10 Greatest Batman Comics Of The 21st Century
The brightest point for the Dark Knight.
With over 75 years of history behind him, Batman is easily comics' most prolific character. Going from his humble roots of fighting gangsters, to the campiness of the 1960s, to the Dark Knight, Batman has an epic catalog of stories that are unlike anyone else in comics history. Batman has grown beyond just being the crown jewel of DC and is now a cultural icon known around the world.
DC knows what marketing gold they have with Batman and have put out an endless number of stories featuring him. Currently, he can be found in 6 separate comics being published. But DC also has a tendency to put their best talent behind Batman, so he consistently has some of the best books out at any given time.
Given that the comics industry continues to struggle to get new readership, DC relies heavily on Batman's name to pique interest, and the writing to keep it. Batman remains the most consistent selling comic book character, and a large part of that has to do with the quality of his comics.
Even as sales waned, he's been one of the most consistently readable comics characters in the 21st century...
10. Black Mirror
Easily the darkest story on this list, Black Mirror tells a story involving the new Dick Grayson Batman and James Gordon. Written by Scott Snyder with art by Jock and Francesco Francavilla, this arc sees the return of the long absent James Gordon, Jr. With Grayson freshly in the role of the Dark Knight, the story compares the paths taken by the first ward of Bruce Wayne and the son of Gordon.
The art in this story is stellar. Both Jock and Francavilla create the mood needed for a story this dark. Without giving away what the story is about, it does involve all of the infants in Gotham. Aside from James Jr., the story also features the Joker revealing he knows that Grayson used to be Robin. Some of the more interesting interactions when Grayson as Batman is seeing how Bruce's villains interact with him.
The reintroduction of James Jr. is so fascinating because Snyder picked up a plot thread that had been dangling for decades and turned a forgotten infant into a menacing new threat. Bringing in a villain that's deeply connected with Gordon adds an additional layer of urgency and makes his already complicated back story even more tragic.