By Chris Fenn
This is the penultimate issue of Zero Year, and I quite enjoyed this issue. There are some bits I thought were really good, some bits I wasn’t too keen on and some bits that I didn’t get at all.
One of the bits I just didn’t get was the opening page of the issue. I don’t know who the homeless person is, if he is supposed to be anybody, and it isn’t made clear what favour Batman requested of him. I don’t know if this is something that will be made clear in the final issue.
This could be something minor, or perhaps a lack of thinking on my behalf; I remember there being the ‘Tokyo Moon’ references in the build up to Dr. Death and they were sort of lost on me until pointed out. It could just be the case that I’ve only been reading these issues as they come and not in one big sitting so the plot isn’t as fresh in my mind as it could be.
One thing that I really liked was the colouring of the issue. It’s rare to see Batman out in the day, and it makes sense in this story, but seeing such vivid colours of the Savage City reminds me a lot of the original colouring of The Killing Joke. The psychedelic backgrounds and multi-coloured robots really contrast with the oppressive nature of the story and it’s really pleasing to look at.
Capullo’s pencils are at his usual high standard, and I love the sleeveless Batman look; granted out of this story it wouldn’t make much sense but I do like the ‘Cowled Commando’ costume.
Snyder seems to have nailed The Riddler’s voice in this story; he’s intelligent and smug to the point of outright arrogance. I love how he distributes little fun facts to his victims when he thinks he’s about to kill them. This is definitely a villain I want to see come back in future storylines, especially in the capable hands of Snyder.
I like how Batman is portrayed as fallible and doubtful; I like how when he and Lucius are talking where to strike Batman guesses, and acknowledges that it’s a guess and if he’s wrong then it’s all over. Remember this is Batman’s New 52 version of Year One, and he is supposed to be making mistakes and not omnipotent or omniscient.
There’s a brilliant heartfelt moment where Bruce sends a message to Alfred admitting that Alfred was right and acknowledging his own mistakes. It always warms my heart to see Bruce show his true emotions to Alfred, and seeing him say “I love you Alfred” almost brought a tear to my eye. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Snyder’s Batman; I’ve felt in the past he has been too consumed by rage and unwilling to seek help from his extended family, but this moment has really sold me on Snyder’s ability to write an emotionally balanced and fleshed out Batman and I hope we can see more emotional responses like this.
I also really liked the scene where Bruce tells Alfred he loves him for a more cinematic reason. Seeing the air force prepare their jets adds real immanency and urgency to the story and pushes the pace on a lot quicker; now Batman has to beat the Riddler and be quicker than Jim in order to save Gotham from destruction.
This has been a really good issue of Batman, but I will still be happy to see the back of Zero Year. One more issue to go before I can get truly excited about Snyder and the main Batman series again!
For more comic views and reviews follow Chris on Twitter at @fenneth1989
Posted on June 26th, 2014
Category: OUT OF THE LONG BOX, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman #32 Review, Bruce Wayne, Chris Fenn, DC Comics, Greg Capullo, Riddler, Scott Snyder, Zero Year
“What do you want with this city, Batman?!”
Zero Year continues in Batman #24 with a double-sized (and priced) issue that wraps up Bruce Wayne battling the Red Hood gang, and shows the emergence of two very key figures in the Batman universe. One of whom you can probably guess from the cover image – yes, Batman makes his first full appearance in Zero Year, or at least the Batman we know.
This issue gives us the origins of the Batcave, it shows us a young and determined Bruce Wayne standing up to the hellish Red Hood gang, led by the mysterious Red Hood One, who has been blackmailing half of Gotham into carrying out his plans under the disguises of their masks and generally forcing everyone to dance to his tune. His identity I had guessed back in issue #0 of Batman, but it’s nice for this to come full circle and show us the origins of some of Batman’s deadliest foes.
Scott Snyder is on good form here. The Batman we get presented with isn’t ready for the war he begins waging, far from it. He makes mistakes, his costume is still in prototype, but the important thing, and the lesson Alfred reminds him is that he’s going to become a symbol, he’s going to play a part, and people will believe in him. Bruce voices his concerns that people will quickly be able to figure out that he and Batman are one and the same, when Alfred reminds him people want to invest in something that gives them hope, recounting a tale from his old acting days when he would take on characters – the audience want to believe in what they see.
