Alongside Superman, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man, Batman is one of the most iconic superheroes in comic book history. Whether it’s his pulp novel-inspired origins, his campy Silver Age stories, or his darker modern tales, the Dark Knight has evolved quite a bit over the years — though some of his storylines have left more of an impact on the character than others.
Whether it’s retelling Bruce Wayne’s early days as the Caped Crusader, his first battles against his most famous rogues, introducing his closest allies, or giving him his most trying challenges, these are the most important Batman stories — the ones that left such an impact that they were deemed vital to understanding Bruce Wayne and his struggles in and out of the Batsuit.
9Batman: Year One
The Bat’s First Year On The Job
Made to re-establish Batman’s origins afterCrisis on Infinite Earths, DC’s big continuity-resetting event comic,Batman: Year One,essentially became the go-to story for how Bruce Wayne became a bat-themed superhero. It details Batman’s first year on the job, fighting crime on the outside, while the recently transferred detective Jim Gordon fights it from within the police force. It took Batman to his pulp novel-inspired roots, telling his origins in a film noir style, with dark, moody artwork depicting a version of Gotham that’s as dirty in character as its streets.
Many of its scenes would inspire subsequent Bat-projects, likeBatman: Mask of the PhantasmandBatman Begins, while the strip led to similarYear Onestories for Robin and Batgirl’s origins. Even when Batman’s continuity was reset again through one event or another, his new origins would still retain some plot points fromBatman: Year Oneas they fit the character perfectly.
8Batman: The Long Halloween
Harvey Dent’s Fall From Grace Leads To The Rise Of Gotham’s Supervillains
Also taking place early in Batman’s crime-fighting career,Batman: The Long Halloweengrew from writer Jeph Loeb wanting to do for Two-Face whatBatman: Year Onedid for the titular hero. It saw Batman, Captain Jim Gordon, and a pre-Two-Face DA, Harvey Dent, working together to track down a killer called ‘Holiday,’ who had been murdering mobsters on various holidays.
Dent’s co-operation with Batman and Gordon — and his downfall from a potential ally into one of his worst, most tragic enemies — would become the inspiration forThe Dark Knight. Additionally,Catwoman’s complicated tiesto Carmine Falcone and his family would provide the background for Matt Reeves’The Batman. But, in the comics, it marked the turning point where Gotham’s supervillains began running the show, as the Falcones and Maronis began to rely on them more and more until they lost all influence to their more colorful counterparts.
7Batman: The Killing Joke
The Genesis Of The Joker And The End Of Batgirl
Despite his name being in the title,Batman: The Killing Jokeis much more of a Joker story. It is arguably the most influential one, as its own retelling of the Joker’s origins as a failing comedian forced to do petty crime would be referenced in theBatman: Arkhamseries, theJokermovie, andThe Dark Knight. Though it’s always important to keep in mind that it’s only a potential origin, as the Joker himself says: “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.”
It also saw the Joker’s attempts to prove ‘one bad day’ can be enough to break someone by trying to break Jim Gordon. He did this by shooting Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, in the stomach and taking suggestive photos of her to torment him. It’s a problematic scene that writer Alan Moore has since disowned. Nonetheless, it would see Barbara, the former Batgirl, become Oracle, and mentor the other members of the Bat-family, likefuture Batgirl, Cassandra Cain.
6Batman: A Death In The Family
The Boy Wonder Falls
Batgirl wasn’t the only sidekick Batman would lose in 1988.Batman: A Death in the Familyis infamous for killing off Robin, a death that stuck for years as Batman’s biggest failure. It wasn’t the original Robin, as Dick Grayson left years prior to become Nightwing. This one was Jason Todd, a kid with an attitude that took a hard-line approach to crime fighting. Fans didn’t care for the character, and neither did writer Jim Starlin, who thought Batman should fly solo.
So, he left Todd’s fate up to the readers. After being tricked by the Joker, beaten half to death with a crowbar, then blown up, the comic encouraged fans to call a number to vote on whether Todd died or survived. They voted for him to die, so he remained dead and became a sore spot for Batman for years to come. At least, untilTodd managed to come back for revenge.
