The Dark Knight

Batman is one of my favorite comic book characters because he’s a normal man trained to perfection. He used his billionaire fortune to become an inventor, master detective, martial artists, and crime fighter. When Batman’s not fighting crime, he’s Bruce Wayne, billionaire industrialist and philanthropist.

IGN.com recently ranked the Top 25 Batman stories, so I thought it would be cool to list the Top 5. I’ve only read two of the Top 5, and both stories are amazing, so I’m imaging the other three will be equally as entertaining. I guess we all have our summer reading list (as if reading bar and board material won’t be enough – for my law and dental school readers).

IGN.com's Top 5:

1. Batman: Year One. Written by: Frank Miller, Art by: Dave Mazzucchelli. This parallel story follows Jim Gordon as he arrives in Gotham from Chicago and Bruce Wayne as he returns from many years of training abroad. Both find that Gotham is a dying city overwhelmed by corruption from top to bottom.
2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Written by: Frank Miller, Art by: Frank Miller. This is a futuristic imagining of a Batman without hope. Having been retired for ten. Bruce Wayne finds himself compelled to don the mantle of the bat once more. This in turn revives the insane criminals who'd been almost comatose for the past decade. I’ve actually read this story, and it includes an awesome fight where Batman beats the crap out of Superman.
3. Batman: The Killing Joke. Written by: Alan Moore, Art by: Brian Bolland. This story provides a “possible” origin for the Joker. For the first time we are shown the Joker as a sympathetic character, of a good man driven to insanity by a pair of unfortunate accidents.
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum. Written by: Grant Morrison, Art by: Dave McKean. To dress up like a bat and risk your life every night requires some measure of insanity. Through an examination of the psychology of the insane, we are given a harsh but accurate account of the Batman's own mental make-up.
5. Batman: The Long Halloween. Written by: Jeph Loeb, Art by: Tim Sale. This is a detective story. Someone is killing all of Gotham’s mobsters on holiday throughout the year, and it’s up to Batman to discover the killer and stop them. I’ve actually read this story, and it’s filled with shocking twists and turns. It will keep you guess throughout.