BATMAN LOVERS AND MADMEN HC

Review by: TheNextChampion

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5
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Avg Rating: 4.3
 
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Size: pages
Price: 24.99

We all know of Alan Moore’s ‘origin’ story for The Joker. It can be argued as one of his all time greatest stories, or at least is considered his greatest mainstream comic. At certain points, it seems that writers have basically used Moore’s origin for their own. In a Hush storyline from a long way ago, we learn that the Riddler knew of previous Joker. But no writer in the world of comics have tried to balantly change the ideas of his origin…until this story.

Let me state my bias for this out of the way early: I think this is one of the best Batman stories ever written. I am all serious on that, it seriously is one of the best Batman stories and it’s highly underrated to the comic book industry. Michael Green is primarily is a TV writer and producer; mostly known for Heroes, Smallville, and recent projects like KINGS and the Green Lantern film. So it’s surprising to me on how well he does with this origin story. Basically the idea is that Batman knew all along who the Joker was before the transformation. He was a self titled mobster who wanted to cheat death at any time. It’s an interesting twist on the origin cause not only is pre-Joker ruthless but his personality makes us root for the guy as well. I loved every moment with the Joker, before and after the transformation, and I would love to see a storyline more focused on before his infamous change. The other plot elements I know made people groan a lot, especially that Batman would recruit mobsters to kill a certain person….While that is totally out of character and I can somewhat agree on the criticisms, it kinda makes sense for the story.

You see you gotta understand that the Confidential line isnt always in continuty. While they are focusing on the introduction of King Tut, other stories could or could not be placed in actual continuty. So in essence, this could be an Elseworlds tale by definition.

The art by Denys Cowan is really interesting. Normally I dont like sketch-like pencils, sometimes they make me feel like the artist is being a bit lazy when it comes to the pencils. But for some reason I love his style and it fits the tone with the story. Some of the panel layouts are a bit puzzling, but overall it’s kinetic and gritty. Some of the violence in this is a bit over the top, like how Joker would get his classic ‘grin’ look. But other sequences, like Joker in the vat of chemicals, looks really good. In fact the coloring is very good as well, bright and colorful and a wonder use of the color green.

So yes I might be a bit insane stating it’s one of the best Batman stories ever written. I’m not saying it’s better then Killing Joker, Year One, or Dark Knight Returns….it’s just that it should be in line with those titles. I was actually curious if any of this origin would be used at all during the Dark Knight film; but there were so many references to other origins that you couldnt tell. Overall I love this story, I would love to see more use of this origin or at least something that deals with the pre-Joker. Maybe I am insane, but you cant stop me from loving this story.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 4 - Very Good

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