The Gotham Knight
The Batman Blog

I've already read Morrison's and Smith's, both of which I loved, and I have Snyder's sitting on my shelf waiting to read. What else should I read?

Writer Duane Swierczynski spoke with THE BAT SIGNAL about his approach to DC Comic's preeminent all-female crime fighting team, the "Birds Of Prey."



Full article here.

Why haven't Catman appeared in DCnU?
Is this the end of Catman?

I don't plan to track down the single issues so if anyone can tell me what order to read the trades in the get the whole story. I want to catch up before the new Batman Inc. starts. :smile:

I found this thread:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...d.php?t=368862

But what should be updated to this list?

Writer Kyle Higgins joins THE BAT SIGNAL to discuss the past, present and future of "Nightwing," Haly's Circus and the upcoming "Night Of The Owls" Bat-title crossover.


Full article here.

Ever notice how his best stories are always those about his fall? Tragic hero who falls into madness, the relationship with BM and Gordon, etc. From then on he becomes just another freak mobster. The best thing they could do from then on was that story where he got plastic surgery and therapy, and Daniel's story with Gilda and A.Falcone which felt like a Long Halloween sequel, but it wasnt that great. I could be forgetting a couple, but i'm sure there arent many other notable ones.




As Dent he was a great man, a hero, part of the B-G-D triumvirate that tried to clean up Gotham. But then he lost his wife, his face and his sanity. Why would he become just another freak mobster like Black Mask and fight for territory, arms deals, and all that jazz? But "duality" you'll say. What duality? What's the story potential of that? Things have two sides? Whoop dee doo. That's not deep, it isnt enough for more than a couple of stories (then what?) and it doesnt explain how a hero like Dent became a typical mobster. How many stories can duality fuel? The Joker has the supersanity to keep him fresh but TF has become stale and irrelevant past his origin. Case in point there havent been many good stories since, and even now the only thing Daniel can do with him is re-examine his origin in his Tec backup.

Personally my best TF story is Nolan's who gave his madness a purpose based on who he was beforehand, explained the coin and its 50/50 choices and it all came to an end. So here's my idea for a new TF that was born from a line from Arkham City.

(see my next post)

How would you do it?

I want to know everyone's ideas for a Batman reboot. I want to know any changes to characters, and new ideas for the series itself.

Here are my ideas........

1; Wayne Academy
This is an idea that I've been playing with for some time. It is a private school that was started by Bruce's Great Great Grandfather. It's students are the from Gothan City's elite families. Bruce and his father, Thomas, both attended it, and, while living with Bruce, Dick Grayson attends the school. It would be interesting to see how Dick balances school life and his work as Robin. The school will be used to introduce certain characters. An example of this would be Barbara Gordon, who would be given a scholarship when her father becomes commissioner. The reason she gets a scholarship would either be that Bruce Wayne arranges it as a gift for her father's work with Batman, or that the school has a policy of giving full scholarships to the kids of civil servants, such as the the Police Commissioner and the District Attorney.

2; Character Origins
These are my new origins certain characters.

The Joker;
He starts out as a Hitman for the Falcone Crime Family. He has a history of Schitzophrenia, and bipolar disorder, and is known to have a sadistic sense of humor. His real name is never known. He is always called Joker, which is a nickname based on the fact that he leaves a joker playing card on every victim. One day, he is assigned by Carmine Falcone to kill the new district attorney, Harvey Dent (This is also the first issue that features Dent), and Batman stops him. The Falcone Family does not take his failure lightly and they decide to kill him. They arrange a meeting with him at the Gotham City Pier (which is Gotham City's version of the Atlantic City Boardwalk), and Carmine Falcone shoots him and leaves him for dead. Before leaving, one of Joker's rival hitmen carves a smile on his face, saying that he should "live up to his name". Joker does not die however, and is found by members of a small time street gang, called the Clown Gang because they always wear clown costumes during their crimes. The Clown Gang nurses Joker back to health and he decides to take over and use them to get revenge on the Falcones, and Batman, for causing him to fail in a hit, which had never happened before. This is when Joker begins wearing the makeup and purple suit, which was the only costume left out of the ones that were in the abandoned carnival that the Clown Gang used as their hideout. Over the years, Joker uses money he steals to build clown based weapons, and build up the carnival as a base.

Dick Grayson;
The changes to Dick are very small. His base origin story is still the same. He, and his family are circus performers, known as the Flying Graysons. In my version, Joker and the Clown Gang attack the circus that they are performing in and kill his family. The main change in the character is that he will be trained in parkour, in addition to his usual gymnastics and acrobatics. This would allow him to move mnore quickly and easily through the city and from building to building, with or without gadgets.

I was wondering what trades I should read so that I know what is going on with the whole Batman dissapearing thing. I don't have to read "everything" but just the things that will help.
So far I have Batman RIP, Final Crisis, and Battle for the Cowl
I heard that The Black Glove, Robin: Search for a Hero, Nightwing the great leap, the batman and robin reborn volume 1-3, batman life after detah and batman reborn should also be included. Are all of these needed? Is there more needed, less?