Batman #17

One review on tap for tonight, and it's a big one.  Batman #17, the finale to Scott Snyder's Joker storyline.  Last issue Joker electrocuted Batman, all while collecting the various members of the Bat-family.  Now, we discover what Joker's been up to, and more importantly, what the hell is on those silver platters?!?

Batman #17:

Summary: This issue kicks off with Batman waking up tied to a chair and seeing his four Robins and Batgirl tied up around a massive dinner table, in what looks to be a part of the Batcave.  Each of Batman's allies have a silver platter in front of them, and are wearing hoods...  Hmm...  Next, Joker calls Alfred into the room and we see that Alfred had been subjected to some Joker toxin and had been Joker-ized.  Bats is relieved to see that Alfred is alive, regardless of his current complexion.  Alfred removes the hoods of the various Bat-family members and we see that their faces are adorned with bloody bandages.  Finally, Joker lifts the platters and under the platters are the faces of the various Bat-family members(!!).  It should go without saying that Batman is a bit pissed off about that.  Joker tells Bats that he could stand at anytime, but doing so with set the various members of the Bat-family ablaze, since Joker had doused the room with gasoline and Batman's chair was sitting on flints.  From there, Joker rambles on and on about how Bats wants the Bat-family out of the way, and hopes that deep down Joker would be the man to eliminate them.  Joker then produces a little book that he claims was a hit list that he took from the Batcave, a hit list that told him how to go after each member of the Bat-family.  Having had enough, Bats breaks free of his chair, setting all of the Bat-family members on fire, much to Joker's delight.  Unfortunately for Mistah J, Batman reveals that there was a large body of water above the caves, and blows the roof up, letting the water pour in and put out the fire.  Joker makes a run for it and Batman rushes over to Damian, taking the bandages off to reveal... nothing...  Damian, and all of the other members of the Bat-family, still have their faces, the whole face removing claims were nothing more than a joke.  Nightwing tells Bats to go after Joker, so Bats leaves his allies behind...  At which time they are enveloped in a mess of Joker toxin and begin to brawl with each other.  As for Bats, he manages to catch up to Joker and puts a bit of a beating on the crazed clown.  Joker tells Batman that he had better get back to the Bat-family, since he had poisoned them with Joker toxin and they were probably tearing each other apart.  Batman disregards that, telling Joker he trusts that they can take care of themselves(which they actually do by breaking free of the drug's influence).  Joker makes a break for it and almost runs off a watery cliff, but Batman pulls him back, since he wasn't through with Joker just yet...  It's then that Batman reveals that he knew that Joker NEVER knew the secret identities of the Bat-family members, because Joker never wanted to know.  He simply enjoyed playing dress-up and facing off against Batman, not Bruce Wayne, or Dick Grayson, or any of the rest.  It was always Batman vs Joker.  Batman goes on to tell Joker that he was finished playing Joker's games and spent the year Joker was away digging into Joker's part, his REAL past, and had discovered Joker's real name.  Before Batman can destroy Joker's fantasy world once and for all by saying Joker's real name, Joker shocks Batman with his joy-buzzer and throws himself off the cliff into the waters below, leaving nothing but the little book that he claimed had all of Batman's secrets.  Bats picks up the book and opens it to find...  Yep, nothing but blank pages.  And that's that.  The next day Alfred wakes up in Wayne Manor and Bruce tells him that he knew Joker would never broach the subject of Bruce Wayne.  How does he know that?  Because Bats once visited Joker in Arkham, AS Bruce, and Joker acted oblivious to him, pretending that he wasn't even there.  Bruce also tells Alfred that he had invited the other members of the Bat-family over to discuss what had gone down.  However, everybody ends up texting Bruce to tell him they couldn't make it, apparently miffed at Bats for something Joker told them before Bats regained consciousness...  With that, Bruce returns to the Cave(where we discover he never knew Joker's identity after all) alone.

