I got the itch to explore comics a bit lately, thanks to bingeing on the “I’m a Marvel / I’m a DC” youtube videos. I was never a big comics fan as a youth–I enjoyed the occasional graphic novel collection, and for a while read a few of the Vertigo titles (The Invisibles, Preacher). Never got into the superhero stuff.
I’ve always been a fan of Batman’s pop-culture manifestations, though, from Adam West to Michael Keaton to Christian Bale. As such, when I went to the comics store this time, I went looking for Batman and discovered that there are at least two comics devoted by name to the Dark Knight, as well as ones for Robin and other Bat-verse luminaries. I wound up picking up a few each of Batman and Detective Comics, and enjoyed them thoroughly.
I still don’t understand how Batman and Detective relate to each other: Are they both part of the same plot, with the same Batman? They seemed to be, but it’s hard to tell, coming in in the middle of things. Certainly R’as al Ghul made a point of calling Batman “detective” a lot in the Detective Comics. How about the other Bat-verse comics? What do I need to read to be able to follow the thread?
Well, just this week a major storyline, the culmination of a couple years worth of stuff, started…Batman R.I.P. It does cross over into the other Batman family titles, though normally they individual titles follow different paths.
I’d suggest you check out this website, and start with the One Year Later books and go from there.
I’d read The Dark Knight Returns first, then be prepared to be dissapointed with everything else in comparison.
Wait, no, that won’t work at all.
Batman and Detective are just methods of getting one of their big guns more shelf space. I’m not currently following them but I don’t believe, overall, that there is any fundamental difference. What I recommend is telling your comic shop what you’re interested in and starting with their suggestions.
I agree with this. Comic shop owners are usually very intimately familiar with the material they sell, since they tend to be run by fanboys in the first place. Ask him to show you some good Batman comics and choose from one of those.
But no, there’s no fundamental difference between Batman and Detective Comics, and normally the books don’t have much to do with each other.
As ArizonaTeach said, a new, big, Batman crossover just kicked off (Batman R.I.P) which means that now might not be the best great time to begin following a single Batman title (although I expect that everything important will happen in Batman).
You might find the paperback collections more satisfying, anyway. You can catch up on older storylines like Knightfall, Wargames, Cataclysm, and Bruce Wayne: Murderer?.
I’d suggest starting with the cartoon inspired comics, because they’re brilliant, full of mostly self-contained stories, and easy to get into. So: The Batman Strikes (which is apparently more hit and miss, but still has good stories), Batman Adventures, Batman & Robin Adventures, etc.
And Ra’s always calls Batman ‘Detective’ just like Joker will call him ‘Batsy’ or ‘Bats’
Back in March 1937, National Allied Publications started a comic book called Detective Comics. It featured general crime stories. Issue 27, published in May 1939, featured a story about a new character called the Batman. He proved to be a popular character and Detective Comics began featuring stories about the Batman on a regular basis. Pretty soon Detective Comics became synonymous with Batman (and the title was changed to Detective Comics Featuring Batman) although there were still some back-up stories featuring other characters (such as the Martian Manhunter).
Batman is featured in at least two, and sometimes many more, DC periodicals. Back when I was collecting, these included Batman and Detective Comics and at least three others. Usually, the storylines are separate, although they are all considered to be the same Batman. Sometimes, there will be crossover stories between them.
In fairness, Batman occasionally does engage in some legitimate detective work, when he’s not assaulting the mentally ill or plotting the deaths of his allies. Ra’s al-Ghul is a sublimely prideful man, so he prefers to give the most dignified and intellectual spin to Batman’s activities. Ra’s understands, as the Romans did, that it is better to sing the praises of your foes; it takes the sting out of losing to a worthy opponent, and it’s even better when you beat them.
He therefore chooses to regard Batman as a “detective,” which gives their relationship a suitably elevated Holmes-Moriarty character, rather than admit the fact that his world-domination schemes are routinely foiled by a man who compulsively dresses like a bat. Which newspaper headline sounds more impressive: “Ra’s al-Ghul Defeated by World’s Greatest Detective” or “Ra’s al-Ghul Defeated by Gotham City’s Crimefighting Furry?”
