#i know ive remade like several times but i think i need a fresh start fr

[chlotual-archive]

having the urge to remake

[vampykitty-kun]

Hi! I'm really interested in reading comics/graphic novels about or featuring the Batkids, and you seem like you know about that kind of thing (or at least more than I do, although it's a low bar), so do you think you could give me some suggestions to get started with? Also, I've seen some DC stuff at the library with "Death of the Family" on it but some is Batman and some is Batgirl and I think I saw a Teen Titans one and are they all connected or something? I'm confused. Thanks!

Yes! I do know quite a bit about comicsin the BatFam area, I just unfortunately can’t recommend anythingthat came out in the last 2 years as I’ve not read it. But 1989-2015I can give LOTS of recommendations.

For the most part any title can be astandalone, but titles do unfortunately get wrapped up in companywide events at times. But if you read the GN rather than theindividual comics they try and keep events to their own combo storybooks and character titles to their own.

This is such a huge list that I’mputting it under the cut so you click to read it instead of everyonegetting spammed with a HUGE list of things…

Here is what I’d recommend:

-Jason Todd as Robin II (Later known asRed Hood): It seems as though the majority of Jason writers presentday neglected to actually read his original issues, because they basetheir knowledge and opinion of him on what readers in the 80’sTHOUGHT of him, and unfortunately at the time many people hatedJason. Much of the hate was for a Robin in general as at the timeplenty of people thought Bruce should be on his own. No Batgirl (seethe Killing Joke) and no Robin. So the hate was for the role ingeneral. And then you had Robin fans that hated him just because theydidn’t want anyone trying to replace Dick’s role even though Dick hadmoved on to Nightwing. Jason as Robin issues are Batman #408-428, andNew Teen Titans Vol2 #19-21, 24, 28-31. I’m sure there were issues ofDetective Comics, but I have no idea which. In recent years much ofthese issues are in GNs but some of the issues are not, so you mayhave to look those up individually to read online or buy them instores with older issues. These GN are- Batman: Second Chances(Batman Issues #402-403, 408-416, and Annual #11), Batman Ten NightsOf The Beast (Batman Issues #417-420), DC Comics Classics Library:Batman- A Death In The Family, Hard Cover (Batman Issues #426-429,440-442, New Teen Titans Vol2 #60-61). this edition of “A Death InThe Family” contains both the death of Jason and the introductionof Tim, which was a story focused around Jason. So it’s a 2-for-1deal. There’s also a GN called Batman: The Cult and Jason’s the Robinwith Bruce in that story as well though I’m not sure where to placethat in the chronology.

-Tim as Robin III (Later known as RedRobin): Tim had an excellent run as Robin. He had 3 mini-seriesbefore he had an entire run of his own that spanned 183 main issues,not counting team ups or annuals. All while also appearing in theother Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl titles. Plenty of issues werecompany wide tie-in issues but the rest were all put into their ownGNs. Robin: A Hero Reborn (Batman #455-457, Robin Mini-series1 #1-5),Robin: Tragedy & Triumph (Detective Comics #618-621, RobinMini-series2 #1-4), Robin Mini-series3: Cry Of the Huntress #1-6 isnot in a GN that I know of, then the rest of his main run in FlyingSolo, Unmasked!, Fresh Blood, To Kill a Bird, Days of Fire andMadness, The Virtual Cell, Wanted, Teenage Wasteland, The BigLeagues, Violent Tendencies, and Search for a Hero.

Likewise…

-Dick as Nightwing in his solo title(Vol2): 153 issues not counting team ups or annuals. Like with Robinmany of these issues are tied in with company wide events, and therest are in their own GNs. I recommend the 2014-present editions asthey have a bit more in them, better paper/graphics, and are wayeasier to find, but they haven’t remade all of them yet. Nightwing:Blüdhaven, Nightwing: Rough Justice, Nightwing: False Starts,Nightwing: Love and Bullets, Nightwing: The Hunt For Oracle are thenew editions. Continuing from there the older editions are:Nightwing: Big Guns, Nightwing: On the Razor’s Edge, Nightwing: YearOne, Nightwing: Mobbed Up, Nightwing: Renegade, Nightwing: Brothersin Blood, Nightwing: Love and War, Nightwing: The Lost Year,Nightwing: Freefall.

