Important note: Jean-Paul is Denny O'Neil's special guy, and the bias becomes more apparent the longer he has control over the character.
Jean-Paul's introduction! A great place to start. The story is interesting, and it's a quick read. This basically existed to introduce him before thrusting him into the cowl in Knightfall. It serves that purpose well.
Crucial to understanding where Azrael's head is at the start of his solo and a good read all around. His issues carry over from his initial mini and are easy to follow throughout. Especially fascinating is his relationship to 'evil' and his struggles with the System. I think it's also remarkable how little he and Saint Dumas references God, for all that he claims to be on a holy mission.
This series has very high highs and extremely low lows. I'd recommend reading issues 1-26, as well as the first annual, and then skipping forward to certain issues of Azrael: Agent of the Bat.
They are the funniest men on earth and they should hang out all the time. SO AWKWARD!!!
STRONGLY recommend the No Man's Land issues as mentioned above. My favorites are #56, #57, and #61 (Christmas in No Man's Land!!). Spoilers but he does die at the end of this run in a pretty wild and not very good development.
I'm leaving out New 52, but it's only a handful of issues with a completely different backstory for Jean-Paul that seems to be retconned sometime either during Justice League: Odyssey or right after.
Jean-Paul becomes a regular in the extended "Batfamily" for this span of time, typically seen with Luke Fox and Kate Kane.
This sucks. I'm including it so you know it's there, but it is pretty bad for Jean-Paul's characterization.
After returning from space, Jean-Paul begins working at a hospice. His backstory seems to have reverted to something closer to his post-crisis one at this point. This shows him struggling with being Azrael and his faith and coming into conflict with Batman. This is the poinnt where Dan Watters largely takes over Jean-Paul, and his passion for the character shows.
FASCINATING, especially given Urban Legends comes right before it-- he spirals afterwards I guess. Azrael is an ANTAGONIST here and he is SO INTERESTING!!! He's the slowly looming threat!! He's the inevitable!!! He's... off his meds? Joking, but you can see that he's focused on his holy mission again here. Kind of sad but also lovely (also another comic with AMAZING art).
Modern!! Shiny!! Only six issues!! The artist is exceptional and the story is lovely! This is also becoming relevant again! The religious imagery and Jean-Paul's struggle to understand and accept himself is really good!!! Even reading just for the art is perfect! I think you could start here if you wanted to.
See Jean-Paul's school years!! He doesn't remember, but they fucked him up too :) Really lovely art... love you artist.
Jean-Paul fights some zombies and picks the batsuit back up (why).
As Batman, Jean-Paul joins the group that will save Bruce from his execution by the Orgham family. This is actually a really cool storyling & I think Ram V handles Jean-Paul pretty well (it does feel like he's regressing but whatever).