i had been enjoying cacophony – it hadn’t been blowing my mind, but i thought it was a fun and very idiosyncratic little book. i also feel like this issue sort of went off the rails.

walt flanagan’s art has been mixed for me; his style is a little exaggerated from reality, but that didn’t really bother me. this issue, my biggest problem was that in some of the early action scenes i had a hard time following events. but his joker had a lot of personality, and the image of the joker with a big black beard certainly was creepy.

the story had been fine – a reasonable story, nothing amazing, action and some laughs. the scatological, weirdly sex-obsessed joker was unexpected, but i liked that it felt like something new. the take on maxie zeus was pleasant, and onomatopoeia holds a certain charm. so where’d we go wrong?

the hospital scene between batman and the joker really trashed the book for me. all of a sudden, it was no longer a fun super-hero romp. the voice of the author took over the characters – it didn’t feel like batman talking to the joker. instead, batman’s speech was merely smith saying “this is my take on how batman feels about the joker,” and vice versa with the joker’s speech. i don’t even have a problem with his take – but dude, be a bit more subtle! show me, or let me infer that, or couch it in other lanugage – don’t just break out into a big lecture on your takes on the characters.

it was unenjoyable because it talked down to me, AND because it was incongruous with the rest of the series. a real downer, as i’d been having fun with this book up until that point.

oh well, it’s over.