Batman #16

Review

Knowing how all the peripheral books have been ending their adventures in the Death of the Family story, I could easily take a guess at what would happen at the end of this book, or at least what silver object would make an appearance. But what about the adventure until that point? How does that fair along the way in this penultimate comic in the current story arc?

In general, I don't like penultimate chapters of anything. It doesn't really tie anything up with regards to the plot, it more or less just puts the pieces into place to set up the conclusion of the story. Blah to that.

This story does feel like Arkham Asylum the video game a little bit. Just remove all the henchmen and deal with just the main villains and here you go. I also get a memory of Azrael when the inmates appear with their flaming swords. I also get a couple of memories when we see Joker's man-made tapestry with the history of significant Batman/Joker conflicts. The Robin one is a easy to point to the reference. The one with Joker holding a baby reminds me of the time Joke held one at the end of No Man's Land right before he killed a major character. The others are a little hazy.

Being the head writer of Batman (Snyder has made it known before that whoever writes Batman guides the direction of the Bat-books), we get a sneak peek at who Snyder thinks are B-list villains that Batman can slice through in the matter of a few panels. (Interesting to note, one horse died with fire, the other with ice.) Then we get to who Snyder probably regards as the A-class villains. Not a bad line up, and considering that Riddler is the next villain that Snyder will be writing, I am intrigued as to what will happen there.

I gotta admit, the line about aiming for the right grin made me laugh. That was just spot on and hilarious.

The rest of the book felt like it was moving everything into place for the finale. The part with Bruce being electrocuted didn't sound right to me, but we will see what becomes of it. The villains are explained away as to why their presence won't be around next issue. I hope that Jock will still be around for art duties, either in the main story or the backup, either would be fine with me.

Capullo did another fantastic job this issue. In some regards I thought he was holding back. This issue felt like there were little droppings of goodness, but the main dish is going to be this next issue. My guess would be that we get to see Joker without his face on, and it will lead to some gruesome artwork. There was one thing I realized when I recently took a flip through Detective #1. When Joker's face was cut off, there were bandages on his nose and other parts since he was just in a recent fight. Why haven't those bandages been shown since?

I'm still of the opinion that Joker doesn't know who Batman really is. Unless something happens next issue that explicitly says it, I'm sticking with that theory. As for the lead up that this story was supposed to bring, it did it. Now let's just see this all wraps up.

Grades

Words: 7/10

Pictures: 8/10 - Only because I know Capullo's holding back for something spectacular next issue.

General Feeling After Reading: Let's slug through the other tie in books for a non-ending to get ready for this one. Not excited now, but maybe on new comic book day.

Buy Next Issue: Yep.