Ok, new guy here, who needs a little help...

[NoWareMan9]

Hey everyone....

I am just getting back into reading/collecting, and I need a little help.

I am trying to read in as much of an "order" as I can. I realize this will be almost impossible, but I was hoping if I listed what I owned, that you guys/gals could help me put them in an order, and also recommend what I should be targeting to help fill in the gaps.

Here goes (and please remember I am just getting started)

Year One (Currently Reading)
Year Two (I have read this before, and it is currently missing somewhere in my house)
The Killing Joke (Same as Year Two.... have read/cant find)
Hush 1
Hush 2
Contagion
Going Sane
Monster Men
Night Cries
Superman Batman : Public Enemies
Dark Knight Returns

I also own (and can't find) parts of A Death in the Family.... but I think I want to just pickup the book and have the complete story.....


I am almost finished with Year One, and I believe my current plan is to pickup and get The Long Halloween and Dark Victory and make those the next two I own/read.

But, where is the best place to go then after that.... and/or is there anything I should pickup before those?

Thank you to anyone and everyone for their opinions.

 

[The Joker]

Hey everyone....

I am just getting back into reading/collecting, and I need a little help.

I am trying to read in as much of an "order" as I can. I realize this will be almost impossible, but I was hoping if I listed what I owned, that you guys/gals could help me put them in an order, and also recommend what I should be targeting to help fill in the gaps.

Here goes (and please remember I am just getting started)

Year One (Currently Reading)
Year Two (I have read this before, and it is currently missing somewhere in my house)
The Killing Joke (Same as Year Two.... have read/cant find)
Hush 1
Hush 2
Contagion
Going Sane
Monster Men
Night Cries
Superman Batman : Public Enemies
Dark Knight Returns

Ok, with the ones you own, I'm pretty sure it would go like this:

Year One
Batman and the Monster Men
Year Two
The Killing Joke
Night Cries
Going Sane
Contagion
Hush 1&2
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Dark Knight Returns

I am almost finished with Year One, and I believe my current plan is to pickup and get The Long Halloween and Dark Victory and make those the next two I own/read.

But, where is the best place to go then after that.... and/or is there anything I should pickup before those?

Pick up Batman and the Mad Monk. It comes after Monster Men and before The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.

 

[NoWareMan9]

Ah, I didn't realize Monster Men and Mad Monk came before Long Halloween and Dark Victory.

Thanks Joker, I will pick up Mad Monk next.


What else should I keep my eye out for?

And thanks again for any and all help/advice/opinions.

 

[NoWareMan9]

Ok I just won a few ebay auctions and added some new books.

I am going to post the List Joker made, and then list the new ones below it.

Year One
Batman and the Monster Men
Year Two
The Killing Joke
Night Cries
Going Sane
Contagion
Hush 1&2
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Dark Knight Returns

Blind Justice
Haunted Knight
Hush Returns
The Long Halloween
Bruce Wayne Murderer
Bruce Wayne Fugitive 1 - 3


Again any and all help putting these into an order is appreciated. Also any and all recommendations as to what I should get next is also appreciated. I would like to buy my next few in order to complete story lines I don't have finished, or just to help fill in chronology gaps that I may have.

Thanks again for any/all help!

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Y'know, you should really read The Man Who Laughs after Year One, then go on to Long Halloween... Skip Year Two... Hush 2 is also... Regrettable.

 

[NoWareMan9]

Y'know, you should really read The Man Who Laughs after Year One, then go on to Long Halloween... Skip Year Two... Hush 2 is also... Regrettable.

So should I get The Man Who Laughs then read that after Year One, then go on to Monster Men, then get and read Mad Monk, and then read Long Halloween? (Hope that makes sense?)

 

[Wesley Dodds]

So should I get The Man Who Laughs then read that after Year One, then go on to Monster Men, then get and read Mad Monk, and then read Long Halloween? (Hope that makes sense?)

Read Year One first, Then read The Man Who laughs then, in my opinion you should go right on to Long Halloween and Dark Victory which you should follow up with Robin Year One...
Monster Men and Mad Monk are probably best read retrospectively... For whenever you're in the mood to go back to early-era Batman.. Best to leave some of it for a rainy day, y'know?

 

[The Joker]

*Slaps forehead*

How could I have forgotten The Man who Laughs? It's an amazing read. It's Batman's first encounter with the Joker.

 

[Figs]

So should I get The Man Who Laughs then read that after Year One, then go on to Monster Men, then get and read Mad Monk, and then read Long Halloween? (Hope that makes sense?)

Actually you should read Monster Men and Mad Monk before The Man Who Laughs.