5Batman: A Lonely Place Of Dying
The Boy Wonder Returns
Batman: A Lonely Place of Dyingisn’t as heralded as the other strips, though it stands out as it gives the caped crusader a rare happy ending instead of a tragic loss. Struggling to get over Todd’s death, Batman goes after a returning Two-Face with zeal. Worried, Alfred calls in Nightwing to help him out in the background, which leads him to a young boy named Tim Drake.
He proves to be an ace sleuth himself, figuring out who Batman and Nightwing really are through his own deductions. Then, when Batman and Nightwing get captured, Drake joins forces with Alfred to don the Robin mantle and free the two heroes. Bat-fans havetheir different favorite Robins, be it Damian Wayne or Stephanie Brown, but Tim Drake would become the definitive Robin for many fans from this story onward, be it from the comics, TV shows, theArkhamgames, or beyond.
4Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth
How A Psychiatric Hospital Became A Madhouse
Speaking of theArkhamgames, they likely wouldn’t exist withoutArkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. It sees Batman enter the psychiatric hospital to save its staff from a riot run by the Joker. While there, he learns just how his rogues’ gallery has been treated, along with the facility’s dark past under its founder, Amadeus Arkham.
Aside from inspiringBatman: Arkham Asylum’s plot, right down to some of its twists, it made the Asylum itself one of Gotham’s more notorious locations. Instead of just being another facility, it was a place of nightmares and gothic horror, and a much more interesting place compared to, say, Blackgate Prison. All of which is aided by the artwork, which really brought out the dread in Batman and his villains, while aiding the storytelling with its arcane symbolism hiding clues in plain sight.
3Batman: Knightfall
When The Bat Was Left Broken By Bane
As famous as Bat-foes like the Joker, the Riddler, and Mr Freeze are, arguably the most successful of the bunch was Bane. The masked muscle man from Santa Prisca has a smart mind to go with his Venom-enhanced body as, inBatman: Knightfall, he used all of Batman’s other foes to trace the Dark Knight’s movements. Then, following his path, he found the Batcave and sprang on Batman right when he was most vulnerable.
Breaking Batman’s back did more for Bane than killing Superman did for Doomsday inThe Death of Superman.Doomsday never really managed to reach the peak his debut offered, becoming just another brute for the Man of Steel to beat on — or a simple means to reference Supe’s return from the dead. While Bane, on the other hand, maintains his position as one of Batman’s strongest and smartest foes, occasionallyoutsmarting the Bat as well as beating him.
2Batman: No Man’s Land
Batman Struggles to Bring Law to a Lawless Land
Casual fans may know about Jason Todd’s death and Bane breaking the Bat, though they may be less aware of the influenceBatman: No Man’s Landhas had on various media — let alone Bat-media. After suffering a massive earthquake, Gotham is evacuated and cut off from the rest of the country. Whoever’s left in what remains of the city must survive against marauding gangs and supervillains.
The isolated anarchy of Gotham provided the basis for Bane’s rule inThe Dark Knight Rises, as well as the feuding factions inBatman: Arkham CityandArkham Knight.Gothamand theHarley Quinnanimated series also took inspiration from the story. EvenInFamous, a non-DC property, used it for its own isolated city, where its protagonist, Cole McGrath, had to liberate/take over its districts from his own superpowered rivals.
1The Dark Knight Returns
Age Only Makes Batman More Dangerous
Frank Miller retold Batman’s origins inBatman: Year Oneafter he told his ending inThe Dark Knight Returns. Bruce Wayne’s return to the field saw him take on new threats, old foes, and more as crime escalates in Gotham. Like much of Miller’s work, it has a lot of elements that haven’t aged well (e.g. writing women), but when it works, it works, as Miller’s pulp noir storytelling and moody artwork would define Batman for decades.
Even his more family-friendly fare, likeBatman: The Animated Series,would get moody and even adapt some ofTDKR’s scenes.The Dark Knight Returnsgave Batman some of his most iconic encounters, like his thrilling chase against the Joker and its chilling ending. That’s not to mention his fight against Superman, which became the definitive encounter between the two,as it answered the question of who would win between the two — it would be Batman…if he had prep time and a helping hand.
