strider1992's Batman #17 - The Punchline review

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    The not so epic conclusion!

    The Good:

    Capullo's art is spectacular as usual and Snyder's Dialogue was very good. Ultimately the comic was executed to the high standards this story-arc has gone through thus far.

    The Bad:

    Thoroughly underwhelming. Having followed this arc since the beginning its safe to say Snyder's Joker has been brilliant and I was waiting with baited breath for Snyder to deliver something incredible to finished this arc off. He had built up this arc and made it brilliantly dark. When the conclusion came out I was ready to see something that would stick with me, something that would really make me think "Yeah Snyder really finished that issue with a bang." When I saw what was under those platters I thought "Mr Snyder you are incredibly brave and my respect for you has gone up even more!" then that was thrown aside as a taunt by the Joker and I then waited for the conclusion of the issue to wow me. It didn't. After reading this issue I went on to read the next comic on my pull-list (Scarlet Spider 14) and found myself more impressed with SS 14 as an issue than this Batman one which honestly shouldn't have happened had this really been an epic conclusion.

    Verdict:

    The problem was that Snyder had been a consistently great writer and for the finale I expected not great but incredible. Which I didn't get. I was also very disappointed in the fact nothing really happened in it to shake Batman up or change the status quo. Everything that happened in this issue could easily be forgotten in the next as there are no real repercussions to it. Yes Joker may have told the Bat-Babies something but it doesn't change the fact that nothing pivotal happened in this issue at all. As an issue this was great but as the end of an entire story-arc it fell short. It gets a 3 from me.

    5 Comments

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    Lvenger

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    Edited By Lvenger

    I had the exact same problems you did with the issue. This is a much fairer score for the arc IMO. I did like some parts of the issue and Capullo's artwork was the best yet but Snyder built the finale up to be an incredible one when it was nothing but. Excellent review mate!

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    Strider1992

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    Edited By Strider1992

    @Sleepbutnodream15 said:

    I think you, and me, expected too much. Honestly, we all wanted to see someone come out of this dead or dismembered or something; but it went a lot deeper than that.

    Although I did expect more that was not my main problem. This was then end of a 6-7 month arc that had been great. I expected the end of the arc to be memorable at the very least and it just wasn't. I could go onto the next Batman issue without thinking "Damn how is Bruce going to recover after that Joker incident?" and that seems to me to be a sign the issue wasn't a good ending to the arc as I could quite easily forget it.

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    JamesKM716

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    Edited By JamesKM716

    I agree entirely Strider.

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    Sleepbutnodream15

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    I think you, and me, expected too much. Honestly, we all wanted to see someone come out of this dead or dismembered or something; but it went a lot deeper than that.

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