Batman is DC’s most popular character, and they prove it by publishing basically every Batman story any creator wants to tell. This is what happens when everyone loves a superhero or supervillain; every creator has a story socked away with that character. Of course, not everyone gets a chance to tell these stories. Unless they’re about Batman. Over the years, DC Comics has put out every kind of story starring the Dark Knight you can imagine from a who’s who of creators. The publisher puts out so many Batman titles per year it’s not funny, and there have been plenty of times in the past when fans complained about getting so much Batman over the years.
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There have been some tremendous Batman stories, with fans often agreeing on which ones are the best. However, not all of those are beloved at levels they deserve. Some of these stories aren’t as good as they are given credit for, with these five Batman stories being completely overrated.
5) “Knightfall”
Bane has become one of Batman’s greatest enemies, and “Knightfall” is the story that put him on that road. “Knightfall” ran through Batman and Detective Comics in 1993, and told the story of Bane coming to Gotham to destroy the Dark Knight. He breaks open Arkham Asylum, forcing the hero to run himself ragged to save lives before confronting the hero. This story gets a lot of credit for being great, but it’s honestly mostly just okay. It’s a story that is extremely important to Batman history, with the actual quality of the book not really reaching the level of the story’s legend. It’s fine, but if you’re looking for a best of all time story, this ain’t it.
4) “Death in the Family”
“Death in the Family” is another story that’s extremely important to Batman history, yet it’s just not as great as you would hope it is. Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo tell the story of the death of Jason Todd and Batman working to hunt down his killer. Much like “Knightfall”, this story is mostly fine, but then it gets to the part where Joker becomes an Iranian ambassador and it reaches a level of parody that torpedoes the rest of the story. This is a comic that was trying to be ’80s mature, but still was mostly written for younger audiences, so all of the darkness of the story is just veneer. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not amazing. It’s basic.
3) Batman: The Killing Joke
Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke is a beloved story. Moore redefined who the Joker was, giving him a possible sympathetic origin, and paralyzed Barbara Gordon. It’s a comic that has become legendary and nearly everyone who loves Batman has read it. However, it’s a book that kind of hasn’t aged well. Giving the Joker any kind of origin feels like a mistake and the paralysis of Barbara Gordon screams of fridging her while leaving her alive (although we did get the Oracle years out of, so you win some, you lose some). The book was “mature” and “dark”, but it comes off mean-spirited at times. It’s a book that many feel is one of the greatest of all time, but I don’t think that it deserves that place in history. It’s a good comic, but it might be better if it had never happened.
2) “Court of Owls”
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s New 52 run on Batman is beloved by fans, and has some stories that are honestly pretty amazing, like “Zero Year”, “Endgame”, and “Superheavy”. It all kicked off with “Court of Owls”, a story that introduced the secret group of villains who ran Gotham and their Talons. Fans lost their minds for this story, and yet going back and reading it again in 2025, it feels like it’s merely a good story. It’s not a terrible story by any means, but it’s not amazing. Some of Snyder’s more annoying writing tendencies come into play here, and the Owls are fine villains who never really took off like they should have. Maybe that’s a part of why the story doesn’t stand up so well; now we know how it all shakes out. This is still a fun read, but it shouldn’t be placed among the best Bat-stories of all time.
1) “Hush”
“Hush” was massive while it was being published. Jeph Loeb had been killing it at DC since the late ’90s and Jim Lee drawing the adventures of the Dark Knight was a dream come true. However, the more times you read “Hush”, the more you realize that it’s a Batman greatest hits album and not some amazing new work. Loeb is playing the hits with story, and yes, the art is gorgeous, but this isn’t best of all time Batman. I think the quality of the art, which is outstanding at all times, blinds a lot of readers to the book’s weaknesses. The ending has never been all that beloved, and it’s about time we stopped counting this book with some of the greats (unless we’re strictly speaking about the art).
What Batman stories do you think are overrated? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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Image courtesy of id Software
