Oh, this is a good topic! My usual recommendations to people are Year One -> The Long Halloween -> Dark Victory. Then maybe Hush or Court of Owls after. Great list!

Batman is a like a gateway drug for comics. It’s what got me into reading comics. Thing is you can choose what era to start in and you can’t really go wrong. Personally I would recommend starting with year one and just read post crisis to flash point.

Sometimes I'm amazed established superhero comics are still around. The characters and story lines have become so convoluted that it has made it a chore for newbies to enter this genre. I've been reading comics for 40 years and sometimes I find it hard to keep up with the constant changes with characters and their history.

The first Batman comic I ever got was a compilation of stories from its then 74-75 year history (meaning 2003-2004). It had stories from all its eras and captivated me in the process, with introductions explaining the context, the history of the character and the artists involved in the different stories. The book included the following: 1. _The Legend of the Batman - Who He is, and How he Came to Be_ , by Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Batman #1, 1940) 2. _The Joker_ , by Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Batman #1, 1940) 3. _Danger Strikes Three_ , by Don C. Cameron and Dick Sprang (Detective Comics #86, 1944) 4. _The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!_ , by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino (Detective Comics #359, 1967) 5. _The Senator's Been Shot!_ , by Bob Haney and Neal Adams (The Brave and The Bold #85, 1969) 6. _Daughter of the Demon_ , by Dennys O'Neil and Neal Adams (Batman # 232, 1971) 7. _Out of the Past_ , by Ed Brubaker and Scott McDaniel (Batman #595, 2001) 8. _Scottish Connection_ , by Alan Grant and Frank Quitely (1998) 9. _Scars_ , by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Rizzo (originally untitled in the "Batman: Black and White" segment from Batman: Gotham Knights #8, 2000) I think my favorites at the time were "The Joker", "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!", "Daughter of The Demon" and "Scottish Connection".

I have a yearly tradition of reading the batman's career when he started. So my reading list is a bit short for beginners lol (1) Batman: Year One (2) Batman: The Man Who laughs (3) Batman: Long Halloween (4) Batman: Dark Victory (5) Batman: Ego

I love how you gave Finger top billing and put his name first. You are a class act Omar. That doc of how Finger was screwed over for years was heart breaking.

Batman & Robin by Tomasi and Gleason is my favorite Batman run of all time, it's just perfect. I loved everything about that run.

For beginners: Red Rain (doug moench-kelley jones) Year One (frank miller-david mazzucchelli) Son of the Demon (Mike Barr) Tales of the Demon (Denny Oneil) Prey (Doug Moench-Gulaci) Dead Reckoning (Ed Brubaker) No Man's Land (Rucka, Gale, ...) Long Halloween/Dark Victory (Loeb, Tim Sale) Batman #1, 1940 (bill finger, bob kane)

My first Batman comic was Batman #232 ”Daughter of the Demon” from a Neal Adams standard hardcover collection at my local library. I only read that for fun though, but the first real one I bought was Batman: Year One, which I read a few weeks after Daughter of the Demon.

I love that you went a little out there with a few picks. I check out videos like this, despite being a huge Batman fan, because I like seeing what people would recommend to new readers and it’s always the same 5 stories.

Thank you so much for bringing more attention to batman adventures. A very underrated series

I agree with you 100% with Knightfall. That was my introduction to Batman in comics and I was hooked!

My introduction to Batman comics was The Long Halloween and Batman ‘66. Really loved all the choices the list!

1966 Batman made Me a Fan. He had such a Cool Car! "Firing Thrusters to Speed!" :)

My man! Thank you for this list. Everyone for christmas in my family is getting comics and your recommendations are the best. Dark Knight Returns issue 3 was my first Batman comic.

