Top 5... Greatest Batman Stories

With this post, I'm starting one of two new running threads in my blog, the Top 5 list. In this case, here are my top five greatest Batman stories.

5: No Man's Land - This story was just amazing. The death of Gordon's wife, the virtually endless amount of work to re-take Gotham City. This was an epic read, and I didn't even read all of the issues! Plus this series introduced both Lex's bodyguard, Mercy Graves & Joker's sometime girlfriend, Harley Quinn.

4: The Long Halloween - Following in the footsteps of Batman: Year One, this story is great because it delves more into the life of Harvey Dent before he became Two-Face and also because it takes most of Batman's Rogue's Gallery and changes them from mob-enforcers & thugs to true super-villains.

3: Death In the Family - The death of Jason Todd. 'Nuff said.

2: Under The Hood - The power of this story comes from Batman having to face the decisions he made after Jason Todd's death. As well as facing the brutal consequences of Batman's most harshly kept rule: Never to kill.

1: KnightFall - For me, this is the single greatest Batman story told. No other story goes so deeply into the primal psychology of why Bruce Wayne chooses to remain Batman, how Wayne kept from crossing over into evil, and how incredibly difficult taking up the Mantle of The Bat really is.