It is super complicated to figure out how to recommend books for Batman fans. The title goes back to 1937, and there is no way for DC to keep them all in print at all times. This is a list of modern era Batman stories, starting in the mid-80s and going until the current run. This list tries to be chronological by story rather than when it was printed so you may see some 21st century stories, which are supposed to take place pre-Robin appearing before 1980s books that have Robin in them.

Starting with Frank Miller's classic, this era follows Bruce Wayne's early days as the Caped Crusader, and James Gordon's rise to the level of Commissioner.

Batman: Year One

Legends Of The Dark Knight
By Matt Wagner

Dark Knight Detective 1 & 2

Batman:
Death By Design

Dark Knight Detective 3

Batman: Snow

Batman:
​Haunted Knight

Batman:
The Long Halloween

Meet Dick Grayson. Say goodbye to Dick Grayson. Meet Jason Todd. Say goodbye to Jason Todd. Meet Barbara Gordon. Maaaaaan, this is a dark portion of Bat history focused on Bruce Wayne's early sidekicks. And The Joker, who destroys them.

Catwoman:
When In Rome

Batman:
Dark Victory

Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman:
Trinity

Batman:
Caped Crusader 1

Dark Knight Detective
Vol 4 & 5

Batman:
A Death In The Family

Batman:
Caped Crusader 2-5

Batman:
The Killing Joke

Batman:
Arkham Asylum

Superman/Batman:
Vol 1-7

Azrael:
Fallen Angel

We met Azrael on the last list, he's going to be a major Extreme 90s player in this time of Bruce Wayne's broken body.

Batman:
Venom

Batman:
Prelude To Knightfall

Batman Knightfall
25th Anniversary 1 & 2

Batman KnightQuest
Crusade 1 & 2

Batman KnightQuest:
The Search

Batman:KnightsEnd

Batman: Prodigal

Batman: Contagion

Batman Legacy 1 & 2

Batman:
Knight Out

It's an all out gang war in Gotham as the city recovers from a massive pandemic and earthquake. A bunch of new villains and characters debut, and nearly the entire Batman rogue's gallery turns up to stake various claims throughout what's left of the city.

Batman:
Cataclysm

Batman Road To
No Man's Land 1 & 2

Batman:
No Man's Land 1-4

Batman:
New Gotham 1

Batman: Officer Down

Batman:
New Gotham 2

Gotham Knights:
Transference

Gotham Knights:
Contested

Bruce Wayne:
Murderer?

Batman:
​Fugitive

Batman messes up all the time. Several of these stories deal with his previous batproblems coming back to roost.

Justice League Of America:
Tower Of Babel

Batman: Hush

Batman:
Death & The Maidens

Batman:
Broken City

Batman:
As The Crow Flies

Batman: Hush Returns

Batman:
War Games 1 & 2

Batman:
City Of Crime

Batman:
Under The Red Hood

Batman:
​War Crimes

Bringing us to the ... end ? of Bruce Wayne's tenure as Batman. Certainly the end of the original DC Universe before all the titles were restarted in 2011.

Batman:
Face The Face

Batman & Son

Batman:
Death & The City

Batman: The Ressurection
Of Ra's Al Ghul

Batman:
Private Casebook

Batman:
Gotham Underground

Batman:
Heart Of Hush

Batman:
The Black Casebook

Batman: RIP

DC: Final Crisis

Bruce Wayne is dead, but Batman is kept alive through Dick Grayson and other Wayne devotees. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne isn't dead but is ... *prolonged sigh* ... traveling through time, trying to get back to modern Gotham.

Batman: Whatever Happened
To The Caped Crusader?

Batman:
Battle For The Cowl

Batman:
Long Shadows

Batman And Robin:
Reborn

Batman:
Life After Death

Batman:
Time And The Batman

Batman And Robin:
Robin Must Die!

Batman: The Return
Of Bruce Wayne

Batman:
Eye Of The Beholder

Batman:
​Black Mirror

The New 52 was DC editor, Dan Didio's relaunch of every major DC title, so that were 52 titles every month for 52 issues. Scott Snyder had done a brief run on Batman already, but this era was his crowning achievement.

