Judge not, lest ye be judged #5 September 6, 2019 – Posted in: Books

Batman: The Man Who Laughs

by Nikos Michalopoulos

That Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a one-shot prestige format comic book published by DC in February 2005. Author is Ed Brubaker and project manager o Doug Mahnke. The name of the story is a reference to The Man Who Laughs of Victor Hugo, whose protagonist was one of the inspirations for the Joker character.

The story is a retelling of his first meeting Batman by Joker. Batman himself is a novice, the police don't fully trust him, and the townspeople don't even know he exists. The story is an unofficial sequel to Batman: Year One, which described the first period when Batman started protecting the city.

Initially, Brubaker took a big risk by writing about the Joker's first arrival in Gotham City and leaving some obvious clues about his origin story. Let's not forget, that the last story that dealt with the latter is his famous story Alan Moore, Batman: The Killing Joke. Although Brubaker's story lags comparatively somewhat in matters of dialogue and pacing, the Batman: The Man Who Laughs can still stand alongside Batman's most famous stories and walk in the same footsteps as Batman: The Killing Joke. Their relationship is that, while the Killing Joke explore it how became the Joker who he is, the The Man Who Laughs explore it what it's really what happened.

The author manages in an amazing way to capture the character of the Joker. From the first moment he appears, before the media named him "The Joker", the reader can understand how dangerous he really is, beyond any doubt, without having to know his character beforehand. His early crimes are really dark and creepy, just what you'd expect from the Joker and someone who knows how to write him.

Another interesting part of the story is the dynamic between Batman and the Joker. The two do not know each other and slowly understand each other, not yet knowing what to expect. 

Mahnke's designs are truly gorgeous. Colorful, detailed and downright scary in many places, just what the story needed. His work on the clown victims is one of the best parts of the story, really creepy. The choice of the same Joker was also very good. They chose not to work with the (then) "modern" Joker, but the more classic one: purple vest, flower in one pocket of the vest, "funny", but at the same time dark, perverted and sick.

Personally, I like that even Batman himself admits that he wasn't prepared for a threat like the Joker. "[…] I was prepared for muggers, killers, rapists […] Desperate people. Not psychotic maniacs". Here, it seems, Batman realized that the Joker is not just another desperate robber, who has no plan or knows what he is really doing, but a truly dangerous and unpredictable maniac. In a sense, neither he nor the city was ready for the Joker, and his arrival changed everything.

Overall, the Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a truly successful retelling of the Joker and Batman's first meeting. Its dark plot, the very good characterization of the Joker, combined with Mahnke's bright, "cartoonish" and creepy designs make this story a very enjoyable experience for those who read it, regardless of whether they have any knowledge of the characters. or not. But it must be emphasized once again that the story is quite dark. Definitely not as dark as other stories, but enough so it might not be for everyone.

The comic will be published by OXY publications.