Thank you Omar. This is a great list. 👍

I had a trade of Tales of the Demon when I was a kid and right around the same time I saw the two-part episode The Demon's Quest from Batman: TAS (three-part if you count Vertigo) and I fell in love with that story. It's Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams doing a James Bond-inspired Batman adventure. So freaking good! Ra's and Talia al Ghul are two of the coolest characters, and while they certainly have had a lot of exposure, I feel like they never quite hit that upper level in the movies. Maybe one day.

Brilliant i waited for this for so long

I was pretty familiar with Batman outside of comics until I was in late middle school and found the graphic novel section of my local library. They had Dark Knight Returns so I thought it looked neat... Now here I am decades later watching KZfaq vids on comics and having book cases full of omnis.

Such a great video! When i first found your channel just over a year back these are the videos I needed.

One of the first comics I read was Grant Morrison’s Batman. It was a great start. This is a definite list Omar, it has my favorite stories.

Thats exactly where I've started with batman for myself in knightfall. I was lucky enough to buy all 3 omnibus volumes of knightfall so I can get the complete story. Also wanted to thank you as this is my very first time reading knightfall saga and you didn't provide any spoilers to it. I'm a third into the 1st volume of the omni and having a hard time putting it down its so good. Also wanted to get your opinion on following up the knightfall, knightquest, and knightend with road to no man's land. I finally got the complete no man's land story a few years back then got the road to no man's land omni last year and was wondering if following knight's saga with no man's land complete story would make sense for batman. As always keep doing the great work Omar.

Started reading Batman and am loving it so far.

Just what I was looking for! Thank you so much!!!

Great video, really enjoyable, looking forward to more like this :)

Thank you for this series! I'm gonna read all of these for sure!!

First Batman was 349. Man that Magpie you showed brought back memories though. Great list, brother.

You can already tell this is gonna be a great video. Year one has to be the definitive place to start. The Loeb omnibus or at least the stories inside are probably the best to follow after that as dark victory still considered relevant to story. Every video in this format is extremely helpful and awesome to listen to. Thank you

This is a great series, I hope you continue it! As a new collector this was very helpful, thanks!

Amazing line up!! Wonderful video

My first Batman was 10 nights of the beast. Still one of my favs.

My first Bat-book was TDKR. Needless to say it threw me for a loop! 😅 Remains my favourite to this day, though.

Ok, I've considered your recommendations and have added a few more titles to my list of Batman books...🤘🏼💯✔️

Earlier in the year my first Batman comic was Absolute Hush -> The Killing Joke -> Scott Snyder Omnibus Vol 1

Thank you so much Omar for this incredible list! Any chance you could do more videos like these on Iron Man, Captain America or Daredevil please? I want to start reading and know more about these Marvel characters and I would love to hear your recommendations. 😄

My first Batman was 411, a two-face story with Jason Todd iirc. I would recommend the Tales of the Demon collection as a good way to get acquainted with Batman.

I have recently got into Batman comics, and I'm having a blast with them stories! My local library has quite great collection of Batman books and I have been exploiting it :) I've read year one, long halloween, dark victory, dark knight returns, hush. Now I decided to invest in some batman books and I'm waiting for the Scott Snyder omnibus to arrive :)

This is so helpful. Thanks for the list!! My personal recommendations to my friends are: year one man who laughs long Halloween dark victory dark knight returns Then, all the other hit lists, such as Hush, Gotham Central, Gotham by Gaslight, etc.

Grant Morrison's Batman is the greatest of all time imo (especially the first part with Batman and Son - RIP) but its definitely the worst place for beginners since you have to read everything in the black casebook for some of the stories to make any sense.

my first Batman comic was Hush, I was hooked immediately. btw i would have added Batman by Neal Adams tpbs or omnibus because those stories were mostly standalone and they were very influential.

