Batman Day Special: Ahmed’s Top 15 Batman Writers
Batman has been around since 1939. In that time, he’s managed to endure changes in history, culture, and trends, all due to the many great writers who have worked on him. And trying to figure out who, in my humble opinion, are the best ones… that’s a tall order. Do I go by who simply wrote stories I like/love, or those who created major characters and events in this long-running fictional character’s time? Do I judge them just by the work, or who they are outside of their work? Or should it be by those who I think understand the character best?
The correct answer is: yes.
I basically took a massive list of the most significant writers to have ever worked on Batman, in his own comics as well as elsewhere, and went with my gut. I ended up with 15 names I felt needed to be highlighted, particularly because of my enjoyment of them, as well as the talent they had and how they’ve shaped the character.
Before we start, let’s talk about the names some folks will be surprised didn’t make the list and why. And the biggest elephant in the room in that regard is Frank Miller, the man who many erroneously credit with making Batman dark and serious again. Miller’s most celebrated Batman work, The Dark Knight Returns, while groundbreaking for the medium in terms of how grim and gritty comics could be, is everything I hate about some fans’ perception of Batman. There, the hero is portrayed as an ultra-violent bruiser, a borderline psycho soldier with fascist overtones, the power fantasy of right-wing jerks who simply wish to brutalize anyone they don’t like and don’t want “soft-hearted” types to stand in their way. And the book hasn’t aged well, especially since Miller’s Batman-pastiche comic Holy Terror (in which a not-Batman goes on a murderous spree against Muslims because Miller hates the whole religion due to being in New York during 9/11) has made it clear to see how his bigotry and authoritarian power fantasy was just under the surface. Also, Miller wrote All Star Batman and Robin, which is possibly the single worst written superhero comic of all time. About the only work Miller’s done for Batman that still works is Year One.
In the same vein, Jim Starlin also didn’t make the cut. Yes, everyone loves his stories Ten Nights of the Beast (in which Batman takes on a Soviet assassin) and Death in the Family (where the Joker famously kills the second Robin, Jason Todd), but both those stories are incredibly dated by their 1980s xenophobia (especially Death in the Family, where Joker basically is all chummy with Islamic terrorists and even becomes the UN ambassador for Iran because, like Miller, Starlin saw Muslims as a sinister other that naturally would get along with the murder clown).
I also had to cut Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker, who fans enjoyed their work in the beginning of the 21st century for exploring the more grounded, crime fiction side of Batman, mostly because outside of their collaboration event story Bruce Wayne: Fugitive, nothing else really thrilled me. Same with Judd Winick, who brought Jason Todd back as the new Red Hood (and even wrote the animated movie version of his own story), just because it’s again just one story I liked out of a whole run.
With the honorable mentions (or dishonorable, depending on your point of view) out of the way, let’s get on with my top 15 favorite Batman writers.
Number 15: Gerry Conway
Conway is a legend in comics writing, with his most significant story being over at Marvel with the Spider-Man classic The Night Gwen Stacy Died. When he came on to the Batman books in the early 1980s, he brought his same soap opera subplot stylings with him. He basically gave Gotham City a more realistic approach, while bringing in classic foes along with more obscure ones like the Werewolf, or the Mad Monk. He also developed the supporting cast more, like the story where Alfred is put on trial by the daughter of a woman who fought the Nazis for her mother’s death, only for us readers to learn that the daughter is also his. He had a full love triangle going on between Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle and Vicki Vale, amping up the drama. Conway also introduced us to both Killer Croc and Jason Todd, the soon-to-be second Robin, in an epic story that saw Batman and his closest allies go up against most of his enemies in a single night. Conway’s run wasn’t always perfect (does anyone really remember characters like Colonel Blimp or the Sportsman?), but it was a fun ride.
Number 14: Chuck Dixon
Dixon worked in the Batman branch of books from 1992 to 1999, and he worked on quite a few stories I loved. He usually did grounded detective stories, to say nothing of developing the larger cast surrounding the book, like the Gotham City Police Department, and especially Nightwing and the new Robin, Tim Drake. He also had a habit of trying to put biting social commentary in his work, which depending on your tolerance could get really old (we get it, Chuck, you didn’t vote for Bill Clinton and hate that he got elected). Part of the reason I put him this low is that his take was sometimes too grounded for a superhero book, and his best work were on the spin-off series starring Robin or Nightwing.