There is a beautiful two-page spread in the book that’s clearly a nod to Bob Kane’s Detective Comics #27 famous cover. The homage has been done a lot of times before, but it still had me smiling when I saw it. Just like the fact Batman wears to-the-wrist gloves in this, again a nod back to his origins in the original pulp books of the thirties.
Everything about Batman in this issue is bare bones. He’s a rough, shaven-headed rich boy who finally has his plans in motion, it’s just whether they will work or not that remains to be seen. You can see the team of Snyder and Greg Capullo have painstakingly plotted this, tying up old threads laid down way back in issue #0, and showing us parts of Batman’s origins that we’ve never seen before, not even in the hallowed Year One, which Snyder is seemingly doing his best to avoid drawing from, mainly a good move, as we want this to feel fresh and new and not a rehash of the same old origin.
When Gordon first encounters Batman in this issue he threatens to shoot him. Seeds are being sown here for where their alliance and friendship will one day blossom, but that trust isn’t there yet, but it will come, and I really hope this is another part that is explored in Zero Year.
Capullo’s pencils, as usual, are full of the kinetic energy he always brings. His angles are experimental and unique. He never draws a boring page, and just they way he has Batman moving in this, it reminds me of how Bruce Timm portrays him with the fluid motions of the Dark Knight. There’s a lot of love for the world of Batman from these two and it comes across on the pages.
This issue is definitely worth the extra money DC are asking for it, and for those wanting a Bat-fix before the release of Arkham Origins then this will scratch that itch. Go buy it.
For more comic views follow Glen on Twitter at @glenghiskhan and check out his blog for more reviews at www.glenludlow.blogspot.co.uk
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Posted on October 14th, 2013
Category: PANELS OF INTEREST, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman, Batman #24 Review, DC Comics, Detective Gordon, Greg Capullo, new 52, Riddler, Scott Snyder, Zero Year
By Robin Jones
Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime, They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them or they’ll send the talon for your head…
Before I start, if you haven’t read Court of Owls, then be warned, this post of mine contains spoilers galore! Don’t say I didn’t pre-warn you!
Bruce Wayne starts The Court of Owls saga by asking us, via the medium of monologue, the question Gotham is…? So I asked myself, what is Gotham City to me? Is it devoid of law? It’s villains? Truth, Justice, Vengeance? Home, Family, Purpose? A mystery? Or is it The Batman? Gotham is The Batman. At least to me, and then I wondered what other people thought Gotham City was to them? And so I posed this question to Twitter! In three words, or less, what is Gotham City to you?
So with a garbled idea of what Gotham means to the lovely people of twitter, I sat down on my comfiest chair, with a large cup of blackcurrant flavoured fruit juice and an single mission, to read Batman: The Court of Owls. Then I had a thought, as I lazily basked in the luminescence of our vintage lamp, what if it doesn’t end with just the Court of Owls and I instantly contacted my oracle (Google and Wikipedia) and dig some detective work of my own. Turns out, there’s a whole crossover event called Night of The Owls which spans the entirety of the Batman family! There’s Red Robin, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Batwing all battling it out with the Court’s assassin’s or Talons as they’re known as. It’s big, it’s epic, it’s colossal, I imagine a fantastic soundtrack by Hans Zimmer backing the fights scenes and dramatic tension ala Man of Steel! (Which, to go off point and topic, I thought was fantastic!) It’s such a broad, sweeping epic that @Raphiagi suggested that it is a #BatOpera! I’m sure there’s a soprano out there somewhere who would love to tackle Bruce Wayne’s gravelly voice!
