First Appearance

There are some topics related to comics that come up around the time a comic-based movie is about to be released. For example, one of the topics that caught my eye was repeated discussions (mostly in newspapers) about what is the greatest Batman story ever told.

The answers provided by the writers were often uninspired to say the least. Let's see...here are the usual suspects:

• Arkham Asylum
• Dark Knight
• Year One
• Killing Joke
• The Long Halloween
• Hush

Not to disrespect any of these choices, but they are pretty predictable. I am curious what the long time, dedicated Batman fans think. Of course, these were all watershed stories in the history of the Gotham Guardian

But I'd like to see a list where these choices are strictly forbidden to be on the list. Treat them as a given. Like when any radio station does a "Top Albums of All Time" - just count the Beatles as one entity and exclude them from the Top Ten. Give some other entrants a chance

For my list, it can be a single issue, or an arc found in Detective, Batman, Legends of the Dark Knight or Gotham Knights. It can be a JLA story, or a guest appearance in Superman. It could be a Batman appearance in any title you can think of

Something like this:

• Batman 232, 242-244 (Ra's Al Ghul, by Denny O'Neil & Neal Adams)
• Detective 469-476 inclusive (Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers)
• Batman & The Outsiders 1-32 (Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo)
• Detective 743-764 (Greg Rucka & Shawn Martinbrough)
• Detective 400 & 402 (Classic Man-Bat by Frank Robbins & Neal Adams)

I appreciate how challenging this can be. I did this quickly, so I am sure I made a few mistakes in creators and numbers, but it was fun to think of these fine story arcs

I should also point out that if I did this again next week, you might see five completely different entries here.

Anybody else got a list?