By Sean Favager
Sean takes a break from eating and relaxes with a comic!
Hello Puddings welcome back to the Comic Asylum… Normally I would ramble on about how I am and what’s been going on but not this week. This week I will be jumping both feet first into the title subject. Friday just gone my issue of Batman #13 turned up. I was late getting this issue for the fact I have happily been reading Detective Comics and was unsure to the fact I wanted my bank balance to collect two Bat books at a time. So as I’m reading about the Doll Maker and the Joker, people who were collecting Batman were given the Court of Owls. All anybody did on the internet was heap praise after praise on this storyline which I have to admit I did toy with jumping on but sat back and stuck to my guns with Detective Comics. Then the bomb was dropped, with the COO Storyline coming to a close, Team Snyder’s next storyline would be called ‘Death of the Family’ and starring none other than Mr J. I could not stick to my guns any longer and that was simply because I wanted to know how they would go about using the Clown Prince of Crime as the main villain, when in Detective Comics we witnessed the Doll Maker remove the Jokers face. So my hand was forced and I ordered a copy of Batman #13. As I said before it arrived the Friday just gone, the first thing I did was open it up and laugh at the Joker mask cover. I never got round to reading it till the Saturday, I actually put it midway in my comics pile. To me this book wasn’t vastly important as I said before I have been collecting Detective Comics. So I went about reading through my Green Lantern back issues, I finally got to the Batman book the world is talking about, and all I could think at this time is I was going to hate it. It is so hard to get into something once it has been hyped up so much by so many people. Something inside your head just automatically wants to be different and not like whatever is being force fed to you. So as I opened up and started to read I’m going to admit I really wanted to hate this book, but I couldn’t… The more I flicked through the pages the more I got engrossed in this book, and I have to say it has been a very long time I have been this into a comic where for that 20 minutes whilst reading nothing else matters but the words and pictures on the page before my eyes. Finally I got to the end and I had this feeling in my stomach I have never ever had when reading a comic or even a normal book for that matter. It was the feeling of dread and horror. It was that feeling you get after watching a scene from a movie that is so disturbing you want to look away but can’t. It was the last couple of pages that really stuck with me even a day after reading this comic book, and it was the last couple of pages that turned this story upside down…
Then the bomb was dropped, with the COO Storyline coming to a close, Team Snyder’s next storyline would be called ‘Death of the Family’ and starring none other than Mr J.
I text @Pete_the_Red the next day after reading this and told him he needs to read this book. I even went on to describe it as possibly being the most ‘iconic comic book of our generation’. His reply was that was a bold shout and the more I think about it the more I honestly think it is a true statement. A couple of weeks ago I listened to the podcast Fat Man on Batman hosted by Kevin Smith and during it he went into great length about what the Dark Knight Returns meant to him and how it was quite possibly the best Batman novel ever. We all understand it was that book that changed the course of how the Dark Knight was told on pages and even in movies. The Killing Joke is another iconic Batman book that changed the way people looked towards the Joker, a book that really solicited how deranged and crazy Mr J is. Then in film we had Tim Burton’s Batman, the darkest this character has ever been portrayed in film. This carried on into the Animated Series, yes it had to be touched down for children but still it produced some of the best Batman stories told. Unfortunately just like any other franchise the suits find ways to ruin it and they wanted child friendly films to boost toy sales so we were given Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Now we can watch them films when they are shown on television and howl at how bad they are simply for the fact we know what comes after. Warner Brothers decide to blow off the dust and reboot the Batman by handing it to Christopher Nolan. What he gives us is the Dark Knight Trilogy and he makes it even darker then Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns. Which leads me onto the point of when they finally decide to reboot the Batman again how dark do they have to make it? Will Batman have to go on a killing spree for people to go wow the Dark Knight trilogy sucked ass compared to this…
The Killing Joke is another iconic Batman book that changed the way people looked towards the Joker, a book that really solicited how deranged and crazy Mr J is.
All these questions and so much more kept rolling through my head right up until I finished reading Batman #13. It wasn’t about what Batman had to do to please us, Batman is Batman, he has his code and rules and that will never change. No matter what challenges he meets he overcomes them. It was always going to be about how his villains evolve in a means to beat him. With ‘Death of the Family’ it is the Joker who evolves and it is this character that crosses the line of no return. I went on twitter and tweeted a quote from the book on Saturday when Harley Quinn is talking to Batman, “He’s not the same Bats. He’s not my Mr J. anymore…” I think this might be the best line from the book. When we find out the Red Hood isn’t the Joker but Harley and she traps Batman she screams this to the Dark Knight. She follows this quote with “What he’s going to do to you… His plan… I can’t…” it is this conversation that really sets the tone of what kind of Joker we will be seeing in the weeks to come. These words are coming from the mouth of someone who over the years has been so faithful to her pudding that she would do anything for him. We have watched and read and even laughed at the way Joker treats Harley Quinn and the way she keeps running back to him but this time it’s completely different, and it’s here to see as she removes the red hood. She has makeup running down her face as Batman pleads to her to tell him where the Joker is whilst trapped inside a drum that is filling with liquid. This scene is so simple yet so effective because of whom the characters are in it. If this was anyone other than Harley Quinn it would just be another scene where Batman is trapped for the time being…
I went on twitter and tweeted a quote from the book on Saturday when Harley Quinn is talking to Batman, “He’s not the same Bats. He’s not my Mr J. anymore…” I think this might be the best line from the book.