Batman New 52 4 & 5

Batman New 52 1 & 2

Nightwing:
Night Of Owls

Detective New 52 1 & 2

Batman Incorporated 1

Joker:
Death Of The Family

Batman Incorporated 2

Detective New 52 3 & 4

​Batman New 52 6

Continuing Scott Snyder's New 52 run, as well as containing the (52 weeks long) weekly Batman title, "Eternal", written by a series of rotating writers.

Batman Eternal 1

Nightwing New 52 4

Batman Eternal 2

Detective New 52 5-7

Batman New 52 7 & 8

Batman Eternal 3

Detective New 52 8 & 9

Batman New 52 9 & 10

Nightwing New 52 5

Batman & Robin 6 & 7

Another reboot means continuity is altered yet again. This time we get some fun Dick Grayson material out of it, and the beginning of a larger, weirder explanation for The New 52. Also, Tom King takes over writing the flagship title.

Batman Rebirth 1

Detective Rebirth 1

Batman:
Night Of The Monster Men

Batman Rebirth 2 - 7

Detective Rebirth 2 - 7

Batman Rebirth 8

Grayson 1 - 3

Batman:
Robin War

Grayson 4 & 5

So it turns out that all of the books in The New 52 Era, and The Eternal Era all took place in a pocket universe caused by the end of Alan Moore's The Watchmen? Huh. And this leads to a bunch of other universes with alternate versions of Batman and all the other heroes and villains crossing over with ours? Ok. While Tom King's run on the main series continues, Scott Snyder comes back to play with the alternate universes.

Batman/The Flash:
The Button

Doomsday Clock

Dark Nights:
Road To Metal

Dark Nights Metal:
The Resistance

Dark Nights Metal

Justice League:
Graveyard Of The Gods

Batman Rebirth 9 - 11

Detective Rebirth 8 & 9

Batman Rebirth 12 & 13

Batman:
The Batman Who Laughs

Do you like The Joker? Because there's a lot of The Joker in this most recent era of Batman. James Tynion IV takes over the main Batman book, while Scott Snyder continues to explore the Dark Nights multiverse.

Detective Comics (2019) 1-4

Batman Superman Rebirth 1

Batman & Robin Eternal

Year Of The Villain:
Hell Arisen

Batman By James Tynion 1 & 2

Detective (2019) 5

Batman By James Tynion 3

Batman Three Jokers

Dark Nights Death Metal:
War Of The Multiverses

Dark Knights Death Metal

Here's a quick and easy guide to reading as much of the Amazing Spider-Man run, and its various web-spin-offs as is currently in print. The list is divided up into major eras.

​​Starting from the original Stan Lee run, and going all the way into the 1980s:
​
​Epic Collection 1:
Great Power

Epic Collection 2: 
Great Responsibility

Epic Collection 3: 
Spider-Man No More

Epic Collection 4: 
The Goblin Lives

Epic Collection 5: 
Secret Of The Petrified Tablet

Epic Collection 6: 
Death Of Captain Stacy

Epic Collection 7: 
Goblin’s Last Stand

Amazing Spider-Man:
A New Goblin

Amazing Spider-Man:
Spider-Man Vs Black Cat

Amazing Spider-Man:
Origin Of Hobgoblin

Beginning with the origin of Spidey's black suit and into The Extreme 1990s:

Secret War

Epic Collection 15:
Ghosts Of The Past

Epic Collection 17:
Kraven's Last Hunt

Epic Collection 18:
Venom

Epic Collection 19:
Assassin Nation

Epic Collection 20:
Cosmic Adventures

Epic Collection 21:
Return Of The Sinister Six

Epic Collection 22:
Round Robin

Amazing Spider-Man:
Carnage

Venom:
Lethal Protector

Venom:
The Enemy Within

Epic Collection 25:
Maximum Carnage

Venom:
Separation Anxiety

Venom:
Carnage Unleashed

Epic Collection 26:
​Lifetheft

Exploring the era where it was unclear if Spider-Man was Peter Parker or Ben Reilly, this was a complicated and controversial era in Spider-history.

