Amph Batman: Early Years Reccomendations

So my friend is starting to get into comics. He wants to start getting into Batman, but I want him to read it in a way that he's getting the story told to him in "order" I guess you could say. Anyways, here's what I have had him read so far:

Batman: Year One
The Man Who Laughs
The Long Halloween
Dark Victory

and just as a side note I had him read The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family back to back to let him get a better feel for the Jokers character.

But that's beasides the point. What are some other good (and I mean a strong emphasis on the word good) that depict Batmans first few years?

 

Batman & The Monster Men. This story is retelling of the classic Detective Comics story, featuring Batman's first encounter with Professor Hugo Strange.

Batman: The Mad Monk. While it is being published now, it will be collected soon after. Another retelling of a classic storyline.

Batman: Haunted Halloween. See the three stories that were the inspiration for "The Long Halloween" and "Dark Victory".

Batman-Legends Of The Dark Knight: Prey. Batman vs Hugo Strange and the Night Scourge, guest starring Catwoman.

Batman-Legends Of The Dark Knight: Venom. A critical story to the Batman mythos.

Batman-Legends Of The Dark Knight: Faces. A three part Two-Face story.

Batman: Four Of A Kind. Batman's first encounters with Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat and the Riddler.

Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper. The origin of Catwoman.

Superman: The Man Of Steel volume 1. The third part features the first meeting between Superman and Batman. (You don't have to show it, but it's there)

World's Finest. A ten issue look at the Superman and Batman team-ups. The first few are set during the early years. (See above)

Robin: Year One. The early days of the Batman & Robin relationship. (optional)

Batgirl: Year One. The early days of Batgirl, featuring Batman. (optional)

 

I can't believe you didn't include The Dark Knight Returns and Knightfall.

 

Because those aren't in Bats ealier years and one isn't even in continuity.

Man who Laughs is a good one. First meeting with the Joker.

The recent Batman and the Monster men is pretty good. HIs first battles with super powerd folk.

 

The Man Who Laughs is a great read.

 

The Knight Trilogy is ten years after Bruce started as Batman. DKR is an unofficial Elseworlds story, which features the older and more cynical Batman. Most of the Legends Of The Dark Knight comics feature Batman in his early days. Up until issue #100, they were during his first two years. From issue #100 on, stories would occassionally feature Dick Grayson/Robin. Only a handful of LOTDK feature stories set in the present or in a possible future. Even fewer tie into the overall continuity of the Bat books.

 

Dennis O'Neil's tenure as editor of the Batman line of comics was mostly one big story. It began with, 'The Man Who Falls' (which was obscurely hidden in a 'Secret Origins' TPB in 1989 (but now you can get it in the 'Batman Begins' movie adaptation ammendum) and it ended with the conclusion of 'Knightfall'.

Now within that 5-year span (1989 to 1994), I think you've got the best Batman comics ever. And there were plenty of issues there that referenced his origin, his motives, and his general character.

But strictly for the origin stuff, I'd go with

-'The Man Who Falls'
-'Year One'
-'Year Three' (Batman 436-439)
-LOTDK 1-5 ('Shaman')
-LOTDK 16-20 ('Venom')
-And, for good measure, I'd throw in 'Batman' 430 and 431

I chose these not just because they deal with his origin and early years, but because these are some of the greatest stories, in my opinion.

 

Corrections. Denny O'Neil didn't start editing the Bat books until Batman #401, which was the first Post Crisis Batman. But "Year One" did not start until #404. #401-403 were part of the "Legends" crossover. O'Neil's run began in the fall of 1986 and ended in 2000, following "No Man's Land". Prior to that Len Wein had been editor. O'Neil became known as group editor around 1993 or so. Scott Petersen, Darren Vincenzo, Jordan B. Gorfinkle (sp) and Doug Moneach were the editors or assitant editors on the books during the 90's. Archie Goodwin was the editor on Legends Of The Dark Knight, Azreal or certain specials written by O'Neil himself. Bob Shreck took over from O'Neil until Peter Tomasi came in.

 

Nice. It seems like the late '80s-early '90s comics get the shaft most of the time. Year Three and Shaman are favorites of mine that will never come out in TPB form.

 

For the record, 'Shaman' did actually come out as a TPB.

It's funny that you say that the late-80's and early-90's gets the proverbial shaft as far as public perception goes, because I've always thought that that era was unquestionably the modern heyday. That was before Huntress became a regular, Batgirl came in at all, Catwoman became a good guy, etc., etc., etc. It was just much more grounded in reality back then. Since that time, the comics have increasingly spiraled out to total absurdity.

But, then, I guess absurdity is what both the public and the critics like in Batman. Just look at the amazing success of 'Hush'.

Anyway, Christopher Nolan has explicitly stated that Dennis O'Neil's 'The Man Who Falls' was the lone spiritual template for 'Batman Begins'. The movie's co-writer, David Goyer, took some incidental details from other comics such as 'The Long Halloween', but the spirit of the movie was that of Dennis O'Neil's Batman.

 

The followup to Shaman, "Gothic" was quite good too.

IT wasn't a sequel or anything, but it was the second miniseries of that comic line. And it was very, very good.