Anyway, back on topic, The Court of Owls! Bruce Wayne has a deep seated scepticism regarding the existence of the Court, a scepticism born out of a futile, failed investigation following the murder of his parents. Bruce saw owls everywhere but once he chased them, he turned up nothing but ghosts and nothingness, and took the view that the court were just that, ghosts and nothingness, given life by an old nursery rhyme. In fact this couldn’t be further from the truth. The Court exist, and are a highly organised secret society, working as a violent criminal cabal run by Gotham’s oldest and most wealthy families. Through murder and money they have influenced politics and polices throughout the cities history. And as Bruce/Batman discovers, they have roosts and nests in most of Gotham’s oldest and most impressive buildings, similar to the way owls will steal an abandoned nest. Their assassins, the Talons are regenerating, highly trained, some ancient, virtually unstoppable killing machines, used as the avenging arm of The Court. They have all been recruited or have been related to Haly’s Circus from it’s many frequent stops in Gotham over the years. The saga re-writes some of the Batman mythology and introduces the fact that Richard (Dick) Grayson would have been one of those resilient, regenerating harbingers of death, as his family have been used as recruits for decades. His surname, Grayson comes from William Cobb, one of the Talons, who named his natural born son a Gray Son, differentiating between the ruling elite and poor downtrodden citizens, and solidifying the Court as the Gray moral class of Gotham.
I found the crossover Night of the Owls pretty cool in some respects as it ties the whole event together, bringing all of Gotham’s finest against the Court in a time scaled event. It does start to get a bit samey after a while, as once you’ve seen Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl fight her Talon, I don’t think there’s a need to show the Birds of Prey fighting their’s! (Although I was slightly thrown by the idea of Poison Ivy fighting alongside Batgirl and Black Canary!) Perhaps they could have been condensed into one maybe? Batwing, a character I genuinely didn’t know existed until reading Court of Owls, seems a bit like an Iron Man version of Batman, but seeing Lucious Fox (a particular favourite character from the Dark Knight trilogy) was cool and the fighting was quite intense. Damien Wayne proves to be a wily little son of a bitch. (and from what I’ve read, his mum, Talia al Ghul, is definitely a huge bitch!) His commanding presence when dealing with the army general he is tasked with saving is refreshing and it’s always funny seeing a little lad order around a battle hardened general! Nightwing’s story is the most curious of all, with Dick Grayson squaring up to one of his descendants, William Cobb, who is hell bent on making Dick pay for his sullying of the Grayson name by not taking up the mantle of a Talon. I love this addition to Nightwing’s mythology and his background! It’s the same with Mr Freeze.
Turns out, old Victor has been working with The Court and given them their means of reanimating their Talons in a hopes of using and abusing this new found technology to bring back his beloved wife Nora. Scott Snyder’s story line has a wonderful habit of re-visiting classic moments from the integral Batman mythology and slightly rewriting it, adding his own twist to the Dark Knight’s world. In Batman Annual #001 we revist Fries’s incident and are reminded of his vendetta against Bruce Wayne, but what also transpires is that Victor’s fixation on Nora is one built on a love of the cold, rather than the woman, as she isn’t even his wife, in fact he has never met her! And then there’s Lincoln March. The stories catalyst, March initially approaches Bruce about his planned city renovations and wants Wayne’s support in his bid for mayor. What transpires though is Lincoln reveals he fears for his own and Bruce’s safety and then over the course of the night, is subject to a Talon attack. It is however, his revelation afterwards in the stories prologue which causes the most ramifications. Amid a standoff between Batman and March, who by now is in full Talon outfit and has monologued his diabolical scheme to the Dark knight, Lincoln March claims he is Thomas Wayne Jr and, ultimately, Bruce Wayne’s brother.
Synder and artist Greg Capullo weave an immense saga, Capullo’s visual style is visceral and striking, with dark brooding moments punctuated throughout the series. His portrayal of Batman’s descent into madness within the Court’s Labyrinth during his period of incarceration there is disturbing to say the least. Seeing Batman beaten, broken and demoralised is bold move, as he usually has an answer or plan for every situation. When we see the members of the Court as clawed beasts, baying for Batman’s blood, we are reminded that not even Batman is infallible. I particularly liked their inclusion of the three part Fall of the house Wayne throughout the series, charting the death of Jarvis Pennyworth and the Owls initial pursuance of the Wayne family.
