I know Batman had refused to have his mask removed when having medical care, and I'm pretty sure there was an episode where Diana hung out with Bruce Wayne (the bi ep) and implied she knew it was him.

Just read "Cataclysm." Yay for more backstory.

Is there a decent Batverse timeline out there, one that covers the most important storylines, in order? Here's what I've read that I think falls in the main universe, and the order I think it falls in there.

"Batman: Year One" -> "The Long Halloween" -> "Dark Victory" -> "Robin: Year One" -> "Batgirl: Year One" -> "The Killing Joke" -> "Knightfall, etc." I read the novelization, which was actually quite good) ->"Contagion" -> "Cataclysm" -> "No Man's Land"

I have no idea where "Arkham Asylum,"or that one I read about the KGBeast (forget the name of that trade/story/whatever) fits in. There may have been some other trades I read a while ago, but I've forgotten them, they are nothing special.

"Dark Knight Returns" is basically AU, from what I can tell. And "Strikes Back."

When, in relation to all of this, does Dick become Nightwing? I've read nothing about Jason Todd at all: should I? Where can I read about the origins of Nightwing, the coming (and going) of Jason (that one, I assume, is actually in "A Death in the Family"), the coming of Tim? Where and when do Babs and Nightwing make with the nookie, or DCverse equivalents, or is that an ongoing thing from Robin: Year One onward? Where can I read about Babs' changing to Oracle, after Joker shoots her?

What of these backstories are available in trades or novels, and which might I have to find (or download) issues?

I intend to catch up. If I read 1-2 trades (or that number of downloaded issues) every few days, I should catch up to current eventually, right?

You are all bad people for making me do this. I thought I had killed the Batman bug. How dare you infect me again. :-p

Oh! Another JL question: When Batman said "It's being taken care of." and they cut to Clark Kent apologising for getting the plum assignment -- does this mean that Bats officially knew Clark was Superman? As in, Clark knows Bats knows? I had a momentary thought that Batman had arranged for Clark to be in there without Clark's knowledge. Basically unsure.

Where and when do Babs and Nightwing make with the nookie, or DCverse equivalents, or is that an ongoing thing from Robin: Year One onward? Where can I read about Babs' changing to Oracle, after Joker shoots her?

Before mid-NML, the Babs/Dick thing is just flirtation, with him being more serious about it than she is. They hook up in like NW 38 or 39. Babs's shift into Oracle is best described in the Gotham Chronicles, which was a run of comics focused on secondary Batverse characters; I think she's in #5.

The whole Jason Todd storyline and the rise of Nightwing both happen before the 90s reboot of Batman, which was very much a post Dark Knight affair, and while they both get mentioned extensively, you could happily get by on just those mentions and spare yourself both the bad attempt at political relevance in Jason's death and the disco astounishment that is Dick's first NW costume.

Serial!

ita, Clark and Bats each know that the other knows. That's canon from the previous series.

Aha. Which episode did that all come out in? I don't remember it.

ita, like I said above, I think but am not sure it's The Batman/Superman Movie.

Oh! That's in canon for the series? Is anything else?

This is a somewhat enjoyable story that serves as Two Face: Year One, but other than that, isn't exactly all that and the corresponding bag of chips.

I don't remember saying it was. I thought it was a successful and interesting transition from the realistic tone of Batman Year One to the broader psychological expressionism which characterizes the Batverse today. Not necessarily the individual stories or characters but how I perceive the milieu.

All of the previous Batman and Superman cartoons by the same team in the 90s are canon for the Justice League cartoon. So, when Supergirl shows up, she's the same Supergirl from, say, "Girl's Night Out" (referenced on The O.C., by the way, and the fact that I correctly identified the episode just from Seth's lines about it should get me at least five fangirl points and a brownie).