Thoughts: This was a VERY interesting comic book...  I mean, the writing?  Fantastic.  The dialogue was great, and I DID enjoy the story.  The art?  Wonderful.  Everybody looked and "sounded" right.  But after putting this comic down I couldn't shake the feeling that SOMETHING was missing...  This was a very good little Joker tale(the parts in JUST Batman at least).  But it wasn't REALLY a big event.  It ended with Joker falling to his death(again) and the Bat-family being a bit mad at Bats(again).  Nothing event-worthy really went down.  There was no huge revelation.  There was no shocking death(which is fine by me, actually. I hate senseless deaths).  In the end, Joker didn't know who Batman really was(or better, he didn't care), while Batman didn't know Joker's real name.  The only mystery here is what Joker said to the Bat-family members while Bats was out cold, since it seemed to piss them all off so badly.  Which kind of bugs me, because why in the world would they let Joker get under their skin after all these years!?  Speaking of things that kind of bug me, there's the issue of the secret identities and Joker's knowledge of them...  I've always been in the camp that said that Joker HAD to know Batman's secret identity, but didn't care, since he didn't care about Bruce Wayne, only Batman.  Snyder KIND of agrees with that train of thought, but with a caveat...  He states definitively that Joker DOESN'T care about the man under the mask, only about the mask itself.  Batman is his beloved enemy, NOT Bruce Wayne.  But Snyder takes it a step further and seems to be stating that Joker doesn't know that Batman and Bruce are one and the same...  After this storyline, I don't see how that can be...  Hell, Scott Lobdell basically said that Joker definitely knew Jason Todd was Robin(in Red Hood and the Outlaws #0), and that he made sure Jason was taken in by Bruce Wayne!  Throw in Joker's attack on Haly's Circus, which HAD to be aimed at Dick Grayson, not Nightwing, and it seems that Joker has to know...  I mean, how can he not!?  On top of all that was the whole face-cutting thing...  Why did Joker pretend to cut off the faces of the Bat-family members?  What purpose did that serve?  I mean, why didn't Joker REALLY cut their faces off?  He had the time and opportunity, so there really doesn't seem to be a reason for him to not have sliced off their faces.  Yeah, I know it COULDN'T happen, but really, it probably should have happened, especially since Joker had planned on them all dying anyway!  So yeah, there were a few things here that definitely did bug me.  But then, on the other hand, this comic was a blast to read.  The pacing was great.  Batman's plan of turning the tables on Joker at the end was inspired.  There WAS a lot of good here.  But still, there was just something missing...

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Bon appetit!

Batman #16

Hey Todd Squad, JT here with my first review of the week, and it's the penultimate issue of Batman's Death of the Family arc. Bats has finally returned "home" to Arkham Asylum to see what The Joker has planned for him. 

Batman #16

Summary: Batman finally arrives at Arkham Asylum and we see The Joker's master plan unfold, although he isn't exactly done putting it together. It starts with having a bunch of guards dressed as him and Batman, dancing in puddles water, for days on end or The Joker will electrocute them to death. Bats manages to save them with relative ease, then is led into a trap that has him fight at least a hundred goons, armed with riot gear and flaming weapons. Batman disposes of them, although he has a bit of trouble, and is greeted by The Joker's present for him, courtesy of the Dollmaker, he'd sewn a bunch of people together, while still alive, and made them into a tapestry with some of Bats and Jokers greatest moments, including the Joker Fish and the Death of Jason Todd. A very annoyed and pissed off Batman continues his trek through the asylum where he makes short work of Mr. Freeze, Clayface, and Scarecrow before arriving at The Joker's last room, a.k.a. Batman's Throne Room. Batman charges in and is shocked to be greeted by his Court Jester, The Joker, as well as his Man of the Cloth, The Penguin, his Strategist, The Riddler, and his Judge, Two-Face. Joker tells Batman they could have served anyone, gesturing to some civilians he has dressed as Superman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Joker has them play "Excalibur" with a chainsaw, which leads to "Superman" getting electrocuted to death. Batman gets past Joker's last line of defense, or so he thinks, when Joker drops a cage, separating Bats and Joker's crew. The Joker, with flies starting to circle his rotting, decaying face, stops Bats in his tracks by showing him video Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Batgirl and Robin all having fell to The Joker, as Joker says that Bats can be as good as he wants, he'll never be able to win as long as they're around. Batman asks what he's done with them, but Joker tells him he'll find out if he sits down, but if he doesn't, he'll never find a trace of them unless he sits down in his throne. Batman, defeated, walks up to his throne, which is actually an electric chair, and sits down, pulls down the head strap and is shocked so badly his mouth foams and blood gushes out of his nose as the issue ends.

