Not unlike The Batman Who Laughs, Hush is an enemy of Batman who’s visually iconic and extremely lethal, and who made a hard-to-miss entrance into the universe of the Caped Crusader.
Created by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, Hush made his first appearance during the storyline named after him that started in Batman #609 – during the Modern Age era aka the Post-Crisis era. In this 12-issue storyline, we learn his real name, his connection to Batman, and everything you need to understand his actions, but it wasn’t the end.
Hush became a regular in the gallery of enemies that Batman must stop. At least, before the start of the New 52 era. After DC’s continuity was rebooted, it took a little time before Hush was reintroduced into the world of Batman during the Batman Eternal storyline. With his return, his backstory was a little bit retconned. And then came DC Rebirth, another relaunched of the DC line. Hush briefly came back to fight the Batfamily.
If you like Hush, all you need to do is follow the reading order.
Written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo, Batman: Endgame is a crossover storyline from 2014 – part of the New 52 era. It’s about the return of The Joker after his disappearance at the end of the “Death of the Family” story arc. It’s an exploration of the violent dynamic between Batman and the Joker.
Here is the official synopsis: He is Batman’s greatest enemy, his deadliest threat, his opposite number. His bloody-minded madness is exceeded only by his twisted genius. He is the Clown Prince, the Pale Man, and his crimes turn the world into one big, sick joke. But today, the joke is over.
As The Joker plays his endgame with the Batman, citizens, villains, and heroes alike must survive his deadly antics and come to terms with who The Joker is and what he means to them.
What to read before Batman: Endgame?
Scott Snyder presented Batman: Endgame as a conclusion of the Joker story developed previously in the Zero Year and Death of the Family storylines. To know more about this era and the Batman stories leading up to Endgame, take a look at our Batman by Snyder and Capullo Reading Order.
The Joker: Death of the Family
Collects the tie-in Catwoman 13-14, Batgirl 13-16, Suicide Squad 14-15, Batman and Robin 15-16, Nightwing 15-16, Detective Comics 15-16, Red Hood and The Outlaws 15-16, and Teen Titans 15-16.
Published in 2004-2006, the Batman: War Games Saga is a Batman crossover event that spanned every Batman Family title being published at the time. Part of the Batman Modern Age (check out our reading order), the story was written by Devin Grayson, Andersen Gabrych, A.J. Lieberman, Bill Willingham, Dylan Horrocks and Ed Brubaker, with illustrations by Ramon Bachs, Pete Woods, Brad Walker, Mike Lilly, Al Barrionuevo, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Sean Phillips, Paul Gulacy and Kinsun Loh.
Taking place after No Man’s Land and Bruce Wayne: Murderer, Batman: War Games tried to be a sort of mix of those two stories, with stakes on a street level as it is an all-gang war, but still on a big full scale like No Man’s Land. It’s also an event happening when Tim Drake had given up on his Robin role and Stephanie Brown had taken his place — and for her fans, this story is simply her character assassination.
But what is really Batman: War Games about? Tensions escalate and war comes to Gotham City when Batman is drawn into a skirmish between rival gangs. As Gotham’s biggest gang battle ignites, Batman must call on all his available allies—Oracle, Batgirl, Nightwing, Orpheus, Onyx, and Tarantula—to preserve life and contain the chaos while trying to determine who started this outbreak of violence.
But all of this is not beginner-friendly. There are always too many books to track down if we just want to see if we like it or not. Everybody is not heavily invested in the Dark Knight Universe, yet. We all start somewhere and there’s nothing better than a good story to discover if we want to read more.
This article is here to provide those who are not that familiar with Batman with a list of possible entry points in his world or just some good stories to read without the pressure to complete a series or to invest too much time. The title says it all: the best stories for beginners.
But first, we assume that everybody knows who Batman is, but there are always younger people who just start to learn about those things. So, let me introduce you to Batman–quickly because we have now a complete article about his origins. Created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in 1939, Batman is the superhero identity of Bruce Wayne, a wealthy man from Gotham City who witnessed the murder of his parents as a child. After training himself physically and intellectually, he started fighting crime, masking his true identity behind a mark, and becoming a symbol of justice in the process.
Simply put, he is a vigilante but also the greatest detective and, with his sidekick Robin, he’s now facing costume villains like the Joker, Two-Face, The Riddler, the Penguin, and more. But he also has a lot of allies in his crusade for justice like Commissioner James Gordon, his previous sidekicks, and numerous vigilantes and powerful superheroes.
Some storylines are more complicated than you can think – or they just seemed weirdly confusing for no reason. In the case of Batman R.I.P., the complication (and confusion) comes from the fact that it’s connected to the Final Crisis event. This story concluded the first third of Grant Morrison’s Batman run (full reading order here), leading to a new status quo as the series was renamed Batman and Robin for a time.
Here is the official synopsis: The troubled life of Bruce Wayne seems to spin out of control when his relationship with the mysterious Jezebel Jet deepens. Soon Bruce Wayne drops out completely, having seemingly become the victim of mental illness and abandoning his Batman identity for a life on the streets of Gotham City. Capitalizing on the fall of their greatest foe, the Club of Villains begins a crime spree through the streets of Gotham that threatens to bring the city to its knees.
What to read before Batman R.I.P.?
Batman: The Black Casebook
Collects Batman #65, 86, 112, 113, 134, 156 And 162, Detective Comics #215, 235, 247 And 267, And World’s Finest Comics #89.
