#gotham knights made it look rlly dumb but i like it

[coolgirl]

sorry to bother but i really could use some help from someone as competent as you seem to be. so. i'm trying to get into batman comics, but i have no idea where to start and most importantly how to continue. i've read lots of "where to start" posts (i googled, i really tried) and so far all of them mention something like year one and the killing joke. these posts never mention what should i read after. and also the whole new 52/rebirth thing? what even IS THAT i'm so confused pls help if you can

Hii!! So first of all afaik year one & the killing jokes are two books that can absolutely be read as stand alones. The events that take place there do have ramifications in canon (for example, setting the tone for the comics, having references from them through continuity, and well Barbara Gordon's arc), but you don't have to read anything to follow them up. If I'm being honest I would tell you not to even bother with the killing joke unless you like. Are interested in the joker or smth. I don't think it's worth it.

Okay then, DC comics have had a bunch of reboots & stuff through the years. Shit this is hard to explain bc I'm dumb but basically new 52 is a 2011 reboot where all characters were.. well rebooted, and changed to make them "easier" for new readers to get into comics. Comics before n52 are NOT canon in n52. Then in 2016 there was rebirth, which is a continuation of n52 but trying to add elements of pre-n52 to canon. God this is so complicated I'm sorry, here's a post explaining more of this.

SO that means any batman reclists you encounter will more likely be separated with pre-crisis (comics before 1986-1987), post crisis (the general canon for decades, Batman Year One is the starting point of this era), new 52 (2011, Snyder was in charge of Batman and basically most things from pre & post crisis isn't canon anymore), rebirth (2016, new 52 is still canon until said otherwise in the comic)

Now as to where to start, I made this post a while back that's the batfam basics chronologically but to be honest it's held together with paperclips & looking back to it it's not the most New Reader friendly. I think trying to read everything in order is not.. a good idea because batman has been handled by dozens of different writers who all have a different understanding of batman and co so they're all different takes with different canon/characterization/etc. Personally I would start with Jason's run (from 19883 up to 1989 starting Batman #357 or looking up Batman: Second Chances) because it's the one I've read the most and that I've generally liked overall and then just read on through Tim, but there's a lot of good semi-standalone batman comics that are rlly good. For more "old" batman comics you might want to check out the long Halloween & the dark victory, robin & batgirl year one, shadow of the bat & Gotham knights were overall okay. And for modern n52 comics honestly look up what Snyder has written for Batman because his stuff is pretty enjoyable imo. Particularly all-star batman which iirc is really concealed and can be read on its own.