Comic book ner...fans...help me out here.

[CBright7831 0]

I've been thinking baout getting into the comic books again. While I never read Batman comics, I did enjoy reading The Killing Joke online (although it's not available anywhere online besides ebay), but now I'm starting to get into them.

 

So, I bought Batman Begins the deluxe set, and it came with that comic book. As I was watching ths second disc, I picked up the ook and began to read it, and I got caught in The Long Halloween. After I finished reading it, I went to amazon, and looked up The Long Halloween and saw it was for sale on Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

 

Now, is that the full comic book or a novel/book? Because if it's a novel/book, I don't think I could get into it. I need pictures, etc for some reason.

 

Help!!!

[Sass 0]

The "full book" you're asking about is the trade paper back (TPB) and yes, that does have all of the issues from the story in it.

[CBright7831 0]

Nice.

 

I think I'll buy. It looked like an interesting story. Especially the ending. I can't wait to see where The Joker comes into this.

[Sass 0]

If you want to get serious about reading good Batman TPB's, seek out:

 

The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told

Batman in the 70's

Apparations

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

10 Nights of the Beast

A Death in the Family

A Lonely Place of Dying

Dark Knight/Dark City

Knight Fall

Knight Quest

Knights End

Prodigy

Contagion

Legacy

Any No Man's Land TPB, especially the final story (great Joker moment in time)

Officer Down

Hush

 

Read any War Games TPB if you want to understand some of the things that are going are currently going on in Batman.

 

I'm sure other people here can give you good recommendations.

[Special K 0]

All of the above I've read are good (about 33%) Read Year One and Dark Knight Returns. Especially the latter. Fucking fantastic.

[Steviekick 0]

Don't read Broken City.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

The Long Halloween is really good. One of the best Batman stories ever. After that, as Special K said, you HAVE to read "Year One" and "Dark Knight Returns". They're pretty much required reading for Batman fans.

[pochorenella 0]

In addition to Sass's list I'd like to recommend the Sword of Azrael TPB (first appearance of Azrael, who'd become the replacement Batman in the Knightfall storyline.)

[Steviekick 0]

DC also put out a bunch of hardcovers of Neal Adams' run on Batman. That is some great stuff there, especially the debut of Ra's Al Gul

[ChrisMWaters 0]

DC also put out a bunch of hardcovers of Neal Adams' run on Batman. That is some great stuff there, especially the debut of Ra's Al Gul

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Off topic somewhat, but...

 

Wanted the general consensus here about the character of Ra's Al Gul as related to the Batman series.

 

A friend of mine doesn't thing Al Gul fits that well with the Batman series, as he's too...as he put it...supernatural. All the other Batman villains either had psychological problems (Harley Quinn, Ventriliquist) or scientific problems/powers (Bane, I think Clayface, Joker maybe (long story that can be seen on answers.com about Joker's insanity being a super power)...whereas Al Gul's Lazurus Pit dealy was more supernatural.

 

Agree/disagree with this person's assessment?

[Sass 0]

In the grand scheme of the DCU List of Spacey Badasses, Ra's ranks very low on the totem pole. However, yeah, he's definitely one of the few supernatural-stretch villains who Batman has had to deal with on his own. Ra's just made the discovery of a life time after he found the "legendary" Lazarus Pit collection and he's reaped the benefits of it ever since.

[Steviekick 0]

I think Ra's works in Batman's world. His character is so different in nature than all the other would be crimelords; his beef with Bats is due to the shunning of his daughter and wants to make him pay at all costs.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

I think that its true Ra's doesn't fit the general theme of Batman baddies, but because he's really the only baddie with that sort of theme (and that he looks cool and is written well), it makes him stand out as far as villians go.

[CBright7831 0]

If you want to get serious about reading good Batman TPB's, seek out:

 

The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told

Batman in the 70's

Apparations

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

10 Nights of the Beast

A Death in the Family

A Lonely Place of Dying

Dark Knight/Dark City

Knight Fall

Knight Quest

Knights End

Prodigy

Contagion

Legacy

Any No Man's Land TPB, especially the final story (great Joker moment in time)

Officer Down

Hush

 

Read any War Games TPB if you want to understand some of the things that are going are currently going on in Batman.

 

I'm sure other people here can give you good recommendations.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was actually thinking about getting The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told and A Death In The Family. I've also become a Scarecrow fan. Can you give me some good Scarecrow comics?

[Vampiro69 0]

Definitely read the Year One, easily the best best Batman story out there.

 

However, do not be afraid to pick up stories outside the bat books that deal with him. My recommendation is

 

JLA: Tower of Babel- deals with issues that somewhat ties into Infinite Crisis, plus it was written by Mark Waid who is no slouch.

[Grenouille 0]

For the Scarecrow there is a trade titled Scarecrow Tales, which has a bunch of stories from his debut to now.

 

As for Ra's, when looking at the Batman books during the time of his creation it wouldn't seem that far fetched for a character such as him. In comparison to how the various rogues have been changed over time with much deeper psychological underpinnings, Ra's may seem out of place, but it still works in the larger scope of it happening in the DCU. I'd suggest the Tales of the Demon trade for Ra's stories. It gives a good selection of the early Ra's stories and is much friendlier to your wallet than the Adams hardcover volumes.