Batman Begins: A Beginner’s Guide To Batman Comics (Best Reading Order)

The reading order for Batman comics changes depending on how readers want to approach the comic book history of The Dark Knight. Some start with his very first appearance back in 1939’s Detective Comics #27 while others start with the more recent and well-known Batman tales, like The Dark Knight Returns.

As a new version of the Dark Knight heads to theaters with Matt Reeves’ The Batman, new fans will be looking to the comics to explore the character and his extended family, though searching through over 80 years of continuity can definitely be daunting without a handy chronological road map to help move through Batman’s comic history.

Updated on May 13th, 2021 by Darby Harn: The world of Batman comics is an ever-evolving one, making it hard for readers to know what reading order to start with. The recent debut of DC Comics’ Infinite Frontier relaunch gives readers old and new another opportunity. But there are many more jumping on points for Batman fans in the 80+ year history of the character and his extended world of heroes and villains. Among them are some tales that might have some bearing on the upcoming movie, which will feature Batman squaring off against a number of villains like The Riddler. 

15 Batman: Year Two

Batman: Year Two appears to have some influence on the time and setting of the upcoming The Batman movie, and it’s already had a major influence on the entire mythos of Batman. This 1987 story continued to retell the origin of Batman after the history revising events of Crisis On Infinite Earths. The story pitted him against The Reaper, forcing Batman into a position of potentially having to use guns, which he swore never to do. The Reaper provided some visual influence on The Phantasm from the animated movie The Mask Of The Phantasm.

14 A Lonely Place Of Dying

A Lonely Place Of Dying is a 1989 crossover between the Batman titles and The New Teen Titans that introduced the third version of Robin, Tim Drake. This follows the grisly death of the second Robin, Jason Todd, at the hands of the Joker in A Death In The Family. Batman hadn’t recovered from the violent loss of Jason Todd, becoming more careless, which merits the concern of Nightwing, the first Robin. During a battle with Two-Face, Tim Drake deduces Batman’s true identity and appoints himself the new Robin.

13 Mad Love

A big reason new fans might come to Batman is Harley Quinn, the star of her own movies and animated series. Mad Love is absolutely the place those fans should start with in their reading order. This 1993 comic book by Bruce Time and Paul Dini brings one of the most popular Batman: The Animated Series characters into the comics for the first time. Though it takes place in the world of B:TAS, it’s her first step into the greater Batman mythos. She’s never looked back since, becoming one of the most popular comic book characters in recent years.

12 The War Of Jokes And Riddles

Another story that deals with Batman’s second year as a crime fighter is The War Of Jokes And Riddles from 2017. This story, from writer Tom King, author of The Vision, one of the comics that inspired WandaVision, pits the Joker and Riddler against each other.

It seems like it could have some connection to the plot of the upcoming movie, though it doesn’t seem at the moment the Joker is involved. The eight-part story is told in flashback as Batman waits for Catwoman’s answer to his proposal for marriage.

11 Gotham By Gaslight

The Batman isn’t the only version of The Dark Knight coming up in the movies. Thanks to the multiverse, Michael Keaton is returning as Bruce Wayne in the Flashpoint movie. The comics have been leaning on the concept of Elseworlds for a long time, making Gotham By Gaslight an attractive place to start for curious readers.

This 1989 graphic novel by writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Mignola helped pioneer the concept by showing a steampunk-style Batman in a 19th century Gotham City. The comic has been adapted into an animated movie as well.

10 Batman: Year One

While Batman’s mythology had been developed for many years prior to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One four-issue storyline from 1987, it has become the definitive origin story for Bruce Wayne’s evolution into the Dark Knight.

Year One also details future police commissioner James Gordon’s first year in Gotham as well as other Gotham City characters like the Falcones and Catwoman. Year One also partially inspired Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, making it a must-read for fans of the previous film franchise.

9 The Long Halloween

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale teamed-up for a few connected series that explored the early days of Batman’s mission in Gotham City while also exploring his allies and enemies in 1996’s The Long Halloween and 1999’s Dark Victory.

The Long Halloween featured important moments in the development of Batman’s rogue’s gallery as he investigated the mysterious Holiday Killer, while Dark Victory serves as a direct sequel and highlights the new partnership between Batman and Dick Grayson/Robin.

