1. Batman: Year One

(Batman)

This isn’t on the list for the reason you’re assuming. It isn’t my recommendation because it’s about the early days of the Dark Knight, it’s my recommendation because I wouldn’t hesitate to call it the greatest Batman story of all time.

Yes, even better than Frank Miller’s previous Batman work “The Dark Knight Returns”.

Batman: Year One, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, follows Bruce Wayne’s first year as the Batman and Jim Gordon’s first year in the Gotham City Police Department. It also contains some of the greatest Batman moments in history. The fact that every single Batman film ever hasn’t included the line “yes father, I shall become a bat,” is a legitimate crime. Also, while Year One is much more of a Gordon story than a Batman story, it includes the perfect amount of both to tell a groundbreaking, pretty-much-perfect Batman story. It’s so good it hurts.