#but since this whole mess ive just been back to slogging through my days and only getting out of bed in the afternoon

[astragatwo]

BTW, if you've ever said anything nice to me or left a comment on my art in any manner — whether in tags or in an ask — that I remember, and it's one of few things keeping me somewhat sane and not a dumpster fire of emotions right now. Genuinely, thank you — I don't know how to express how much it means to me.

[lysical]

Ah sorry I should've been more specific! I like the batfam too so that would be a good place to start, it doesn't have to include all of them together or anything I like the individual runs just as much but I also like the teen titans as well if you have any recs for those, thank you so much I really appreciate it!

This is Post-Crisis focused, as I am no authority on the new 52 (my opinion is avoid it all tbh) and Rebirth is so new that it’s easy to just…pick up whatever. 

Batman: The various Year Ones (Batman: Year One, Scarecrow: Year One, etc) are really accessible and good introductions without slogging through all of Detective Comics or Batman issues to start. Arcs like No Man’s Land, Dark Victory, Hush, Under the Hood, they stand out the most, and involve a bit more of the rest of the supporting characters. If you like Batman and Superman, the old Superman/Batman run from 2003 had some good stuff. 

Robin I/Nightwing: The 1980s New Teen Titans was really good, definitely had some peak Titans stuff that later teams could never really recapture. His solo by Chuck Dixon is better than the one by Devin Grayson (avoid Devin Grayson she’s disgusting). Dick’s first run as Batman was around the time of Knightfall, which was when fans and Dick was mad at Bruce for not choosing him as successor (Dick’s reluctance to be Batman was entirely to engineered for Battle for the Cowl to pit the Robins against each other and should be dismissed as such, he’s fine being Batman tbh, not as precious about it as back during Knightfall since Nightwing is his preferred identity, but he cares a lot about Bruce’s legacy). Your Mileage May Vary on some of the more modern Titans runs they did, and once Donna dies in Graduation Day Dick goes a bit dark under Winick in Outsiders, but it’s pretty interesting. Morrison is to be mostly avoided but the Dickbats run with Damian as Robin did have some good stuff for them, but it shouldn’t be used as primary source of Dick’s characterization, imo. For some Robin Dick, Robin: Year One, Scarecrow: Year One, and Teen Titans: Year One are pretty good, avoiding having to go back to Pre-Crisis continuity and be confused. They don’t completely mesh with Dick’s characterization in a way I like, but they’re very good. 

Robin II/Red Hood: Jason’s not got nearly the amount of stuff to read, so his 80s comic run is essential imo, to understanding his character and what happened to him in and out of the DCU. Under the Hood/Under the Red Hood is the essential story bringing him back, and I’d point to some of the prominent ‘mourning’ scenes that happened over the years but most of those panels are floating around tumblr. Joker’s Last Laugh is a good one if you want to see Dick beat the Joker to death for talking shit about Jason though. After Under the Hood, Lost Days is pretty good, Winick’s weird shit gets involved at some point but most of fandom quietly ignores it. Countdown has some interesting things for him and is a Fun Mess, and that’s really all you need from Jason in Post-Crisis. From there, go for Red Hood and the Outlaws Rebirth and don’t look back. 

Robin III/Red Robin: I’m not that fond of Tim’s Robin run tbh, I prefer Young Justice, where I feel he shines in a team environment. The 2003 Teen Titans has Geoff Johns kind of derail Tim a bit and then his dad is killed, which kind of killed a lot of the interesting things they were doing with his juggling of his vigilante career and his dad. A lot of people like the Red Robin run but I didn’t, there was some potential with Tim and his issues there but I didn’t like the way it was pulled off and in the end it mostly glossed over his mental health and didn’t really put it front and center and deal with it in a way that would’ve made it appealing to me, and frankly at times they wrote him as a borderline sociopathic sue so. 

Batgirl I/Oracle: Birds of Prey, under Gail Simone, just read it. She shows up a lot in Cass’ Batgirl run, so read that too. In Post-Crisis the girls got some really good runs so it’s easy to rec things that stand out. She also appears in some of Dick’s Nightwing stuff but I don’t really like the relationship or them together, so I prefer books where she’s the focus. 

Batgirl II/Black Bat: Cass has an amazing Batgirl run, I just recommend the whole thing, her relationship with Babs is so important and shouldn’t be ignored in favor of Bruce tbh. She first appears in No Man’s Land, which is a good solid comic run. She didn’t get a lot of exposure in team books which is a shame. After One Year Later DC tried to sideline her, so I don’t have a lot to say about late Post-Crisis for her, but her relationship with Steph is ace. 

Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III: Steph got the Jason treatment by DC, sadly. Her Robin run was short and there was some really cute stuff, but it ended badly and honestly I do not recommend reading War Games because it…anyway. Her appearances as Spoiler are mainly in Tim’s Robin run, which, while sometimes cute, can really make you not like Tim because he honestly treats his girlfriends like crap and was awful to Steph in particular that make me rage near daily. Her Batgirl run is really good and she and Damian are hilarious, and in late Post-Crisis she has some cute stuff with Supergirl as well, but I can’t remember the issues offhand. 

Robin V: The Dickbats run by Morrison is really the only run he got in Post-Crisis tbh, because he was introduced so late. He is a character that is sometimes hard to like under his original characterization by Morrison, and Morrison was fine with that but Tomasi wasn’t, so a lot of his more popular comics with fandom are in the new 52 and written by Tomasi. 

I’ve probably missed some characters and runs, but this is mostly off the top of my head so. Hope it helps a little. As always, using a chronology list for characters can be helpful as well.