1. Batman: The Long Halloween
Some people claim The Dark Knight Returns is the defining Batman tale, others say it's Batman: Year One. For me, my favorite is Batman: The Long Halloween, written by Jeph Loeb in 1998. The story focused on Batman's early career and was a sequel to Batman: Year One. The Long Halloween was also one of the stories used for inspiration for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and Christian Bale cites this, and its sequel Dark Victory, as his favorite Batman stories. The Long Halloween follows Batman as he joins forces with James Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent as they join forces to take down Carmine Falcone and his criminal organization. While the three of them try to take down this criminal empire, a serial killer named Holiday starts killing members of Falcone's organization on different holidays. The first victim is Falcone's nephew Johnny Viti, who is shot in the head on Halloween. As the year progresses, more people are killed, and alliances start to break down. The city's more colorful characters also start to get involved, such as the Joker and the Riddler. As suspicions on who Holiday is continue to change, Dent beliefs do as well, and when an accident disfigures half of his face, his new outlook on life takes him down a path that will not only hurt Batman, but Gotham City as well. I was hesitant adding this story to the list because there's already been so many Batman movies already, both animated and live-action. However, I think this story has enough originality that it's able to stand on its own. A Batman meets The Godfather type of tale, this story has everything you can ask for in a Batman story: villains (both regular and super), action, suspense, mystery, and the Caped Crusader in all of his glory. Like I said about Kingdom Come, this story is so detailed and plot-driven that it could fill a whole two hours, and with a diverse cast of characters, we could have some of the best voice talents in the business cast for this movie, including (I hope) Kevin Conroy doing Batman again. Who knows, depending on how successful this is, DC could also adapt Dark Victory as a movie as well.