Source: mycomicshop.com

9. The First Batman

Detective Comics # 235 (1956)

Ah, here's a fine story, and the other half of the inspiration for the Batman: Brave and the Bold episode "Chill of the Night". In the story, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson discover a secret compartment in Thomas Wayne's old drawers containing a strange version of a Batman Costume.

This sparks Batman's memory and they also watch a film that shows a costume party that the Waynes attended at which Thomas was kidnapped by a mobster named Lew Moxon. Moxon needed surgery and they press-ganged Thomas into operating on him. Thomas did, but then beat them up and called the police.

So as it turns out, Moxon hired Joe Chill to kill the Waynes as revenge. Batman goes after Moxon, eventually putting on Thomas's Batman costume and scaring Moxon into the street where he's hit by a car.

One of the Greatest Batman Stories of All Time?: Here's the thing, I might be more willing to give this one credit if I hadn't read "The Origin of the Batman" which is just the better version of this story. It's cleaner, it's more impactful, it's just all around better. So as a result, this one, while not bad, kind of feels like that scene in Spider-Man 3 where it turns out Sandman shot Uncle Ben. It's just overcomplicating a great story when it doesn't need to.