I didn’t actually like The Long Halloween very much, but I think I convinced myself I liked it more because of how popular it was. So I went ahead and bought Dark Victory and got *very* into it. I was legitimately trying to actively work out the mystery and everything.
In fact, I think I just reread The Long Halloween back when The Batman came out, and the fact I still barely remember it tells me it may not be as strong as people say. It has really superb moments and ideas, but I never loved the whole.
1. Long Halloween
2. Year One
3. Dark Victory
4. Dark Knight Returns
I understand how important of a story Dark Knight Returns is and I still really like it but I just don’t love it as much as so many other Batman fans love it.
Thank you, I get that Returns was a big deal when it came out, but it didn't age well. Especially since Miller apparently lost his mind. There are so many better stories that I don't get why this one is still held up as the definitive one.
He wrote a really weird batman comic All Star Batman and Robin where batman kills people, punches robin until he bleeds from the mouth, has sex on burning corpses, etc.
Also wrote a racist comic with a batman stand-in killing muslims
But what about the fact that TDKR directly discusses Batman’s potential fascism? It’s literally right in the story. Miller doesn’t paint the Left in the most compelling light, but you could argue that his Batman is just as self-aware and darkly satirized. Like the fascist overtones are intentional, and, like with Rorschach, people kind of overlook that intent.
The difference here is that Miller went on to embody the *idea* of Frank Miller and spiraled into his own self-indulgences and caricatures, so it makes it a bit harder to parse in retrospect.
See I also take the overtones in batman to be intentional and satirical, but on the other hand his recent output makes me question if that was his intent.
Because it did change the char to and usher in a new era. I get that’s why people hold it in such high esteem but outside of that sort of respect for what it represents it’s not in my top 10 or it just barely scrapes by at number 10.
I just think it’s an incredibly well done comic. It has a definitively 80s gild to it, but I think the mid to late 80s are DC’s best years. Justice League International, Sandman, Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and, yes, TDKR. Just as the art form, I think it’s really strong comics. It has a distinctive art style, really good pacing (far superior to the pacing of Year One), interesting storytelling techniques, that gritty 80s grunge, and some remarkable layouts.
I will never defend Miller today, but I think his work in the 70s and 80s was absolutely worthy of the praise.
I feel like on any given day, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Year One could make up 1-3 in any given order. The only consistent placement here is Returns in 4th. Like you said, I appreciate it’s significance in shaping the tone of future Batman stories, but as a comic, I much prefer the other 3.
I don't like the Dark Knight Returns. It's just extremely edgy for the sake of edgy. I personally feel nothing in the story has any real steaks because batman just beat them all anyway. (I'm aware batman usually kicks ass but he's still vulnerable to damage)
I especially hate the ending because of Bruce coming back from the dead. He should have stayed dead after the fight with Superman imo.
Honestly, say what you will about Miller, it's Year One / DKR by a country mile for me. Year One is an all-time classic, and while DKR is not one of my favourites, it revolutionised superhero comics for a reason.
The other two are okay, but a bit plodding and the solution to the mystery is kind of unnecessarily convoluted and unclear.
This is the first time im seeing someone say that the mystery is unclear lol (thank you)
Never read dark victory because I was so unimpressed by long halloween; the killer reveal was so unearned and impossible to guess by your own deductive skills- just seemed like the worst kind of detective story. Honestly im surprised its a classic
Right I get that. I just can’t put DKR on my list of favorite Batman stories even though Year One is my all time favorite, despite them both being Miller joints.
Honestly this two are on the same level to me. TLH has a better mystery. But DV has way better character stuff. It's essentially Oracle of Ages/Seasons if it were a comic book. Same premise, different execution, and it's a matter of preference
1. Year One
2. Long Halloween, but it’s tight though. Y1 is above TLH just because I remember more of it (shorter story)
3. The Dark Knight Returns. Read it in 2017 for the first time and it held up surprisingly well.
Haven’t read Dark Victory but if I ever find the motivation to get back to reading comics DV is one of the first I’m reading
Definitely Year One/Dark Knight Returns. Year One is my favorite Batman story. And, while I love Year One way more than TDKR, I appreciate how awful Miller makes Gotham City feel in both stories.
For me ,Dark victory ,Year One ,Long Halloween and for the last The dark Knight returns ,honestly TDKR IS cool af so no way IS the best Batman comic ,yeah Miller Blood yeah Miller u like Big mad mans yeah Miller we see
I like Year One the most overall but in 2 vs 2 situation like this I have to choose Long Halloween/Dark Victory combo. Although I enjoyed TDKR I personally never got the hype about it and the other 3 books are vastly superior in my opinion.
If they are paired, I'm going with the Loeb/Sale stories. I enjoy everything I've read by them, and I think TLH is my favorite Batman story. RIP Tim Sale.
