Reviewer Who’s Sad – Review of the comic “Batman Who Laughs”

The reviewer of The Last Tavern has a great life. When a list of titles to review comes up, it requests a specific item. And if only the head of the department agrees, the comic book is sent to the interested party after some time. In this way, everyone should be satisfied with the selection, and the marks of the reviewed items should be high. And it was like that in my case. Yes, sometimes I did get average, but generally I was satisfied. And then I condemned myself to Batman, who laughs by Scott Snyder (screenplay) and Jock (cartoons).

Joker – Snyder Cut

I don’t know the Dark Knights Metal eventpreceding this title. According to Snyder’s introduction, I don’t have to. And I can agree with that; the comic is quite understandable to someone like me who only knows the general outline behind all this confusion. Well, the DC world is dominated by alternative dark versions of Batman from other dimensions, modeled on members of the Justice League. Among them there are super-fast red Batman, Batman-Doomsday, Green Lantern Batman, etc., etc. The head of the sinister bat-group is the title Batman, who laughs – that is Bruce Wayne, who is a combination of the intellect of the “best detective in the world” with madness and cruelty Joker. The genesis of this new opponent is as absurd as the entire event (which smacks of the nineties very much). Well, Batman from an alternate dimension is forced by the Joker to survive the death of his parents once again (specially bred clones – sic!). This realized nightmare causes Bruce to kill his arch enemy. At the last minute, however, the Joker infects Bruce Wayne with a toxin that gradually turns him into a merciless monster.

Batman, Batman, Batman and yet another Batman

It was so. And what does the new comic bring? The plot is complicated (even overcomplicated) and difficult to summarize. Batman, who laughs, releases the Joker from the cell and sends him to the “good” Batman. The Prince of Crime gets into the batjaskini, but a pistol aimed at Gack fires in the other direction and injures the target. “Our” Batman immediately rushes to save Joker, but the latter infects him with his own poison. In this way, the infected-our-Batman, struggling with time running out, must stop Batman, who is laughing (and who is already fully poisoned) from infecting the rest of the city. And Jim Gordon, the son of the commissioner, who is currently suppressing his psychopathic tendencies, is to help him. In addition, there are other versions of Batman and Wayne. There is way too much going on here, as if the scriptwriter was unable to filter his ideas and – instead of focusing on the best – decided to use them all. By the way, the idea for Batman possessed by the Joker was already there.Batman: Arkham Knight, I’m looking at you.

History is history, but how it is all mumblingly written. It’s full of pretentious lyrics and techno-babble. An enormous amount of speech bubbles are devoted to Gack’s internal narrative, who conducts lengthy arguments on Gotham. Only for whom in the presented world is this story told? There are good scenes: for the first time (?) You can see Alfred beating his master. It’s just a pity that everything was covered with dozens of other threads.

Batman who shoots

The mentioned next Batman is the Grim Batman, i.e. Bruce Wayne, who, seeing the death of his parents, reaches for a gun and kills the attacker, thanks to which an avenger who does not keep his weapons is created. Although here we are not dealing with anything fresh. Batman shooting from various types of guns brings to mind, for example, the Punisher (only in the richer version) or the unfortunate title character from Nemesis by Mark Millar (what a poor title it was!).

Apart from that, there are also alternative Wayne’s who are… good. There is information on the Internet that the hero would contribute more to the improvement of Gotham’s situation if he had better disposal of money than flying at night in a costume, and these other versions are a kind of evidence confirming this thesis. It is unfortunate that Batman who laughs one by one kills them. Interesting thread – it’s a pity that it is only on the margins of the main story.

Batman that looks so-so

I like the look of Batman laughing. Again, it’s nothing particularly special. The character design is reminiscent of Judge Death from the Dredd universe. And that facial spikes are cool, Penance from New Warriors proved a long time agofrom Marvel. Nevertheless, it all works very well. Even in Jock’s interpretation, which is rather average. It’s nice that it’s not a plastic and standard superhero line, but something more stylized. At the same time, the graphics are not very neat, and the characters often look clumsy. It’s better towards the end, when the psychedelic scenes enter the game. Some flashbacks, including the one about the Grim Knight, were illustrated by Eduardo Risso. He opted for a more painterly style, but here too there are some clashes in the form of comic facial expressions that he gave the characters.

Playing with typography is a very pleasant procedure. Balloons spoken by an infected Batman initially have a Joker font woven into every word, and with each page more and more appear. A small thing, but it enjoys

Batman deserves more

There is a paradox in mainstream comics. The titles of the largest publishing houses are often criticized for their repetitiveness and conservatism. At the same time, new ideas are rarely remembered by readers. How many people are able to name new opponents of Spider-Man or Superman? Batman who laughs is the exception. It gained incredible popularity in a short time and will probably come back more than once. Let him only go to better titles. I am more and more averse to Scott Snyder’s work and this comic book does not change my mind.