10 Criminally Underrated Comic Book Runs EVERYONE Missed

2. Batman: Streets Of Gotham - Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs

Every Batman fan has their own favourite Bat-era, whether it be Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' run from the 1970s, the Legends of the Dark Knight era during the nineties, or even Snyder and Capullo's stint from the New 52 in some cases. However, one era that simply does not get enough praise is Grant Morrison's stint on the Dark Knight, which resulted in Batman: Reborn in 2011.

The Animal Man scribe's stint on the Dark Knight was somewhat divisive at the time, but its high-concept, innovative approach only worked to the character's benefit. Batman was killed in 2011's Final Crisis, leaving the rest of the Bat-Family to pick up the pieces, and for DC's writers to experiment with a whole new level of freedom.

Multiple books from the Reborn era could be considered underrated, with the likes of Bryan Q. Miller's Batgirl, Fabian Nicieza's Red Robin and even Snyder, Jock and Francavilla's Detective Comics all falling short of long-term praise, but perhaps the biggest victim is Streets of Gotham.

Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs had already presided over a brilliant (if not brief) stint on Detective Comics with Private Casebook and Heart of Hush, and Streets of Gotham only continued that trend. Together, Dini et al. fashioned the best Hush story ever punt to print, but with Morrison busy at work doing amazing things on Batman & Robin - not to mention bringing Bruce Wayne back from the dead in the aptly titled Return of Bruce Wayne mini - it was almost inevitable that Streets would fall short of the attention it deserved.

Dini had already worked his magic on the Caped Crusader with BTAS, but his long-running series was phenomenal. Add to that a great backup strip in Manhunter written by Marc Andreyko, and Streets of Gotham lays a solid claim to being the most underrated Bat-series of all.