In the back-up, Two-Face, Riddler and Penguin want to shoot Bats to make sure he's dead but Joker stops them, saying there's more to his plan. The three villains want to join him, but this is just Joker, Bats and family, so he drops a cage on them. They turn to Riddler to free them but he passes out, due to some tiny tranquilizers Joker put in the suit he gave Riddler. Two-Face wants to shoot Joker, but Joker throws out a ton of variables, including the fact he gave Harvey that gun, so it may backfire and shoot Harvey, or it could shock him to death, or it may be a perfectly fine gun, but Harvey, given too many choices, can't depend on his coin so he just silently gives up as The Joker laughs. Lastly, Penguin offers Joker money, but he doesn't want or need it, but he does offer to show them a bit of what comes next. Joker gets a platter and removes the lid, showing only Penguin and Two-Face, who are in awe of what they see. The issue ends as Joker gets ready for his final act, the family dinner, with him and the Bat-Family.

Thoughts: I have mixed feelings on this issue, and I'll tell you guys why. First things first, I enjoyed the end result, with Joker yelling at Bats to sit on his throne, the back-up where Joker systematically picked apart Two-Face and made a lot of excellent points, the way Batman finally had to admit that his kids are his weakness, because if they weren't in danger, he'd clearly have won by this point. The things I didn't necessarily enjoy was the way Batman just ran through the asylum disposing of everyone with ease. Don't get me wrong, I played Arkham Asylum, I beat up a shit load of goons to get to the end, so I'm not shocked that Bats could take out all those goons and punch a horse in the head. I also get that he was supposed to be motivated and tired of Joker's crap, so that's why he didn't spend much time beating them, but seeing the way he easily disposed of Freeze, Clayface and Scarecrow kinda annoyed me, because over the last year, those three characters were built up as threats, hell Freeze especially by none other than Snyder himself. Just seeing each of those guys taken out in a page each kinda annoyed me. Other than that, I enjoyed this issue, and I am curious about what's under the platter. Obvious money says it's Alfred's head, face, something, but I doubt that because it's too obvious. At the same time, it has to be something that's easily recognizable to Two-Face and Penguin... and the platter shows up at the end of Batman and Robin, as well as Batgirl. So I literally have no idea what it could be, but I AM interested in what you guys think it is, so let me know in the comments.
 
Score: 7.5/10

Joker: You'll grow old wondering what happened to them. What i did to each one... NOW SIT YOUR #%^ DOWN!

Batman and Robin #15

Hey Guys and Gals, JT here for a second day in a row, continuing the "Death of The Family" festivities, this time with Robin taking center stage. With Bruce obviously wanting to keep his son away from this new, even more psychotic Joker, let's see what happens when they finally meet again.