What comes next is part one of the Jokers plan and it really is a shocker, as we finally get to see the Clown Prince of Crime with his face attached by a belt to his head. What really takes away from the image of how revolting it looks is what he does and that is takes a hammer and goes after Alfred. We learn about a two headed lion early on in the book and as it comes to a close Alfred hears a scratching noise at the front door of Wayne manor, he opens the door to see this lion standing there. As he looks in sheer confused state the Joker is behind, hammer in hand. We do not get to see the attack, the imagination takes over and that’s the powerful thing about this part. Its open for you to imagine and feel the terror of what is about to happen but what really did not sink in until the second read was, why has the Joker gone after Alfred? Does he know who Batman is finally or is this just a random attack? As we all know nothing is ever random with the Joker. He may come across as a crazy bastard but he always has a plan or trick up his sleeve. It is a really good cliff hanger and you do really want more but it is what follows next that really defines the Joker…
As he looks in sheer confused state the Joker is behind, hammer in hand. We do not get to see the attack, the imagination takes over and that’s the powerful thing about this part.
The flashback titled ‘Tease’ is six pages long and the most disturbing Joker has ever been that I can think off. If you would have ended the book with the hammer scene that would have been fine, the interaction between characters I explained above really tells the story, it is this flashback that completes that story. What we get is the first interaction between the Joker & Harley Quinn before she traps Batman. Harley stands in a dark room under a light as the Joker hides in the shadows, she explains she has missed him and wants to see him but the Joker just stays in the shadows. I stated earlier on about how we have all enjoyed the Harley/Joker relationship but it is within these six pages it doesn’t become enjoyable anymore. I found I really began to feel sorry for Harley because this wasn’t the Joker of old, as she asks him “What do you want me to do?”. From the darkness the reply is “Take off your clothes.”. Now this really shocked me. It shocked me because as she did so she spoke out to him with another question to no reply. It wasn’t until she asked where he was that he threw the suit at her and said put these on. That pause of him not talking is so creepy that you can’t help but think that maybe in the shadows he is getting a kick out of the power he has over Harley that she will remove her clothes at his order. It feels that he is so caught up in the moment of watching that he doesn’t hear her the first time she speaks out and that really adds to the creepiness and feeling of dread to this flashback. As she puts on the Red Hood suit Joker goes on to explain how he turned a normal person into his monster as you can see Harley look on really confused. She finally understands he wants her to look like him as Joker holds up a knife to her face saying the only thing missing is her face must go…
Now this really shocked me. It shocked me because as she did so she spoke out to him with another question to no reply. It wasn’t until she asked where he was that he threw the suit at her and said put these on.
This is where the art really stands out because the fear in Harley’s eyes leaps from the pages as Joker explains to her how painful the procedure is going to be. For all the bad Harley Quinn has done you cannot help but start to feel scared and even sorry for her. It is now the Joker is really starting to abuse the power of control he has over this woman and he does it in the most shocking way by watching her undress from the shadows and then talk about removing her face. As we know the removing of her face is a tease as he places the Red Hood on her it is the way he goes about it. You can see she is terrified of him almost to the point she doesn’t want to do it yet like a victim she just closes her eyes. Now we understand how powerful the quote I put up on Twitter from this book is. This is a completely different Joker to what anybody is used to and if it can shock a huge Batman fan in myself and leave me with so many unanswered questions you know you have something quite special in your hands. If this book is anything to go by we the fans are in for quite the horror story because that’s what I believe we have stepped into.
For all the bad Harley Quinn has done you cannot help but start to feel scared and even sorry for her.
I asked how dark Batman would have to get to top the Dark Knight Trilogy earlier on. The answer lies within the pages of Batman #13 and I think it will be a long time before another comic can even be placed in the same bracket as this gem.
You can follow Sean on Twitter at @seanfav1 or catch him on the official Comic Asylum account @Comic_Asylum
Posted on November 1st, 2012
Category: REVIEWS, THE COMIC ASYLUM
Tags: Batman #13, Batman #13 Review, Comic Asylum, DC Comics, Detective Comics, Greg Capullo, Harley Quinn, Joker, Pete Barrington, Scott Snyder, Sean Favager, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises