Batman: Face the Face. By James Robinson

The art in Batman: Face the Face is more in line with the art style that I like.  More realistic and more detail.  This is mainly another Two-face story but with a twist.  What we find out early on is that Batman and Robin have been gone from Gotham City for over a year.  And during that time Batman entrusted Harvey Dent (a now rehabilitated Harvey Dent with the acid scaring fixed with surgery) to protect the city while he is away. When some b grade criminals start showing up dead, batman finally answers the bat signal.  Once batman is back in town, Harvey feels he is no longer needed and begins to hear the voice of two-face.  In the end something shocking happens. (at least the manor in which it happens)  This book is a little harder to find.  I found it in my local comic shop.  Most places online charge a premium for this since it is out of print.  It was still an entertaining story.  It has a different robin in it, Tim Drake.

Batman: Dark Victory. By Jeph Loeb

Batman: Dark Victory basically picks up where The Long Halloween left off.  Gotham city is still being over run with the different crime families, when Arkham Asylum is broken into and lots of bad guys are set free, including two-face.  Once again, this is very much a dark detective story.  It wasn't nearly as predictable as The Long Halloween.  The unfolding of the details happens at a good pace until the end when we are able to piece everything together.  Though not a major portion of the story, my favorite part was the origin and introduction of Robin (Dick Grayson) into the Batman Universe.  Even though as an adult I enjoying comic books for the first time, there is something still child like about them. (even though most of the content is mature)  So to have a kid in the story, with a history very much mirroring Bruce Wayne, adds a new, interesting and fun element to the story.  The art was on par The Long Halloween.  But as far as the story was concerned, it was probably one of my favorite batman stories so far.

Batman Versus Predator. By Dave Gibbons

This was a little bit of a guilty pleasure purchase for me.  I have mentioned before that I never read comics going up.  Though that is true, there was only one comic book I actually read.  It was a friend of mines and it was issue 3 of 3 of Batman versus Predator. I loved the predator so when my fried had bought a batman versus predator book I had to read it.  Plus the cover on issue 3 had batman in futuristic armor.  So when I was at a local comic book store a couple of weekends ago and I came across this collected edition for only $5, I had to jump on it just for nostalgia sake.  This won't win any award for great story, but it sure was fun.  It felt very much like the movie Predator 2 where batman was Danny Glover.  In the end my favorite thing about this was batman is so beat up in the end that he has to build himself new armor to fight the predator.  And that armor looked pretty cool.  So far of all the batman stories I have ready, I liked the artwork in this one the best.  If your looking for something fun this was a cheap and quick read.  It was one of those 'what if' stories.

Batman: The Long Halloween. By Jeph Loeb

I have picked up a number of Batman comics recently.  The Long Halloween is the third one I have read.  Like many reviews have said in the past, The Long Halloween is a HUGE influence on all of the Batman movies by Christopher Nolan. We see a relationship between Selina Kyle (Catwoman) and Bruce Wayne.  We see the torching of a large warehouse full of mobster money. We have the Joker and Carmine Falcone.  We have the origin story of how Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face.  There are a lot things going on in this story.  It all revolves around a murder dubbed "Holiday" because they preform a high profile murder on holidays over an entire year.  I the end you find out who actually did the killing and the answers may surprise you.  This isn't a story about Batman beating people up but is a detective story.  A who-done-it.  There are plenty of hint to help you figure out who committed the murders. But in the end, is justice really served?  Just like Batman: year one, the are was good, but not my style.  And as for the story, it is a must read for a batman fan.