Returning to the character that made him a star, Arkham Asylum writer Grant Morrison began a multiyear Batman mega-story that's spanned multiple series and is still going strong. Led by Frank Quitely, a team of artists made this era of Batman a high-octane DayGlo nightmare and made its new odd-couple dynamic duo an absolute pleasure to follow. It sounds ridiculous but Morrison has described the tone as the 1960s Batman TV show as directed by David Lynch, and damn if that isn't dead-on. Damian Wayne, Bruce's evil son with the daughter of Batman Begins villain Ra's al Ghul, is the new Boy Wonder. 1: Batman Reborn’Īct Two of the Morrison mega-story sees the cheery former Robin, Dick Grayson, adopt the cape and cowl while Bruce Wayne is M.I.A. But artist Gary Frank captures the character's fury like few artists before him and, for better or worse, this is the one Batman comic that best reflects the super-serious 'battle for the soul of Gotham City' tone of the Nolan films. His Batman 2.0 is angry and accident-prone, Jim Gordon's a corrupt wimp and Alfred is a shotgun-toting Iraq War vet. This standalone graphic novel from Geoff Johns – DC's biggest writer and its Chief Creative Officer – restarts the Bat-mythology from scratch in yet another origin story. Rising-star writer Scott Snyder's talky, twisty, pulpy plot and artist Greg Capullo's scratchy 1990s-throwback artwork have made their Batman DC's most popular non-team title it looks set to define the character for some time to come. For Batman's debut storyline in this brave new world, he's fighting the Court of Owls, a shadowy/feathery conspiracy of Gotham's most powerful residents that picks apart Batman's brain like an owl pellet. They call it the New 52: a line-wide relaunch of all of DC's superhero properties, turning back the clock on their histories and shaking up the origins of some of the more moribund titles.

Absolute Dark Knight by Frank Miller