The Batman Who Laughs remains the most unpredictable book coming out from DC right now. Just when it seems like it’s heading in one direction writer Scott Snyder turns things around on an unexpected path. It’s help to make TBWL one of DC’s best mini-series in years.
Batman is so desperate for any advantage to stop TBWL that he’s turned to another psychopath who calls Gotham home – James Gordon. Not the commissioner, but his crazed serial killer son. But what happens when the new gun-toting Batman comes in guns blazing eager to take down Gordon? Will this prove the final straw to break Batman?
Snyder appears to be having a lot of fun pitting the various Batmen against each other. Along with the various Bruce Waynes from different Earths, I’m more than a little intrigued about an Elseworlds or mini-series just exploring these other Bruce Waynes across the Multiverse.
TBWL has his own scheme to carry out, but first he wants to pass on his admiration for Penguin for being one of the Multiverse’s perennial problematic foes for Batman. Of course when TBWL shows up, he’s got a particularly violent way of delivering his messages.
Other artists could draw this series, but none could present it with the right sense of an endless nightmare like Jock. His style lends itself well to an increasingly depraved Batman, a gun using Batman and a Joker/Batman hybrid. Jock advances the moments between the panels smoothly so the movements are implied and easy to comprehend.
David Baron’s colors and Sal Cipriano’s lettering are outstanding. Those are the elements of a great book that sometimes get ignored, but they’re key components here what with the stark colors to clash with the Batmen outfits and the jagged lettering to show the Joker influence on TBWL and Batman.
We’ve already gotten some strong cliffhangers from previous installments, but this one is a doozy as Snyder and Jock take Batman further down his worst nightmare. I’ve got no idea where this series is going and I’m loving that sense of uncertainty.
Rating: 10 out of 10