The current cause for fan excitement (and confusion) is Bruce Wayne: The Road Home. It’s part of the larger overarching Batman: RIP / Battle / Return / Etc storyline and will eventually be included on that trade list, but as the comics come out in issue format you may be wondering how to read them.
Along with the main titles, there is also a companion of sorts being promoted as “The Search for Bruce Wayne.” That runs in issues 1-6 of Time Masters: Vanishing Point. You could probably read those six issues separately after the main bulk, if you wanted, or you can try them as listed here. As with most time travel stories, chronological order may not ever really be possible. Let me know if you have any tips or tweaks!
Here’s the full list, with release dates.
Pre-game:
Batman RIP / Reborn (as much of the Morrison run as you’d like.)
Batman & Robin 1-9
Red Robin 1-14
The Main Event:
1. Batman & Robin 10
2. Batman & Robin 11
3. Batman & Robin 12
4. Batman 700
5. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 1 – (Early July)
6. Batman & Robin 13
7. Batman 701
8. Batman 702
9. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 2 – (Late July)
10. Time Masters: Vanishing Point 1 – (July 25th)
11. Red Robin 15
12. Batman 703 – (September 9th)
13. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 3 – (August)
14. Time Masters: Vanishing Point 2 – (August 25th)
15. Batman & Robin 14
16. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 4 – (September)
17. Time Masters: Vanishing Point 3 – (September 29th)
18. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 5 – (October 13th)
19. Time Masters: Vanishing Point 4 – (October 27th)
20. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 6 – (November 10th)
21. Batman & Robin 15 – (October 20th)
22. Red Robin 16
23. Road Home: Batman & Robin – (October 13th)
24. Road Home: Red Robin – (October 13th)
25. Road Home: Outsiders – (October 13th)
26. Road Home: Batgirl – (October 13th)
27. Road Home: Catwoman – (October 20th)
28. Road Home: Commissioner Gordon – (October 20th)
29. Road Home: Oracle – (October 27th)
30. Road Home: Ra’s al Ghul – (October 27th)
31. Batman & Robin 16 – (November 3rd)
32. Batman: The Return – (November 17th)
33. Batman, Inc. #1 – (November 17th)
34. Batman 704
35. Red Robin 17
36. Time Masters: Vanishing Point 5 – (November 17th)
37. Time Masters: Vanishing Point 6 – (December 15th)
At this point it’s starting to move into Batman Inc territory. Perhaps it’s a new list? We’ll see.
As always, let us know if we’ve made any mistakes in our ordering! Please keep spoilers out of comments, since most people reading this post will not have read the event yet.
Thanks to Duncan in the comments below for the advice concerning Time Masters: Vanishing Point, Herbzilla for chatting with me about putting in B&R 1-14, and Amanda at Comic Book Issues for advice about Batman: The Return and Batman 703.
Thank you to Sean for advice on where to put in Batman 700, 701, and 702. Thanks to gbeenie for advice about B+R 16/The Return.
Huge thanks to LEO for additional tweaks, especially the addition of Red Robin 15 and 16.
Matthew over at Multiversity also posted an excellent in depth rundown of the entire Grant Morrison epic with issue by issue commentary, which may be of interest to you.
Enjoy!
Surely Time Masters: Vanishing Point issues 1 to 6 should be included here. Booster Gold, Rip Hunter and Superman appear in the Return Of Bruce Wayne issue 2 (from memory) so including these 6 issues would help explain their appearance
[Reply]
Maybe! Thanks for the tip.
I haven’t read those! Does it tie in directly?
I’ve only read the old 1990 collection of Time Master stuff
http://www.tradereadingorder.com/dc/time-masters-time-masters/
[Reply]
It does. Rip, Booster, Hal Jordan and Superman are travelling through time and space following leads to Bruce Wayne’s whereabouts. The issues are headed “The Search For Bruce Wayne” and are being sold over here (in the UK) as a companion to the series
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/comics/?cm=15184
[Reply]
cool, so we could maybe put it right before The Return of Bruce Wayne, then? Does it work well to read 1-6 of that before jumping into this list? Or does it cross over between issues 1-4 of Return.
