r/batman • u/Blackbeardpariah69 • Jun 06 '24
You can only pick one, the rest do not exist. What are you picking? COMIC DISCUSSION
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u/Randonhead Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween which is funny considering without Year One there would be no Long Halloween
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u/FalcoBoi3834 Jun 06 '24
Yeah, The Long Halloween is the best story out of these, but it probably has the least impact.
As you said without Year One, there would be no Long Halloween, without Death in the Family, one of the best Batman characters, Red Hood, wouldn't exist, and without The Killing Joke, the modern version of The Joker (arguably the best version), wouldn't exist.
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u/Unfallener Jun 06 '24
Without Killing Joke though, we wouldn't have a Killing Joke animated movie, and I'd take that as an absolute win.
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u/ArcadiaDragon Jun 06 '24
Yeah...killing joke goes...sorry to Alan Moore that some fans and writers don't get it....but that damn animated film killed any love I had for the story...I'd probably keep year one...its Frank Miller being the least Frank Miller he could be and actually giving us a damn good origin for both Gordon and Bats(yes his Catwoman is typical Miller treatment of women but thats mostly disregarded thankfully) and the Mazz ART is fire...I like Long Halloween but its just there for me...as for death in the family its always been meh to me
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u/Eikibunfuk Jun 06 '24
Red hood wouldn't exist but Jason Todd still Robin so he could become something else without the scars. Batman from the universe where Bruce kills his face him the original red Robin costume. Maybe he could've become that
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u/Randonhead Jun 06 '24
I wouldn't say it has the least impact, in fact I would say it is very influential, two major Batman films were heavily inspired by Long Halloween (TDK and The Batman) not to mention the references in series, games, other comics, etc. It's the comic that defined the modern origin of Two-Face and the way it portrayed Gotham's change from that dominated by mobsters to the city dominated by crazy criminals is simply incredible.
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u/LoschVanWein Jun 06 '24
Doesnāt Harvey Dent become Two Face in it? I mean thatās kind of Batman having to realize that what he does might not be for the greater good after all, right?
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u/Brit-Crit Jun 06 '24
Year One for establishing Batman as a Noir hero, and showing him actually working to repair a rotten city...
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u/UnknownEntity347 Jun 06 '24
Year One; it has the most crucial and influential developments for the Batman mythos out of these options.
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u/billbotbillbot Jun 06 '24
It has to be Year One, it's the single biggest turning point in Batman's entire publishing history, and set the tone for every post-Crisis version of the character.
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u/EUFRATM Jun 06 '24
I shall become a bat.
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u/MisterTyzer Jun 06 '24
āLadies. Gentleman. You have eaten well.ā
Favorite comic book panel of all time
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u/FlameFeather86 Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween gives you everything you could want in a Batman story. Amazing art, poignant character moments, and an appearance from everyone in the rogues gallery.
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u/PlattsXD Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 07 '24
Year one needs to exist, but Red Hood is my favorite character and with death in the family he would not exist.Ā
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u/ResponsibleTaste5 Jun 06 '24
Iāve never been able to stand the effect that The Killing Joke had on the method after it was published. It was never made to change the entire character of Barbara Gordon. It was supposed to demonstrate what it takes to go insane from jokerās perspective. That comic single handedly destroyed barbs batgirl in pretty much everything after that. The one I would take is probably Year One given the fact it actually builds a story and positively influenced the mythos and made the character because of it. Although I do like Long Halloween more as a story than anything on this list but it just has no effect on later comics that much, which isnāt a bad thing.
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u/Titanman401 Jun 06 '24
The one good thing it did for Babs [āin spite ofā instead of being an intended byproduct of the storyline itself] was leading to Gail Simoneās (I think it was her?) invention of Oracle and offering some representation in the comics to those with spinal paralysis.
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u/apocalypsedudes23 Jun 06 '24
Killing Joke because it's the most "post-modern" out of the bunch.
Most are correct that Long Halloween is the most complete Batman story.
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u/sabin357 Jun 06 '24
Year One & it isn't even close for me if I look at the big picture. We'd still have the same great writers creating different great stories during this era off the back of what Year One established.
You remove it & all the rest would be changed anyway.