All in all, Batman: Court of Owls was a dark, violent, brooding, all encompassing monster of a story, with Batman taken from his roots of dealing with street ciminals and gangsters to facing a huge political entity, hell bent on destroying everything Bruce Wayne stood for and ripping the frame work of Gotham right from it’s heart and build it in their image. Through fear and intimidation they attempt to destroy the family Bat, but hadn’t figured on their tenacity and resolve. The story is fantastic and all engrossing, again, once I started I couldn’t stop, like pringles, a pack of Rolo’s or Heroin…
From here, I’ve already decided where I’m going to go with DC. I’m going to be a cosmic guy… from another galaxy, my heart at zero gravity, just a cosmic guy, transmitting on my frequency…I’m going cosmic! Like a modern day Private Pile, I’m joining the Corps. The Green Lantern corps. Until next time…
In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!!!
For more comic views and reviews follow Robin on Twitter at @Hulksmash1985
Posted on June 26th, 2013
Category: PAPERCUTS AND INKSTAINS, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman Court of Owls, Comic Reviews, DC Comics, Greg Capullo, Papercuts and Inkstains #005, Robin Jones, Scott Snyder
By Kulbir Mann
Batman and the Joker are one of the greatest all time superhero villain combinations. Their names are etched in comic folklore stone. Where do you begin to explain how they work and why they work so well with each other? There are books written on the matter and there are countless works of comics, cartoons and films depicting the subject. Put simply, Bruce took on a persona to instil fear into the villains of Gotham and the Joker is Gotham underworld’s response to Batman. Is a killer clown any more or less ridiculous or crazy as a man dressed as a Bat trying to fight crime? Of course not. Regular street crime and villainy is no match for Batman and so new criminals are born and wander into the fray for the challenge.
Enter the Joker. His insane genius is so incomprehensible that a detective will not be able to piece together the clues in his mind.
Enter the Joker. His insane genius is so incomprehensible that a detective will not be able to piece together the clues in his mind. It is difficult to remember that Batman is primarily a detective even though he has a ridiculous amount of other skills. Unfortunately that is not enough to fight the Joker, which appears a ridiculous statement as Batman always wins. However there is a cost to these victories: namely to the ones Batman holds dear. Batman’s second Robin, Jason Todd was brutally murdered, Sarah Gordon, Jim Gordon’s wife was also hideously killed, Barbara Gordon, Jim’s daughter was left paralysed and he almost sent Jim to Arkham asylum. The amount of times Joker was arrested and sent to Arkham only to escape and kill is immeasurable. The only way to stop is to prevent his fleeing incarceration or simply to kill him. Batman does not kill and therein lies the problem.
The Joker adores Batman and has no immediate wish to kill him. He is a bored man and finds the Bat incredibly amusing and loves to torture him. The Joker has described Batman’s eventual death as a work of art that needs to be planned in order for it to be fitting of the icon. There was even an episode of the animated series where the Joker stops Batman from being killed because the death scene was not amazing enough. He also knows that Batman does not kill and eventually he will always be free to inflict suffering on him. All Batman can do is try to outthink his eccentric mind and catch him again before another loved one is hurt. As complex a hero villain complex as this is, there is only one man who suffers and that is Bruce Wayne.
The Joker adores Batman and has no immediate wish to kill him. He is a bored man and finds the Bat incredibly amusing and loves to torture him.
Joker has been away. He was only in one issue of the first year’s worth of new 52 comics and that was Detective Comics #1. This featured a break into Arkham asylum in order to meet the Dollmaker, who gave him the ultimate disguise: he removed his face. A disgusting final page showed Joker’s skin pinned to a wall and that was the last we heard of him, until now. The Death of the Family has begun and the Joker has returned to Gotham ready to inflict pain on Batman again. The title suggests that there will be more death and destruction to the people Bruce holds close. What is his current motivation and why has he returned now after a year? In order to answer this question we need to look closer at his comic book return.
This featured a break into Arkham asylum in order to meet the Dollmaker, who gave him the ultimate disguise: he removed his face.
