With the rapid development of microgrids, the microgrids with complicated structures and control modes are gradually formed. For the photovoltaic (PV) / energy-storage system (ESS) microgrids which have popularization value, it is important to study the safe and effective black start strategy of microgrids for improving the power supply reliability. Based on the analysis of the structure and control system of the PV-ESS microgrid with complicated topology structure, this paper puts forward a black start strategy based on the hierarchical control theory. The current states of multiple energy storage systems are considered to select the main power supply in the initial stage of the black start. Taking the multiple running modes of the photovoltaic systems into consideration, the microgrid restores based on a serial strategy. The simulation results show that the proposed method can safely and effectively complete the black start of the microgrid with complicated topology structure, providing a reference for the actual project. This work is supported by National High-tech R & D Program of China (863 Program) (No. 2014AA052001).