Number 13: Alan Moore
Alan Moore, one of the most brilliant comic writers and also one of the most cynical and frustrating ones to share opinions on superheroes (saying these characters are white supremacist power fantasies is frankly offensive to the diverse creators and fans) has only really written one Batman story (as opposed to Batman being a guest character in a book he was writing like Swamp Thing or Superman). That said, he knocked it out of the park with the one he did: the controversial and horrifying The Killing Joke, which not only gave what I consider the definitive origin for Batman’s archenemy the Joker, but rather infamously crippled Batgirl in a story where she doesn’t serve any other purpose except as a prop to make other characters feel bad. That last part does deserve criticism, but the sheer artistry of the book, the meticulous planning of every panel to convey every image and symbolic moment, it deserves the praise and influence it’s had. Moore is known as a genius for a reason.
Number 12: Alan Grant
Alan Grant was part of the British Invasion, where comic writers from the United Kingdom came to the United States to work on major superheroes. And Grant was pretty much one of the most bombastic writers on the Batman books from 1988 to 1999. He went right for the jugular with new villains like the Ventriloquist & Scarface, Mortimer Kadaver, the Corrosive Man and the serial killer Victor Zsasz. He came up with the villain/anti-hero Anarky, and pretty much dug into some interesting ideas to explore his personal philosophy. His Batman was often an angry hero burning with indignation as he took on drug dealers and murderers, while still keeping his heart. Grant’s Batman wasn’t really subtle, but he frequently faced great odds in an insane world and kept trying.
Number 11: Geoff Johns
This may shock a lot of people. There’s a constant idea online that Geoff Johns either doesn’t understand Batman when he writes him, or just hates him. Honestly, I think Johns just has his own idea of Batman, less of the perfect and always-prepared hero, and more of the human with flaws that still tries. We see shades of this in Johns’ run on Justice League, which often showcase the Dark Knight as a gruff team player who doesn’t always come off as friendly. But then there’s the alternate universe take in the three graphic novels titled Batman: Earth One, in which Batman is a very flawed hero still figuring out how to be one as he faces off with some unique takes on his classic foes. But what gets Johns on this list is his graphic novel miniseries Three Jokers, where it seems like the Joker was three men all along, and Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood (who have all suffered at the Joker’s hands) must figure it out. It’s a great story about trauma, closure, and has some of my favorite modern Batman moments of all time, and I even talked about it in my essay on Batman and closure. You should check that out to see why I thought it was good enough to put Johns on here.
Number 10: Scott Snyder
Scott Snyder was already making an impact in Batman comics with stories like The Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham, the latter of which would showcase his ideas about Gotham having dark secrets long before there was a Batman. In 2011, when DC did a massive reboot to the entire universe, he became the writer on the main Batman comic. Having to start as the first writer after such a massive event would be daunting, but he rose up to the challenge. His tenure from 2011 to 2016 was wild, introducing the Court of Owls, the clandestine group who controlled Gotham from the shadows with their undead assassins the Talons, his stories turning the Joker into a horror movie villain, tackling a new take on Batman’s beginnings with the ambitious Zero Year (which I think is on par with the iconic Year One), and even a concluding arc that saw Gordon step up to be Batman after the hero’s temporary disappearance. He also wrote the Batman Eternal and Batman & Robin Eternal comics, filling history blanks for the newly rebooted timeline, and even the event comic Dark Nights: Metal, which saw the DC universe under attack from Batman’s nightmares, and then became the writer for Justice League where his take on Batman got to work alongside the iconic team. His work bordered on being action-horror, often putting Batman on the back foot and triumphing as much from just sheer determination as well as preparation.
Number 9: Steve Englehart
Some writers on this list, it’s not a question of “if” they show up, but “when.” And Steve Englehart is one of those writers. He initially caught fans’ attention with the story Night of the Stalker, in which a silent Batman goes after a group of criminals for shooting a boy’s parents in front of them, terrorizing them without a single word the whole story. Then, from May 1977 to April 1978, he wrote on Detective Comics. That was only eight issues, and yet it left an impact. It’s fairly self contained, like a mini-series, in which Batman faces an arc-long political conspiracy against him by corrupt city councilman Rupert Thorne, the return of Golden Age villains Hugo Strange (resulting in Strange’s obsession with the hero’s secret identity becoming a core part of his character) and Deadshot (essentially making the modern take on the sharpshooter), a fun team up with Robin against the Penguin, and a climatic showdown with the Joker in the iconic Laughing Fish storyline. But what really made it new was the introduction of Silver St. Cloud, a love interest who’d piece together Bruce Wayne’s secret, and the first instance of his double life interfering with his chances at happiness. It’s a really great arc that I recommend… which begs the question of why Englehart’s barely making it into the top ten. And that’s because he really started to buy his own hype from this run, claiming that he wrote the definitive Batman, that he’s the one who made the character serious again, and laying claim to any successful Batman property for the barest resemblance to his work, like Tim Burton’s Batman for how superficially characters like the Joker or Vicki Vale resembled his run, or the animated series for using Thorne as a recurring antagonist, or even Nolan’s The Dark Knight for Aaron Eckhart’s passing resemblance to a character from his decades-too-late sequel to his run, Dark Detective, which honestly wasn’t that great. He made a really good, fan-favorite run, and allowed his hubris to take over as a result.
