I’ve been a fan of Batman my whole life – or at least as long as I can remember. The animated series is one of the first things I can remember seeing on TV. My dad had VHS copies of the Burton and Schumacher films that he indulgently watched with me several times. We saw each entry into Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy together, I saw the Lego Batman Movie with my little sister, and now we have a new film released this past Friday.
I don’t want to spill spoilers here, however, so all I will say on The Batman is that I genuinely enjoyed the film, though I am certainly not an unbiased source.
Instead, I thought it would be fun to list out some comic runs that the movie most reminded me of, so that those of you who might be interested in further experiences of a Batman as presented in the film could have some places to look for it. After The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, I immediately fell into comics for several years, reading a lot of the most beloved runs of the Caped Crusader and picking up the at the time current run by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo in the “New 52.”
Here we go.
Detective Focused Runs
In these comics, Batman is pitted against a mystery with unclear answers that truly challenge his moniker of “World’s Greatest Detective.” I slot one of my all-time favorite comic runs into this category: Snyder and Capullo’s Court of Owls. It begins with a series of murders that Batman slowly discovers belie a greater conspiracy that reaches into the city’s very roots. Widely beloved, this series of comics is one I hope gets adapted into film, and I think our current Batman canon with Pattinson might be the perfect opportunity.
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween is another incredible collection following an uncertain mystery with twists and turns and several appearances of some of Batman’s most beloved rogues. I will say, personally, I prefer the art of the more modern comics, and that ended up providing some (admittedly unfair) friction for me from this particular story. But don’t allow that dissuade you from one of the most iconic runs of Batman.
Another favorite of mine, featuring a titan of the comics industry, is Batman: Hush. Written once again by Jeph Loeb but with art by the incredible Jim Lee, this story features Hush’s first appearance and includes many of Batman’s other rogues and even other heroes from DC’s universe. This comic has echoes of Loeb’s decade’s earlier Long Halloween, but finds new ground to tread and leaves everything fresh and exciting.
Against Organized Crime
A lot of the earlier Batman stories focused on his battle against the large crime families that through corruption and greed had a stranglehold over Gotham. Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One focuses on Bruce Wayne’s first attempts to strip away that rot. An excellent look at the origin of our Caped Crusader that has inspired many runs and films since.
For another more recent run, the year-long weekly series Batman Eternal features Carmine Falcone as a premiere villain, having returned to Gotham to reclaim his lost empire. This series had several creators behind it, and had a wider lens overall to focus on several characters of Batman’s allegiances. These 52 issues have since been collected in various trades and an omnibus.
Riddles, Riddles, Riddles
If the movie left you hungry for more runs featuring the most matched intellect to oppose the Dark Knight, I would recommend once again, Snyder and Capullo. In their Zero Year run, Batman is pitted against the Riddler from the jump, though Batman doesn’t know it as quickly as the reader. Nearly everything this team managed during their five year run on the Batman mainline produced magic, and Zero Year quickly became a favorite of mine.
Whatever your desire, I hope the above might provide some more Batman stories to those of you who might be looking for them. Thank you for reading, everyone! Now to flip on the signal and remind everyone he’s out there …
Ben Stovall Blog 