Batman book suggestions

[batE]

Hi all,

I'm hankering for Batman reading material, but I'm totally broke (at least until X-Mas), so I need your help. If you were only able to get one of thesebooks, which would you choose:

Batman Animated (paperback)
The Dark Knight Returns
The Batman Adventures: The Lost Years

or

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth?

If the answer is none of the above, give me suggestions, but there's one caveat: I write fan fic, so Ineed a book that will help me ID places in Gotham, with canon characters, etc.

Also, if you have any of the above titles and are willing to sell, e-mail me at maxmcginnis@prodigy.net and we can negotiate.


batE

[James Harvey]

Batman: Animated. A fascinating read.

[Firefly]

Batman: Animated is awsome I have looked at it so many times the spine is broken

DK's The Ultimate Batman Guide is a real good choice the only thing is it focuses mory on the mainstream continuty Ex: No Man's Land but it worth the buy for any fan it got awsome cross sections of all his vehicles it retails for 19.99


There's also DK books on

X-Men The Ultimate Guide
Spider-Man The Ultimate Guide

Both Are as good as the Batman One

[Batgirl_2005]

Dark Knight Returns was soo cool, I read it like 5 times before my brother figured out I stole it from his room. It was soooo cool!!!

I've never read any of the others though, I don't get a chance to read a lot of batman stuff as the only things they sell in my middle of nowhere town is stuff like sonic and dragonballz

[optimal321]

Well, out of those listed, i've only read Batman: Animated, and The Dark Knight Returns. But i can say that Batman: Animated is my favorite book ever, so i'd go w/ that. There's some real interesting stuff in there.

A fascinating read indeed:p

[Shriek]

The Dark Knight Returns. It is amazing. Really good book.

[DerekPowers]

i've only read batman: animated and the dark knight returns, so i can only comment on them. they are both GREAT books, a must have for any bat fan. but, they are totally different, so it depends on what you feel like reading in the near future.

batman: animated is great for its info on the crew and production and stuff like that, w/ lots of interesting stuff from the series, like episode guides, the title cards in order, lots of AWESOME drawings, model sheets, character designs, rejected character designs, things like that. plus if your into animation, like considering it as a career, you should definately pic up this book, it gives great behind the scenes stories at wb animation and stuff, like where all the crew like dini and timm were before btas, and how they came to work on it.

the dark knight returns is simply one of the best bat stories ever told, like everyone always says. it has all our favorite character in it, just aged and wrinkley. you got old brucie, the commish, harvey, joker, supes, ollie, whored up selina (i love when bruce finds selina dressed in, ohh, no spoilers batE, i dont want to ruin anything, hehe). its just soooo awesome. but i think it would have been better in the 80s when the soviet union was still around, but thats just knit-picking. and the art is great too.

soo, id say they are both equally great books, it just depends on what you feel like reading. if you want a compelling and legendary story, then get the dark knight returns, but if you want more of btas/tnba behind the scenes/creative process type thing, then get batman: animated. hell, get one then save your money and get the other.

oh, i just thought of something you should consider, batE. The dark knight strikes again is coming out in december, its the dark knight return's sequel. soo, if you were planing on reading that, maybe you should go w/ the dark knight returns. peace.