There are a few obvious truths to the return of a homicidal megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur. He has to be the most feared and hated villain irrespective of Batman. He is a son of Gotham returning to reclaim his throne and he alludes to this many times when confronting Batman and the Gotham police. He also stamps his role when meeting with the Penguin, where he places himself as a prime suspect for thug murders. He barters with Cobblepot in order to manipulate him into performing a favour. Once again outthinking and positioning himself above the Penguin in the super villainy stakes. The Joker is jealous of the troubles inflicted on Batman from the court of owls, making two separate mentions of it. He is irate that Bruce struggled so much and genuinely thinks he should have managed better. The Joker wants to be his toughest villain, not some old owls. Finally I think he just missed the place and running amok around the city.
The Joker has an interesting ideology when it comes to Gotham and Batman. Batman is the Godking of Gotham and organised crime is Batman’s purpose in life. The thugs fear the bat insignia and it’s meaning, escalating Bruce to mythological status. Successfully completing a crime is the reward; it means that you have evaded the bat, let alone the booty itself. The Joker compares this to a worship like practice and Cobblepot is in charge of the offerings. There is a lovely line that states that the Penguin is the bishop in Batman’s dark kingdom. As Batman feeds on all of this crime he is satisfied he is doing his job. He is kept busy and Gotham has its champion, its king. These villains are fulfilling a role but they are simple folk, not like the Joker, not like him at all.
The Joker compares this to a worship like practice and Cobblepot is in charge of the offerings.
The Joker is special. He is Batman’s enemy and his nemesis and that relationship is special to him. When he talks to Batman he does so with emotion and sentiment, which is easily disguised with his crazy grin and laughter. The Joker has gone to a lot of effort in his return, just for Batman. He has gotten his face back, because it is who he is and he needs to be seen again, even if it means using a belt to fix his face in place. He does not want to remain unrecognisable because the world must know what he is doing and how well he is doing it. He uses an analogy of the play My King and I to describe his relationship with Bruce. It’s an interesting reference to a show about a couple being on opposing warring factions. The man and woman eventually understand one another and only then are able to share their feelings with a single dance. The Joker understands Batman’s mentality and holds him dear. He is his jester and no one else can take his role. He wants to dance with him again. The Joker takes great lengths to re-enact the evolution of their relationship, as he recreates his first kill and one of the earliest Batman meetings on a bridge at the Gotham reservoir. Batman says, “You’re nothing to me” and the Joker replies, “Shhh. Don’t do that, don’t pretend, not here, not to me.” These are amazing lines showing how upset Joker becomes when their relationship is belittled.
The Joker takes great lengths to re-enact the evolution of their relationship, as he recreates his first kill and one of the earliest Batman meetings on a bridge at the Gotham reservoir.
Batman has changed. He has a large support network and family. He is no longer a lone warrior patrolling the night and this irks the Joker. The true villains of Batman are the company he keeps and they have ruined the Joker’s dear king. He states that Batman has become soft and fat because of his poor efficiency when handling the Owls. The Joker expects more maybe because no one else is allowed to be a bigger threat. He misses the real Batman and is angry he has become weak and dependant. He needs Bruce to be stronger and be more of a challenge and therefore he needs to eliminate his family. His dialogue during the two issues is very protective of Batman and hating to all his associates. The city deserves a better Batman and he is going to return him to full glory.
He needs Bruce to be stronger and be more of a challenge and therefore he needs to eliminate his family.
Where do they go from here? Clearly the crossover will involve many titles and many bat family members. If Joker had his way they would all be killed leaving Batman to himself. I imagine he would try to torment him for as long as possible in his strange bad romance fantasy until he mentally breaks. We know that is unlikely to happen and that Batman will win outright and probably send him back to Arkham. It is the status quo as I alluded to above, but there will be a change, and it is likely someone will die or be irreparably damaged. I hope the Jason Todd storyline will be well handled given he died at the Joker’s hands once before and is not as moralistic as Batman. Whatever happens once again Bruce will be left with the guilt of an injured or dead loved one and I wonder where it will take him. What roads will he travel that he has not travelled before? He has a huge family with his world of Batmen, which need support and continued motivation, so that cannot be changed. The Joker will remain to fight another day but Bruce will bear the consequences again and I am interested to see another scar added to his brutally abused mind.