Watching this and finding it super helpful! I was super into DC Comics when I was 13/14 and I read a whole bunch, I watched The Dark Knight trilogy and was obsessed, played the Arkham games, watched a few of the cartoons but then with school and life changes I kind of fell off, the only Batman comic I 100% remember reading was Hush and I loved it so after seeing the new film I'm trying to get back into them because I've missed Batman a lot without realising 😁

I just got back into comics and Batman has been a huge part of that. He was my favorite as a kid, thanks to the animated series, and now I'm back at it. My top 5 so far would be: Year One, Long Halloween, Hush, The Batman Who Laughs, and The Court of Owls. I loathe The Killing Joke. The Geeks Unleashed podcast did a great take on this, and even Moore has disowned it. They did leave out the alleged quote from the editor when Moore asked about Barbara's treatment.

Thank you for making this video. I've always loved batman ever since I watched the animated series as a kid (who hasn't, really?) and I'm trying to find entry points/recommendations so it's very helpful. My first batman comic was one I just read recently, and it was the batman who laughs. It probably wasn't the best place to start but it was an impulse buy and I don't regret it.

Reprint of Gotham Central in 2022? Finally! I want Knightfall too...

My first Batman Comic was my first comic overall, Batman 251, which I bought at a school yard sale on the third grade.

Year one > sale & loeb omni > killing joke or start with the new 52 snyder run. Looking forward to more Batman omnis to complete the collection

Thanks for showing me your idea of Batman reading order and what comics should I read. I am starting with Batman and I didn' t know how to start and which comics should I read after. Greetings from Uruguay, South America.

Really hope they Reprint Batman and Robin because if we learned anything from Vin Disel....it's Family!!

how about doug moenche's run from detective 527-567 & batman 360-400? for a taste of batman immediately prior to year one / post-crisis. look out for the omnibus in ~20 years!

Love the video but, Omar when are you going to make a Superman reading order? I remember you said something about man of steel vol 4.

Really needed this

Good review as always. Long Halloween is great. Two Face rise. I believe in Harvey Dent. Knightfall is very good. Break the Bat. Bane strikes hard

Love the videos man cam you please do one about the different crisis dc had in a timeliness style to try to understand in more or what atre the essential books of their crisis. Again thanks for the videos

My first one was Batman 272 Underworld olympics '76 in oversized German Edition.

My first Batman comic was the killing joke and it’s still my favourite but I also like the dark knight returns and year one

Just ordered Batman: Year One. I’m really only familiar with the movies and the games. I’m very excited to see what’s in store comics-wise.

My first Batman comic was the Batman and Robin run by Grant Morrison with Dick and Damian as the Dynamic Duo. I'd always liked the Robins more than Batman, so essentially having two of them on a team got me to finally pick up a comic, lol. But because of that I went back and read the whole Morrison run, and then I found out that this was Dick's second stint as Batman so I went back to Knightfall, but then I wanted a better idea of how it started so I read Year One/Long Halloween/Dark Victory... and down the rabbit hole I fell, reading a good number mentioned here as well as a lot of the current comics of the time (Red Robin [Tim Drake], Batgirl [Stephanie Brown], Streets of Gotham, Detective Comics, etc) and the entirety of the original Nightwing run. I hung on until DC rebooted everything only a short time later with the New 52, but I like to hop in every now and then to see if there's anything I missed that I feel like checking out (like Super Sons, the new Nightwing comics, City of Bane and the, er, direct aftermath...). Also, yes, would recommend Death in the Family - I was genuinely surprised how good I thought that story and the stuff that followed it was!

First Batman comic I read was Death in the Family! I had been a fan of the animated series growing up and when I heard there was a story where Joker killed Robin, I had to read it. I would say The Black Mirror is a good first time read as well! Especially after reading Morrison’s run and before reading Court of Owls since it was written by Snyder and features the Dick Grayson Batman going up against a very unlikely foe

Great call on Morrison’s Batman. There’s only two types of readers who have read it. Those who loved it, and those who didn’t at first but will.

I'd recommend Batman: elseworlds vol 1. The vampire batman story is just amazing. I love the hell out of it and no one talks about it.

