Every day in May we will reveal the greatest stories ever told starring a particular character or written/drawn by a particular creator (and throughout the month, you'll get daily chances to vote for NEXT week's lists). These lists are voted on by YOU, the reader!
Here is the list of characters/creators featured so far (along with the rules on how to vote).
Our first list is the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told!
Enjoy!
I don't think I'll reveal it now, but I suppose if enough of you wish to hear it, I can give you #25-11.
Otherwise...
10. "To Kill a Legend" by Alan Brennert and Dick Giordano, from Detective Comics #500
Most of the stories on this list need no explanation, but this is one of the one or two that do.
"To Kill a Legend" is about the Phantom Stranger allowing Batman (and, despite Batman's efforts to keep him out of it, Robin) to go to an alternate universe to save Thomas and Martha Wayne from being killed. In this world, there ARE no superheroes, heck, there are no flamboyant heroic figures in FICTION, either. So, basically, there's no one to inspire anyone to heroics.
Except, perhaps, for some visitors from an alternate reality....
9. "No Man's Land" by various Batman writers and artists over the 1999 calendar year
8. The Batman Adventures: Mad Love by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini
This story by Timm and Dini, from the Batman Animated Series, give us an origin for their character, Harley Quinn, as she attempts to succeed where the Joker has always failed - killing Batman!
7. "The First Ra's Al Ghul Saga" by Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams, Bob Brown, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano (in Detective Comics and Batman)
6. Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
5. The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
4. "Strange Apparitions" (specifically Steve Englehart's run on Detective Comics from #469-476)
Len Wein finished up Steve Englehart's storyline with Hugo Strange and Silver St. Cloud that makes up the Strange Apparitions collection, but enough readers wrote in specifying that they were voting for the ENGLEHART issues that I figured I'd count the Englehart issues separately, and along that same lines, I merged them with the separate votes for the famous Joker story "The Laughing Fish" from within the overall "Strange Apparition" storyline.
3. The Killing Joke
2. "The Dark Knight Returns" from Batman: The Dark Knight #1-4
1. "Batman Year One" from Batman #404-407
That's the list! I'm sure there is a lot of agreement and disagreement with the list out there! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section!
And please vote for the lists that are still up for grabs!