Good Batman?

Try:

I remember it being quite awesome, I read it a while back....don't be discouraged by the fact it's by Jeph Loeb, the chap who did Hush. He's a bit schizo in the quality department. He's doing Ultimates 3 just now and it's also rather gash. But when he works with Tim Sale they usually produce gold, and the artwork is probably THE MOST gorgeous Batman artwork ever. They also reference it in the Dark Knight; in the court room scene at the start, the mob family is the same family that are the main focus of this novel. Indeed, the Long Halloween is about Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face, and there's clearly an influence from this graphic novel on that element of Dark Knight. So you get the most interesting plot of that film, PLUS you also get a decent Batman doing proper Batman type things, UNLIKE in the Dark Knight. Ahem.

My favourite Batman, though, is the one in Grant Morrison's JLA run, a supercool gringo who has twenty backup plans for every plan, and another ten backup plans for each backup plan.

The best Batman story and moment is the first story arc, where martians(who have Superman-level abilities) invade and enslave the earth. The JLA tries to stop them and get slapped silly and captured except for Batman, and the handsome muchacho single-handedly infiltrates and CRUSHES the aliens in awesome stealth action one by one. If only THAT had been the latest Batman film.....Lorenzo can dream. But alas, due to stupid Frank Miller we'll never get away from the terrible "dark" and "edgy" Batman that's now expected and required for any credibility. Baws tae that, ah want silly men in tights slappin each other silly! POW, WHAP, KABLAMO! If you want that shit, you need to go back to the seventies Neal Adams Batman, where he was more like a millionare playboy James Bond type with loads of super-cool gadgets. Actually, that's what Morrison's latest Batman stories are trying to get back to. I've been meanin to check out Batman and Son etc for a while, I suspect I'll think it's the shit. First story: re-introduce Batman's illigitimate child. HA! Remember Rha's Al Ghul from Batman Begins? In the comics, the super-awesome back-in-the-day Batman boned his daughter. Phenomenal. You don't get THAT shit in Batman comics nowadays....don't get me wrong, NealAdams/GrantMorrison Batman is still dark and brooding, but he also has the awesome baws, tech, charizmateek and suave.....kind of veered off topic there....good Batman stories......if your lookin for good Batman as a result of Dark Knight viewage, I'd say you'd enjoy Long Halloween a lot. And it's got a sequel whose name I cant remember which is also pretty awesome, so maybe start with LH and go from there. Apart from that....it's a DC character at the end of the day. The only way DC characters really work is to have someone think up crazy shit that only ridiculously over-powered super-people can handle, which is why I like Grant Morrison at DC so much, he does that kind of thing best. Probably best to stick with Marvel for more character-driven men in tights action. You must've read Frank Miller's Daredevil, but I'll mention it just in case, it's pretty much Batman but with red on the costume, and very good.