Top 50 Greatest Things: #9

My top 50 greatest things.

Number 9: Batman

I was exposed to Batman in an onslaught of different versions when I was a kid. The Bruce Timm Animated series, the Goguen and Capizzi '04 animated series, the Burton and Schumacher movies, the Adam West series and movie, the recently released Batman Begins, this was all good for a kid like me who enjoyed the character. But I distinctly remember having the one thought "I want to go where Batman lives" which really meant "didn't this guy come from comic books?".

When I was first enjoying all of that Batman stuff, I wasn't really a comic book reader. I enjoyed the "funnies" in the newspaper and had collected versions of The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. My mother and I would regularly go to Chapin Memorial library and upstairs there was a little nook that contained three shelves, two which were young adult fiction and one labeled "graphic novels". It was time to go "where Batman lived" and so I decided to start with the one that made the most sense, Batman: Year One.

Written by Frank Miller and art by David Mazzucchelli, Batman: Year One probably wasn't the most appropriate story for a 7 year old, but it opened my eyes not only to depths of Batman I hadn't experienced, but to the form and medium that is a 22 page comic book. Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes are very respective and important titles in general and allowed me to get a grasp of the language of comics, but my first dive into Batman vastly expanded the dynamics of the language for me.

Besides propelling me to my love of comics, Batman and the world of Gotham City is something I strongly admire. My favorite Batman stories are Batman: Year One, Blades (Legends of the Dark Knight #32-#34), Batman: Year 100, Sanctum (Legends of the Dark Knight #54), and The Long Halloween.

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