For more comic views and reviews follow Kulbir on Twitter at @Kooliebear and check out his website over at houseofflyingscalpels.com
Posted on November 23rd, 2012
Category: DEVIL IN THE DETAIL, NEWS & VIEWS
Tags: Batman, Batman Review, Bruce Wayne, Comic Reviews, DC Comics, Detective Comics, Devil in the Detail, Greg Capullo, Joker, Kulbir Mann, Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Robin, Scott Snyder
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
Written by Scott Snyder
Art and Cover by Greg Capullo
No one is safe in this; the Joker makes that very clear in his introduction scene.
I didn’t know what to expect going into this, Snyder hit a homerun with the Court of the Owls storyline so I guess I expected him to stumble out of the gates with “Death of the Family” oh, how wrong I was.
The Positives
Right off the bat this story arc feels different; dark, brutal and unforgiving. No one is safe in this; the Joker makes that very clear in his introduction scene. Snyder and Capullo’s Joker remains true to the source material while at the same time modernizes the character to give him a little more edge (like the Joker needs that). We also get a secondary story in this issue as well which takes a look at Joker’s history with other characters in the Bat Universe, it all adds up to a fantastic start to a story arc and a must buy for all Batman fans.
Snyder and Capullo’s Joker remains true to the source material while at the same time modernizes the character to give him a little more edge (like the Joker needs that).
The Negatives
No negatives, all smiles!
Right off the bat this story arc feels different; dark, brutal and unforgiving.
The Verdict
GO OUT AND BUY THIS NOW!
5 out of 5 stars!
#JokersWild
For more comic views and reviews follow Ruben on Twitter at @Ruben_Mendoza
Posted on October 12th, 2012
Category: REVIEWS, THE BURRITO BANDITO
Tags: Batman, Batman #13 Review, Burrito Bandito, Comic Reviews, DC Comics, Death Of The Family, Greg Capullo, Joker, Ruben Mendoza, Scott Snyder
By Jon Palmer
The deadly Court of Owls
Batman – the new 52 is a refreshing re-launch that is slowly introducing us to a new a battle for Gotham City, one between Bats and Owls. This is a battle I didn’t see coming but one that is slowly hinted at in issue one, with issues 2 to seven bringing the owls into the fore and issue eight begins the ‘Night of the Owls’.
From when I started reading Batman comics and any others that have followed I have always enjoyed the narration given by Wayne/Batman as he scopes the streets of Gotham. That’s exactly what we are given in this re-launch, the observant, thought provoked but justice fuelled mind set that reminds us that this whole story, in any incarnation, is all about Bruce Wayne and that Batman is just who he uses to get his justice.
Amongst his narration and the events that are unfolding, Batman manages to give us a sense of Gotham’s history, from its buildings, to the Waynes’, the Powers’ and with it little snippets of how the Owls have always been in Gotham.
In one of the scenes, Bruce Wayne is explaining the design and structure of the buildings built by his family as he is falling from one of them and it is this type of storytelling that is testament to the minds of both the writers and illustrators of Batman in how they pull it off. The action scenes are another thing that I am really enjoying about this series, the way that dialogue invites you into believing something is just around the corner when in fact it is around the next one, and then without any warning an explosion blows up in your face at the same time as it does Batman’s.
Along with these explosions is the way that Batman seems to be getting knocked down or kicked about, like when he is put in a maze by a load of watching Owls and when he’s ready he just gets himself a souped-up Bat suit and kicks back.
Then the assault begins with Batman’s allies joining in the fun, with Batman trying to save one of the Owl’s targets this leads him to a very unexpected discovery and with this the past of the Waynes’ suddenly comes to the forefront and their links to the Owls are very close indeed.
Writing about links and ties from issues nine and ten we are given a nice sub-story at the end of the comics set around the time of Bruce’s childhood but more interestingly it gives an altogether new look at the Pennyworths’.
