I’ve long felt that the Mad Hatter is Batman’s most under-appreciated villains. The guy is creepy as hell. A lot of fans forget what’s going on at the beginning of Death in the Family because of the later events, but Mad Hatter’s running a child pornography ring. That’s dark, even for Gotham City!

This issue did a great job of capturing just how dark and disturbing the Hatter is, but also providing a sense of tragedy because of his deep insanity. We see him trying to fight his insane instincts, and failing, but recognizing all the while that what he’s tempted to do is wrong and sick.

I’m not a big fan of Bill Sienkiewicz or Keith Giffen, because of their crazy, disjointed styles, but the art works well in conjunction with what’s going on in the book. And the writer, Landry Walker, he writes comics for kids? Homeboy’s maybe got some deep issues. Someone might need to keep an eye on him.