#33 in Mystery graphic novels
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Reddit mentions of Batman: Batman and Son (New Edition)
Sentiment score: 4
Reddit mentions: 21
We found 21 Reddit mentions of Batman: Batman and Son (New Edition). Here are the top ones.
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- DC Comics
Features:
Specs:
Color | Multicolor |
Height | 10.2 Inches |
Length | 6.7 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | February 2014 |
Weight | 1.4881202685 Pounds |
Width | 0.6 Inches |
> It’s so confusing, why shouldn’t I just be able to follow his story from beginning to present?
> (I’m using Batman as an example but really I’d like help understanding how to follow comics in general as they’re all laid out this way, with overlapping arcs and timelines and such)
This isn't entirely how comics work. In general, it's not the only way other mediums work either. The REQUIREMENT that everything follows a strict, traditional/conventional 3-act structure (beginning, middle, end) is self-imposed and not necessary for good story-telling. The "beginning" of comics happened decades ago and the "end" is nowhere in sight; comics are perpetually stuck in the "middle".
You're already used to non-traditional narrative structure; it's used very often in other mediums. Why does Star Wars get a pass but not superhero comics? Did you see how Darth Vader "became" Darth Vader before he was introduced for the first time? Do you refuse to watch/read/play anything that will potentially have a prequel and ruin your "sense" of chronology? Did Memento or even Pulp Fiction melt your mind? When you go watch Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, there aren't going to be in-depth introductions for every character.
It's OK to embrace your preferences. Most people like following stories from beginning to end. Now that there is 70+ years of comic history to explore, third parties have attempted ordering it all in some subjective, complicated chronology. It's not really possible, though. How do you handle flashbacks, especially when they're embedded in another story? Do you have to change the chronology to per-panel precision? What about simultaneous story releases? Alternate universes/timelines that are fully/partially "canon" and/or merged/retconned later? Varieties of characterization by multiple writers/artists?
Most of what made these superheroes "cool" in the first place was very topical. What powers do they have? What does their costume look like? Their backstories and character growth/development were fleshed out over the coming decades, more specifically in the "modern" age of comics when the demographic started transitioning to include adults.
There's no "perfect" or "definitive" sequence of events that Batman's story occurred in. That severely limits creators from writing new stories for the character without requiring hard continuity reboots. If you start solidifying that Batman grew up in X, met character Y, fought character Z, in a strict order that can't be changed, then you can't write stories that occur in between those moments. If you plan out Batman's entire chronology to fit a realistic calendar where Bane broke his back on Wednesday and the Court of Owls revealed themselves on Friday, then you (1) will find it won't make sense (because that's not how comics are made) and (2) are stripping all of the "magic" of comics away. Keep in mind: 70+ year old shared universes are an unprecedented achievement of storytelling. No other medium has accomplished something of this scale for this long. You should expect to think of something unique like that a little differently than you might be used to.
I think it's easier to get into comics when you drop the "need" to read EVERYTHING, IN ORDER. You should just read self-contained stories and treat them like separate stories. Think of it like a jigsaw picture puzzle that you're solving one piece at a time. You won't see the big picture (continuity) until you manually piece random pieces of it together over time. You even start to develop your own "methodology" (head-canon, community discussion, etc.) of putting those pieces together (reading comics) in a way that makes sense to you personally. Comics should feel more like self-discovery/exploration than procedure/work.
This is (roughly) how I got into Batman and what I suggest to new readers:
I also got into comics with Batman Rebirth, afterwards I found this list here on reddit and all of them are just great, few of them are even extraordinary and without any of them we wouldn't have the Batman we have right now.
If I had to pick some highlights, it were The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, No Man's Land, Black Mirror and Hush, especially Hush was fantastic.
Still love Batman Rebirth though.
EDIT: Formatting
"/u/beary_good is our lord and savior, and his teachings are scribed here."
And they're all paperbacks!
Edit* but don't get Batman & Son or Final Crisis from those links - they lack a few important tie-ins. Get the new editions sibbo mentioned. linked here: Batman & Son and Final Crisis
Here's a big list of DC recommendations I've made before. You can pick them up in trades, or as single issues. Check Amazon, or Comixology, or InStockTrades.
> For New 52 Batman and Batman-related books, I recommend the following:
 
>For other New 52, I would recommend:
 
>And here are some good pre-N52 that you should definitely check out:
On the Marvel side, I personally recommend Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, Mard Waid's Daredevil, Nathan Edmondson's Black Widow, Cullen Bunn's Magneto, and Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man.
Grant Morrison had been building up to RIP for a while, and you'll definitely have a better reading experience if you read the previous collections, Batman and Son and The Black Glove.