Batman and Robin #15

Summary: This issue does a great job of picking up where Batman #15 left off, with Damian talking to Titus about how Damian's the only one that sided with Bruce during the spat in the last issue, and "The Wing, Reds and the Girl" act as if they've never had anything happen on their watch. Damian decides to look for clues with Titus, and Titus sniffs out some urine left behind and Damian tests the urine, which comes up as Hyena urine, causing Damian to get in his work clothes and head to the Gotham Zoo. When Robin gets there to inspect the Hyena exhibit, someone unlocks the cages electrically and the Hyenas attack Robin. Damian takes them out but was bitten by one, and they apparently had a mild Joker Toxin on them, which knocks Robin out, causing him to fall through the roof of the aviary. When he regains consciousness, Joker is hanging over him, wearing his face upside down, which is a hell of a creepy visual. Joker flips down and taunts Robin, saying how he used a more mild Toxin this time, so Robin wouldn't be stiff as a board, like last time, when Robin hit Joker with a crowbar. Joker restrains Robin from the ceiling while walking among a ton of dead birds and such, then shows Damian a video of him torturing Alfred, to which Damian says he's going to break a solemn promise, he's going to kill The Joker. Joker doesn't seemed worried in the least, and continues to say that Robin, Nightwing and the rest are simply holding Batman back from his full potential, as now he has to worry about a ten year old while he's out trying to be the best Batman he can be. Their a burden and Batman is tired of having to watch over them, being run ragged, and he's there to make sure they don't use him all up and there's none left for Joker. But Jokes says he's a horrible guest and he hasn't even offered any food to his poor, starving Robin. He pulls a rope and drops a ton of Beetles, Earthworms, Caterpillars and the like for Robin. Damian frees himself and heads for Joker as Joker exits the cage they were in, locking Robin in. Robin says he isn't afraid of Joker, and Joker says he knows, Batman's biggest fear is being responsible for the death of Robin, and Robin's biggest fear is being responsible for the death of Batman. As he says this, the bugs all come together and form Batman somehow, ready to attack Robin, as this issue closes.
 
Thoughts: Man.... this was fantastic. You wouldn't think the guy with the least amount of history with Joker would have such a strong tie-in issue. That's a testament to the great job Tomasi did here, I especially loved the fact he mentioned Joker's last run in, which happened back with Dick was Batman. Also, Patrick Gleason may have succeeded, or is at least tying with Capullo for the creepiest Joker so far, because him wearing his face upside down was an excellent touch, but it came off like a mask here more than a face, which makes sense. It's been detached, and now he's been wearing it, it's obviously falling apart, decaying and such, so when it finally DOES come off and we see his face (in the main series, no doubt) It's going to be deliciously gruesome. That stuff aside, the ending lost me, I mean, I know this is Gotham and everything but the bugs turning into Batman...how did that happen? Someone please explain to me, is he confused due to Fear Toxin or something? That aside, I really enjoyed this issue.

Score: 8.5/10 

The Joker: Don't you see--You're the Batman's burden. He's tired of holding all of you--propping you up!

Batman #15

Hey comic readers, JT here with my first review of the week, continuing "Death of the Family", starting with Batman #15. Tomorrow, I'll have a review up for Batman and Robin #15, which is also apart of the "Death of the Family" banner, but first things first, let's see how Batman deals with the news that Joker lays on him, that he "knows who he is".

Batman #15

Summary: We pick up where we left off with Batman and Joker on the bridge, when Bullock and the GCPD show up. Bats tells them to fall back, but of course they don't listen, which leads to Joker's men, who were hiding in trees, to fire upon the GCPD with rocket launchers, and we can actually see through the masks their wearing that his men don't look too happy about it, which was great foreshadowing. Batman breaks free and runs through an explosion, which burns away some of his armor, and takes Joker down with a huge punch, before asking him where Wayne's butler is. Turns out when Bats punched Joker with his glove-less fist, Joker got some toxin onto his skin, which causes Bats to get weakened, and Joker kicks him off the bridge. Bruce awakes later, surrounded by the four Robins and Babs, as they tell him the rescued Alfred and caught Joker while Bruce was out, as Joker walks in, wearing Alfred's face and swinging an axe when Bruce wakes up for real. surrounded by Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Batgirl and Robin. The gang tell Bruce they need to talk, whereas Jason demands answers. Babs asks if its true that Joker knows who they are, but Bruce says it isn't true. Tim asks about him taking Alfred, but Bruce gives the same explanation that he just took Wayne's butler, he doesn't know. Nightwing explains that he freed Raya, an enemy of Grayson, not Nightwing, and Babs says he came after her mother. Tim asks what's the secret Joker says Batman is keeping from them, and Batman basically says one night after stopping Joker, before he'd taken on any Robins, after fighting The Joker and knocking him into the Gotham Bay, he never found him. After driving back to the cave in the Batboat, the next morning he found a Joker playing card in the cave next to the boat. Batman believes it must have been stuck to the boat or something, as he never found any traces to show that Joker had been in the cave, The former sidekicks think this means Joker has known Bruce is Batman for a while, and could easily figure out who they are over association, but Bruce is adamant he doesn't know, he just wants to cause dissension in the ranks, but Nightwing says Bruce is doing his job for him and that he should've told them about the card. Bruce tells them not to get involved, and to leave Joker to him. From there, Batman uses his resources to see who bought the pre-paid phone Joker used to call his men for the bridge attack, and discovers ir was a man named Dylan McDyre, who works at Arkham Asylum. Batman crashes into his window during family dinner and demands answers, and finds out that Joker had been watching the Arkham Guards for a week, threatening to kill their families if they talked. Turns out Joker has somehow taken Arkham Asylum hostage, and made the guards go home and pretend nothing happened, then come abck to work each day or he'd kill their families, he made them prepare the Asylum for something, calling it Batman's castle. The issue comes to a close as Batman arrives at Arkham Asylum and steps inside.

