Essential Batman

[davejames]

One of my favorite stories has always been "The Last Arkham" by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle.

[grabmygoblin]

I'd include The Long Halloween just because it's so often noted, as well as Dark Victory and maybe Catwoman:When in Rome, but keep them under a seperate heading.

actually, that'd be a smart way to do it, make the site mainly about good titles, and then include "popular, but not really that good, for A,B, and C reasons" section, and a "totally wretched" section. seeing why a good story is good AND seeing why a bad story is bad is an excellent teaching strategy.

[Bad Bishop]

I would include the new book Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of The Soul. It's the latest in the series that includes Metallica and Philosopy and Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy.

Batman and Philosophy is a collection of 20 article or essays from various contributors on all the big Batman topics, starting off with "Why Doesn't Batman Kill the Joker?" There's also:

"No Man's Land: Social Order in Gotham City and New Orleans"
"Alfred, The Dark Knight Of Faith: Batman and Kierkegaard"
"Why Batman Is Better Than Superman"

... and lots more.

You do not need a Philosophy degree to enjoy this book. Of course, possessing such a degree wouldn't hurt.

[Thespeckledkiwi]

For television shows you should move beyond just the Animated Series:

Batman Beyond takes an interesting but very dark approach to Batman:

The Return of the Joker, uncut I believe is one of the best animated features I've seen in a long time. It also picks apart Bruce's relation with the Joker at the end.

As for Batman Beyond the television show:

Out of the Past is an interesting take of Batman

Both Rebirth the series opening is also well done as well

And then you got some great justice league episodes as well...

[Reverend]

Lapis Exilis wrote:

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Oh. I only rented it so I missed that.

Shame on you. Not to matter though, I'm sure the episodes can be "found" online somewere or other. I wouldn't be surprised if someone's put them up on youtube.

Lapis Exilis wrote:

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Fabulous! I'm looking for recommendations to add to the archive or links page. Could you let me know where to find that? If you know of any other material, good authors, stories, fan comics, whatever, please, please point me that way.

The link to DKA in in my sig.
It's the only batman fancomic I'm really aware of and that's because I was the colourist and letter for the latter half of it's run. So I'm not the best judge of it's quality.

[The Old Mixer]

Bad Bishop wrote:

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"Why Batman Is Better Than Superman"

It's good to know that we have accredited scholars hard at work on supporting banal fanboy opinions.

[Bad Bishop]

The Old Mixer wrote:

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It's good to know that we have accredited scholars hard at work on supporting banal fanboy opinions.

That article may surprise you. It's really about the argumentative strategies used by Batman fans when they debate the issue with Superman fans. The writer introduces the concept of value theory on the second page, and evaluative comparisons and descriptive comparisons on the third page. The author forces us to think about what makes superheroes great, and concludes that Batman is "better" in one area (courage). All fanboys should abandon their errors in reasoning after reading this essay!

[The Old Mixer]

Maybe he should have come up with a title that didn't read like one from a thread in this forum. Could've used a colon and subtitle, that one.

[Bad Bishop]

The Old Mixer wrote:

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Maybe he should have come up with a title that didn't read like one from a thread in this forum. Could've used a colon and subtitle, that one.

The writer wanted a title that didn't seem too highbrow, and would therefore draw in the unsuspecting non-Philosophy major. The tactic worked on me.

[Lapis Exilis]

grabmygoblin wrote:

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I'd include The Long Halloween just because it's so often noted, as well as Dark Victory and maybe Catwoman:When in Rome, but keep them under a seperate heading.

actually, that'd be a smart way to do it, make the site mainly about good titles, and then include "popular, but not really that good, for A,B, and C reasons" section, and a "totally wretched" section. seeing why a good story is good AND seeing why a bad story is bad is an excellent teaching strategy.

That was more or less my thought. I know there are several books that lots of other people like but that I couldn't get through, like Hush. But I think I'm going to avoid a "Totally Wretched" section, so I don't end up ranting...

[GHS]

I'd include the Two Face Annual(?) from the late 80's written by Andrew Helfer
The Prey mini-series by Moench and Gulacy
The Denny O'Neill/Neil Adams Rha's Al Ghul storyline from the 1970's
...and that story where Bat-Hound meets Batmite. Okay, maybe not

[N-121973]

Try the recent Joker storyline from Batman Chronicles 7-12. DC have already released it I believe in hardcover. Then there's also Batman Year 2, a four part story in Detective Comics that was released straight after Batman Year 1. The art for 3 of the 4 issues was done by Todd Mcfarlane of Spider-Man fame. I'm also a big fan of the artwork of the late Jim Aparo and love how he used to draw Batman, especially for covers. In the early 80s DC published its first mini series, a 3 part story called Untold Legends of the Batman. This was a pre Year 1 attempt at telling Batman's back story. The art is good to boot. Lastly you could try the 'Zero' issues of Batman published in 1994. At the time DC did one of its periodic house cleaning exercises. They produced a five parter called Zero Hour with crossovers galore. Afterward they did issues numbered 0 designed as a jumping on point for potential new fans. The 0 issues of Batman, Detective, Shadow of the Bat and Legends of the Dark Knight were used to tell Batman's background story and scenes from them were used in Batman Begins particularly concerning the Batcave and Batmobile.

[Harvey]

Bad Bishop wrote:

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The writer wanted a title that didn't seem too highbrow, and would therefore draw in the unsuspecting non-Philosophy major. The tactic worked on me.

Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy seemed to adopt a similar strategy of eye-catching titles for more scholarly work. I've read about 60% of it so far.

[MikeGainer]

http://comics.ign.com/articles/624/624619p1.html

The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels

[Lapis Exilis]

MikeGainer wrote:

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http://comics.ign.com/articles/624/624619p1.html

The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels

That list is kinda screwy. It lists Dark Victory in the top ten, and that book was utter crap, though I'd agree with the list's top four. And the list includes Son of the Demon. Don't even get me started on what a travesty of character rape that story is. Yeah, Batman's gonna work with Ra's al Ghul while Ra's henchmen are gunning down enemies right in front of him. Blech.