[Reply]
It runs alongside, guess it would probably start after return of Bruce wayne issue 1. Until now, I have been reading one issue of the return followed by an issue of Time Masters. Currently there is just one point in issue 2 of the return where the two stories cross over, otherwise they are heading towards the same goal but otherwise can probably be read any time
[Reply]
cool. I’ve kind of guessed out their placement based on release dates and reviews of the first three books. Let me know if you see anything that you feel is out of place (or later on down the line if I’ve totally botched something up once they actually come out, lol.)
Thanks so much for your help, Duncan!
[Reply]
This is great, thanks. The Road Home reading order is so odd… you’d think the story would be in the order of where in the cover the characters lay, but no. Of course Ra’s Al Ghul has to be in the middle and of course you have to read his book last! Ah well!
[Reply]
yeah, it’s kind of a confusing one – especially because of that cover thing. Maybe they did the covers before plotting out the story? Or just decided the placement aesthetically. *shrug*
Anyway, hope the order helps. Let me know if you spot any problems while reading!
Oh, and if there are any other series orders you’re in need of, just let me know and I’ll get crackin’ on em.
[Reply]
How abut Brightest Day?
[Reply]
Here’s what I’ve got so far: http://www.tradereadingorder.com/blog/comic-issue-reading-order-brightest-day-dc-event/
It’s a little bumpy in some areas, but without having the issues in front of me I’m not sure how to adjust. Let me know if you’ve got any advice!
[Reply]
Sweet!! Thanks!
[Reply]
No problem. Let us know if there’s anything you think could use improvement as you’re reading along. :)
[Reply]
Thanks for visiting my blog! This is a great list and should be a lot of help.
One thing though, I’m pretty sure that Batman: The Return is meant to be read after the Road Home stuff. Since all that stuff is the ROAD leading to his RETURN. I’ve seen that said on a few sites but I couldn’t point to where at the moment.
You might want to add Batman 703 to the list since it was advertised as a prelude to Bruce Wayne the Road Home (and was written by Fabian Nicieza who planned the whole Road Home event). I don’t think it is absolutely necessary to read to understand anything else, but for the sake of completion it couldn’t hurt to add in. It came out September 9th, but could probably go anywhere in the read order before the Road Home stuff.
[Reply]
Likewise, Amanda! :D
I think I’ve seen that about The Return as well. Once in a random forum post and the guy didn’t respond to cite a source so I was waiting on it. But hearing it from you as well is enough, I think. I’ll move it until I hear otherwise.
I’ll add Batman 703 in as well, just by date I guess. Thanks a lot for the advice!
[Reply]
After reading B&R 16 today, I’m thinking it may need to go after all the one-shot books and before Batman Inc. #1. The book ends with the press conference announcing Batman Inc., so I’d think that makes sense, especially given that in B&R 16 Dick and Damien KNOW Bruce is back, but in the one-shot B&R they don’t seem to know (and Bruce tells Oracle that they don’t know yet, so there is that).
[Reply]
yeah, I’ve been hearing a lot about some contradictions lately. I think it would make sense too. I’ll make the move when I get home tonight.
[Reply]
Alright, it’s been updated! Thanks!
[Reply]
SPOILER!!
May need to adjust order.
In 702 Dick still has the Batmobile but in B&R 14 it blows up…
[Reply]
I meant 703
[Reply]
Do you think that we should put 701 – 703 right before B+R 14? Or should 702/703 be placed somewhere different altogether (even before 701?)
[Reply]
Okay, so I read in your order for the most part but then I tweaked the list before I let my friend read them so it would try to flow better.
700
ROBW 1
B&R 13
701/702
ROBW 2**
TM:VP 1**
Red Robin 15
703
ROBW 3
TM:VP 2
B&R 14
ROBW 4
TM:VP 3
ROBW 5
TM:VP 4
ROBW 6
B&R 15
Red Robin 16
The Eight One-Shots
B&R 16
The Return
Batman, Inc 1
**Now I didn’t have ROBW 2 or TM:VP 1 but I think that’s where they would go based on your order.
[Reply]
Thanks for the advice, LEO. I’m gonna take a look at this and do some updates in a few.