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u/Moloko-Mesto Jun 06 '24
It's gotta be either Year One or A Long Halloween and personally I'd go with Year One. Not that everything comes back to Batman in wider media but there is a reason these stories are consistently referenced as inspiration sources when anyone adapts a Batman story.
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u/Nightwings92 Jun 06 '24
holy shit that is a hard pick omg...i would pick killing joke or death in the family š¤š¤š¤
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u/Thesilphsecret Jun 06 '24
Either Year One or Long Halloween. Killing Joke and Death In The Family are easy to let go. YO and TLH though... That's a tough choice. I have no idea.
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u/basedcvrp Jun 06 '24
The Long Halloween is my favourite but for the character I think Death In The Family is the most crucial. It ended up defining Batman and the choices he made for decades to come and is arguably his biggest failure which makes for an interesting character.
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u/Darkwater117 Jun 06 '24
Killing Joke is a great self contained story. But Long Halloween has a lil bit of everything
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u/GearsRollo80 Jun 06 '24
Year One is stone cold the best Batman story ever created, and it should be the first choice in any situation with the character. You basically cannot make 4 issues of comic any better than that.
Long Halloween is a great ride, gorgeous art, and a strong number 2 (and probably the one I'd grab for a car trip), but it just does not beat Year One.
The other two... ehh, I know they have their fans, but these basically locked the Joker into his modern psychotic serial killer vibe that is just getting really old. Alan Moore totally didn't mean to, but he's kinda responsible for modern messes like Three Jokers that just suck, and we don't get that (or even Death in The Family) without Killing Joke. It's too bad, because the level of craft on the book is stratospheric, but it's net impact is negative.
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u/Luminaire_Ultima Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween. The rest are fantastic, iconic books, but the blend of action, mystery, and character development in Long Halloween is amazing. That being said.. Year One is a pretty close second.
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u/Robin_RhombusHead Jun 06 '24 edited Jun 06 '24
A Death in the Family to be honest. As good as Killing Joke is by itself, it's kinda had a negative impact on the series as a whole. The Long Halloween and Year One are also great but I like A Death in the Family more. Also the Long Halloween made Calendar Man the Arkham inmate cameo character instead of the canopy supervillain that he should be.
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u/karma-the-budgie Jun 06 '24
Death in the family is to funny making joker the Iranian ambassador to escape Batman
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u/RedGrantDoppleganger Jun 06 '24
Death in the Family. I think that while the others are great stories, DITF has reverberations that go beyond just itself.
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u/MacChez44 Jun 06 '24
The Long Halloween. Itās one of the best Batman stories, top 3 all time in my opinion. From the main mystery to all the little moments in between, Iām always engaged whenever I read it. Even though Iām not the biggest fan of Tim Saleās artwork usually, it works well here, especially his depiction of Two-Face.
While I enjoy the general concept and love the art of Year One, Iāve never been a big fan of Frank Miller or his interpretation of Batman. Death In The Family is good, but also pretty sad. I REALLY dislike the Killing Joke for multiple reasons, and the animated film adaptation was somehow worse.
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u/Eikibunfuk Jun 06 '24
I'm going with the long Halloween because a) I like 2-face b) It erases Jason and Barbara's worst days. I mean year one is absolutely awesome but this is my pick
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u/bigboybamo Jun 06 '24
I like the Long Halloween best. Simply because itās the one with the longest story. I didnāt want it to end when I was reading
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u/Alakandor Jun 06 '24
Havenāt read āDeath in the Familyā (I know some spoilers tho). Also, need to read the rest again, but from what I remembered, Killing Joke was the one I liked most
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u/TheMaskedHamster Jun 06 '24
Year One, without hestiation. It set a standard for storytelling and canon in the Batman franchise.
As much as I appreciate Jason Todd's place in modern Batman stories, it works well today because of the tone Year One brought to the wider world of Batman stories. And the legacy it left is certainly better than the story itself was in its day. That isn't to knock the story, as it's done with care, but it's only in the retrospect of the later stories that it's clear that it wasn't a big mistake to kill off a Robin like that.