At the end of Mad Monk(unless I'm mistaken) it leads into Gordon telling Batman about a murder scene involving what is obviously the Joker's work in The Man Who Laughs. People killed with a toxic gas.

 

[The Joker]

Actually you should read Monster Men and Mad Monk before The Man Who Laughs.

At the end of Mad Monk(unless I'm mistaken) it leads into Gordon telling Batman about a murder scene involving what is obviously the Joker's work in The Man Who Laughs. People killed with a toxic gas.

That's true.

But at the end of Year One, Gordon is waiting for Batman on the roof of Police HQ to tell him about some guy called the Joker who's threatening to poison Gotham's water supply.

It's best to ignore that, and read Monster Men and Mad Monk. They have more lead up hints to the Man Who Laughs. In Monster Men, Julie Madison's father is reading a newspaper with a headline about the Red Hood falling into the vat of chemicals. At the end of the Mad Monk, Batman is racing off to meet Gordon who's found a warehouse full of corpses with grotesque smiles on them, which of course is what's at the begininng of The Man who Laughs.

 

[Figs]

That's true.

But at the end of Year One, Gordon is waiting for Batman on the roof of Police HQ to tell him about some guy called the Joker who's threatening to poison Gotham's water supply.

It's best to ignore that, and read Monster Men and Mad Monk. They have more lead up hints to the Man Who Laughs. In Monster Men, Julie Madison's father is reading a newspaper with a headline about the Red Hood falling into the vat of chemicals. At the end of the Mad Monk, Batman is racing off to meet Gordon who's found a warehouse full of corpses with grotesque smiles on them, which of course is what's at the begininng of The Man who Laughs.

Exactly.

I just choose to pretend that at the end of Batman Year One, Batman doesn't immediately go looking for the Joker like in TMWL.

Kind of like how it was at the end of BB and then some months to a year later is when TDK picks up and Batman hasn't fully bothered to go after Joker yet.

 

[NoWareMan9]

Ok cool.

Thanks guys.

After year one, I will go with Monster Men, and try to pickup Mad Monk and The Man Who Laughs and read those after that.


How does the rest of what I have picked up fall into any kind of order?

And thanks again everyone.

 

[NoWareMan9]

Ok, I am picking up Mad Monk, Strange Apparitions and The Man Who Laughs this week, but I dont own them yet (so I have them with a * on the list below)

I am almost finished reading Monster Men, and plan on reading Mad Monk next.

Can someone help me put what I own in some kind of chronological order... and also help recommend what I need to keep my eye out for to fill in the gaps?

Here is my list:


Year One - Recently Read
Batman and the Monster Men - Reading Now
Mad Monk* - Reading Next
Year Two - Unable to locate/lost in storage
The Killing Joke - Unable to locate - May repurchase
Night Cries
Going Sane
Contagion
Hush 1&2
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Dark Knight Returns

Blind Justice
A Death in the Family - Unable to Locate - May repurchase
Haunted Knight
Hush Returns
The Long Halloween
Bruce Wayne Murderer
Bruce Wayne Fugitive 1 - 3
Strange Apparitions*
The Man Who Laughs*

Any and all help/opinions/suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[MasterOgami]

You can kinda fit Night Cries in between The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. As I recall, Year Two has more or less been removed from canon. Also The Dark Knight Returns doesn't really belong in a mainstream continuity chronology, but in Miller's Dark Knight Universe with All Star and Strikes Again.

The thing to remember is that as well as certain aspects might line up, its basically impossible to make an airtight continuity and you can only try so hard to place every Bat-story into one!

 

[NoWareMan9]

You can kinda fit Night Cries in between The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. As I recall, Year Two has more or less been removed from canon. Also The Dark Knight Returns doesn't really belong in a mainstream continuity chronology, but in Miller's Dark Knight Universe with All Star and Strikes Again.

The thing to remember is that as well as certain aspects might line up, its basically impossible to make an airtight continuity and you can only try so hard to place every Bat-story into one!

Yeah, I figured there wasn't a definitive "order" but I was hoping to try and keep them in as much of an order as I can. I would rather not read one with Robin (or one of the later Robin's) just to then jump back and read one where he is still on his own.....

I updated the list putting The Long Halloween after The Killing Joke, but before Night Cries...

Updated:

Year One - Recently Read
Batman and the Monster Men - Reading Now
Mad Monk* - Reading Next
Year Two - Unable to locate/lost in storage
The Killing Joke - Unable to locate - May repurchase
The Long Halloween
Night Cries
Going Sane
Contagion
Hush 1&2
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Dark Knight Returns

Still need to put in order:

Blind Justice
A Death in the Family - Unable to Locate - May repurchase
Haunted Knight
Hush Returns
Bruce Wayne Murderer
Bruce Wayne Fugitive 1 - 3
Strange Apparitions*
The Man Who Laughs*
Dark Victory*


I plan on getting Dark Victory soon, so I added it with an *.