Number 8: James Tynion IV
Scott Snyder would recruit this guy to co-write backup stories in his Batman run, and Tynion ran with it. It’d lead to him writing one of the best crossover stories ever, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and during DC’s Rebirth initiative, he’d become the writer on Detective Comics, with his run focusing on Batman forming a team of his closest allies, eventually known as the Gotham Knights, with really great character dynamics as the team faced off with criminals, supervillains, and a military conspiracy aimed at them. This would lead to Tynion taking on the main Batman book after Tom King’s polarizing run (which I disliked so much that it’s why King didn’t even make the honorable mentions for me), and that was basically a massive series of blockbuster action stories, with The Joker War (in which the Clown Prince of Crime decides to finally take advantage of now knowing Batman’s secret identity to utterly devastate him and Gotham) being a highlight, as well as the new development of Bruce no longer being a billionaire and having to take Batman back to a more low-tech and self-sufficient style. He also, like many great Batman writers, focused on how the hero’s greatest strength isn’t just gear or plans, but his willpower and the bonds he’s formed with his major allies. In essence, it’s an absolute blast of a run.
Number 7: Doug Moench
Doug Moench has what may be the most interesting time with Batman, since he was the main writer on the books from 1983 to 1986, did a bunch of horror style Elseworlds (comics set outside the main universe) stories, and became one of the main writers on the books again from 1992 to 1998, meaning he was working alongside previously mentioned writers Alan Grant and Chuck Dixon. Moench had a propensity for purple prose, his comics often filled with dramatic narration and dripping with gothic atmosphere. His 80s run built off the work of his predecessor, Gerry Conway (my number 15), infusing classic literary homages while introducing new villains like Black Mask as well as new supporting characters like fan-favorite Detective Harvey Bullock. He was the last main writer on the book before the universe-resetting events of Crisis on Infinite Earths and even got a massive finale with Batman issue 400, where the hero took on every villain he had. Moench would eventually write the horror comic Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, in which the Dark Knight faced the iconic vampire, with the story not only becoming a cult classic but having two sequels come out through the decade. When he came back onto the Batman books during the 1990s, his writing style fit with the more gritty approach that comics of that decade were adopting, which helped with the atmosphere of my all-time favorite Batman storyline, the Knightfall saga. After that, his work on the books were essentially focused on horror stories, working as a counterbalance to Chuck Dixon’s more grounded detective stories. One of his best strengths during this period was how, when the Batman books had big crossover stories between them, he could tie his work to those of other writers without sacrificing his unique authorial voice. He was one of the most iconic writers of the book, and his alternate universe stuff was often fun, like the aforementioned Batman Vampire trilogy or the horror fantasy Elseworlds Batman: Dark Joker the Wild. Just… just don’t look at his stuff with Catwoman or the Justice League, he really only works as a Batman writer.
Number 6: Bill Finger
You think I’d write a favorite Batman writer list and not include the man who co-created him? The late Bill Finger (who never got credit for his work in his lifetime due to Bob Kane’s ego and shifty business methods) pretty much came up with Batman’s entire backstory, his look, the style of adventures he’d have, most of his oldest and most iconic villains, and his supporting cast. Robin, Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Commissioner Gordon, so many key components of the Batman story were the work of this man. Even characters and concepts he didn’t initially come up with, like Alfred, the Batcave, the themed vehicles and weapons, he’d develop them into what their current forms now are. He was also one of the most flexible writers on this list, going from the pulp style Batman started with and working him through the Silver Age of comics where the hero was a brighter, square-jawed public ally of the law. And even when Batman became more campy and exaggerated, Bill Finger would turn out solid, classic stories. He wrote on Batman comics for the first 25 years of the character’s existence, and only in 2015, 41 years after his death, did he finally get official credit for his work. Finger’s real life story is the stuff of heartbreaking tragedy, and I recommend the documentary Batman and Bill for the full story of how Bob Kane did this man wrong.