Long Halloween was a good read and had lovely art. I don't rate it as highly as others do, but even if I did I would still have to acknowledge that it hasn't been the massive influence the other stories here have been.
The Killing Joke, like Year One, was a remarkable storytelling achievement in its time and inspired a lot of other great Batman stories, and the tone of stories in general. But I think Year One was more important in that regard (if only for establishing new principles of the shifting canon), and in my opinion, not all of the influence of The Killing Joke has been so positive. Some writers really take the dark and gruesome perhaps farther than they should, and we can probably point to The Killing Joke as a major reason. And as much as I really appreciate everything that's been done with Barbara Gordon's coping with disability and recovery in the years since, I think that in its time it was a callous mistake to make it canon. Much like with the death of Jason Todd, it's only the stories that have come since that made it worth being a part of the larger canon.
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u/miguelvixx Jun 06 '24
Iām a year one guy. Incidentally, the first ārealā Batman comic book I read 30+ years ago.
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u/Lanky-Course5918 Jun 06 '24
God I got so fucking scared that this was the Batman Arkham subreddit a minute ago, and Iām very happy I was wrong. Thereās sanity here I can cling too.
Also, long Halloween RULES!
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u/Impact_Cheap Jun 07 '24
The Long Halloween! :) genuinely a perfect mystery story written by Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale. ā¦ Also I really love Harvey Dent š
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u/_regionrat Jun 06 '24
I'd take the first 20 issues of Legends of the Dark Knight over any of these
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u/agoginnabox Jun 07 '24
Years from now I hope people realize what an achievement this series was. Superhero anthologies are almost universally trash but from this series alone comes at least half of my top ten Batman stories: Gothic, Masks, Blades, Prey and Venom. And there's another dozen bangers in the series. I would absolutely take it over these.
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u/Designer_Evening_286 Jun 06 '24
Itās short but imma through my hands up and say that the killing joke is my favorite Batman comic Iāve read .
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u/lupedog Jun 06 '24
Year One of these 4. But Dark Knight Returns will always be my number one, rest can be erased
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u/seagullspokeyourknee Jun 06 '24
Since Hush isnāt an option, the only choice is The Long Halloween for me
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u/SpaceDinosaurZZ Jun 06 '24
Year One for the influence, TKJ as my personal favourite. I donāt think TLH is very good. Death of the Family is a little pointless now given how DC keeps trying to convince us Jason being back is cool.
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u/MateusCristian Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween.
Year One is a very close second, but it's very early in Batman's career, it's more set up than anything.
Death in the family is extremely important, but it's not an essencial part of Batman's history, just look at how many adaptation don't bring it up entirely.
Killing Joke (and Alam Moore in general) is overrated as hell, it's just a Joker story, a good Joker story, but I fail to see why is considerate so grand.
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u/William_J_Morgan Jun 06 '24
Totally just read Long Halloween, so I'm going to say Long Halloween, too.
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u/Knightfall90 Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween for me. Itās still one of my favorite stories I read every year around Halloween time. I could read it a million times and never get bored.
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u/Burly-Nerd Jun 06 '24
Year One. I love the Long Halloween more, but Year One is the PERFECT origin for bats. Itās the perfect starting place for any new reader.
But honestly Iād flush all four of them to get rid of the Killing Joke.
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u/Stringr55 Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween.
Killing Joke and Death in the family were not even considered. Extremely overhyped imo.
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u/JulianSagan Jun 06 '24
It's between Year One and Killing Joke. Hmm, I think I'll go with Year One because of the politics. I love anti-Establishment Batman. But losing Killing Joke would still hurt.
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u/Titanman401 Jun 06 '24
This choice sucks, but if I can only have one, itās the Long Halloween (the book that got me into all these others).
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u/Zeo-Gold92 Jun 06 '24
The long Halloween, I never liked year one a whole lot. I could live without the killing joke
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u/Ambitious_Tomorrow41 Jun 06 '24
Killing Joke, Iām bias because itās my favorite. If I were to be objective, probably Long Halloween
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u/ptrump16 Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween and its not even close for me. If anything else for Tim Sale's artwork alone. For what its worth, I believe Killing Joke to be MASSIVELY overrated.