For the back-up, we see The Riddler in his cell, basically quizzing his guard when a few other guards come by, carrying a horse. They slip and fall with the horse, and it lands on one of the man's legs. Joker walks up, saying they need to be more careful and go get another horse because this one is ruined, and shoots it in the head, he then says that Guard is ruined too, and shoots him in the head as well. Joker then turns his attention towards The Riddler, saying how Riddler is one of Batman's greatest foes because he's always sharpening his greatest weapon, his mind, and if Riddler didn't leave Bats clues he would never catch him. He wants Riddler to join his "party" but makes him work for it, putting some Joker toxin in Riddler's cell, making Riddler free himself to prove he still has "it". Riddler frees himself and Joker welcomes him  to the festivities, and even offers to show Riddler his plans to see if he can guess what Joker has planned. Surprisingly, Riddler is stumped, but Joker says it's only for him and Batman to understand, as the back up story ends.
 
Thoughts: This was a great issue. I mean, to say Scott Snyder has been crushing it is an understatement. I loved the scene on the bridge, the foreshadowing of Joker's guards, which I didn't catch until my re-read for this review, and the awesome scene with Joker wearing Alfred's face, which was just great. I always love seeing the whole group together, and this was the first time we had all four Robins and Batgirl all in once place if I'm not mistaken, it may have happened during Court of Owls. And anytime Jason is written by someone not Scott Lobdell, I consider that a huge plus. If I had any problems here, it would be the way Babs seemed to be so calm, I mean one second she's asking Bruce if it's true.. then she says he came after her mother. Anyone that read those Batgirl issues knows he knows that's her mom... so why even ask if he knows the truth? That bothered me a bit, but the seeds were planted for Riddler to take the villain role in the next arc, and I'm still curious about what Joker has in the little book he flashed in issue 14, all in all this was a great story that continues to keep me on the edge of my seat.

Score: 9.5/10 

Damian: What would you have us do, stay here in the cave?
Jason: Pfft. Like it's secure
Bruce: It's secure.
Jason: Tell that to Alfred.

Batman #14

Hey guys and gals, after the first issue with the Joker's return and the shocking ending we saw, let's not waste anymore time in seeing how Batman and the rest of his allies deal with the return of The Joker.