Number 5: Len Wein
The late, great Len Wein is primarily remembered for being the co-creator of Swamp Thing at DC, as well as Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus of the X-Men. He also was a major Batman writer through the 1970s with very good runs on both Batman and Detective Comics throughout the decade, and becoming the editor of the Batman titles from 1982 to 1986. His work was wild, with one of his earliest contributions being the Bronze Age classic Moon of the Wolf, in which the Dark Knight comes face to face with an actual werewolf. He also was the first writer to bring Catwoman back to the comics and make her a legitimate love interest for the hero, as well as a supporting character throughout. Wein also created Lucius Fox, the man who Bruce Wayne trusted to run the business side of his life, who has been a major supporting character since. His “Bat-Murderer” saga, which sees Batman framed for murder and having to try and solve the mystery while being chased by his former allies in the Gotham Police, is classic. Wein also liked bringing in not only classic foes like the Joker, but both old goofy villains like Cat-man and Kite-man with more serious characterizations, and enemies who weren’t typical Batman villains like Crazy Quilt and Gentleman Ghost, cementing them as part of the rogue’s gallery. In 1980, he wrote The Untold Legend of the Batman, a three-issue mini-series that modernized and retold Batman’s history from 1939 to 1980. As editor, he oversaw both Gerry Conway and Doug Moench’s runs in the 80s, and also gave the go-ahead for Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke (including, regrettably, the crippling of Batgirl). Wein may have started his run after Englehart’s fan-favorite one, but I think his time writing the Batman comics was even better.
Number 4: Grant Morrison
Everyone’s favorite non-binary Scottish wizard makes it to the 4 spot. Like Moore and Grant, they were part of the British Invasion, making an early name for themselves with runs on Animal Man and Doom Patrol. Their work often has meta-textual ideas and surrealism, both of which they brought to their first Batman story in 1989, the nightmare-like Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, in which Batman has to venture into the titular madhouse, facing not just his usual foes but the supernatural mystery at the heart of the asylum. It came out at the right time, as Bat-mania was at an all-time high following the Tim Burton film, making it one of the most commercially and critically successful comics that year. Morrison would come back the next year for the comic Legends of the Dark Knight, a title meant to tell stories set during Batman’s early years as a hero, and the story told was Gothic, in which Batman faces off with a supernatural evil from his childhood. This would form a theme for later stories, but the next time Morrison worked on Batman was the best-selling JLA series. This comic revamped the Justice League, bringing in all the biggest heroes and putting them up against world-shattering threats, and the run helped solidify Batman as one of the DC universe’s greatest heroes, his skills and intelligence putting him on equal footing with incredibly powerful allies like Superman and Wonder Woman. Then in 2006, Morrison began their seven year long run on Batman by becoming the main writer on the Batman title, bringing in all the wild and crazy ideas from Batman’s history, like the Batman of Zur-En-Ar, or Bruce’s son with Talia, or the Batmen of All Nations, and then not only made them canon again but with a modern twist. They wrote my favorite story of the run, Batman R.I.P., in which the hero faces a formidable evil threatening his sanity and life, essentially the Devil, and making that evil blink. Morrison’s long storyline would extend into a new Batman and Robin comic, where after Bruce Wayne’s supposed death during Final Crisis (an event storyline that Morrison also wrote), Dick Grayson would take up the mantle of Batman and face new threats with Bruce’s cynical and brutal son Damian as his Robin. Meanwhile, Morrison also wrote The Return of Bruce Wayne, which saw the original Batman fighting through time to get home and help his boys. This all would lead to Batman Incorporated, which saw Bruce Wayne take Batman globally, funding other non-powered heroes to protect the world from evil. While I’m not the biggest fan of Batman Incorporated (its high concept ideas and getting caught up in the 2011 DC reboot didn’t help), Morrison’s time on Batman was a dense love letter to Batman’s history, solidifying their thesis on the character: that Batman is an inspiration to people, taking tragedy and growing from it into something larger than life, one of the greatest heroes in a world filled with them. I only recommend you read their work in increments, because it can be daunting for new readers.
Number 3: Jeph Loeb
Jeph Loeb cracks the top 3 with his work. Loeb’s Batman stories are filled to the brim with noir atmosphere, starting with his Halloween specials for the character (my favorite being Ghosts, which is essentially a Halloween rewrite of A Christmas Carol with Batman in the place of Scrooge). He’d then write the fantastic Batman: The Long Halloween, a year-long (both in universe and for readers of the comics) mystery where Batman has to figure out the identity of the serial killer known as Holiday, who only targets mobsters connected to the Falcone crime family on holidays. The story was brilliant not just for the mystery, but how it uses so many of the major villains in a tale that shows the decline of the mob and the rise of the supervillain, with the best version of Two-Face’s origin. The book was so good, it was influential to both Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Matt Reeves’ The Batman films. Loeb would follow it up to two sequels, Dark Victory (which would feature Loeb’s take on the origin of Robin) and Catwoman: When In Rome (in which our favorite femme fatale seeks the truth of her parentage). He’d also do a fun run on Superman/Batman, highlighting the friendship between the two. But it’s both The Long Halloween and his epic action-mystery storyline Hush that cement his status as a great Batman writer, with Hush focusing on Batman facing a new foe who seems to know everything about him and is using most of his major foes against him. Loeb knows how to use everyone in Batman’s cast for his stories while telling engaging mysteries.