Good show :D
[Reply]
Great work bud. Most of it is pretty subtle, but works.
Especially thankful for the placings of Red Robin, a title I don’t have yet. I’ve tweaked the order and fixed the numbering.
[Reply]
Oh the Red Robin’s are amazing. I love the character of Tim Drake. I suggest you pick up the two trades, The Grail and Collision. That’s the first 12 issues and they focus on Tim proving that Bruce is alive. You might want to put Red Robin 1 – 14 in the Pre-Game as well.
Cheers! =)
[Reply]
That’s a good thought! Especially since he’s been saying it the whole damn time.
[Reply]
Haha yea no one wanted to believe Tim. Oh and Red Robin 17 has the Batman Incorporated banner on it so I assume that it would fall after Batman, Inc 1.
[Reply]
Good call.
I wonder if I Batman Inc is going to have as many crossovers and whatnot. Should I be making a new reading list just for that? pf.
[Reply]
I don’t know how many titles are going to have that banner on them or for how long but I did see on on the Batman 704 issue and I’m pretty sure it was on a detective comic as well. I don’t know if Batman and Robin will also be sporting it, but I’ll update you when I find out.
[Reply]
sheesh. I’m gonna hit the forums and see if people think I should just keep putting it all on one list or not.
[Reply]
I saw a couple comics with the Batman Inc banner on them today: Batman and Robin 17 and Detective Comics 871. I was a little surprised the Batwoman 0 did not have it because it was hyped with all the other titles that did.
[Reply]
So far it seems that while they tie in a bit, they’ve all got their own plot threads. Concur?
[Reply]
Yes that’s exactly my thoughts, like the Brightest Day banners. They have their own stories and plots but at certain times they might make a reference to one another to make a tie-in
[Reply]
yeah I think we’ll be able to wait while these run for a while before they start really interacting.
[Reply]
Important note: Batman and Robin 16 comes BEFORE Batman: The Return.
[Reply]
Does it? I thought 16 moved right into Inc.
[Reply]
‘Fraid not. B&R 16 wraps up the Doctor Hurt/Professor Pyg stuff, and leads right to Return. THEN comes Inc. #1.
[Reply]
cool, thanks for the correction. I try to do these lists when requested, but I’m obviously a trade waiter myself so it gets a little hard sometimes :D
[Reply]
Thanks so much for the reading order! It’s going to prove immensely helpful as I dive into the pile of recent Batman and Red Robin issues that has accumulated on my desk. :-P
[Reply]
No problem! Hope it helps. Let us know if you’ve got any feedback :)
[Reply]
This has been really useful for me in catching up. It is also interesting to see just how badly DC bungled the release schedule.
They go to all the effort of having such an epic story by a big-name creator, and then publish some of the most important story beats in the wrong order! Also, the whole question of what happened between the helicopter crash and final crisis. What was the need, story-wise, to hold that back for so long?
[Reply]
I have a guestion I just started reading your list that you made for the batman R.I.P. / Reborn storyline and I was wondering once I finish Batman Arkham Reborn would it make sense to read Batman and robin vol 2 batman vs robin then batman and robin vol 3 robin must die and then Bruce Wayne the Road home followed by batman the return of Bruce Wayne ? You also have a great website I always come to it to look at comic reading orders.
[Reply]
Hey there, I think you website might bbe having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your website in Ie, it looks fine but when opening in
Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give
you a quick heads up! Othr then that, wonderful blog!
[Reply]
Good day! I know this is kinda off topic
but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site?
I’m getting tired of WordPress because I’ve had
issues with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for
another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
[Reply]
You lost me, friend. I mean, I suppose I get what youre declaring. I recognize what you’re saying, but you just appear to have overlooked that you can find some other folks in the world who view this issue for what it really is and might not agree with you. You might be turning away alot of individuals who may have been supporters of your website.
[Reply]
This read order is a little off, pretty good for the most part except in the middle. The last two issues of time masters, and the last issue of Batman and Robin and Red Robin (the ones before incorporated starts) should be before the last issue of the return of Bruce Wayne.
[Reply]