For over 80 years, the world has enjoyed the many adventures of Batman. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the Dark Knight Detective has gone through an endless amount of changes in his career, from a dark loner to a family man and more, Batman's stories have seen the character evolve at the hands of countless writers and artists.
But not every story about the World's Greatest Detective has left a lasting mark. Across the thousands of stories that Batman has been a part of, only a small percentage have really made a definitive mark on the character, changing the way readers see him. These stories, which are still too many to count, shape the overall mythology of Batman, adding to the character and the universe around him in ways no one could have foreseen when the tales were being told.
10 Detective Comics #38 Gave Batman A Friend
Batman began to change almost from the moment he first appeared in Detective Comics #27. While he was introduced as a hero with a gun, that weapon quickly vanished, and his purple gloves were replaced with blue ones that matched his cape and cowl.
But the first major change to Batman came in Detective Comics #38 when the Dark Knight took on his first sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder. Suddenly, Batman wasn't fighting crime alone, instead, he was paired with a young boy who not only helped in the fights but brought some levity to the hero's life.
9 Dark Knight Returns Made Batman Tough Again
While the 1966 movie and TV series Batman usually gets the blame, the goofy tone of the World's Greatest Detective started to happen in the comics well before then. For years, thanks to the crackdown on violence in comics, Batman and Robin spent their time dealing with wild and wacky adventures with aliens and other oddities instead of solving grim crimes.
That all began to change in the 1970s, but it wasn't until Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in 1986 that the world noticed how much the character had changed. Gone were the "biffs" "pows" and "whams" of the 1960s, in their place was a deadly serious Batman who was ready to take on the scum of Gotham City.
8 The Daughter Of The Demon Opened Up Batman's World
While Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams only worked together on eleven issues of Batman, their stories forever changed the course of the character's history. By introducing Ra's al-Ghul in Batman #232, O'Neil and Adams took Batman out of Gotham and into a larger world of espionage and danger while also introducing one of the Dark Knight's greatest adversaries. Today, Batman's life is forever entwined with Ra's al-Ghul's thanks to Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia al-Ghul, Ra's own daughter. Without these early stories, the latest Robin would never have existed.
7 Year One Showed The World An Inexperienced Bat
Frank Miller followed up The Dark Knight Returns with 1987's Batman: Year One, for which he teamed up with artist David Mazzucchelli. In this story, set at the beginning days of Bruce Wayne's time as a vigilante, readers saw a Batman who was inexperienced and sometimes outmatched.
Along with seeing the start of Batman's story, Miller and Mazzucchelli also introduced a new version of Catwoman and a beaten-down Jim Gordon, the only good cop in a bad city. These changes to the lore of the Dark Knight continue to branch out to this day.
6 Tower of Babel Tested Batman's Friendships
While Batman is often called a loner, he actually pretty active in the superhero community, and nothing shows that more than his membership in the Justice League. Over the years, Batman has been a part of almost every version of DC's greatest team, and as a result, he has formed friendships with many of his teammates.
That friendship was tested in Tower of Babel when it was revealed that Batman had created plans to take down every member of the Justice League after those plans fell into the hands of Ra's al-Ghul. Suddenly, Batman's closest confidants found themselves wary of the Dark Knight.
5 The Killing Joke Went Too Far
First published in 1988, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke was supposed to take place outside of DC continuity, allowing the writer and artist to take Batman, Batgirl, and Commissioner Gordon to darker places than they had ever been before, thanks to the machinations of the Joker.
In the story, Joker shot Barbara Gordon, paralyzing her from the waist down and seemingly ending her vigilante career, and then tortures her father all while Batman tries to find a way to bring Joker's madness to an end without killing the villain. The Killing Joke proved to be so popular that it became part of the overall continuity of the comics, leading to Barbara becoming Oracle.
4 A Death In The Family Shocked The World
The shooting of Barbara Gordon wasn't the only tragedy to strike the Batman Family in 1988. A Death in the Family, a four-issue story told across Batman issues #426–429 written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Jim Aparo, with covers by Mike Mignola, Jason Todd, the second Robin was murdered by Joker and the readers.
In the second issue of the story, readers were left with a beaten defeated Robin who is trapped in a warehouse that explodes. The final page included a phone number that readers could call to decide Jason's fate, and by just 72 votes, readers chose to kill the hero.
3 Knightfall Broke The Bat
For 54 years, Bruce Wayne was Batman, but that all came to an end in 1993 when the new villain Bane broke his spine in the now-classic story Knightfall. In the story, Bane breaks every one of Batman's foes out of Arkham Asylum, forcing the Dark Knight to work 24/7 to recapture them. When Batman was at his weakest, Bane struck, attacking the hero in the Batcave and breaking his back.
This story led Jean-Paul Valley, better known as Azrael, to take up the mantle of Batman, bringing the character to a darker place than he had ever been before. The ramifications of Knightfall can still be felt in the comics today.
2 Batman And Son Made The Dark Knight A Papa
While Batman has had many people in his life that he considers family, like Alfred, Dick Grayson, and Tim Drake, none of them were blood. That changed in the four-issue story Batman and Son by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert. Going from Batman #655 to #658, Batman is introduced to his son Damian by his former lover Talia al-Ghul.
The plan was for Damian to grow up and become the new head of the League of Assassins, but the boy proves to be too rebellious for his mother, so she ships him off to his father. With the introduction of Damian Wayne to the story, the life of Batman is forever changed. While there have always been people he has cared about, none of them have been his actual child before.
1 Batman Beyond Showed The Future
While it started off as an animated series based on the hit Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond became part of DC Comics continuity in 2010, introducing Terry McGinnis as the Batman of the not-too-distant future with an old Bruce Wayne acting as his mentor.
While there had been other stories about the future of Batman, this was the first time one of them was set in continuity, giving readers a look at what would one day happen to many of the characters they love. Of course, that not-too-distant future is still a long way off.