Need help starting out.

Revenant

Ted Kord
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Hi I'm fairly new to the Batman world especially the literal mythos so I was wondering if anyone could help me out. Today in the mail I received a rather nice and heavy box from Amazon for my birthday. Inside are the following books.

Batman Year One
Batman The Long Halloween
Batman:The Dark Knight Returns
Batman Arkham Asylum
Batman The Killing Joke


My question is two fold

First is this a good introduction to Batman and secondly in which order should I read these?

Thanx in advance I am really excited!
 
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I'd read it in this order:
Year One
The Long Halloween
The Killing Joke
Arkham Asylum
The Dark Knight Returns.

I'd say it's a good start. It's the most popular (and debated whenever or not overrated) comics from Batman. I truly hope you will enjoy them and happy birthday dude. :)
 
I don't know that order is necessarily important except for one thing: read Year One before you read Long Halloween as it kind of continues the story (at least the characters).

Year One is a great place to start reading Batman. It is pretty much an origin story that tells much of his first year as Batman. Be prepared to not see any of the big villians (other than Catwoman and a pre-acid in the face Harvey Dent). Some of it may seem familiar to you if you are coming from having watched Batman Begins.

Long Halloween is one of my favorite stories of the last 10-20 years of Batman. It is essentially a very long telling of Two-Face's origin with a pretty decent mystery in the background.

I have recently been on an Arkham Asylum kick as of late. It goes much deeper into the psyche of Batman and his world then any other book. Its pretty intense and very different (no Batmobile, gadgets, Robin, etc.) than most other stories.

Killing Joke is one of my favorites and presents what is typically accepted as the best origin of the Joker. It is a bit of a controversial story though, because of the "current events" taking place as opposed to the flashbacks. It is a story that people generally either love or hate with few in the middle.

Dark Knight Returns is a great story about the future of Batman. I really like the story, but at times I think it is a bit overhyped. Frank Miller is great at times and others he isn't. This book does show its age a bit being very reflective of the time in which it was written. I also tend to think that it inspired much of the Batman stories of the late 80s and much of the 90s. That is either good or bad, depending on if you liked those stories. Some I liked, others not so much.

Ultimately, aside from reading Year One before Long Halloween, the order doesn't much matter. At least IMHO. Others may have different views on the relative merits of these stories. they do seem to be on most peoples' top-ten Batman stories though.
 
FDBMath is right about the order not mattering too much save for Year One, The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke since those ones fit into continuity at recognisable points.

Although not labeled as elseworlds, Arkham Asylum and The Dark Knight Returns are generally not accepted as part of offical continuity so they can be read as stand alone stories. A bit of research and understanding of the characters will help before reading them though so I would read through the continuity stories before the non-canonical ones.

What you have to start off with is a good selection but there's tons of excellent Batman titles out there. If you want to concentrate on building your collection in chronological order have a look http://www.thedcu.net/continuity/index.html at theDCU.net's continuity section. It's run by a good friend of mine and what he doesn't know about Batman and Bat-related titles can be written on the back of a postage stamp.

Happy collecting Revenant and
party-smiley-015.gif
 
Hi I'm fairly new to the Batman world especially the literal mythos so I wan wondering if anyone could help me out. Today in the mail I received a rather nice and heavy box from Amazon for my birthday. Inside are the following books.

Batman Year One
Batman The Long Halloween
Batman:The Dark Knight Returns
Batman Arkham Asylum
Batman The Killing Joke


My question is two fold

First is this a good introduction to Batman and secondly in which order should I read these?

Thanx in advance I am really excited!


Great way to start i'd say those books are my favorites. Throw in Dark Victory especially after you read TLH.

I guess I'd start with year one and by default end with TDKR.
 
knightfall-knightquest, such a great (INFAMOUS) story. Bane has a ton of depth that apparently has been forgotten as of present, but in this story he is a suppperb foil to the batmen of this arc. Jean-Paul, though unpopular to fanboys because they like their baby formula warm, is thouroughly developed as a character, and its fun to see him waylay criminals with his hardcore bat-gadgets. plus it was my "first" comic arc love
 
Batman: Year One is the best by far so if you start with it you you'll be quite disappointed with the other books :woot:

TLH must be read after Year One, Arkham Asylum is just too weird to be considered a regular Batman book.

Actually - it may sound crazy - I'd start with Dark Knight Returns.
 
I would start with Detective Comics #27 and work your way through.
 
Thanks everyone for the insight and B-Day wishes. I am going to start on Year One tonight. You guys are awesome...I expected a little flameage! I will def report back.
 
I recommend reading them in the order they were published that way your not confused if certain continuity doesn't jibe by reading them in order.

Some characters in Year One such as Commisoner Loeb don't carry over to TLH.
 
Other arcs that you should read are:
- Knightfall
- No man's Land
- War games
- Hush (its not that good, but its the origin of a new villain that we see a lot of nowadays. You should know his origin. You could read his Wikipedia page though)
- Heart of Hush (good story and Dini refines Hush'es origin and actually makes him a good character)
- Dini's Detective Comics run (it hasnt got any major events in the life of BW, but it has a lot of good stories)
- Morrison's Batman run (Batman's story in the last 5-6 years, so leave it for last, after you've read all the others. But dont miss it. Its probably the best Batman run)
- Morrison's Batman and Robin run (picks up after Batman's death. Its pure gold)
 
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Awesome looks like I have an interesting few months ahead of me.
 
Don't Forget Dark Victory the sequel to Long Halloween.Hell get Haunted Knight too if you can.
 
I also liked Catwoman When in Rome. :) The coloring was just stunning!
 
Don't Forget Dark Victory the sequel to Long Halloween.Hell get Haunted Knight too if you can.
Yes, he needs DV if he is suffering from insomnia. Poor Heath, if only his doctor had subscribed DV instead of pills. :awesome:
 
Year One is the best.

But after you run through that list (which is a great start), you should check out some of the 1970s books. Strange Apparitions is one of my favorites, and Tales of the Demon is great as well. Some of the storytelling conventions (thought balloons, omniscient narrators, etc.) have fallen out of style, but the stories are compelling and the art--especially the Neal Adams and Marshall Rogers stuff--is some of the best-drawn Batman you'll ever see.
 
Yes, he needs DV if he is suffering from insomnia. Poor Heath, if only his doctor had subscribed DV instead of pills. :awesome:
Hey guys look, we found the one Guy in the world that doesn't like DV!
 
That you'll keep reading it until it isn't boring anymore. :up:
 
Brainwashing, basically.
 
Btw, who's the girl in your avatar?
And lol at your location!!!
 
I would've told you if you liked Dark Victory. :o
 
Im suprised someone would find dark victory boring. I thought it was actually faster paced than TLH. You pretty much got to the action faster esp. since Dent had fully become two-face.
 

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