Great video thanks

Apart from being able to read pretty much any Batman comic and enjoying it, I would say start with Batman Vol. 1 TPB (2011) by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Second recommendation: Batman'66 collections if you've ever seen and liked the TV show and later 1989 movie series. My third recommendation: the Batman Golden Age first volume.

I like your shirt!

I really like your videos, can you do a segment on non-superhero graphic novels/comics that capture historical/political events, like Berlin by Jason Lutes, Presopolis by Joe socca, etc. That be really great. Keep up the good work Omar!

thank you for not starting with Year One. So many comic "fans" just flat out ignore all the awesome golden age stuff.

The Grant Morrison Batman comic, Batman: Ego and Batman: RIP are my personal favorites.

My starting 7 were Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Death In the Family, Under the Red Hood, Hush, and Killing Joke. These stories made Batman my favorite Superhero and I would recommend that reading order to anyone

Very solid video Omar, although I'd never recommend anything related to Knightfall LOL. As blasphemous as it may sound, TDKR is overrated as hell to me. Half of the run has very good art and everything else falls apart. Pretty sure Klaus left the project early.

Great list ! The only book I`m not so hot on is the Golden Age Omni. I would send someone to that one only after they had read the others on the list & wanted to see where it all began . Otherwise , great list.

My first Batman comics ever was the comics adaptation of the 1989 movie. Solid recommendations list, however I would have included the Batman vs Predator comics as well, one of the best executed comics crossover ever

Just read all of these. Holy crap. I didn’t realize how good Batman comics are. Batman has become my favorite comic character.

I think Hush might have been the first Batman comic I read in English, in Swedish ... I have no clue at all, that's like when dinosaurs still walked the earth and probably nothing good anyway :D I would recommend for new readers, Loeb & Sale, then Hush, then New 52. After that you will know enough about Batman and can read about anything that is interesting for you. If you like amazing art and short stand-alone stories (like me), Dark Prince Charming, Noel and Joker are worth checking up IMO ... oh almost forgot, Murphy-verse is also a fantastic place to read about Batman & co, but those are from DC Black Label, so maybe not for kids though.

You could just jump on with new 52 Batman as well. Id avoid grant morrisons run to start because it is very confusing at times. Also i would skip year 2 and 3 and just read long halloween and dark victory instead.

My personal list, as a new reader, was as follows, and imo the first 4 should be read in order: Year One The Long Halloween Dark Victory Batman: Ego Court of Owls saga The Dark Knight Returns These to me are a great starting point for the character, as they together give the reader a pretty solid idea of who Batman is and why he does what he does. Court of Owls is really only there because I wanted a taste of modern age Batman, as that's the age I grew up in, but the other 5 work great together as a nice big one-shot, if you ignore the huge time skip and off-screen events between Dark Victory and TDKR.

The man who laughs was my first and still a favorite of mine Ed brubaker and Batman is a match made in heaven

The First comic I read was Knight Fall in 2012 I went to the wall during a state track meet and thought it looked cool so my coach purchased it for me. So then I became obsessed lol

my top 3 is 1. batman court of owls 2. long Halloween 2. hush yes the last 2 tie for me.

Lmao, Omar remembers Vincent Price’s Egghead because it was a legendary performance lol it was really good tho, he went full Egghead 😆

I am a Batman skeptic. Picked up The court of owls at a local Barnes and Nobles, and I was absolutely hooked. Batman fan loading…..

Great list as always Omar and yeah given Batman its hard to keep limited. That being said I can't believe you did not take the opportunity to include Batman Year 2! 😁Forget the haters its a great story and one I always and still today consider canon! For your list I probably would include the Batman by Paul Dini Omni or related books. Creator of TAS and his stories are nice, short, very accessible to new readers but still full of depth. My first Batman comic i think (collected edition no less) was The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told 1989 edition. A great anthology collection of Batman over the years up to that point gave me a great variety of Bat stories until i discovered DK Returns shortly after and was blown away. :D

