The Joker's return was epic, the writing was epic, Batman was epic, the rest of the Bat-family was epic, the art was epic, Snyder is epic

How can you dislike it???

Good one.

Yeah.

Don't listen to these c**ts complaining that nobody died.

Eh, I think it was a decent read, but nothing extraordinary. I'd rate it around 3/5.

Though, if it weren't for that Capullo art, I'd probably consider it a 2/5.

People like and dislike different things from one another.

ya in no way is it one of the best its not even one of the best Joker stories its just plain garbage its Synders usual crap that he thinks Batman is arragant so he has Batman believe something that comes back to bite him but ultimately are meaningless

in court of owls he didnt believe the court was real which resulted in the deaths of hundreds but does any of this matter not at all it just resulted in two boring new heroes and a stupid new addation to Dicks past which makes no sense at all

Death of the family Jokers back and suddenly Joker might have found his way into the cave after their first meeting and so when joker claims to know everyones real names (which you have to ask why he waited so freaking long) and everyone is super angry at Bruce becuase he dosnt tell them everything at every freaking moment and how does this story end no one dies and this story becomes meaningless becuase everyone just acts like it never happened

and it dosnt end their in Zero Year Batman is super anrgy now and a moron and again arragent so he has to learn a lession about trusting people or what ever bullcrap Synder can think up

This.

I'd give it a 2.5 with Capullo's art

Haha no,it's one of the worst stories ever written.

Yeah instead we should listen to c**ts who pretend it's epic.

I wouldn't go that far

I would,a completely pointless and meaningless story in every sense of the word,I actually read it again and found it much worse this time around.

That first issue of this arc was scary as hell!

The hype was epic, to say the least.

The story itself... it interfered with way too many books and with next to no pay off or lasting effect on most of them. Nightwing being the only one where it really stuck, maybe Todd but that appears to have been retconned into Al Ghul related mystic ninja stuff, like Tim's was reconnected into Trigon messing with him.(I know some are going to argue that it created a rift within the bat-clan... but what has that rift actually done other than one instance of Nightwing ignoring Bruce's call for aid in favor of going after Zucko?)

Then you had the story itself, again, very much like Court of Owls, it had great build up with all the silver trays and tense atmosphere that appeared to be building up to what should have been a spectacular finale... and it all just ran into the sand. Silver trays turned out to contain nothing, everyone managed to make it out alive and well (meaning no lasting injuries) and the Joker fell into a convenient hole till the next time.

I've since come under the impression that the story would have been better if Scott and Co had been allowed to do give this story a lasting physical impression on the characters; as in Tim having to over come his own spiraling sanity, Todd going around looking like the bad side of Two-Face... and Alfred loosing a hand (which was supposedly what was under the tray lid originally). It's not so much the gory spectacle of these things that I want, it's more that it would have cemented the fact that the Joker is the only Bat-villain that can do these kind of things to them.

As it is, we only got some bizarre outrage from the other clan members about Bruce actually keeping something from them (which to me is about as shocking as Nick Fury keeping secrets), a burnt down circus, a lot of dead and maimed red-shirts, a bunch of abandoned ideas and... eh... Joker's Daugther... At-least CoO gave us Strix, Cobb and some nifty undead assassins.

So, for me, the most terrifying Joker with the greatest impact is still this one:

Hhahahaha,nope.Death of the Family is one of the most overrated stories ever and one of the worst.The whole crossover was just god awful and was one big lackluster.It deserves 2/5 rating or something like htat.

1. Mary Sue villian = Check
2. Said villian falling to an ambiguous death = Check
3. Heroes spend whole issues talking about how threatening the villian is to make the reader feel afraid = Check
4. Dirty Secret = Check
5. Heroes losing faith to their leader = Check
6. Out of Character moments = Check
7. Nod to a better story to draw sales = Check

Yep, all the cliches are there. If that is what you consider a good story then be my guest BUT DoTF will be forgotten in a few years and that shows its quality.

It was okay. I wouldn't call it one of the best, but certainly not one of the worst. It's better if read independently, without all of the hype for new issues or the month-long break between each segment. But there are moments where everybody is out of character (Bruce, primarily, in my opinion). And the final punch of the story, while intriguing, is never really followed through on. I'd give it a 7/10. In the long history of must-read Bat man stories, it is there, but farther down on the list.

i think it's better then most of Morrison's work (that wouldn't be so hard)

ridiculously overrated. I know a lot of people like to try and defend this story by saying how the affects will be shown over time but, sorry, it doesn't even do that. The story crossing into the other bat family book was absolutely unnecessary and such a complete mess on top of it. Sorry, pretty much regurgitating what the rest of you said so, yea, in aggreeance with that.