And here's a reading order for the rest of Morrison's Batman work: http://readgrantmorrisonsbatman.tumblr.com/post/57372791683/reading-order
While it seems daunting, it's actually not that hard to read.
You'll want to find these trade collections (I've included Amazon links):
I have previously made a post describing the different editions of Knightfall, and how best to collect that series, and about both of these runs of interest, I hope you don't mind me repeating that information. There are recent omnibuses and trade paper backs of both series', depending on what you prefer, and I will detail what is the most up to date versions in collecting these series.
For Knightfall:
Omnibus: 1, 2, 3
Trade paper back: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
The 3 omnibuses contain the same material as the 9 trades. As for what to read before Knightfall, people often recommend the Legends of the Dark Knight story arc Venom for introducing the chemical substance Bane uses but otherwise has little bearing on the story (it's probably cheaper to buy digital copies of the trade/individual issues, as I believe the trade is out of print), or Sword of Azrael for introducing Jean Paul Valley, as he has a lot gong on in the background with him. (Note, there are two versions, the 1993 version which is often out of print, though tells just the Sword of Azrael introduction, or the modern 2016 version, which contains both the introductory arc to be read before Knightfall, though also containing a post-Knightfall arc for JPV). In terms of what you need before hand, I read the 2012 editions, and I felt lost without Sword of Azrael and Prelude to Knightfall. It does showcase a lot of odd characters here and there, I feel like if you have a somewhat familiarity of Batman's villains (i.e. Arkham or BTAS experience) then you would be fine.
Knightfall happens early enough in the post-crisis continuity, which helps for the purpose of being a new reader. Morrison's run, on the other hand, happens at the end of the post-crisis continuity. I'm not saying reading all of post-crisis is necessary, I mean I hadn't before starting, but it does draw a bit from post-crisis knowledge (things like Hush, Under The Red Hood, etc.), though crazily enough, Morrison made everything canon. Not in a way that not reading everything is prohibitive, more so in a way that embraces even the Gold/Silver/Bronze age Batman stories. The pre-crisis stories Morrison drew influence from are collected in The Black Casebook, but really, I never found it necessary to read, it is just interesting from a history perspective. The rest of Morrison's run is fairly easy enough to follow. This infographic describes the order for reading in trade paper back format, though if I recall correctly, they have recently started putting Morrison's run in omnibus format.
Trade Paper backs: Batman and Son (New edition comes with The Black Glove arc, too), (optional Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul), Batman RIP, then, it gets a little messy, as you might consider reading the DC wide event Final Crisis, which isn't Batman specific, but has huge ramifications for Batman going forward, but admittedly, without broad DC knowledge, can be confusing, anyway, following that is (optionally Battle for the Cowl and Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?, which are not written by Morrison, but BftC is plot relevant to Batman going forward, and Gaiman's WHttCC? is a short and extremely well made reflection on Batman) then Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn, Batman and Robin: Batman Vs Robin, Time and the Batman, The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman and Robin: Batman and Robin Must Die!. This is followed by the post-crisis Batman: Incorporated, but DC rebooted mid-Morrison run, so that it is finally completed with the New 52 Batman Incorporated volume 1: Demon Star and Batman Incorporated volume 2: Gotham's Most Wanted.
All of this (at least the Morrison parts, not any of the optional sections) are collected in omnibus editions: 1 containig Batman and Son, The Black Glove and RIP, there is a Final Crisis Omnibus, which I have heard is more complete, and there is 2 containing Time and the Batman, the first 3 Batman and Robin volumes, as well as The Return of Bruce Wayne. Lastly, there is the Batman Incorporated Absolute Edition finishing the all the Batman Incorporated stuff.
So Morison's may seem a little messier or harder to start, I wouldn't necessarily say it is harder, if you follow the list I have provided. I would recommend attempting it after a little more experience with comic Batman however, but it's hard to really say how much experience is needed. Some start with it, and have a great time. Another thing to consider is that with so much comics, especially omnibuses and absolute editions, it does get very expensive. I would recommend tackling it in bite sized chunks, like maybe just the first arc of Knightfall, or initially the pre-Final crisis Morrison stories, making sure you like either enough to commit to buying and reading more. I hope this has actually been helpful and informative, and hasn't made any of this seem too hard to follow!
You should read Grant Morrison's Batman run. It ran from 2006 - 2013 and everything is collected in trade.
