(Singing) Nanananana Batfam! Batfam!
Hey guys, welcome back to my channel or welcome if you are new here, my name is bibliofilth
And today we're going to talk about some comics.
This is part of my ongoing series aimed at new comic-book readers looking to start reading superhero comics
I have a whole playlist that you could check out if you haven't seen any of the other ones and today we're going to be
Talking about the batfam. Last time I talked about Batman and I got a couple comments asking about other bat tangent characters.
For the non comic book readers out there, the batfam basically
just refers to anyone that is Batman's Ally that works closely with him
so typically speaking that's going to be the Robins and Batgirls and then what they go on to do once they leave Batman's protective cowl.
I tried to hit most of the big ones in this video, the ones that you guys asked about,
so if I did miss someone that you were wanting to hear about just let me know in the comments below and I will be
more than happy to give you some recommendations there.
This video is going to be a little bit longer than my typical comic recommendations
just because there's so many more characters to get through
so I'm actually gonna leave timestamps in the description box below if you're looking for a
specific character so you can just skip to get that character's recommendations if you don't want to sit
through everybody else.
And we're just gonna start
chronologically and go all the way through. For the first two characters
I have kind of a dual recommendation that I'm gonna get out of the way first and
of course the first two characters were maybe talking about are going to be Dick Grayson aka the first Robin who later became Nightwing and
Barbara Gordon aka the first Batgirl
who later became Oracle until DC wiped that out of existence and is now Batgirl again. And the dual recommendation I have is
Batgirl/Robin year 1 and these are actually two separate comics.
It's Batgirl: Year One and Robin: Year One, but they have been bundled into one trade paperback, which makes it nice.
It's aimed at new readers. It gives you a very quick and dirty explanation of who these characters are and how they got started
It's got some really nice art to boot and it's very cute. Both of these are super super cute
So recommend that if you have kind of a vague knowledge of who these characters are and you want more information
or if you've only been introduced to them in the
Movie TV realm and you kind of want to know who they are in the comics
This is a great place to start and that segues into our first batfam member Dick Grayson.
Like I said, original Robin then became Nightwing and Dick Grayson pops up a couple times on this list in other
series because he's a very prominent character in the bat family.
So the series that I'm going to recommend for Dick Grayson is going to be at one of his Nightwing series.
Which is him as an adult, he's moved away from Batman at this stage
He's moved away from the Teen Titans as well and is really kind of doing his own thing
This is a nice introduction to Dick Grayson on his own and it's a nice series overall on its own.
You don't have to have read any Teen Titans comics necessarily to read this.
The only thing I'm gonna say is for new readers it's got some funky blocky
90s art in it. So just be aware of that before you read it. I think that the plot is enough to overcome the
Chunky art, but everyone is mad thicc in this comic.
Next up, we've got Barbara Gordon aka the original Batgirl who is currently still Batgirl because DC likes to stagnate and refuses to let her grow
No, we're not gonna do this
This is not gonna be DC hate video. If you read DC, you know what I'm talking about. It's a love/hate thing.
Anyway, brief little history on Barbara Gordon for my recommendation. As I've mentioned in my introduction into comics video, comics,
particularly DC and Marvel, have at several points reset their universe. So before
DC reset their universe, Barbara Gordon's story was she was Batgirl and then she ended up being paralyzed from the waist down by Joker
And took moniker of Oracle who was a crime fighter
But more a computer tech kind of crime fighter like the brains behind the operation.
I highly recommend the Birds of Prey Gail Sione run. Oracle is at the front and center of this series and she really shines in this series and
Dick grayson also appears in here as well
So, like I said, he's in a lot of the series I'm going to mention.
Now, we have one of the most requested and my personal bias characters
Which is Jason and Todd the second Robin who went on to become Red Hood and really for Jason Todd
There's no better comic to recommend than Batman: Under the Red Hood
This is a really fantastic comic that shows Jason's transition from idealistic Robin to cold-blooded
Red Hood who believes that criminals should be executed.
This is also great for beginners because you don't need to know anything about Batman history other
than there was a second Robin and he was murdered by the Joker. So there you go.
You got all the information you need. Moving right along, we have the third Robin Tim Drake who later became
(Jingle) RED ROBIN. I'm actually gonna recommend his Teen Titan series.
For my tastes I find that this comic did the best job of really
exploring who Tim is and I like seeing him interact with other teenagers and for my money
it's always fun to see Robins in Teen Titans.
I think you really get more of a sense of who they are when they'reaway from Batman's influence and
they have to be forced into a leadership role. So that's what I enjoy about that comic.
Then we have Cassandra Cain and I freaking love Cassandra.
So I'm gonna give her like a little bit of a summary if you don't know who she is because she has not appeared in
Any of the movies or anything to my knowledge.
Cassandra was raised by assassins and basically a deprived of language for the first
17 or so years of her life, so she only learned how to communicate by violence essentially.
So she's super fucking interesting and we're not even gonna mess around
you're just gonna go and you're gonna read Cassandra's Batgirl series. That is her magnum opus.
It's a really good fucking series and it's the best introduction into her and she is the best. It's great.
Speaking of the best, I love Stephanie Brown.
I know I've said "I love" probably 9 million times in this video because I have a huge bias for the bat family
I really love them. It was my introduction to comics but I truly love Stephanie Brown.
This is Jena in editing. I realized I never explained who Stephanie Brown was.
She started off as Spoiler, a non bat-affiliated character
and then became a Robin and later went on to become a Batgirl.
And for StephanieI have a rare treat for you, which is one of the rare
physical copies of a book here. Most of mine are digital. Stephanie Brown's Batgirl series
is a great introduction into her. Stephanie Brown's Batgirl series is very YA-ish.
And I mean that in a positive way. If you're really into contemporary
YA I think that this is going to be a great
transition comic, it's very comfortable for you. Even if you're not so much into YA I still think it's enjoyable.
It's very light-hearted. Stephanie. Brown is a fun character. She's kind of jokey and
sarcastic, and yeah, I just love her. So I
Don't even know what this video is supposed to be. I just went off on a Stephanie Brown lovefest
and Cassandra lovefest. Let's reel it back in.
Then, we have Damian Wayne the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul
who is the current Robin. Like with Cassandra, there is an immediate
just default answer which is the Batman and Robin series by Grant Morrison.
This also features Dick Grayson as  Batman. Funny how he keeps popping up, right? (robotic laughter)
This series has Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin and they are
delightful because it's kind of an inverse of the traditional Batman Robin relationship.
You have a Batman that is a little bit more fun and a little bit more jokey and
empathetic..not that Batman isn't empathetic..he's just a tsundere who won't show his feelings
this is an openly empathetic Batman and then we have a Robin that is more serious and
violent and dark and their little contrast is great. They bump off each other
they form a beautiful brotherly bond and it's a very well-written series as well.
So I highly recommend it and that's kind of it for the core Batfam.
But I'm gonna toss in a Batwoman bonus because people have been asking about her and that is the beautiful
Batwoman series by J.H Williams III. This is as good as it gets folks. It's the top tier echelon of Batwoman.
All right and that long last that is the end of the video
Let me know in the comments below which Batfam member you are most
interested in reading more about I would love to know as well as let me know what comic book characters in general
that you would love to see next on this series. Thanks for watching and take care now. Bye!