Again, any and all help is VERY appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[MasterOgami]

Killing Joke would take place a long time after TLH/DV, closer to A Death in the Family. There was a pretty thorough chronological list of tpbs/arcs on this forum a while ago, I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[MasterOgami]

A modified version of the timeline provided by Antsman41 a few months back. I don't claim that its complete or 100% accurate, or that everything here is super-great-required-reading (I know there's arcs I'm avoiding), but its at least a decent start.

Batman: Year One
Batman and the Monster Men
Batman and the Mad Monk
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Batman: Venom
Batman: Tenses
Batman: The Long Halloween (Batman Annual 14 provides another good look at Harvey Dent's transformation, worth a look)
Batman: Night Cries (though its best to go right into DV after TLH)
Batman: Dark Victory
(The flashbacks in Batman: Year Three, 436-439, provide a much more detailed Dick Grayson origin, and LOTD 100 also has a brief but fun take on it)
Robin: Year One
Batman: The Gauntlet
Batman: Tales of the Demon
(Strange Apparitions could probably fit in this area, roughly)
Batman 408-409 for Jason Todd's Post-Crisis origin
Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Cult
Batman: A Death in the Family
Batman: Blind Justice
Batman: The Many Deaths of The Batman
Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying
Batman 455-457 for more of Tim Drake's origin
Batman: Sword of Azrael
Batman: Vengeance of Bane
Batman: Knightfall – Broken Bat
Batman: Knightfall – Who Rules the Night
Batman: Knightfall – Knights End
Batman: Prodigal
The Joker: Devil’s Advocate
Batman: Contagion
Batman: Legacy
Batman: Cataclysm
Batman: No Man’s Land 1-5
Batman: Evolution
Batman: Officer Down
Batman: Bruce Wayne Murderer?
Batman: Bruce Wayne Fugitive 1-3
Batman: Hush 1-2
(Superman - Batman: Public Enemies somewhere around here. It'd probably be a bit of a job to try and include the arcs of the Superman - Batman series though)
Batman: Broken City
Batman: As the Crow Flies
Robin: Unmasked
Batman: War Drums
Batman: War Games 1-3
Batman: City of Crime
Batman: War Crimes
Batman: Under The Hood 1-2
Batman: Face the Face
Batman: Snow
Batman: Detective
Batman: Batman and Son
Batman: Death and the City
Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Batman: The Black Glove
Batman: Heart of Hush
Batman: RIP

Now let's get to work adding, subtracting, and rearranging!

 

[Majic Walrus]

A modified version of the timeline provided by Antsman41 a few months back. I don't claim that its complete or 100% accurate, or that everything here is super-great-required-reading (I know there's arcs I'm avoiding), but its at least a decent start.

Batman: Year One
Batman and the Monster Men
Batman and the Mad Monk
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Batman: Venom
Batman: Tenses
Batman: The Long Halloween (Batman Annual 14 provides another good look at Harvey Dent's transformation, worth a look)
Batman: Night Cries (though its best to go right into DV after TLH)
Batman: Dark Victory
(The flashbacks in Batman: Year Three, 436-439, provide a much more detailed Dick Grayson origin, and LOTD 100 also has a brief but fun take on it)
Robin: Year One
Batman: The Gauntlet
Batman: Tales of the Demon
(Strange Apparitions could probably fit in this area, roughly)
Batman 408-409 for Jason Todd's Post-Crisis origin
Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Cult
Batman: A Death in the Family
Batman: Blind Justice
Batman: The Many Deaths of The Batman
Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying
Batman 455-457 for more of Tim Drake's origin
Batman: Sword of Azrael
Batman: Vengeance of Bane
Batman: Knightfall – Broken Bat
Batman: Knightfall – Who Rules the Night
Batman: Knightfall – Knights End
Batman: Prodigal
The Joker: Devil’s Advocate
Batman: Contagion
Batman: Legacy
Batman: Cataclysm
Batman: No Man’s Land 1-5
Batman: Evolution
Batman: Officer Down
Batman: Bruce Wayne Murderer?
Batman: Bruce Wayne Fugitive 1-3
Batman: Hush 1-2
(Superman - Batman: Public Enemies somewhere around here. It'd probably be a bit of a job to try and include the arcs of the Superman - Batman series though)
Batman: Broken City
Batman: As the Crow Flies
Robin: Unmasked
Batman: War Drums
Batman: War Games 1-3
Batman: City of Crime
Batman: War Crimes
Batman: Under The Hood 1-2
Batman: Face the Face
Batman: Snow
Batman: Detective
Batman: Batman and Son
Batman: Death and the City
Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Batman: The Black Glove
Batman: Heart of Hush
Batman: RIP

Now let's get to work adding, subtracting, and rearranging!

