Nice Joke
FIRST OFF LET ME JUST SAY IF YOU'RE A FAN OF SCOTT'S AND YOU WERE GOING TO PICK IT UP ANYWAY DO SO NOW AS IF I SAY SOMETHING LIKE "I was stunned by what happened" YOU KNOW SOMEONE DIED LIKEWISE IF I SAY "I was underwhelmed" YOU KNOW SOMEONE DIDN'T DIE, IF YOU'RE ON THE FENCE THOUGH...
Here's the spoiler free review...
Since I can almost guarantee the reviews section of this book will be flooded with over hyped people feeling let down I'm going to try and put my excitement leading up to this issue aside.
The Good
Atmosphere:
Capturing atmosphere in comics for me is arguably one of the more harder things to do in a comic. It doesn't have the sound effects of a movie to make you jumpy or the sound of creepy music to lure you in but somehow both the writing and the art manages to draw you in and to make you feel scared, from the opening dialogue in the dark room to the frightening visuals to the ironic and mysterious ending. I felt scared while reading this and it's the first time in the last seven years reading Batman comics that I felt like no character was safe.
Characters:
As always Scott Snyder delivers on both the dialogue and the way characters react to certain situations.
Batman is as dedicated to stopping Joker as ever and Joker is as crazy as ever.
I'll also be shocked if your heart doesn't race once you see what's under the platter and the revelations of whether or not Joker really knows who the bat family is.
Art:
Greg Capullo does a stunning job in this which can sometimes be very hard to do considering there's almost always multiple iconic characters on panel and a lot going on in general.
But he delivers exceptionally well as I felt both sick, scared and amazed all in one page.
The Bad
Teasing:
I will admit going into this I couldn't help but buy into the hype as it felt like waiting a month for your birthday present.
My mind ran wild trying to decipher what was in the platter and why Joker really cut off his face.
This book was incredible in every sense of the word and it managed to draw me in and cling me eyes to each and every page but it didn't give me the answers I was looking for.
Now normally this being an ongoing I can forgive that and simply say it'll be answered later on, I mean Grant Morrison did it in his Batman run all the time. But DC quite clearly said after the story which spanned across 23 comics that this was a conclusion and Scott himself said all answers would be revealed and we did indeed get answers but not to everything and the answers that were given to us felt like the greatest joke ever but without "The Punchline" as this issue is titled.
Verdict
If you like crazy clowns, people dressed in cowls and a well written story then you should pick this up.
However if you feel overwhelmingly excited to pick this up then take a deep breath and try to accept the story for what it is, that's what I did on my second read through and I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more because I realized that in the end reality can never live up to the dream.