@dro77: ... you sir mast have the insanity of the Joker if you think this in any way is better than Morrison's work besides for INC which wasnt poorly written just a bad concept and batman and Robin which again wasnt poory written just a bad concept most of Morrisons batman work is pure gold Batman and Son Black Glove Batman RIP and the Return of Bruce Wayne are all fantastic Batman stories leagues better than anything Snyder has written that includs Black mirror which like Death of the Family is over hyped garbage what Synder has going for him now is Greg's art which is some of the best stuff out their right now

exactly

.People like what people like. Morrison has written some great stuff, but some of it is just weird and there's no need to look for a deep meaning in that!

I actually skipped them, I heard they where mediocre and I really didn't like how the Joker was portrayed.

Well said!

The story was an epic fail is more like it,it failed to deliver in it's basic premise.

Even if one Ignores the hype,mis characterizations, Snyder's penchant for cliched monologues,the adverse affects on the Bat family books(blame Nightwings cancellation on this),the asinine tray mystery,misuse of Batman rogues,terrible dialogue and a whole lot of other things that shouldn't be ignored at all what exactly are we left with?

The story wants to drive home that the Joker is capable of splitting apart the Bat family but what the heck did he do that caused the split in this first place? this is the fundamental question that remains unanswered,everyone distrusts Bruce now cause he believes Joker doesn't know their identities which is proven otherwise in the tie inns and that is proven otherwise in the climax WTF? the story is one big cluster f*ck of supreme non sense. Heck those tie inns actually lends some credence to the idea that Joker knows their identities ,the main story dismisses that notion completely. So contrary to popular opinion the tie inns actually help the story,without them DOTF is actually MUCH WORSE.

The second problem with the premise is Jokers face,to this day we were never told why Joker cut it off and then came back to reattach it,I'm sorry but what the heck is this? what's the significance of it? where's the meaning?,the sad truth is that there was none,either literal or figurative.It was done to turn Joker in to slasher flick serial killer cause it's SCARY GET IT. The face also opens a whole new can of worms when it comes to Jokers characterization and personality.

DOTF was a very poor story whole sole purpose was to be considered a classic,the coming years will not be kind to it IMO.

Here's an interesting article about DotF: http://www.tcj.com/reviews/batman-death-of-the-family/

BB

Nightwing isn't getting cancelled - the character is getting a new ongoing. The sales were decent too.

BB

Slow clap

@masterdetective: OH WEALLY INERWESTING AND....NO

@entropy_aegis: everything changes when you read it again 3/5

Thats really interesting beacsue it was extremely well received by the majority of critics. Ifanboy, IGN, Comicvine, CBR, Bleeding Cool, GON, Newsrama, the list goes on all loved it. I liked it, not as much as some other Batman stories but you don't get almost unanimous praise from critics if it is "one of the worst stories ever written" that is such an exaggeration it makes your opinion hard to take seriously.

I agree. Its not the best clearly but it does qualify as one of the best. Top 20.

Morrison wrote single panels better than Dotf

lol so true

D@mn right :-P

You want scary joker, read "The clown at midnight".

You mean clown not clone right?

Yep :-P

It can get as many positive reviews as it wants,I dont need those sites to tell me what is good or not especially when the owners/chief operators of all those are on a first name basis relationship with the writer. I'm not saying Snyder made them give him good reviews but it's no coincidence that smaller sites with more independent reviewers gave DOTF much worse scores. Heck see the article BB posted,the guy makes a solid point,the reviewers were trying to out do each other with the DOTF praise.

Dick Grayson is getting a new ongoing,the Nightwing persona has been destroyed and Snyders events are the chief reason for that.

Wow. I didn't know I was in the company of such elitists on CV.

I thought DotF was great.

Nope, clone. It's a Morrison twist. Why don't you understand the genius?

We're Batman fans. Where we differ from fans of other mainstream characters is that we've come to expect a certain quality to Batman stories instead of just being grateful that stories about our favorite character are being made at all.

What'd you like about it?

@saren: lol

Lucky bastards.

Then why did Batman: The Dark Knight (series) last so long? Hmm? Hmm?
BB

We're spoiled.

DotF was incredibly boring in my opinion.

It tries too hard to be suspenseful, and.....it is just overrated in my opinion. I mean it isn't as bad as people are saying, but it's not even in the top 20 in my opinion.

But again, just my opinion

It was very mediocre. If you want a good Snyder Batman tale check out Black Mirror pre 52.