Review: The Batman Who Laughs #2

By: Shawn Warner

I read a lot of comic books and many of them are quite good, but it isn’t very often when a single issue is so good it causes my pulse to pound. That is the case with The Batman Who Laughs #2. Scott Snyder has written some of the most innovative, intriguing and flat-out exciting comic books of the past decade setting the bar higher with each arc. Well, he has done it again with this intense installment of the Batman Who Laughs saga. In the debut issue Scott Snyder along with the tremendously talented artist Jock set the break-neck pace of this narrative with some of the most action packed scenes ever to come out of this prolific collaboration. This issue dials up the tension and the terror as Bruce Wayne is faced with saving the life of his most deadly foe in order to defeat this new even deadlier one. A foe who knows everything Bruce Wayne knows and seems to know it before the Dark Knight Detective himself knows. Tensions are running high in the Batcave, while Alfred performs lifesaving surgery on the Joker against his own better judgement, Bruce is busy flooding his own system with every known form of Joker Toxin antidote to stave off the dose he was blasted with at the end of last issue.

The Batman Who Laughs was born to destroy Bruce Waynes, plural. The bodies of men named Bruce Wayne continue to turn up in Gotham at the most illogical of locations, in fact the most recent one dropped literally out of thin air. Bruce, disguised as Harvey Bullock, and Commissioner Gordon are perplexed, just where are these Bruce Waynes, plural, coming from? Snyder does a fantastic job of dialing up the tensions, Bruce is just about to his breaking point, but somehow he is able to keep his head in the game enough to counter the Batman Who Laughs next deadly move. The resulting confrontation is so precisely orchestrated that the brutality of the events is blurred by the poetic beauty. Every lunge, every blow and slash is a sinister stanza building upon each violent verse. The Batman Who Laughs is more than a match for his prey, but he doesn’t hunt alone. The Grim Knight lurks in the shadows waiting breathlessly to deliver the coup de grace. All these moving pieces work together to advance Snyder’s dark plot, the events unfold with such precision and attention to timing that if even one element is off the entire plot would tumble-down like a house of cards. Snyder so adeptly uses the dialog between Batman and the Batman Who Laughs exchanged during this confrontation to not only progress the plot, but to deliver some points of exposition of paramount importance. We learn more about the Batman Who Laughs in these pages through these story beats than we have since his arrival in the DCU.

Jock is at the top of his game creating some of the most mind-blowing pages of his stellar comic book career. His take on every one of these characters is brilliant, from the intensity of his Alfred to the utter maniacal mayhem that is his Joker, Jock populates these panels with denizens unique to his Gotham. His Batman is iconic and imaginative at once, full of hope and heartbreak, strong yet vulnerable, a study in contradictions. Just as Jock’s work is built of contrasts, the play between shadow and light, so are the residents of this Gotham. Ultimately, this is the very definition of The Batman Who Laughs and this creative team is the perfect fit to explore this particular Gotham. David Baron’s colors work to amazing results in this issue, his selective use of vibrant colors to intensify certain story beats is genius, like the almost neon yellow of the Joker Toxin antidotes pumping into Bruce’s scarred body and running down his back. The entire book is a work of art from the first panel to the game changing final page reveal.

Overall Scott Snyder and Jock continue to guide us down this rabbit hole and through the shadows of this dark narrative. Thematically this story borders on Gothic horror, the pace and the intensity of the action twist the dial back to the super hero setting. Snyder’s narrative weaves the supernatural and super hero elements flawlessly into one heck of an exciting and entertaining issue with a final page reveal that will leave you floored. 5/5

Writer- Scott Snyder
Artist- Jock
Colors- David Baron
Letterer- Sal Cipriano