days on the job in Gotham. And they manage to craft a story just as good as Frank Miller's masterpiece Year One.
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Part 2 of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's excellent story of Batman's beginnings.
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Scott Snyder proved that he was meant to write Batman with this storyline. He did a wonderful job highlighting the similarities differences between Bruce's Batman and Dick Grayson's Batman.
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Probably one of the most important Batman stories.
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Easily the best of the storylines that started off the New 52. This story and The Black Mirror prove that Scott Snyder is one of the greatest writers to pen a Batman story.
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Great conclusion to a great story.
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This is a collection of some of Paul Dini's best Batman stories. Mad Love is the origin of Harley Quinn, and is also my favorite Joker story.
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Another great Joker story.
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The story arc that was going on when I first started collecting comics. It includes the introduction of my favorite Batgirl, Cassandra Cain (though that's not the only reason I like it).
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I love Dennis O'Neil's Batman stories. The issues in this collection, which features most if not all of O'Neil's Ra's al Ghul stories (including that character's first appearance), are among O'Neil's best Batman stories.
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This climax of Dini's great run on Detective is awesome. Paul Dini's Hush story outdoes Jeph Loeb's original.
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I actually got the original issues that are featured in this reprint about 10 years ago from a used bookstore. I got the comics for 50 cents each. The best Riddler story I have read so far.
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A great detective story that features the mob as well as many of Batman's famous rogues gallery.
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Another great detective story from Jeph Loeb that retells Robin's (Dick Grayson) origin.
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Yet another one of the best Joker stories that I've read. The Joker in this story is one of the creepier versions out there.
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Ra's al Ghul has always been one of my favorite Batman villains. This graphic novel contains three of the best appearances by the villain, including Dennis O'Neil's brilliant origin story for him, Birth of the Demon.
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A great look at Bruce and Damian's relationship.
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A great mini-series showing Gotham's untold history.
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Loved Paul Dini's run on Streets of Gotham. The struggle between the Bat Family and Hush is really well written, and Dustin Nguyen's art is incredible.
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Grant Morrison's Batman is a complex, interesting, and very fun look at Batman that incorporates different parts of Batman's more colorful history.
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Love this reimagining of the dynamic duo. Grant Morrison's run on this title is extremely entertaining.
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The Legends of the Dark Knight was always one of my favorite ongoing Batman series. Gothic is probably the best storyline that I've read from that series so far. A series of crimes, mobsters being murdered, share some connection to Bruce Wayne's grade school days.
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Pop psychiatrist Hugo Strange influences public opinion about Batman as Batman struggles to maintain good relations with the police and tries to figure out what Hugo Strange is really up to.
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Batman/Bruce Wayne taking the fight on crime to a global level. Picture James Bond, but cooler.
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Love this tale by Dennis O'Neil. Batman battles with addiction, a shark, and soldiers juiced up on venom.
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I loved both Private Casebook and Detective, two of the other TPBs of Dini's run. I have only read one issue from Death and the City, which was really good.
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Paul Dini is a fabulous writer. I especially love Robin (Tim Drake)'s encounter with the Joker in this volume.
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An amazing alternate take on the story of Batman.
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Another one of the best Joker stories that I have read.
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This is a very entertaining story set in Batman's "Year One" era that introduces a character named Blink, a character that appeared in this story arc and one other story arc that Dwayne McDuffie wrote in Legends of the Dark Knight.
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This is a great sequel to the story Blink.
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I've always loved Alan Grant's Batman stories, especially his run on Shadow of the Bat (these issues being the first few issues of that particular series). Here he gives a compelling tale about Batman being locked up in Arkham Asylum, as he has apparently gone too far this time. Love the way Grant characterized both Batman and Jeremiah Arkham. This story arc also marks the first appearance of Mr. Zsasz, and it's a memorable one!
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Bruce Wayne's return was inevitable. Grant Morrison's story of his journey back is a very entertaining story that's definitely worth a read.
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A story that shows just how paranoid/prepared Batman really is.
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