Number 2: Paul Dini
I love Paul Dini. His work on Batman started with one of my all-time favorite shows, Batman: The Animated Series (and every episode he wrote is among my favorites), and continued through the rest of the DC animated universe. He’s the co-creator of Harley Quinn, one of DC’s biggest stars now, and his work on the comics, from tie-ins to the animated series to his work on any of the main books, are all classic. He has this amazing ability to get right to the core of a classic character and retain that while making them new and fresh again, like his work with revising Mister Freeze from a goofy cold-themed villain to a tragic figure, or his approach to Bat-Mite and Joe Chill when he wrote for the cartoon Batman: The Brave and The Bold. He took the villain Hush and gave him the much need characterization he lacked in the aftermath of his debut storyline. Dini also is the definitive writer for the Joker, frequently balancing the humor with the horror, and he showcases it whenever he writes him, be it in the animated series, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker or the hit video games Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel, Arkham City. He also wrote an amazing autobiographical graphic novel, Dark Night: A True Batman Story, detailing his trauma following a brutal mugging and how his imagined idea of Batman was able to help him through it. He’s currently writing the comic Batman: The Adventures Continue, a semi-sequel to the animated series that incorporates ideas from the comics that never got to make it in. And he’d probably be my number 1 if not for one other writer.
Number 1: Dennis O’Neil
It’s hilarious to me how writers like Steve Englehart and Frank Miller love to claim that they’re the ones who made Batman dark and serious again after the Silver Age of comics and the Adam West show made him more silly, and yet the actual writer who did it never bragged about it once. Dennis “Denny” O’Neil was one of those writers, the ones who wrote character defining stories for major heroes and often didn’t get enough love for it. I could go on and on about his work on Iron Man, Green Lanter/Green Arrow, The Question, and so on, but it’s his work with the Batman comics that I love most. O’Neil, once given the job of writing for the Dark Knight, went back and re-read all the classic early comics by writers like Bill Finger and Gardner Fox, and realized what Batman had lost during the Silver Age was that pulp adventure, gothic horror, noir mystery edge, and he brought it back full-force. He had Batman facing off against haunted house mysteries, chasing escaped cons through the mountains, and introducing him to iconic new foes like Ra’s al Ghul, his daughter Talia, and their League of Assassins. He brought the Joker back to his roots, making him once more a murderous psychotic and not just a criminal with a clown theme. He basically made Batman the Dark Knight once more, both in how scary he could be, and how heroic. Denny’s secret was that he clocked on to the heart of the character, that Bruce Wayne was equally a man obsessed with ridding the world of evil with a vengeance, and a man whose heart was filled with compassion for victims of horrible events like he was. This template is what all Batman stories have (or at least should have, depending on the writer) followed since 1969. And after a sporadic run in the 1970’s, O’Neil came back to the character as lead editor on the Batman comics from 1986 until 2000, not just editing but writing as well, along with guiding the stories and direction of the character throughout that time. Alan Grant, Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, most of their iconic work was under Denny’s direction as he led them through major event storylines, including my all-time favorite Batman epic, the Knightfall saga. He was the editor on Frank Miller’s most iconic Batman stories, and given how bad Miller’s later work with the character became, it’s clear he needed someone like Denny to keep him in check. All the writers on this list, with the exception of Bill Finger, their work all have traces of the amazing groundwork O’Neil laid out. All the most beloved Batman adaptions, the films of directors like Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves, as well as the beloved animated series, have Dennis O’Neil’s stories as some form of inspiration. The modern idea of Batman probably wouldn’t exist if not for him. When he passed away in 2020, I felt a great well of sadness not just for the world losing such an important talent, but how so many fans of the character didn’t seem to realize how important he was. But O’Neil probably didn’t mind. In his own words, he was essentially the custodian of a major mythos, one that was born the same month and year he was, and would live long past him. And he knew the stories would continue on, and new elements would be added. And he’d probably be fine being only one of the people who made Batman so great, even if for many hardcore fans like myself, he was the best writer for the Dark Knight.
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