Product Description

For nearly fifty years, he's terrorised Gotham and the world, crippled Batgirl and killed the second Robin. He is Batman's greatest nemesis. His name is the Joker!Now, get behind the mask of the Clown Prince of Crime in this original graphic novel! Taking the viewpoint of a member of the Joker's gang, the curtains hiding Gotham City's underworld are pulled back to show the criminals' reactions to the new avenger hunting them...and their plans to destroy him.Written by critically acclaimed 100 Bullets author Brian Azzarello (also co-writer of the "Batman: Gotham Knight" animated movie), with art by Lee Bermejo ("Batman/Deathblow"), this book provides essential background to "The Dark Knight"!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2465 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

About the Author
Brian Azzarello has achieved both huge sales and acclaim with his comic 100 Bullets, and has also written Cage, Hellblazer and Loveless. He also wrote one of the six scripts for the Batman: Gotham Knight animated movie. Lee Bermejo is the illustrator of Superman/Gen 13, and has contributed pin-ups to 100 Bullets and WildC.A.T.S.

Customer Reviews

deranged
Yeah, kind of a grim, deranged book this one. There's no doubting the quality of the writing, I think the Joker is fairly well pegged. The biggest problem is that he comes across as just a psychotic thug. In the Dark Knight, Nolan had the sense to write the Joker as making a point about humanity's relative worth (or lack of). Here he is just a nutter...Nice art though.

Don't be put off by the 'ugly' cover
I'll keep this simple. First of all, it's NOT one for younger readers. The artwork is phenomenal! The script is great! It's the Joker at his psychotic best. The story is largly viewed from a henchman taken under the wing of Joker (somewhere i wouldn't want to be). If you're a fan of the Batman graphic novels, then this will become an instant favourite.

Is there actually a story here?
First off, this is a quality production from DC and is worth getting for the art alone, a virtuoso performance from Lee Bermejo. But come on...Brian Azzarello, is there a story here? Maybe I should say 'Spoiler alert' here although I don't think there's anything to spoil.

The Joker is let out of Arkham. That's right, just allowed to walk out. No reason given. Are we supposed to figure it out? We've got cameos of Harlequin, the Riddler and the Penguin, all visually interesting. Two Face seems to be in charge of the Gotham rackets. The Joker gets Killer Croc on his side and brutally takes out some of the minor bosses. There's a climactic confrontation with Two Face which didn't make any sense to me. (And what was in the suitcase that the Riddler gave to the Joker?) The Batman shows up in the end after the Joker has been allowed to run rampant and doesn't seem to be able to take the Joker out on a one-on-on fist fight.

The story is a mess or maybe I just missed it.

There isn't much left of Batman's rogues' gallery - they just went along with the Joker - nor of the Batman himself and the Joker is now a pill-popping murderous sadist.

That's about it.