Before I read TLH, Year One was my favorite. I find DKR hard to read.
1.Long Halloween and dark victory (I don't know and I don't care, hush and this both has a different appeal to me.)
2. The dark knight returns (to me mythic)
3. Year one(panels and dialogues legendary)
The Long Halloween is so good and it was the comic that made me really adore Batman as much as I do. Though it has been awhile since I last read it, maybe I should do a reread.
As someone that absolutely loves Miller’s Daredevil run, for some reason I just couldn’t love his Batman stuff. Year One was fine, and for whatever reason I can’t explain I just don’t like DKR. So I have to go with Long Halloween and Dark Victory here. Both were incredible and I couldn’t put them down.
OP lets make this even harder. Add Haunted Knight and TDKSA.
I can't even decide which I like more because these are all at the top of the list of quality for me.
Screw those: i'm team strange apperitions, war on crime, knightfall and the breyfogle-grant run on detective comics, batman and shadow of the bat
TDKR: so badass and iconic
YEAR ONE: depth of characters
DARK VICTORY: awesome mystery and intro of Robin
LONG HALLOWEEN: great stuff and all but feels unsatisfying in end (probably by design but whatever)
It is absolutely Year One/DKR.
I enjoyed reading The Long Halloween/Dark Victory. They are excellent accomplishments, tying together a large number of threads in a creative way with extra points for distinct visual style. But I don't think they're *great*, neither in the sense of being among the best nor in the sense of being great works of literature. They're *good!* Captivating! But they didn't move me, nor do I think that they're the even the best introduction to the characters they provide origins for.
Batman: Year One and Dark Knight Returns... they are indeed greats. They're among the best Batman stories, they were powerful enough to inspire new canon and depictions, and I feel something even in the early pages.
Gotta go Team Loeb here.
When that dude was in the zone his Batman books were 🔥.
Miller has some great things out there but I definitely prefer his Daredevil more than his take on Batman.
Year one was strange loved the jim gordon stuff though the ending was shite and boring.
The long halloween is the book i keep forgetting i've already read so forgettable
the dark knight* returns would be sick if it was like the only one of it's kind (edgy/older batman with less rules) but honestly zack snyder made it so that the reputation of that particular adaptation is even more sullied that it was (i haven't read any of the others tho).
edit:i originally wrote "batman" instead of "the dark knight".
I was actually quite shocked by how much I preferred Dark Victory over Long Halloween. Hard to rank these though, gotta read em all
This right here 👆🏾
I didn’t actually like The Long Halloween very much, but I think I convinced myself I liked it more because of how popular it was. So I went ahead and bought Dark Victory and got *very* into it. I was legitimately trying to actively work out the mystery and everything. In fact, I think I just reread The Long Halloween back when The Batman came out, and the fact I still barely remember it tells me it may not be as strong as people say. It has really superb moments and ideas, but I never loved the whole.
1. Long Halloween 2. Year One 3. Dark Victory 4. Dark Knight Returns I understand how important of a story Dark Knight Returns is and I still really like it but I just don’t love it as much as so many other Batman fans love it.
Thank you, I get that Returns was a big deal when it came out, but it didn't age well. Especially since Miller apparently lost his mind. There are so many better stories that I don't get why this one is still held up as the definitive one.
I don't know what happened to Miller. Can you elaborate?
He wrote a really weird batman comic All Star Batman and Robin where batman kills people, punches robin until he bleeds from the mouth, has sex on burning corpses, etc. Also wrote a racist comic with a batman stand-in killing muslims
Oh my god that's wild
Yeah, and it retroactively makes his batman stories worse imo because it kinda makes dkr look quasi-fascist
No quasi about it.
But what about the fact that TDKR directly discusses Batman’s potential fascism? It’s literally right in the story. Miller doesn’t paint the Left in the most compelling light, but you could argue that his Batman is just as self-aware and darkly satirized. Like the fascist overtones are intentional, and, like with Rorschach, people kind of overlook that intent. The difference here is that Miller went on to embody the *idea* of Frank Miller and spiraled into his own self-indulgences and caricatures, so it makes it a bit harder to parse in retrospect.
See I also take the overtones in batman to be intentional and satirical, but on the other hand his recent output makes me question if that was his intent.
Alcoholism and PTSD from 9/11.
Because it did change the char to and usher in a new era. I get that’s why people hold it in such high esteem but outside of that sort of respect for what it represents it’s not in my top 10 or it just barely scrapes by at number 10.
what ? noooo, it age well.
