The Batman Who Laughs - Team Up's Comic Corner
The Batman Who Laughs
2018 - 7 Issues
With September here and Halloween only 57 days away this is the season of spooky for some, so for that reason I want to start the fall out with one of my favorite new characters to the DC cannon: The Batman Who Laughs!
An original character created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo for their major summer event of last year Metal, the Batman Who Laughs is a version of Bruce Wayne from an alternate universe within the DC multiverse, Earth-22 to be exact. In this reality Joker learns that Bruce Wayne is Batman and kills most of his rogues gallery and some of his allies. Joker then releases a chemical, much like the one he took the plunge into to become what he is today, on the citizens of Gotham killing hundreds. This is the last straw for Batman and in the ensuing fight between the two Joker is killed but the Clown Prince of Crime always gets the last laugh. Upon his death a chemical in his body is released which slowly turns Batman into a horrible hybrid of the Joker and himself. Now with Batman’s intelligence and tactical skills coupled with the Jokers Psychopathy and warped sense of humor a new threat to the multiverse is created. This version of Batman proceeds to take over the world and kill the rest of his many allies.
After taking over earth-22, this batman gets the attention of Barbatos, a multiversal demon hell bent on bringing eternal darkness to all the worlds. Fast forward past the events of Metal and the Batman Who Laughs is left on the Prime earth, DC’s main universe, to raise hell and show our version of Bruce Wayne that the only way he’ll ever be truly happy is to become untethered like him. This twisted version of Batman makes a few appearances in other books before his own series starts.
The Series picks up with Batman finding the body of a young Bruce Wayne. As he tries to figure out how that could be possible more versions of himself keep showing up, some older, some younger, some who are Batman and others who are not. Turns out the Batman Who Laughs is bringing all of these different versions of Bruce from other earths to kill them and show our universe’s Batman that he is the loneliest, saddest, and down-right worst version of himself that he could be, often times even calling him the “Worst Batman of the Multiverse”. All of this is to get under our hero’s skin and get him to accept that if he takes the serum that turned the Batman Who Laughs into what he is then Bruce would be happy.
Fans of the Dark Knights, different versions of Batman from different worlds who have the powers of the Justice League, will be pleased that they saved one of the most interesting versions just for this series: The Grimm Knight. The Grimm Knight is like if Batman was crossed with the Punisher. This version of Batman has no aversion to guns and takes pleasure in killing his enemies. Together these two versions of Batman create a plan to use a protective fail safe installed in the water lines of Gotham to spread the serum turning all of the citizens of Gotham into monsters like The Batman Who Laughs.
The series also brings back James Gordon Jr, the son of Commissioner Gordon and also a murderous sociopath with ties to Task force X, in a great role as he is trying to make good on his past sins. Batman and Commissioner Gordon use James Jr and his mind to help them figure out what twisted plan the Evil Batmen have planned.
While the fight scenes are great, what really makes this series memorable are the dialogue and interactions between the different versions of Batmen. The actual plan The Batman Who Laughs tries to pull off is a bit convoluted but the reality in the outside world is that this series was always meant to be a set up for the new Batman/ Superman team up series. (which is great, the first issue dropped last week and I was not disappointed).
Scott Snyder really has a great connection with the character of Batman and it really shows with some of the deep cuts and references peppered throughout the series. Jock, the main artist on the series, is at his peak form with the dark and at times surreal drawings that really show you how gritty desperate these moments are for our hero. As Batman falls further and further into the madness caused by The Batman Who Laughs the art really shows this in a way that makes you feel almost uncomfortable in some scenes and really connects you to these characters in ways that other books and plots just haven’t been able to pull off.
Overall this is a series for serious Batfans and DC junkies as there is a lot of reading needed to really understand what’s going on and where its leading story wise, but anyone who wants a dark Batman story in the vein of Grant Morrisons run on the Batman books in the early 2000’s will be happy with this read. That’s all for today, leave your thoughts in the comments and any other comics that you think deserve the spotlight in the coming weeks! See you next week and don’t be afraid to crease the corners on a good panel!
