The “Batman Reborn” era was one of my favorites in all of DC. I loved how they shuffled up the bat family during that time. I know DC (and really Warner Bros) will never allow Bruce to permanently step down from the cowl, but I really love when they shift the spotlight to the other members of the team. Dick Greyson should be Batman. And that period were he got his chance for two years was great. Black Mirror is the best story from that time. Scott Snyder making a name for himself, Jock and Francesco Francavilla trading off on art. It’s a superb work.
The Long Halloween and Dark Victory . But my Favorite Era of Batman is the Late 80’s with “Death in the Family” and " Batman Year 3". Then as far as Just Scott Snyder anything he touches Batman is great, Batman Eternal , was great in moments
Grapic Novel: Naked City by Azzarello with the incredible artwork of Eduardo Rizzo. Love it when story and artwork come together. Here Batman is sarcastic, self deprecating, and funny. There are so many double entendres and smart lines that one has to read the panels over and over to “get it.” The scene where Bruce is grilling steak while talking on the phone is priceless. Art and writing is so good, that I had to read twice to figure out the killer. Plus it is a plain detective story, no aliens, no sci-fi, no fantasy, just plain humans and villains. In fact they present the croc as a guy with a bad skin condition. Artwork is to die for. There is an actual panel that is drawn from the POV of inside Batman’s mouth as he looks at his broken molar via a mirror.
Single Story: Kevin Nowlan’s gorgeously drawn, inked and colored, Legends of the DC Universe, Issue#6 when Robin meets Superman for the first time. I swear your heart will beat as fast as Robin’s when Superman appears in a full page illustration on the rooftop of GCPD beautifully illuminated by the Bat signal. Nowlan’s artwork is to die for, pre or post Photoshop.
Have to agree with someone’s entry on Hush. Note: every single person, including background villains, all have a unique look and face. So many artist draw the same face throughout. Not here. Compare Dick’s face with Bruce’s when driving around in the Batmobile. You can clearly see that Dick is a late 20’s early 30 yr old slim guy, and Bruce is an early 40 huskier man drawn with a thicker face. Expressions are clearly noted…fear, happiness, concern, hate, surprise and pain. The scene when Bruce finally discovers Jason is one of the greatest illustrated sequence of panels I’ve ever viewed. Worthy of an Oscar if it were live action.
@dklecan: Yeah, I always appreciate when I see that. Since you (accidentally) mention Hush, one of my issues with Jim Lee’s artwork is that everybody does look kinda samey compared to stuff like Under the Hood. One particularly great (non-Batman) example of an artist really bringing out the distinction between characters’ faces was in the New Teen Titans Terror of Trigon story arc where there’s a series of extreme close-ups of everyone’s eyes and each character’s eyes were shaped differently enough that you could tell who they all were. George Perez is absolutely fantastic at bringing out the distinction in appearance between a lot of different characters.
@batjamags. I so agree with the faces drawn the same. Even as a kid it would bug me that the face of Clark and Bruce were literally interchangeable. The only difference was Superman’s curl.