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Over the years, Batman has had one of the most interesting existences in comics. There are monumental stories starring the character and he’s passed many amazing milestones. These ten Batman milestones are the biggest of his history, putting him on the road to superstardom that he’s on right now.
10) Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke has a complicated legacy, but it’s impossible to deny the book’s importance to Batman. First, it was the book where Barbara Gordon was paralyzed by the Joker, ending her career as Batgirl and putting her on the road to Oracle, which would make her more important and popular than ever. The other major development in the book was the Joker’s possible origin. Over the years, we’ve gotten numerous nods to this origin and it changed the way fans see the Clown Prince of Crime in the years after it released. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic is still talked about today, so it did something right.
9) The “Death” of Bruce Wayne
Final Crisis is an amazing event comic that fans either love or hate. The story saw the heroes of the DC Universe battling against Darkseid, who had found the Anti-Life Equation. The lord of Apokolips was able to capture Batman early, but he escaped and used a radion bullet, which had been found at the murder scene of Orion, to shoot the villain. He was repaid with the Omega Sanction in Final Crisis #6, by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones. Morrison was also writing Batman at the time, and the “death” of Batman (he was actually thrown through time) played a huge role in their story. Dick Grayson replaced Bruce as Batman and trained Damian Wayne, leading to a new kind of Dynamic Duo. This moment was huge and it led to some killer Batman stories.
8) The New 52
The New 52 is a contentious era in DC history, but anyone who says it was a bad time for Batman wasn’t actually paying attention. We got the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo Batman (Vol. 2 run), the Peter Tomasi/Patrick Gleason run on Batman and Robin (Vol. 2), Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham’s Batman Incorporated (Vol. 2), and Batman event comics like Batman: Eternal. All of that is before we even get to all of the miniseries and the numerous ancillary Bat-characters that had books. It was an amazing time for the Dark Knight, with numerous best of all time stories coming out during this era. It wasn’t exactly peak Batman, but it was very, very close.
7) “Year One”
Crisis on Infinite Earths led to a new DC Universe and that meant that all new origins for nearly every major DC hero, including Batman. 1986 would see Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli team together for “Year One”, an all new view of the Dark Knight’s origin. Miller brought the hard-boiled noir style he had mastered on Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns to the book, and captured the seedy, corrupt underbelly of Gotham City. Mazzucchelli’s art is sensational. Miller’s story never would have worked the same if any other artist drew it. This is an amazing origin story, and defined Batman forever after.
6) “Knightfall”
The early ’90s saw DC find huge success with “Death of Superman”, getting rid of the version of the Man of Steel that fans grew up with by throwing him at a musclebound enemy and then “replacing” him before eventually bringing him back to save the day. The publisher decided to bring that same energy to Batman and we got “Knightfall”. This story saw Bane come to Gotham City to destroy the Dark Knight, breaking open Arkham Asylum and forcing the hero to run himself ragged before the two of them faced off. Bruce Wayne’s back was broke in the fight, “ending” his tenure as the Caped Crusader. He was replaced by Azrael and it led to a story that was about what Batman is and what the hero should be.
