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Celebrating Batman’s 75th Birthday

by zurenkot

It may be hard to believe that Bruce Wayne began his crusade against crime 75 years ago (he looks so young!), but this year marks just that occasion. To commemorate this milestone DC Comics has released a volume consisting of some of the greatest bat-stories ever told. Batman: a celebration of 75 years is sure to engage and entertain both new and experienced Bat-readers. While you’re waiting for your hold to come in, or if you’d like to brush up on what Batman’s been up to for the last few decades, be sure to check out some of these Bat-classics from our catalog!

The Long Halloween - Batman is on the hunt for a serial killer whose devious crimes coincide with major holidays. Noirish and complex, perhaps the greatest Batman story ever told.

Batman: Year One - Writer Frank Miller (Sin City, 300) offers his take on the successes and failures of Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon during Batman’s first year in Gotham. Year One is counted as one of the inspirations for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.

The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller adds to the Batman canon by bringing an aged Bruce Wayne out of retirement to battle the powerful Mutant Gang and -- gasp! -- Superman. This Miller classic was drawn upon as source material for 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises.

Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat - Creative team Chuck Dixon and Doug Moench introduce Batman to one of his strongest and most intelligent foes: Bane! Tune in to find out just how far the Batman can bend before he breaks.

Comments

Thank you!! I've always wanted to get into classic comics but was intimidated by the sheer volume of them all (DC vs Marvel, Batman vs Superman vs everyone else, and that's before all the various incarnations of classic characters). This gives me a place to start with Batman.

I have a "Batman - the best stories" list, but it's rather sprawling since I went with movies and shows as well as comics. And I included stuff like the Batwoman series, which Batman isn't in a lot, and a homage or two.

I strongly suggest adding HUSH to this list of suggestions!

It's not a book, but Batman: The Animated Series (B:TAS) is really great, very influential and has held up extremely well. It's also a highly accessible way into Batman and Gotham.

Big thumbs up on these suggestions, BTW. Truly excellent picks.

Batman is my favorite super hero. Luckily, I've gotten my son hooked as well. Maybe I need to work on next year's summer game Batman badge!

If you enjoy Kevin Smith at all, I would also check out his Batman comics that he wrote. I'm not the biggest fan of DC in general, but these were very entertaining.

The J.H. Williams and Greg Rucka Batwoman is amazing. And Gail Simone's run on Batgirl for DC's New52 was great, doing a convincing job of writing Barbara Gordon returning as Batgirl, nailing her character voice - like many people, I have strong feelings about DC's decision to undo her paralysis, but Simone did some incredibly moving work.

@Fevvers I always hear mediocre reviews about Simone's Batgirl but I LOVED it and was hooked after vol 1. I've only read up to vol 2, as the library only has up to there. I recently finished vol 4 of Batwoman and am so happy aadl had it.

Hey Everybody,

Thanks for the great input and suggestions. In order to put all this information in one place I've created a list of items you suggested!

[:user/lists/56165|Selections from the Bat-Family]

These lists can be created by anyone with an aadl.org account and can be made public or private. Just go to the My Account tab at the top of the page, then the My Lists link on the left-hand side. While browsing the catalog you can add items to your lists with the buttons to the right of the item's title.

Happy Reading!

Hard to believe the dark knight has been around for so long. Truly a character that has stood the test of time.

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