I am a bit older and got into Batman with the TV show syndicated programming with Adam West and Burt Ward but never was a comic book reader or collector…I did some collecting in the mid late 90’s but not very substantially then I got away from it again for many years…I got my interest piqued again by becoming a fan of The Big Bang Theory TV show and I always have been a fan of Batman though I only saw one movie the Michael Keaton Batman… My sickness is that I am a completionist but also a chronologist as well and my reading of series of any books has to be done that way…So with all that being said do I start with Year One and then go to the Golden Age books? Or start with the Golden Age Books first and then go to Year One? One thing to add I have researched a bit and found that there are 8 omnibus editions of the Golden Age of Batman so now that you know about my chronologist/completionist sickness where do you think is the best place to begin? and if it’s the Golden Age Batman do I go through all 8 omnibus before getting to Year One or is starting with Year One the true origin story from the beginning Thank You to anyone who can help me get started on the re birth of my love for the Batman character…Just found this channel and have been binging Batman videos and really enjoyed them…found them very informative…I have newly liked and subscribed to your channel…Keep up the good works…👍🏻

My first Batman comic was Scott Snyder's run on All Star Batman. The way he writes Batman in that is very reminiscent of the way the writers of Justice League/Justice League Unlimited writes him. And I LOVE it.

Hey Omar, what do you think of a Frank Miller Batman Omnibus including: Year One, Dark Knight Stikes Again, Last Crusade, Dark Knight Returns, Master Race, Golden Child, etc.? Normally I am not into creator centric omnis, but because Millar has SO MANY Batman graphic novels, I think it might work for him.

My very first Batman comic was Batman: Troika, never interested me. Some years later I bought the first issue of the N52 run, I didn't like it. What really hooked me in was the Knightfall saga, now I enjoy every Batman story.

a death in the family was my first batman comic

A bit a late in the game but after seeing The Batman I bought quite a few of these graphic novels.

Hopefully daredevil next!

I would definitely not include Morrison's Batman, just because of how confusing and convoluted it is, particularly with the deep dives into Batman's history that he does. However, I would include Batman: Year One and A Death in the Family. My first Batman comic ever was The Batman Adventures #7 from 1993. My first Batman comic from the main DC Universe continuity was actually Batman #493 during Knightfall. I knew the character from reruns of the 1966 TV series though, as well as the 1966 movie, and Batman: The Animated Series from 1992.

thanks

Omar, I may have to disagree on Tower of Babel. I think Morrison's first storyline in JLA might be a better introduction to Batman on a team. Thanks for doing this, Omar!

MY first one was Year one.

cry-seez! Thanks for this, and all your videos

I've always been a Batman fan but I never really got deep into the comics. I read random issues here and there when I was a kid in the 90s after seeing Batman, Batman Returns and especially Batman The Animated Series. I've recently been getting into the comics more seriously and I can't believe what I've been missing all these years. I'm still figuring it out so I've read some stuff out of order and whatnot but videos like this are so helpful. I've recently read or re-read Year One, The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, A Death in the Family, Three Jokers, Harleen (not a Batman book I know, but SO good), and probably one or two more I'm forgetting. I've also purchased and am going to soon read The Golden Age vol 1, Under the Red Hood, Hush, and The Long Halloween, with plans to continue on from there. If anyone has any tips or anything, not just about Batman but about comics in general, I'd love to hear them.

Year one was the first one I bought

Just getting into comics and can't wait to start collecting some Batman, so this video was perfect for me. A stupid question maybe: how do you find out which comics are/are not in print right now? Just what's available in shops?

Batman: Ego and Batman: Night Cries are excellent reads as well.

hush, my first batman

Please do more Where To Start

This is pretty much my trading experience with Batman. Another starting place I’d suggest is bronze Batman. I know it’s terribly collected but BATMAN: TALES OF THE DEMON, is another staring point IMO

So what to read after The Dark Knight returns? Like any good story arcs after Rise of the Batmen? And how to get proper origin story for all the side characters like Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman etc