-Batman Knightfall: One of the classicBatman stories, in which the main bad is the villain Bane, whoseriously injures Bruce. This story spans three GNs: Broken Bat, WhoRules The Night, and Knightsend

-Batman Cataclysm: Another classic. Amassive earthquake hits Gotham and decimates the city. This can befound in one GN, thought look for what I think is the 2012 edition ofthe book not the one one as they included a lot of previous cut storyin the newer edition.

-Batman No Man’s Land: FollowsCataclysm. Essentially Gotham is covered in rubble and a massiveterritory war breaks out between BatFam, GSPD, and several separategroups of Gotham’s baddies. It spans 4 super thick GNs in the 2012newer edition (don’t bother with the older editions) but also has areally enjoyable novelization if you would prefer to read it inwritten format!

-Batman Hush: Essentially Bruce vs Hushand sometimes Clayface, and a story that unintentionally set up JuddWinick to bring Jason back to life lol…one GN in more recenteditions but was previously 2 smaller GNs. I do not know if there isa difference but generally larger book versions have a bit extra inthem.

-Batman Under the Red Hood: Jasonreturns as the Red Hood, sending Bruce on an emotional rollercoaster, while Joker and Black Mask end up roped in. Lots of peopleinvolved. Like Hush this come in one or two book format. I have thesingle book format. This story was adapted into an animated movie,one that also takes a few moments from “A Death In The Family”,but the beginning part was highly modified to make it a stand alonefilm, so several key details are removed. I do recommend watching themovie, but after reading both “A Death In The Family” and thecomic version of “Under The Red Hood”, so you get the fullexperience.

-Batman War Crimes, War Drums, and WarGames (WG is three GNs long): this connects into both Robin and RedHood. This is unfortunately where Stephanie (Spoiler, brief Robin IV,Batgirl) “dies” and there’s a massive war against Black mask.It’s five GNs total.

I pretty much have to recommend anyBatman Titled GN that comes after that as it goes more into Hush,Damian comes in and there’s a lot of plot to cover there, Bruce“dies” and the mantle is picked up by Dick, and it was a heck ofride until the reboot happened.

Outside of main Batman titles aroundthat time I have to HIGHLY recommend the following:-Batmanand Robin: Basically Dick and Damian’s team-up book series. Itspanned three GN with Morrison, and one after him totaling four. Wealso got more Jason here, and his sorta Batgirl type sidekickSasha/Scarlet. Admittedly it was weird because Morrison thought itwould be fun to give Jason red hair (something the main version ofJason never had, but had in issues for another version of Jason thatwas scrapped before any issues I mentioned in this post) and bulk himup. But if you can gt around that the actual plot on the Jason endwasn’t too bad and had some gems. But the Dick and Damian interactionand banter is the treasure here.

-Batman Streets Of Gotham: Again moreof Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin. But here we get Thomas Elliot(Hush) who surgically had his face changed to look like Bruce, and hefill Bruce’s public role under very close watch. We also get Damian’slittle friend Colin Wilkes (Abuse) who ends up close to him. He turnsinto a giant bulky rage man good guy :)

-Red Robin: Tim’s new solo series thatstarted after Damian took up being Robin and Dick went from Nightwingto being Batman. It’s 4 GNs long and was amazing. I can’t stress thatenough. I still mourn it ending. You get Tim on his own, you get himgoing up against/working with/outsmarting/impressing Ra’s al Ghul.You get Prudence Wood, one of Ra’s assassins that ends up liking andworking with Tim. You get Tam Fox, and Stephanie, and Conner Kent.

-Batgirl Vol3 (Stephanie Brown asBatgirl): Stephanie came back from faking her death, took back upSpoiler, only for Tim to demand she stop being Spoiler. He shouldhave been more specific, and she DOES drop Spoiler but then becomesBatgirl with previous Batgirl’s (Casandra) blessing lol. Spanned 24issues in three GNs but they are hard to find. Obviously there isCasandra’s run as Batgirl but i’ve never actually read it so I findit wrong of me to suggest it before I have so it’s up to you if youwant to hunt those down as well. But Casandra’s run was 73 issuesVol-1 (7 GN) sand 6 issues Vol-2 (which is in a single GN)

-Teen Titans Vol3 (Tim, Conner, Bart,etc) spans twelve GNs and had its ups and downs, but if you’re a teamfan this is a good series to read.