Batman #14

Summary: This issue starts off with Batman locked in a vat of liquid, the same liquid that turned Joker into the deranged man he is. Harley leaves as Batman yells for her to help, before eventually finding his own way out. He mentions while escaping that he's studied the liquid over and over on nights where he couldn't sleep, looking for signs of what made Joker him, but the only thing that liquid should've done is kill, adding even more mystery to how Joker survived. Batman arrives back at the cave and looks for Alfred, he goes upstairs and finds a purple package with green ribbon, and opens it to find a tape. He plays the cassette and hears that Joker has "Bruce Wayne's butler" Alfred, and has apparently burned his eyes with ammonia, to the point that Alfred thought he was blindfolded. Joker "does it again for fun" while Batman has to listen to the man that raised him scream out in pain. From there, Batman visits Commissioner Gordon, telling him he's taking him to a bunker to protect him against Joker, but Gordon is opposed to the idea, saying he needs to face him, even if it means opening up bad wounds. As Gordon says that he touches pictures of Joker being arrested and Gordon standing over Babs' hospital bed after she was shot by The Joker, when Gordon gets a paper cut and suddenly starts to bleed profusely. He's quickly taken to the hospital, as Batman and Nightwing talk on the roof, with Batman telling Nightwing that Gordon was poisoned with Blood thinners by The Joker. Batman then tells Nightwing that The Joker has Alfred, which makes Nightwing wonder if Joker knows Batman's identity. Batman says he doesn't think so, he thinks he just took Alfred because Joker said he's "planning a party" and would want Alfred, who is the best in his field. Nightwing starts to freak out but Batman makes him calm down, telling him he's not telling anyone else Alfred is missing, because they'd get angry and let their anger distract them which will only work in Joker's favor. Batman says Joker is re-creating his first crimes in new ways, and he needs to head down to the reservoir because he thinks Joker is going to poison the reservoir, and he needs Nightwing at the pipeline. Batman heads to the reservoir and finds The Joker waiting for him, as Joker tells him he's happy he and Batman can talk. He tells Batman he knew Bats would show up and try to stop him so he's already killed the people who would've drank the poisoned water and thrown them in the reservoir, and he also blows up the Pipeline, as Nightwing is blasted off his feet from the explosion. Batman charges Joker but he's restrained by a bunch of chattering teeth ropes, and Joker tells Batman he's the court Jester and he's telling Batman what no one else will, his family has made him lazy, made him lose his edge, and now he can't even deal with Owls without their help. So he's going to give Batman some bad news to help him, and he says it clear enough so Batman's allies can hear over their comm links, He knows who they are... every secret identity and address, and even what soap they use, and now he knows why Nightwing smells so good. He says their all fakers and phonies, but Joker says he knows one more secret, one Batman has kept from everyone except The Joker, who learned it from a book he found in the Batcave. Batman says he's lying, but Joker says we'll see, but in seventy-two hours, each Bat and Bird will be dead, and Batman will be the one who kills them, as the issue comes to a close.
 
Thoughts: Say what you want about Scott Snyder, but that guy knows how to write a story. I was extremely into this comic, especially at the big showdown at the end between Batman and Joker. The stuff with Alfred being tortured and Bruce listened on was done great, the way Gordon was taken out due to the insane plan by Joker, and everything about the way he apparently plans to "Tower of Babel" the Batman allies with Batman's plans. In the second feature we saw a bunch of crime bosses killed by Umbrellas by the Joker, to incriminate Penguin. Joker then tells Penguin that he'll lick the blood off of each umbrella and leave his DNA at the scene so people know it was him, if Penguin agrees to come to this party he has planned, to which Penguin begrudgingly agrees. I enjoyed that as well, as I'm curious to see what Joker has planned for this big party that has him hunting out Batman and his rogues.

Score: 9/10 

The Joker: All of you, beneath your little maskssss! That's right. I know your little secrets identities!

Batman #13

Hey everyone, JT here with the return of the freaking Joker. So screw all this intro crap, Joker's been gone for a year, he's back, let's get to it!

