Review: Batman: The Man Who Laughs SC

Batman: The Man Who Laughs SC by Ed Brubaker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Despite my general love of Brubaker (Gotham Central? Sleeper? Criminal? All great!), this is just... so... mediocre. This set immediately following the end of Batman: Year One, Batman: The Man Who Laughs is basically the origin/first meeting of the Joker. Oh, also a random Batman/Alan Scott Green Lantern team-up story set ten or so years later that has literally nothing to do with the Joker.

The Joker story isn't terrible, but it's not particularly good, either. It mimics the dual narrative structure of Year One, following Batman and Gordon separately as they try to track down the Joker, who is attacking and killing people with a strange new toxin. Part of the problem for me is that this wasn't a particularly compelling Joker case, let alone origin/first meeting. Joker is killing random rich people as a cover while he plans to douse the entire city with Joker toxin in the water supply. Because he blames the city for turning him into the Joker. Meh.

It doesn't help that I find Doug Mahnke's visual depiction of the Joker lacking, as well. He's so wrinkly. I know he's supposed to look like the character from the film this story takes its name from, but it just doesn't quite work for me.

It is nice to see Batman being a detective here, though. He spent a lot of time in Year One punching people out, but Brubaker shows us the more cerebral side of Batman, as he tries to figure out what Joker's plan is, and how to counteract the toxin. Of course, he also has Batman do the unthinkably stupid dosing himself with the toxin as part of his plan to get rid of the police. Dumb.

The Green Lantern story was a little better, but set so far after The Man Who Laughs and having nothing to do with Joker that I'm not sure why it was included here. I've complained about DC's baffling decisions regarding collecting stories in other reviews, so I won't harp on it here.

The GL story is a pretty straightforward murder mystery plot. Not groundbreaking, but entertaining enough, I guess.

This is an easy pass, ultimately. There are better collections if you want Joker's origin, and the Alan Scott story isn't particularly vital. This whole collection feels too much like filler material. Too bad.



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