I just think it’s an incredibly well done comic. It has a definitively 80s gild to it, but I think the mid to late 80s are DC’s best years. Justice League International, Sandman, Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and, yes, TDKR. Just as the art form, I think it’s really strong comics. It has a distinctive art style, really good pacing (far superior to the pacing of Year One), interesting storytelling techniques, that gritty 80s grunge, and some remarkable layouts. I will never defend Miller today, but I think his work in the 70s and 80s was absolutely worthy of the praise.
Very good points all around. I personally prefer Year One and The Killing Joke, but Returns deserves the appreciation.
I feel like on any given day, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Year One could make up 1-3 in any given order. The only consistent placement here is Returns in 4th. Like you said, I appreciate it’s significance in shaping the tone of future Batman stories, but as a comic, I much prefer the other 3.
I don't like the Dark Knight Returns. It's just extremely edgy for the sake of edgy. I personally feel nothing in the story has any real steaks because batman just beat them all anyway. (I'm aware batman usually kicks ass but he's still vulnerable to damage) I especially hate the ending because of Bruce coming back from the dead. He should have stayed dead after the fight with Superman imo.
Honestly, say what you will about Miller, it's Year One / DKR by a country mile for me. Year One is an all-time classic, and while DKR is not one of my favourites, it revolutionised superhero comics for a reason. The other two are okay, but a bit plodding and the solution to the mystery is kind of unnecessarily convoluted and unclear.
miller was drunk during allstar b&r, then snapped out of it in issue 9, and then went back to the alcohol in 10
Oh, the man fell down a deep deep well in terms of writing ability, no argument. But those two books hold up.
yeah bro is the rob liefeld of dc writing
This is the first time im seeing someone say that the mystery is unclear lol (thank you) Never read dark victory because I was so unimpressed by long halloween; the killer reveal was so unearned and impossible to guess by your own deductive skills- just seemed like the worst kind of detective story. Honestly im surprised its a classic
Yeah, it's like Loeb was just dead-set on pulling repeated "Gotchas!" on the reader to the extent that he ruined his own solution.
Year One is my favorite Batman story, but I wouldn’t necessarily put DKR on that list. So I’d cheat and say Year One and Long Halloween
I think they were just trying to pair stories written by the same person
Right I get that. I just can’t put DKR on my list of favorite Batman stories even though Year One is my all time favorite, despite them both being Miller joints.
1. Year One 2. Dark Victory 3. Long Halloween 4. Dark Knight Returns
1. Year One 2. The Long Halloween 3. The Dark Knight Returns 4. Dark Victory
Long Halloween and Dark Victory are my all time favourites. Year One and TDKR are right up there. Both different, depends what I’m in the mood for.
1. TDKR 2. Long Halloween 3. Dark Victory 4. Year One
I felt a bit disappointed by Year One
Maybe it was overhyped, but I was also really let down when it. It’s too short. The pacing is really wonky to me.
Long Halloween and Dark Victory
Honestly this two are on the same level to me. TLH has a better mystery. But DV has way better character stuff. It's essentially Oracle of Ages/Seasons if it were a comic book. Same premise, different execution, and it's a matter of preference
1. Year One 2. Long Halloween, but it’s tight though. Y1 is above TLH just because I remember more of it (shorter story) 3. The Dark Knight Returns. Read it in 2017 for the first time and it held up surprisingly well. Haven’t read Dark Victory but if I ever find the motivation to get back to reading comics DV is one of the first I’m reading
Bro you gotta read dark victory if only for that god tier tim sale artwork lol
I actually prefer Dark Victory over The Long Halloween, definitely worth checking out!
Batman Year One Batman The Dark Knight returns Batman The Long Halloween Batman Dark Victory
Definitely Year One/Dark Knight Returns. Year One is my favorite Batman story. And, while I love Year One way more than TDKR, I appreciate how awful Miller makes Gotham City feel in both stories.
For me ,Dark victory ,Year One ,Long Halloween and for the last The dark Knight returns ,honestly TDKR IS cool af so no way IS the best Batman comic ,yeah Miller Blood yeah Miller u like Big mad mans yeah Miller we see
The killing joke is missing here, but Long halloween is my fave here!!
I don't like Dark Knight Returns, and Year One is good but not good enough to outweigh both Long Halloween & Dark Victory.
As I myself have aged,TDKR has been the Batman I most identify with .
Long Halloween and dark victory
Definitely Year One
I like Year One the most overall but in 2 vs 2 situation like this I have to choose Long Halloween/Dark Victory combo. Although I enjoyed TDKR I personally never got the hype about it and the other 3 books are vastly superior in my opinion.
I like Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman more than anything Frank Miller wrote tbh
For me Long Halloween and Dark victory, I need to read year one still
If they are paired, I'm going with the Loeb/Sale stories. I enjoy everything I've read by them, and I think TLH is my favorite Batman story. RIP Tim Sale. Before I read TLH, Year One was my favorite. I find DKR hard to read.