 Batman #13

Summary: We pick things up in Gotham with Commissioner Jim Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock discussing the weird things that have been happening in Gotham, like three days straight of rain, and a lion cub being born with two heads at the Gotham Zoo. He says they're omens and when something happens people are gonna say they should've expected it from the omens. As they talk, we see a "Forget Me Not" catering van arriving in Gotham and right outside of the GCPD. Inside the building, Gordon is talking to his officers when the power goes out. The generator's kick in as Gordan see's The Joker in the doorway. The lights go out again as Joker taunts Gordon with jokes while murdering officers one by one, snapping their necks in the darkness. Joker eventually says that Gordon is looking well, as is Barbara. Gordon yells at him not to say her name, but Joker says Gordon is always hiding things, like the pack of smokes he hides under his mattress, and Joker says he's seen it, since he sometimes lies under Gordon's bed at night, and sometimes he wants to reach up and... Joker laughs as a startled Gordon shoots. The lights come back on and Batman is standing next to Jim, who is literally circled with the corpses of dead Police Officers. Batman asks Gordon what Joker did, and he says Joker told a joke, as he checks the evidence room and see's that Joker has stolen his face back. Next we see Bruce in the bat cave, studying The Joker, looking for clues about where he may be. While Bruce and Alfred discuss Joker, Damian basically calls Joker a pushover, to which Bruce tells him that couldn't be farther from the truth, and not to underestimate the Clown Prince of Crime. Eventually Nightwing, Red Robin and Batgirl all contact Bruce to confirm that The Joker is back when a news-feed seemingly shows The Joker making an announcement live on television. He says that he's been away but now he's back, but you can see the Joker is actually behind a man whose face is painted like The Joker's. He makes the statement that Mayor Hady will die at midnight, and after using his body double to make this announcement, Joker shoots him point blank in the head. Turns out Joker's body double was the son of the first man he killed in Gotham (to Batman's knowledge) and Joker killed his dad the same way Joker said he'd kill the Mayor, as Joker seems to be repeating his first kill for some reason. The original first kill was poisoned with Joker Toxin, so Batman and Gordon run numerous blood tests while protecting him with other officers as Batman works in the shadows. Eventually, Batman realized Joker wasn't going to kill Mayor Hady, he'd actually poisoned all of the police officers with Joker Toxin, causing them to die, but instead of having the trademark smiles, they had frowns. Batman takes a sample of the Toxin and sends it to Alfred, who notes it's the same except now Joker's added Asprin, Chlorine and Ethanol, which Batman puts together as A.C.E., the ACE Chemical plant where Joker and Batman first started their historic rivalry. Joker is waiting for Bats when he shows up, wearing his Red Hood attire and telling Bats that this is why he left, because he needed the Real Batman. Bats says that this Red Hood isn't Joker, and asks where he is. Batman runs at the Red Hood and is suddenly hit by a huge mallet which knocks him into an empty chemical vat. The doors seal on the vat and it starts to fill up with the chemicals that Joker fell into. The Red Hood removes their helmet to reveal that it's actually Harley Quinn! Joker's voice was coming from a recording in the helmet, and Batman yells that he knows Harley is up there. Harley says Joker's not the same, he's no longer her Mr. J and his plan is too much, even for him. Batman yells at her to tell him where Joker is, as we cut over to Wayne Manor to see Alfred opening the door. As Alfred opens the door, he see's the two-headed lion cub and Joker is suddenly behind Alfred, raising a hammer and saying "Now, Mr. Pennyworth, stop me if you've heard this one!" and maniacally laughing as this issue ends.


Thoughts: Holy...shit. Okay... I doubted Snyder a bit after the Court of Owls ending. I doubted his Harper row issue. But this... this was amazing. His Joker was fantastically written, he was close enough to Joker that he seemed like the same character but so sadistic that he seemed new and even more ruthless. The stuff about being under Gordon's bed, and knowing something only Gordon would know about what's under his bed was creepy as shit because that means it HAD to be true. While Gordon slept... The Joker sat under his bed with a creepy smile on his face, and that's got to be scary as hell. This is a Joker who knows who Batman is, and instead of just going after Bats and leaving Bruce be as he always does, he's going after everyone, including ALFRED. This storyline had a ton of potential and if Snyder can keep this up, this is definitely going to be an arc we all talk about for many year, much like Year One, Hush, Knightfall and etc. There's also a creepy back-up story where we see Joker returning to Harley, threatening to remove her face and describing it in gruesome detail, as well and how he got her on board for his plan that was great too. It looks like we're in for a treat with The Joker's return, and I'm not sure if anyone is really safe...

Score: 10/10 

The Joker: But just because he's the Mayor, don't think he may-or-may-not die. He's dead as a baby bird smashed with a crowbar! (This was an excellent hint at what would happen in hindsight...)