​Amazing Spider-Man
The Clone Saga 1

Amazing Spider-Man
The Clone Saga 2

Amazing Spider-Man
The Clone Saga 3

Amazing Spider-Man
The Clone Saga 4

Amazing Spider-Man
The Clone Saga 5

Venom:
Along Came A Spider

Venom:
Tooth And Claw

Amazing Spider-Man
Complete Ben Reilly Epic 1

Amazing Spider-Man
Complete Ben Reilly Epic 2

Amazing Spider-Man
Complete Ben Reilly Epic 3

Amazing Spider-Man
Complete Ben Reilly Epic 4

Amazing Spider-Man
Complete Ben Reilly Epic 5

Amazing Spider-Man
Complete Ben Reilly Epic 6

After a restart that didn't quite work, J Michael Straczynski takes over the title for a run that was mainly loved, until the extremely unpopular final arc, "One More Day".

Spider-Man:
Next Chapter Vol 1

Spider-Man:
Next Chapter Vol 2

Spider-Man:
Venom Vs Garnage

Spider-Man:
Next Chapter Vol 3

Venom By Daniel Way
Comp Coll

Amazing Spider-Man
by J Michael Stracynski Vol 1

New Avengers:
Breakout

Amazing Spider-Man
by J Michael Stracynski Vol 2

Civil War

Venom:
Dark Origin

Thunderbolts by Warren Ellis
and Mike Deodato Ult Coll

​Carnage:
Family Feud

Amazing Spider-Man
by J Michael Stracynski Vol 3

Amazing Spider-Man
by J Michael Stracynski Vol 4

Amazing Spider-Man
by J Michael Stracynski Vol 5

Somewhat unburdened by much of the continuity established in the late 90s / early 200s, a group of new writers, including Dan Slott take over for a whole new era of Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man
Brand New Day Complete Coll 1

Amazing Spider-Man
Brand New Day Complete Coll 2

Amazing Spider-Man
Brand New Day Complete Coll 3

Amazing Spider-Man
Brand New Day Complete Coll 4

​Carnage USA

Spider-Man:
Red Headed Stranger

Spider-Man:
Return Of The Black Cat

Spider-Man:
The Complete Gauntlet 1

Spider-Man:
The Complete Gauntlet 2

VenomBy Rick Remender
Comp Coll

Spider-Man:
One Moment In Time

​Spider-Man:
Origin Of The Species

Venom By Cullen Bunn
Comp Coll

​Minimum Carnage

Spider-Man
Big Time Comp Coll 1

Spider-Man
Big Time Comp Coll 2

Venom Space Knight

Spider-Man
Big Time Comp Coll 3

Spider-Man
Big Time Comp Coll 4

Dan Slott's Reign Of Terror as main Spider-Man scribe continues!

Superior Spider-Man
Comp Coll 1

Superior Spider-Man
Comp Coll 2

Superior Carnage

Amazing Spider-Man:
Parker Luck

Amazing Spider-Man:
Learning To Crawl

Axis:
Carnage And Hobgoblin

Amazing Spider-Man:
Spider-Verse Prelude

Amazing Spider-Man:
Spider-Verse

Amazing Spider-Man:
Graveyard Shift

Amazing Spider-Man:
Spiral

Superior Spider-Man:
Full Otto

Superior Spider-Man:
Otto-Matic

Dan Slott's epically long run on Spider-Man comes to a close.

Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 1

Amazing Spider-Man:
Amazing Grace

Venom:
Homecoming

Venom:
Land Before Crime

Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 2

Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 3

Carnage:
The One That Got Away

Carnage:
World Tour

Carnage:
What Dwells Beneath

Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 4

Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 5

Edge Of Venomverse

​Venomverse

Venom Lethal Protector:
Blood In The Water

Venom:
The Nativity

Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 6
Amazing Spider-Man
Worldwide 7

Amazing Spider-Man:
Venom Inc

Venomized

Amazing Spider-Man:
​Red Goblin

Nick Spencer takes creative control 

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer:
Back To Basics

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Friends And Foes

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Lifetime Achievement

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Hunted

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Behind The Scenes

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Absolute Carnage

Amazing Spider-Man:
Full Circle

Venom By Donny Cates Vol 1

Venom Unleashed

Venom By Donny Cates Vol 2

​Absolute Carnage

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
2099

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Threats And Menaces

The most current era of Spider0Man finally gives us a deep mythology of the symbiotes.

​
​Empyre

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Sins Rising

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Green Goblin Returns

King In Black:
Gwenom Vs Carnage

King In Black:
Planet Of The Symbiotes

​King In Black

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Last Remains

Amazing Spider-Man: 
Last Remains Companion

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
Shattered Webs

Amazing Spider-Man By Nick Spencer: 
​King's Ransom