Okay, as you noted there have been a lot of changes to Batman over the years. While this week is an excellent jumping on point for people starting (I haven’t been following the books and I thought it was great; there is a bit of back story to cover in it but I didn’t really feel lost) let me touch on a few of the readily available trade paperback collects with plenty of comics in them.
These first two I don’t recommend for anything other than a historical perspective. That can be safely skipped and you won’t lose any enjoyment of the things people are reading now. They’re not very good and most of the interest in them is due to the age of the material.
With that out of the way the very earliest Batman stories are being reprinted in a series called Batman Chronicles. They reprint roughly six months of stories from the 40’s in each volume and they’re up to volume 5 at this time.
The stuff that inspired the Adam West show (referred to by comic fans as “silver age”) are being reprinted in a series of books called Showcase Presents The Batman. These are very large books with twenty to thirty issues worth of material in them printed in black and white.
The redemption of the Batman as a character started with the work of Neil Adams in the 1960’s. His work with the character is collected in a hardcover series called Batman Illustrated. If you recall the previous Christian Bale movie the inspiration for it started here. There are three volumes in this series and while they are still around they can be a bit expensive. I’d recommend skipping ahead to more modern work and then coming back if you want more.
One of the more beloved periods to follow the Neil Adams revision is Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers work. They only had a tiny six issue run but every issue was a classic. It’s collected in its entirety in Batman: Strange Apparitions. This is currently out of print but still widely available for not much money. If I was to pick an “early Batman” starting point this would be it.
And now we hit a rough patch. As far as I know there isn’t a lot of work that has been collected between Englehart and Rogers in the mid-seventies and the period in the 90’s when they started putting everything in trade paperbacks. Three vital stories stand out though. Frank Miller did two of them placing him at the heart of what people considered the “definitive Batman” for years; in fact people aping what Miller did with the character for the next twenty years has been a source irritation in some quarters. His works in order are The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. They’re kind of book ends to Batman, one about his end and the other about his beginning. I think Batman: Year One is an excellent starting point but The Dark Knight Returns only works if you’re familiar with the character.
The other person was Alan Moore who wrote one of the great Joker stories in The Killing Joke. Intended for a one off story DC comics editorial wound up incorporating it back into their storylines.
After this it becomes a bit more murky for me. I know that The Long Halloween and Hush are recent stories that have been very popular but they left me cold. The One Year Later jumping on point had some good stuff (I liked what was collected in Batman: Detective). I’ll leave it to someone who is a Batman fan to point out the trade paperbacks which feature the good recent stories.
By all means. Are you collecting sour remarks about Batman for any particular reason-- a cranky comics-themed website, or some such? Or simply in the interests of restoring balance to the universe? I could also slag off Wolverine if you like.
I actually have no idea when I’ll use it, though I do frequent a number of comic book forums. I saved it for any time Batman ever comes up in conversation anywhere, basically, and will give you your due credit!
I’d be open to hearing anybody slag off Wolverine, really.
Thanks for all the replies, guys. It sounds like, if I’m not mistaken, that I can happily read Batman most of the time without any need to keep track of all the various other comics that he and his immediate associates frequent, and branch out from there if and as I see fit. This is reassuring–to be fair, the bewildering array of what seemed to be interlocking titles is part of what kept me away from superhero comics back in the day. I will seek the advice of comic book store guys–they actually said that this was a decent time to start following Bats, what with the big Batman RIP storyline thing going on. It doesn’t especially bother me that I’m coming in in the middle of things–as I see it, comic books are much like soap operas and wrestling. Just because there was a beginning doesn’t mean you have to go back to it. Finally, while I appreciate the suggestion of trade paperbacks, and may investigate them in the future, they’re not what I’m after at the moment. If I were to get one, I’d get it, read it, and then that’d be it–when what I want is something that I can follow and get involved in. Comics work quite well for that.