8 Son of the Demon

One of Batman’s greatest enemies is Ra’s al Ghul AKA the Demon’s Head, the centuries-old leader of the League of Assassins whose relationship with Batman is unlike any of his other villains, as Ra’s originally chose Batman to be his successor.

While the origins of Ra’s al Ghul weren’t revealed until 1999’s Birth of the Demon by Denny O’Neil and Norm Breyfogle, it was 1987’s Son of the Demon by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham that explored his complicated relationship with Talia al Ghul that would go on to have a major impact on Batman’s mythology

7 Death In The Family

Batman’s extended family includes a number of costumed allies that play a large role in his storylines over the years, and there are a couple of essential storylines that not only affected the Bat-family but also had a lasting impact on Batman.

1988’s Death In The Family and The Killing Joke showcased the tragic loss of Robin and Batgirl, respectively, at the hands of Batman’s greatest enemy. Batman would stay in a dark place until 1989’s A Lonely Place of Dying introduced Tim Drake as the new Robin, launching a new era for the dynamic duo.

6 Knightfall – No Man’s Land

Batman would experience one of his greatest losses when he first encountered Bane during the Knightfall storyline from the 90s, which first broke the Batman before introducing a new character to don the mantle of the bat.

After Bruce Wayne was able to recover and take back both his city and his cowl, he nearly lost his allies to plague in 1996’s Contagion and Legacy before 1998’s Cataclysm destroyed Gotham. No Man’s Land followed Batman and his allies as they fought alongside the GCPD to save and rebuild Gotham City from the villains who had taken control.

5 Hush – Under The Red Hood

Batman’s past would come back to haunt him a number of times in storylines like 2002’s Batman: Hush or 2005’s Under The Red Hood, both of which were adapted into feature-length direct-to-video animated movies.

Hush introduced a brand new villain who manipulated some of Batman’s biggest enemies into taking down the Dark Knight in an extremely personal attack that explored Bruce Wayne’s past while the return of the villainous Red Hood (a former costumed identity of The Joker) completely shook up Batman’s world and re-examined one of his most tragic moments.

4 Batman And Son – Batman, Inc.

When Grant Morrison took over the core Batman titles, he took inspiration from classic stories to help bring them into modern continuity while further developing Batman and his family with the introduction of his son Damian Wayne in 2006’s Batman And Son.

2008’s Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis led to huge changes and a brand new Batman and Robin following 2009’s Battle For The Cowl. 2010’s Batman Incorporated further evolved Batman’s organization before the entire DC Universe was rewritten by the Flashpoint event.

3 New 52 Era

While Batman and his related characters weren’t given a full reboot like the rest of the DC Universe, the New 52 did serve as a good jumping-on point for new readers while still embracing most of Batman’s established history.

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo introduced readers to the mysterious Court of Owls before an epic showdown with the Joker in Endgame. Batman’s early days were also given a modern overhaul in Zero Year while the Super Heavy storyline introduced yet another brand new armored Batman.

2 DC Rebirth

Tom King took over Batman following the 2016 DC Rebirth event that provided a soft reboot to the DC Universe, which led to Batman teaming-up with Barry Allen/The Flash to investigate during The Button storyline.

Batman and Catwoman’s romantic relationship that was first made official in Hush would be further developed over the course of his run. His rivalry with Bane would also be taken to new levels with City of Bane which would lead to one of the biggest tragedies in Bruce Wayne’s life that the Bat-Family is still recovering from in current issues.

1 The Dark Knight Returns

While Frank Miller’s iconic graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns was released in 1986 and helped usher in a new darker era of the Batman, it does take place in the future as retired Bruce Wayne is forced to return to his role as a costumed crimefighter.

The Dark Knight Returns features a few of Batman’s most popular villains alongside a dangerous new army to fit the time period. Batman gained a new Robin in young Carrie Kelley as he renewed his mission to protect Gotham City in a storyline that was adapted to a two-part animated direct-to-video release.

About The Author

Scoot Allan
(193 Articles Published)

Entertainment reporter, writer, and all-around geek, Scoot Allan has written for print and online media sources like Geek Magazine, GeekExchange, GrizzlyBomb, WhatCulture, RoguePlanet.tv and the Urban 30 before joining CBR, ScreenRant, GameRant and The Gamer as a staff writer. He enjoys salad but prefers french fries.

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