Batman and Son (collects previous editions Batman & Son and The Black Glove in one volume)
Collects Batman issues #655-658, #663-669 and #672-675.
Grant Morrison’s run and Batman R.I.P. take place during the Modern Age period. For more Batman’s adventures during this time, check out our Batman reading order, the Modern Age.
Since James Tynion IV stopped writing Batman, Joshua Williamson is the main writer of the series. He also writes Robin,Deathstroke, Inc., and everything linked to Infinite Frontier. This summer, he will be in charge of the Dark Crisis event, but before that he organized another crossover event in the Batmanverse called Shadow War—illustrated by Viktor Bogdanovic.
Here is how it starts: When Deathstroke assassinates Ra’s al Ghul, Talia al Ghul demands revenge and sends her League of Shadows to kill Deathstroke and Deathstroke Inc.! Batman and Robin must team up to track down Deathstroke and bring him to justice … but do they?
Expect over-the-top fights, action, mystery, and betrayal as this crossover event creates a major impact on the DCU!
What to read before Shadow War?
With this kind of event, it’s always better to be up-to-date, especially with Joshua Williamson’s writing. First, we’ve got Batman, the first story after the Fear State event, then Damian Wayne in Robin (see Damian Wayne Reading Order for more info), and Deathstroke in the new Deathstroke, Inc. series.
Do you really need an introduction? Created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in Detective Comics #27 (1939), Batman is a vigilante who fights crime in the streets of Gotham City. Under the costume of the Bat is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy American playboy, philanthropist, and industrialist whose parents, Thomas and Martha, were murdered in front of him when he was a kid. That traumatic existence led him to train himself physically and intellectually in order to be able to fight for justice.
Introduced as a generic ruthless and murderous vigilante, Batman quickly evolved and acquired a strong moral code (he is against murder!) and a kid sidekick, the famous Robin (Dick Grayson at first in Detective Comics #38). He never got superpowers though. But that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most iconic characters in popular culture.
As years go by, Batman’s stories evolved. After the war, they became bright and colorful, during the 1950s they became more science fiction-oriented, but went back to more detective stories in the 1960s (and got redesigned) to avoid cancellation. The campy TV Show also influenced the book for a while, but soon after it ended, it became necessary to go back to something grimmer.
The sales dropped anyway through the 1970s and 1980s. Then came the Modern Age. With the post-Crisis relaunch of the DC books came new instant-classic stories – also, a popular movie helped too.
This article does not cover all of Batman’s publication history. We are starting with what is called the Modern Age (aka Post Crisis). The Golden Age Years are collected in Omnibus editions and DC Comics is now doing the same with the Silver Age Years (and also the Batman & Superman: World’s Finest), the Batman: The Brave & the Bold (Bronze Age) — see our guide for the Batman Comics from the Golden Age through the Bronze Age to explore the Pre-Crisis Batman era.
DC Comics’ Modern Age started after the 12-issue miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths (see reading order). The event was used to retconned the histories of most of the characters. The idea was to clean up the timelines (something DC is still trying to do, in vain) and to update the superheroes in order to appeal to a contemporary audience. With the help of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, Batman got a new origin story. The relaunch didn’t erase all of Batman’s past, but some significant alterations became canon (like the fact that Alfred Pennyworth raised Bruce Wayne).
Created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (see their Batman Reading Order), The Court of Owls made its first appearance in Batman (vol. 2) #2 in 2011, at the beginning of the New 52 era. Before that, the Owls were not part of the DC Universe, but Snyder put some hints about it in his previous Batman work, Batman: Gates of Gotham.
The shadowy Court of Owls is an organized crime group and secret society made up of wealthy Gothamites who has secretly existed since colonial times in Gotham City. For a very long time, the Court was just an urban legend until Batman discovers one of their secret bases of operations. There he found a series of old photographs representing the members of the court with one of their assassins, the Talon (William Cobb)—The Court kidnaps child performers from the circus to train and transform them into their assassins, known as Talons.
Composed of some of Gotham City’s oldest and wealthiest families, The Court of Owls has controlled Gotham City for centuries, using murder and money to wield political influence throughout history. When they decide to send their killer after Bruce Wayne after he announced plans to rebuild and reshape Gotham City for the future, they revealed themselves to Batman.
“Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed. Speak not a whispered word about them, or they’ll send the Talon for your head.”
After a major storyline, The Court of Owls became a recurring villain in the DC Universe, not just Batman’s antagonists. Sometimes, the Court is just present in the background, sometimes it’s the target.
What if Gotham was a utopia where everybody is happy and no crimes happen? This is the reality shown in Batman: Gothtopia, a little Batman crossover published in 2014, during the New 52 era.
Here is the official synopsis: Who – or what – created this twisted vision of the Dark Knight’s hometown? As far as anyone knows, Gotham City is and always has been a crime-free utopia, patrolled by the white-clad Batman and his sidekick Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catbird.
What to read before Gothtopia?
Gothtopia is a stand-alone storyline and doesn’t require any pre-reading. You can still pick up Birds of Prey (Volume 3) #27 in which there is a hint something weird is going on in Gotham, but nothing is shown.
In 1996, Frank Miller reinvent Batman as a more controversial and ruthless figure in The Dark Knight Returns. And he followed up with Batman: Year One, cementing his version of Batman which will influence many writers.
In the DC Universe pre-flashpoint, all these tales are part of the Earth-31, also known as The Dark Knight Universe or Millerverse. On this Earth takes place the best and the worst of Batman’s stories.
