Kiss my Hand
Snyder continues to amaze me, as he proves to be a most fitting writer for both Bats and the Joker. In fact, there's no actual point in reviewing a 'Batman' comic written by him anymore. He delivers brilliant issues every month. Now, I'd be wrong to say he does it all by himself. Capullo is one of the greatest Batman artists I've seen in a while. His cartoony style is absolutely gorgeous and it's basically eye candy. Throughout the pages, he manages to set the dark and mysterious tone perfectly, with the rainy scenario and facial expressions that display the characters' emotions brilliantly.
In this issue we get exceptional piece of dialogue between the Bat-Family, which basically steals the comic. It's always nice to see the family all together, but Snyder makes it even better by characterizing the Joker perfectly. He delivers the clown as dark as possible and even more unpredictable. We have absolutely no idea what he plots, and when Batman seems to finally have him in his clutches, the Joker has another trick up his sleeve.
All of the characters are characterized perfectly. We see an arrogant Damian Wayne, an insolent Jason Todd, a dark and unpredictable Joker, etc. Snyder makes sure to show how much fear the clown causes, as shown in Bruce's monologue, which is absolutely impeccable. He admits how he is afraid of the Joker and even gives a talk about pupils, which, believe it or not, will keep you intrigued. And boy, how do I love seeing Batman and his detective work. It truly is lovely, as we do not know where they will lead. You can expect surprises within the next page.
I didn't have any main problems with this comic to be honest. I could complain about how I missed seeing some action, and although there was a bit of it at the start of the issue, the brilliant dialogue compensated the lack of fights.
This review would be just wrong if I didn't mention the backup story. Jock's artwork is great, although in my opinion, it is nowhere near Capullo's pencilling. We got to see a bit of the Joker and the Riddler, who is trying to escape his cell in Arkham Asylum before he gets killed by the clown's poison. It teases the next arc, which, as you may know, will involve Edward. After seeing what Snyder did to Joker, I honestly don't know what to expect from the master of charades. We get nice piece of dialogue between the two evil geniuses, which makes of this the best backup story of 'Batman' since the Death of the Family arc started.
Overall, this was a brilliant issue. Snyder characterizes the characters perfectly and correctly, by delivering a dark and unpredictable Joker. He also presents amazing dialogue and monologue. Not to mention that Capullo's art is like eye candy. But somehow this issue wasn't exactly as good as the previous too, so that's why I'm not giving it a perfect score.