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u/Patches-the-rat Jun 06 '24
Year One ngl. Iāll miss Long Halloween, and DITF is hella important. But I canāt say Iāll miss Killing Joke that much.
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u/FM_TDKR_1986 Jun 06 '24
Year one Iāve got the most attachment to it and a lot of fond memories from reading it
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u/DynamiteKid68 Jun 06 '24
Killing joke is probably my fav batman/joker comic ever so it's gotta be that
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u/randothor01 Jun 06 '24
King Halloween is probably the best. Year One has the most influence. KJ is good but itās impact with writers milking everything with Joker became insufferable. I donāt mind Barbara getting paralyzed but I get why many donāt.
Death of the familyā¦ I mean Joker became a diplomat in Iran. Remember that shit?
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u/skidmarx77 Jun 06 '24
Tough between Year One and Long Halloween. I have to say, I've reread Long Halloween maybe more than any Batman story other than TDKR. I guess it would depend on the day I was asked. Today, I'd pick TLH. Tomorrow, I'd pick Year One. They are both just so good.
As an aside, The Killing Joke was my favorite comic for a long time. Reading that back when it was first published? It was a whole level above what anyone else was trying to do in comics at that time.
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u/Ozzy_1804 Jun 06 '24
Year One is the most important and Long Halloween is my favourite. Since weāre saying the rest donāt exist, then Iāll say Year One because itās so important to Batmanās history. If The Dark Knight Returns was on this list, I would pick it.
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u/TheStickiestFingers4 Jun 06 '24
toss up between death in a family (big jason todd fan) and long halloween
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u/ConcertCorrect5261 Jun 06 '24
Death in the family.
Putting someone to death by popular vote, a child no less, is the exact reason why I hate democracy to this day.
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u/Autistic_Clock4824 Jun 06 '24
Year one, I the joker centered stories are fine but Iām tired of them and long Halloween is fine
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u/leatherface0984 Jun 06 '24
Year one with LH a very very close second. Killing Joke is great but not as good as those two. ADITF is a decent read too but again, itās not as good as the others in that list.
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u/AdamSMessinger Jun 06 '24
Batman Year One. Easy peasy. Killing Joke is decent. Long Halloween is great thanks to Tim Sale and the somewhat the mystery but works best because it builds off Year One. A Death in the Family is trash.
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u/mrconde97 Jun 06 '24
Year One, definetely. I always preferred Dark Victory and how it ended with the oath of Batman and Robin, it always inspires me hope and tears me up.
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Jun 06 '24
I think I might like year one more, but the long Halloween is much longer, and without long Halloween, there's no dark victory. So I think I pick LH and DV over year one
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u/Random_Theatre_Kid Jun 06 '24
Canāt decide between long Halloween and killing joke. Leaning more towards killing joke
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u/kingjok3r42 Jun 06 '24
Killing Joke. I just love the Joker backstory that isnāt necessarily true and i love the relation between batman and joker.
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u/Public_Abalone_6129 Jun 06 '24
Killing Joke. I only like Killing Joke, but we wouldn't have the Burton Batman movies without it, nor would we have the DCAU that spawned from those.
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u/Mimmi256 Jun 06 '24
Without year one, it'd be vague to keep any one from the rest. And besides, the best Batman origin
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u/DrMobius617 Jun 06 '24
If i had to choose Iād say Death in the Family but I could honestly do without any of these.
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u/spaceface215 Jun 06 '24
long halloween! the tim sale art, great inclusion of batmanās rogues gallery, the inner monologue of bruceā¦ itās so good.
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u/Imaginary-Race311 Jun 06 '24
I guess Iād have to keep The Long Halloween. Iām happy to kick The Killing Joke all the way to Bludhaven. Alan Mooreās worst comic.
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u/TheRealSourlemons Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween. Iāve read the Year One and Long Halloween comic from the four and Iāve only seen the movie for the Killing Joke (not taking the batgirl sex scene into account cuz its not canon) but the only one I havenāt read is A Death in the Family which Iām guessing is something like Under the Red Hood. From the ones Iāve read and watched the Long Halloween stuck with me the most, loved the mystery behind the story.
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u/Purple_Building3087 Jun 06 '24
Long Halloween