Batman #144 – Chip Zdarsky, Writer; Giuseppe Camuncoli/Stefano Nesi, Andrea Sorrentino, Artists; Alejandro Sanchez, Dave Stewart, Colorists
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: The conclusion of Chip Zdarsky’s multi-timeline saga of Batman and Joker hits like a truck this issue, with Batman lost in the deep future in a world where Joker’s madness has taken over the world like a virus. Even the rest of the Bat-family has lost themselves to the plague—which means Joker might be the only sane mind left in the world for Batman to talk to. Joker’s agenda here is never really made clear, but this feels like the dark mirror to what Scott Snyder did with the conclusion of his Bat-run in Last Knight on Earth. Both runs treated Joker and Batman as intrinsically linked to each other, but while Snyder seemed to hold out some hope for a rapprochement between them, Zdarsky treats it as much more as a tragedy. There’s some great material in here about Bruce and Jason as well, as Jason is transformed into the one thing he never wanted to be and we see how deeply this affects Bruce.
But surprisingly, the real meat of this issue takes place in the past segment, when Joker was just beginning his killing spree and Gotham was facing a potentially bigger threat—in the Red Hood gang. Without Joker leading it, the gang has been co-opted as a branch of the hopelessly corrupt GCPD, led by Commissioner McLeod. This is the first we’ve seen of this era of Gotham in a while, when the police were just as much of a threat to Batman and the city as anyone else. McLeod has successfully drummed Gordon out of the force, but the future Commissioner isn’t deterred nearly as easily and breaks into the precinct—just in time for the office to devolve into a chaotic scheme as the gang makes its move. And lurking in the background is Joker, making a move at the exact time for the maximum impact. This all comes together into one of the best runs in Zdarsky’s already excellent run—and sets the stakes high for Joker’s role in Batman’s own mental crisis as the story resumes next month.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