It’s this little extra layer in the multitude of levels Batman has brought us that is slowly entwining Alfred, and his family’s involvement to what is happening today. Along with all the other good stuff in this series, I can’t wait to see where it all leads.
One thing is for sure any owl fans might have to change sides.
You can follow Jon on twitter at @palmerjono
Posted on July 6th, 2012
Category: IN THE BLACK HALL, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman, Comic Review, Court of Owls, DC Comics, Greg Capullo, Jon Palmer, Night of Owls, Scott Snyder, The New 52
Batman: The Court Of Owls
This is the one that changes everything. We have been on this incredible, emotional roller coaster since last September. Scott Snyder chose a different route than many of the other Batman comics that are currently available, in that he didn’t want to start his interpretation of the Dark Knight with the same villains that everyone has known for years. He chose to showcase something more meaningful, something that has been built into the mythos of Gotham City as far back as the late 1800s. Something that would truly reinvent the way we not only look at Gotham City and its rich history, but also the Batman series as a whole.
You can see the wheels in motion as to where Snyder wanted to take the series too in “The Black Mirror” & “Gates of Gotham” stories. As time went on in the Court of Owls story arc, you begin to see how Batman’s journey to find out the secrets Gotham was hiding were going to take him, and at the same time trying to piece together whether there was more to his parents death. Each issue kept building the story up more and more. From him being naive and thinking he knows the ins and outs of Gotham, to fighting an enemy he has never seen before, to being captured and nearly going insane. Which brings us to the present, escaping their clutches, having a battle at Wayne Manor and slowly beginning to get everything under control, he is now on a pursuit to stop the Court once and for all. Not only that, but he knows who they are.
The Court of Owls pushes Batman to the brink of insanity
Finally we have been down a very emotional road with Batman and now, he will put a stop to them. Finally, he will be able to find out if there was more information about his parents unfortunate deaths. Finally, he will put some type of closure to this situation. If only he knew, there would be one more curveball thrown into his life, and it’s one that no one, not even the great detective Batman, saw coming.
Loved:
The different sides of Batman:
Seeing the different aspects of Batman’s personality coming together was something to behold. You get a lot of panels that showcase the detective aspect of Batman in the first 9 issues and it is a nice and welcomed change. How he breaks every scenerio down in his head while he is doing something else, they show you that he is always one step ahead of his enemies, even though he would wind up in situations that tested not only his might but also his will. You also see the intimidating, dark presence that he instills in his enemies as well, which is only amplified since you went along on this dark journey with him and you want to see them get their comeuppance.
They call themselves the "Whisper Gang"
The artwork:
Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion & Fco Plascencia have yet again got everything right when it came to the visuals. There is a sense of dread in the art when Batman is dealing with the Owls, but when he is back to being Bruce Wayne you see a complete change in how everything looks. There is a panel that shows Alfred waking Master Bruce and it showed me right there that no matter how much Bruce went through, he would pull through and save the day.
The big reveal:
Since this was such a big, huge, colossal reveal I don’t think I can take it upon myself to actually let you know what it is. The only thing I can say is that it is not something that was shoehorned in just to give it some shock value and nothing else. This is something that has been around the Batman comics for a long, long time and seeing them set the pieces in place since issue one is very cool. I urge you if you haven’t read any of the issues to go back now and do so. Then read #10, you will be glad you did.
And the big reveal is...too big to spoil i'm afraid!
Hated:
Nothing.
Conclusion:
Scott Snyder chose a path that had many more potential failures in the way than successes, but he made it all work and now he has left his mark on the Batman franchise that will be felt for years to come. This is one of those comic book stories that we will be talking about till the end of time as one of the best ever. But, do you want to know the best part? This isn’t the end. We still have to have a conclusion to this arc!
They say that all good things must come to an end, and if that’s true, this is going to be one heck of an ending.
Overall 5/5
You can follow Armando on his website themvzone4.wordpress.com or on twitter at @rand0mZer00
Posted on July 2nd, 2012
Category: REVIEWS
Tags: Armando Mendoza, Batman, comics, comics review, Court of Owls, DC Comics, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, Review, Scott Snyder
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