Batman # 680 - Batman R.I.P.: The Thin White Duke Of Death

Morrison brings us the super creepy evil genius version of the Joker that we long for! This is not your Saturday morning cartoon version of the Clown Prince of Crime. No, sir.

***********SPOILERS*********

This RIP story arc has done well in bringing campy goodness back to the rogue’s gallery. The fact that there is a huge man who disguises himself as a hunchback, is only part of it; one of the worst is El Sombrero, the masked Mexican wrestler with a sombrero; he’s like a D-level version of Bane and within this issue he is slaughtered brutally by … the Joker.

Although all of the bad guys are fun to see, it’s the Joker that always comes out on top. This issue is classic evil Joker. This is not even as tame as The Dark Knight Joker from the movie. This Joker is not only crazy and evil, he’s also a genius. Batman thinks he’s going up against the Black Glove but he’s not. The Black Glove pales in comparison to Joker’s plan.

He booby trapped the chamber where Jezebel is tied to a chair so that when Batman inevitably breaks through the glass, red and black rose petals fall. The rose petals by themselves are not dangerous but when the red and black touch, Joker poison is released.

Jezebel is not only fine, she also releases herself from the chair and pulls on some long black gloves. This is why choosing the right pronoun can reveal too much about a secret identity and Morrison has been very careful about this. Everyone assumed The Black Glove was a man but not so. Here she is. She got herself into Bruce’s life and into the Batcave. She played it beautifully. I’m glad there is finally something interesting about this character because as the damsel in distress and knowing Bruce’s secret, I simply wanted her dead. Now, we get something awesome out of it.

this issue batman has come to arkham to face the black glove and meets the joker once more where joker says that he will never really understand joker, bruce tries to save jezzebel but he is poisoned by jokers gas and jet slips on a pair of black gloves, shes in league with the black glove. This was an excellent read for me, but then i'm sure some of you knew that jet would probably be a baddy, i mean when she became apart of bruce's life we all knew that she would have probably been turned into a villain or she would be killed off. and it was the former. but still an excellent story penned by grant morrison and pencilled by tony daniel.

In this issue the Black Glove sets up a gauntlet for Batman to run, with the Joker as the headliner, and his new girlfriend is the damsel in distress. Okay, i think and I could be wrong, but I think that the story line is actually starting to become coherrant. Unfortunately I have already purchased every issue with the R.I.P. banner so only now do i realize the Batman title is the only one that has anything to do with anything. Still, this is a decent issue. I can not say that the twist at the end was very surprising, but at least it made me want to read the next chapter.

I still don't like this Joker's appearance, but he's got some awesome dialogue in this one! "You really want to know what it's like to be the clown at midnight? Where there's only ever one joke and it's always on you?" Gordon makes it partly through the traps, and runs into Damian and his mother. i don't know much about them. I just know Tim doesn't like him.

Bats appears to be gaining his mind back, but falls into a trap. And plus, Jezebel turns out to be with the Glove!