-Catwoman: A few different runs, andsome stand alone books. They’re all good pre-reboot. Read them ifyou’re a Catwoman fan :)

Now as far as books NOT in the main runof pre-reboot comics I also REALLY need to recommend the following:

Batman Year One: Bruce’s first year asBatman. Also Gordon’s first year on the job. One GN. Awesome and alsoadapted into an animated movie.

-Robin Year One & Batgirl Year One:These come in separate books or both in one big book. The Robin inmention is Dick and the Batgirl is Barbara. Both are fantasticstories.

-Huntress Year One: Huntress’ originstory. This is the Huntress that is NOT Bruce’s daughter from anotherEarth, this is the Mob associated one that was also featured in theTV series Arrow.

Superboy / Robin World’s Finest Three:two tiny GNs that tell the story of Tim and Conner’s first meeting.They end up going against Metallo and Poison Ivy.

JLA: World Without Grown-ups: This is astory spanning again two tiny GNs. Where Tim (Robin), Conner(Superboy), and Bart (Impulse, later known as Kid Flash) team up whensuddenly all the adults are in one dimension and all the underagepeople are in another.

Red Hood: The Lost Days: the story ofwhat happened between Jason’s resurrection and when he came back toGotham in Under The Red Hood. It’s one GN.

There are also some alternate universe stories that came out pre-reboot called Elseworld’s stories. Here are some good ones:

Batman:Brotherhood of the Bat: Alternate Universe what-if type story. Thisstory is if Talia had joined Bruce in Gotham and abandoned her fatherRa’s and his ways. The story is centered around their son, TallantWayne. This was an AU created before Damian entered the comics andthus one of many stories where Bruce and Talia’s son had a differentname. Bruce is dead and Tallant has to face his grandfather. This wasone thin GN but did have a sequel…

Batman: League ofBatmen: takes place after the above and spans two GNs to finish thestory.

Thrillkiller Batgirl & Robin: 3 issue AU where Barbara and Dick are the first vigilantes in Gotham in the 1960′s and go up against a FEMALE Joker. Bruce is a legit Detective. Every bit of this story is PAINTED and it’s amazing. It is followed up by a sequel.

Thrillkiller ‘62: Takes place where the above left off. But now Bruce is Batman alongside ‘Batgirl’. I won’t spoil the events of the above to give goo detail here lol.

Superman: Speeding Bullets: AU where Baby Kal-El crashes into Earth, where he is discovered by Thomas and Martha Wayne. The couple decide to adopt Kal-El, and name him Bruce. Fuses the two characters together. Thomas and Martha still die. “Bruce” becomes a flying Batman and later Superman.Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Pretty much the most popular and longest AU that DC did. Spans 1 thick GN or multiple tiny ones. Not the greatest of art/setup but still good. Think of this as an AU Future Fic taking place after Jason died and Bruce retired instead of Tim coming along. Then he comes out of retirement to be a total badass. I do NOT however recommend any of the sequels or prequels because they are just BAD. This was adapted into TWO animated films which I honestly think I recommend more than the GNs due to the art.Post Reboot we hit the New 52. It had its up and downs. Nothing BatFam was particularly terrible but very little was amazing. personally the first 4-6 volumes of GNs for any given series was worth a read but not necessarily a buy. I read all the BatFam titles and the only ones that were MEH for me were Catwoman and Teen Titans. Red Hood and the Outlaws wasn’t for everyone, but I personally enjoyed it other than some details like Jason suddenly having magic??? and Kori having some personality issues but I was glas she wasn’t ditzy if that makes sense, and I really loved her character design even if I wish she at least had a touch more clothing on (once she was in a space suit and it was amazing). Suicide Squad isn’t technically BatFam but it had Harley in it in the New 52 and it was amazing even if I hated her visual re-design. Talon was a branch off of a Batman story line, and a specific character got his own title that spanned 2 GNs and was enjoyable.

Past that any Gns involving Batman The Animated Series are great, so are the Young Justice GNs.

I also have a huge love for the Batman Beyond show and Comics, but after the reboot they messed that up too.