Batman #15 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters), Katie Kubert & Mike Marts (editors)

Back-up story by: Snyder & James Tynion IV (writers), Jock (art), Dave Baron (colors), Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Story: As Joker threatens Batman’s extended Bat-family, will Bruce trust his allies to help him or will he go it alone?

A few things (with SPOILERS): 1). Creepy, creepy joker…. - Credit to all the creators for how disturbing this Joker seems.  Just the concept that the Joker had his face cut off and is now wearing it like a mask is pretty snappy because it allows an artist of Greg Capullo’s caliber to create some very upsetting visuals: the way the mask stretches over his face, the way the mouth is pulled back by hooks, the way the edges of the skin mask curl, the musculature under the mask peeking out….  Yuck.  Mix that up with some creepy words and clever lettering and you’ve got a scary villain.  As an aside, I got involved in a message board discussion where it seemed that some people didn’t like the skin mask.  I’m not reading the other Bat-titles.  Are other artists making a mess of it?

2). Great art with standout coloring. - I’ve already said a few nice things about Greg Capullo (above and in the past).  I’m a huge Capullo fan.  So, let’s hit the pause button on Capullo praise to talk about his colorist FCO Plascencia.  Go Google Image search “Greg Capullo batman pencils” to get an idea of how this art begins.  Capullo does nice pencils and Jonathan Glapion does a wonderful job of finishing the work with his inks, but a LOT of the atmosphere in these panels is down to FCO Plascencia’s colors.  He’s one of the colorists who makes me wish I knew more about color theories.  Not only is he always picking the right colors – and anyone who has colored with crayons knows that “red” doesn’t work for a lot of things that you think are “red” – but everything is so intricate.  I bet it takes FCO about as long to color these panels as it does for the other guys to pencil and ink them.

3). The extended Bat family detracts. - I know this is a cross-over, so it isn’t inappropriate for the rest of the Bat-family to be in the comic.  But….that scene in the cave was way too long (6 pages) and there wasn’t a lot of nuance to merit the length.  It was just the Bat-kids bothering Bruce about how he should have told them that Joker might know their secret identities and Bruce telling them – more or less – to, “Shut up and go away!”  That could have been resolved in a page and then we would have had more time for Bruce’s flashback to when Joker might have gotten into the cave.  This scene also served to remind me of how much I don’t like Bruce and really miss the Old 52 Dick Grayson Batman.  Who really wants to see scenes of a surly man being mean to his adoptive children/fan club?  I liked the moment in the Old 52 when Dick pointed how how he was a different sort of Batman because he had friends.  So as great as Snyder’s Bruce-Batman has been, I still miss the old guy….

4). Just a man? - It was interesting to hear all the inner monologue from Bruce about how Joker is “just a man.”  How many times do you think Batman’s enemies have said the same thing about him?  I’m sure someone else has fiddled with this angle on Joker before, but I don’t recall it.  It just seems ironic that the same “just a man” attribute that gives Batman so much power also works for Joker.

Conclusion: An outstanding and scary Joker story with fabulous art that is sandwiched around a dysfunctional family bickering about secrets.

Grade: B+

- Dean Stell