The one in bold isn't continuity I don't think.

 

[NoWareMan9]

Thanks MasterOgami.


That list helps a lot.

Any particular books you recommend avoiding?

 

[The Joker]

The one in bold isn't continuity I don't think.

The Man who Laughs? Yes, it is. It's a retelling of Batman's first encounter with the Joker.

 

[MasterOgami]

Thanks MasterOgami.


That list helps a lot.

Any particular books you recommend avoiding?

Not really, because something I might say is skippable (like...Ten Nights of The Beast is horribly dated now, not bad, just dated) someone else might call completely awesome and an integral part of the myth.

Glad to hear the list could be of use! I know its helped me out as well!

 

[margon]

Thanks MasterOgami.

That list helps a lot.

Any particular books you recommend avoiding?

It's easier to recommend the books you should absolutely read before giving a Batman comics a rest. along with with the big books like NML and Knightfall which you'll probably look at anyway eventually

Also it's my opinion that reading order and continuity aren't worth a damn. They get in the way. Alot of people like connecting it all together, me too, but I'll do it my own way it's much more fun uncovering and swapping things in and out as you go. Other people like being told what goes where and they worry about if something really "happened" or not. Where I'm thinking, of course it happened, you just read it didn't you? Just a different approach is all.

Astericks mark books I've added to the list

Batman: Year One
Batman and the Monster Men
Batman and the Mad Monk
Batman Lovers & Madmen *
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Batman: Venom
LotDK: Gothic*
Batman: Tenses
Collected Legends of the Dark Knight *
Batman: The Long Halloween (Batman Annual 14 provides another good look at Harvey Dent's transformation, worth a look)
Batman: Night Cries (though its best to go right into DV after TLH)
LotDK: Goin Sane *
Batman: Dark Victory
(The flashbacks in Batman: Year Three, 436-439, provide a much more detailed Dick Grayson origin, and LOTD 100 also has a brief but fun take on it)
Robin: Year One
Batman: The Gauntlet
Batman: Tales of the Demon
(Strange Apparitions could probably fit in this area, roughly)
Batman 408-409 for Jason Todd's Post-Crisis origin
Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Cult
Batman: A Death in the Family
Batman: Blind Justice
Batman: The Many Deaths of The Batman
Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying
Batman 455-457 for more of Tim Drake's origin
Batman: Sword of Azrael
Batman: Vengeance of Bane
Batman: Knightfall – Broken Bat
Batman: Knightfall – Who Rules the Night
Batman: Knightfall – Knights End
Batman: Prodigal
The Joker: Devil’s Advocate
Batman: Contagion
Batman: Legacy
Batman: Cataclysm
Batman: No Man’s Land 1-5
Batman: Evolution
Batman: Officer Down
Batman: Bruce Wayne Murderer?
Batman: Bruce Wayne Fugitive 1-3
Batman: Hush 1-2
(Superman - Batman: Public Enemies somewhere around here. It'd probably be a bit of a job to try and include the arcs of the Superman - Batman series though)
Batman: Broken City
Batman: As the Crow Flies
Robin: Unmasked
Batman: War Drums
Batman: War Games 1-3
Batman: City of Crime
Batman: War Crimes
Batman: Under The Hood 1-2
Batman: Face the Face
Batman: Snow
Batman: Detective
Batman: Batman and Son
Batman: Death and the City
Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Batman: The Black Glove
Batman: Heart of Hush
Batman: RIP

 

[CConn]

Don't read anything by Grant Morrison.

 

[MasterOgami]

I forgot Gordon of Gotham and Faces! For the sake of space I'll just post the section where they fit.

Batman: Gordon of Gotham 1-4 (the flashbacks anyway)
Batman: Year One
Batman and the Monster Men
Batman and the Mad Monk
Batman Lovers & Madmen (forgot about that one, not one of my favorites, but hey, all Joker origins are valid in their own way)
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Batman: Venom
LotDK: Gothic
Batman: Tenses
Collected Legends of the Dark Knight
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Night Cries
LotDK: Going Sane
Batman: Faces (approximately. somewhere between TLH and DV)
Batman: Dark Victory

And I agree with Margon, its best not to try and force it into too structured a continuity; its all myth and fantasy, and when it comes down to it one version of a story is just as legitimate as another, unless DC in one way or another says "nu uh" ...or it just outright bites

 

[margon]

Read everything by Grant Morrison