In honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Batman, we're doing four straight months of polls having to do with Batman, culminating with the official 75th anniversary of Batman on July 23rd. We've done Batman covers, Batman characters, Batman creastors and now, finally, Batman stories!

You all voted, now here are the results of what you chose as the 75 Greatest Batman Stories! Here are #25-21!

Enjoy!

NOTE: Don't be a jerk about creators in the comments section. If you are not a fan of a particular creator, that's fine, but be respectful about it. No insulting creators or otherwise being a jerk about creators. I'll be deleting any comments like that and, depending on how jerky the comment was, banning commenters.

25. "Batman and Son" (Barman #655-658)

Grant Morrison debuted his years-long stint on Batman with this story arc with art by Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang that introduced Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul, who has been raised by the League of Assassins. Talia sends Damian to sow discord in Batman's world and to also draw Batman to her, to give her one last chance to have Batman join her in ruling the world.

Damian was a fascinating addition, especially his interactions with the rest of the cast (his best attribute as a character has always been seeing how others react to him)...







In this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed, I explore how Damian almost didn't make it out of Batman and Son alive!

24. "There is No Hope in Crime Alley" (Detective Comics #457)

In this beautiful anniversary issue (it's a weird anniversary, though, something like the 36th anniversary), Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano introduce both the custom of Batman re-visiting Crime Alley on the anniversary of his parents' murder as well as the introduction of Dr. Leslie Thomkins, who soon became a key supporting cast member...









Powerful stuff.

23. "Batman and Robin Reborn!" (Batman and Robin #1-3)

After Bruce Wayne is seemingly killed during Final Crisis, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely launched a new series, Batman and Robin, starring Dick Grayson taking over as Batman and Damian Wayne becoming Robin. The clever combination has a carefree Batman and a serious Robin. It was a winning combo that also saw the brilliant artwork of Frank Quitely...









This series kicked Morrison's Batman run into a whole other gear.

Go to the next page for #22-21!

22. "The Origin of Batman" (Batman #47)

This story reveals who killed Batman's parents - Joe Chill!

Bill Finger's brilliant origin of Batman works so well because of the twist, which was quite sharp for the late 1940s, of Joe Chill being done in due to his "creation" of Batman...







What a clever and edgy ending.

21. "Leviathan" (Batman Inc.: Leviathan Strikes and Batman Incorporated #1-10, 12-13)

Since Bruce Wayne's return from the "dead," Morrison set up that Bruce saw some horrible opponent that he had to battle and which is why he formed Batman Incorporated (an international group of superheroes). In the final issue of the first volume of Batman Inc., we learn who is behind this group, this "Leviathan" - it is Talia Al Ghul!

Batman spurned her in Batman and Son and she is responded by destroying his world and setting the world aflame. She is so crazed that she won't even let the death of her own SON stand in her way of making Batman pay...







Grant Morrison was incredibly lucky to end up paired with the brilliant Chris Burnham for this second half of Batman Incorporated. Burnham is an exceptional artist who eventually even began to help with the writing of the series (including writing a couple of Batman Inc. issues himself). You rarely get to see a comic book epic storyline these days where there is a single amazing artist on the whole story.