You'll need:
Batman and Son
Batman RIP
Batman and Robin Volume 1
Batman and Robin Volume 2
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Batman and Robin Volume 3
Batman Incorporated Volume 1
Batman Incorporated Volume 1 (New 52)
Batman Incorporated Volume 2 (New 52)
I got some new books in the mail yesterday I'm excited to read -Batman and Son, Supergirl Vol. 2, Superman: For Tomorrow, and Flashpoint, which I'm reading now and really enjoying. I see a lot of posts from people just getting into - or getting back into - comics after a long hiatus like myself (where I tried to pretend I was all grown up, but having a daughter has reminded me how fun and awesome things can be) where they're stressing about continuity and reading things in the right order and I've had a blast just jumping all over the place. Once the little references to other events and inside jokes come together for me they're almost like mini-reveals and I'm really enjoying piecing things together that way.
Also, I'm running my own little personal half-marathon tomorrow morning as the halfway point of my full marathon training plan so I'm gonna be all laid up checking out those aforementioned comics all day tomorrow and that plan sounds wonderful to me.
edit for piecing (still looks weird to me, and so does weird...stupid english)
You like Batman, I see?
Might I recommend my personal favorite comic run, the Grant Morrison Batman epic. Start with Batman and Son, and go with this order. That BaS trade also contains Black Glove.
Seriously, if you're a fan of Batman, read the Morrison run. It gets a bit confusing at times, namely RIP and Return of Bruce Wayne, but it's still amazing. The highest of recommendations.
Morrison's run starts with Batman and Son(which is Damian's first appearance), and Peter Tomasi's run starts with Batman and Robin: Born to Kill
Yeah, it's the climax of a story that's been running for about 15 issues at that point, and it was meticulously planned out. Some of the twists in RIP get set up within literally the fifth page. It's basically the conclusion for the first major chapter of Morrison's Batman run.
But the 'prelude' isn't particularly expensive, and it's definitely fun in its own right.
(Where it gets a bit much IMO is that you should also check out Final Crisis while you're reading RIP. I eventually grew to like FC quite a bit, but it's divisive for a reason.)
Amazon
Edit for more information. Originally this was collected in two books: Batman and Son and Batman: The Black Glove. This new edition combines them into one book.
I read it alone, but I recommend reading Batman & Son and The Black Glove first, because there was certainly a bit of filling in the blank I had to do during and after.
As mentioned, this edition comes with both stories.
It's seriously fantastic and a bit out there. This is the first book your start with https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1401244025/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51bSPIDbVsL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL300_SR300%2C300_&psc=1&refRID=3GWG46W2FMPHSGYRGAMJ and then Batman RIP is when Zea gears up
So I guess they re-titled it to be the Batman & Son collection now.
Edit; Sorry, that was the Amazon.ca listing. If you're from the states, I'm sure you can find the same thing on Amazon.com.
I would go "Batman and Son", then "Final Crisis", then "Battle for the Cowl", and then onto "Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn" and the rest of Grant Morrison's run.
For Batman I can recommend:
Batman: Year One
The Long Halloween
Dark Victory
The Killing Joke
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
Batman vol. 1: The Court of Owls (beginning of Scott Snyder's run)
I could also recommend Grant Morrison's run, but with a warning that it eventually becomes very trippy and sometimes hard to follow. (At one point, it intersects with the Morrison penned event Final Crisis, which is a mind bending chapter in the Multiverse saga.) The whole thing is in the process of being collected in omnibi though, so there's that. But you could certainly dip your toe in with Batman and Son.
For Watchmen, just read the original comic. It's a 12 issue maxiseries that is easy enough to find in a number of different printings. It is a heavy book, so you may need to come back to it later if you're struggling to get into it.
There's also a prequel series called Before Watchmen, which I personally liked the Minutemen and Silk Spectre minis, but they're still a far cry from being as good as the original. The other minis are whatever, and really they're all entirely optional. Watchmen the book existed for decades all by its lonesome perfectly fine.
Do NOT read the pseudo-sequel Doomsday Clock unless you feel you have a good grip on DC continuity. It really does read more like an event about the DCU colliding with Watchmen, rather than a straight sequel. So going straight from Watchmen to Doomsday Clock will feel confusing.
If you want the lead up to his death too, you need the whole Morrison run.
http://comicsastonish.com/2012/01/04/a-readers-guide-to-grant-morrisons-batman/
If you want some amazon links:
Batman: Batman and Son
Batman R.I.P.
Batman: Time and the Batman
[Final Crisis] (http://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-New-Grant-Morrison/dp/140124517X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422589571&sr=8-1&keywords=final+crisis) Somewhat optional
Battle for the Cowl Also optional
Batman & Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn
Batman & Robin, Vol. 2: Batman vs. Robin
Batman & Robin, Vol. 3: Batman & Robin Must Die
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Batman Incorporated
Batman Incorporated Vol. 1: Demon Star (The New 52)
Batman Incorporated Vol. 2: Gotham's Most Wanted (The New 52)
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Amazon Smile Link: Batman and Son
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
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