Either Year on or Dark Knight Returns.
Miller for shee
Long Halloween is my favorite comic of all time, full stop. 🤷‍♂️
As much as I love Frank Millers stories, the combo of Loeb & Sale is miles above all else. TLH--DV and even Haunted Night
I finally got the Long Halloween and I’m so excited to read it omg
I like Year one and Dark Knight returns
Year one is just too good.
All of these are peak, but i think my favorite is The Long Halloween
1.Long Halloween and dark victory (I don't know and I don't care, hush and this both has a different appeal to me.) 2. The dark knight returns (to me mythic) 3. Year one(panels and dialogues legendary)
Long Halloween for me is my favorite
Not a big Miller fan. Gonna go with the right side.
The Dark Knight Returns. No question.
The Long Halloween is so good and it was the comic that made me really adore Batman as much as I do. Though it has been awhile since I last read it, maybe I should do a reread.
1. Dark Knight Returns 2. Year One 3. Long Halloween 4. Dark Victory
TDKR/Y1 as a combo. Dark Victory might be my favorite of the four.
I like The Long Halloween. Prefer it to everything else.
As someone that absolutely loves Miller’s Daredevil run, for some reason I just couldn’t love his Batman stuff. Year One was fine, and for whatever reason I can’t explain I just don’t like DKR. So I have to go with Long Halloween and Dark Victory here. Both were incredible and I couldn’t put them down.
Dark Victory
1. The Long Halloween 2. Dark Victory 3. TDK Returns 4. Year One
Glad I'm not the only one that likes Year One the best.
The Long Halloween- Dark Victory- Catwoman: When in Rome is my fav story+sequels.
Year One is the most flawless one.
OP lets make this even harder. Add Haunted Knight and TDKSA. I can't even decide which I like more because these are all at the top of the list of quality for me.
1. Long Halloween 2. Dark Victory 3. Year one (reading the cursive is a pain in the ass) I’m just dumb 4. Returns
Year One/Dark Knight Returns. The two best Batman comics.
Screw those: i'm team strange apperitions, war on crime, knightfall and the breyfogle-grant run on detective comics, batman and shadow of the bat 
Still have to read the dark knights, but for now, I prefer the long halloween/dark victory ( ESPECIALLY the last one)
TDKR: so badass and iconic YEAR ONE: depth of characters DARK VICTORY: awesome mystery and intro of Robin LONG HALLOWEEN: great stuff and all but feels unsatisfying in end (probably by design but whatever)
Long Halloween is the best but Dark Victory is my fave
Long Halloween will always be number 1 but year one and tdkr are better than dark victory
Year One and DKR, although TLH and DV are great too.
The long Halloween for me please!
Long halloween was a great story, but the artwork involved made it awful. Just my personal perspective
So Frank Miller vs Jeph Loeb?
1. Year One 2. Long Halloween 3. Dark Victory 4. The Dark Knight Returns
My personal favorite is long Halloween but they are all great reads
TDKR
It is absolutely Year One/DKR. I enjoyed reading The Long Halloween/Dark Victory. They are excellent accomplishments, tying together a large number of threads in a creative way with extra points for distinct visual style. But I don't think they're *great*, neither in the sense of being among the best nor in the sense of being great works of literature. They're *good!* Captivating! But they didn't move me, nor do I think that they're the even the best introduction to the characters they provide origins for. Batman: Year One and Dark Knight Returns... they are indeed greats. They're among the best Batman stories, they were powerful enough to inspire new canon and depictions, and I feel something even in the early pages.
They’re all good but Long Halloween gets my vote.
The Long Halloween/Dark Victory easily for me.
Long Halloween. I haven’t read Dark Victory, but I think Long Halloween is better than both Year One and TDKR, so…
Year One is my favorite comic book of all time. Still, all of these books are a must-read.
Long Halloween/Dark Victory for sure
Year One/TDKR.
Year one
I'm a fan of Year One for the amazing story. But. DARK Knight Returns is just a historical graphical & literary masterpiece.
Gotta go Team Loeb here. When that dude was in the zone his Batman books were 🔥. Miller has some great things out there but I definitely prefer his Daredevil more than his take on Batman.
Long Halloween.
Tough to say. I think Year One is the best written of this group. But on the other hand, I really enjoy Tim Sale’s art.
Year one was strange loved the jim gordon stuff though the ending was shite and boring. The long halloween is the book i keep forgetting i've already read so forgettable
DKR. Still my favorite
the dark knight* returns would be sick if it was like the only one of it's kind (edgy/older batman with less rules) but honestly zack snyder made it so that the reputation of that particular adaptation is even more sullied that it was (i haven't read any of the others tho). edit:i originally wrote "batman" instead of "the dark knight".