The Batman Who Laughs #1 Review

On the Marvel Hacks Podcast, we have a segment called "That's They One", where we weekly review one DC comics are on our Marvel Centric podcast.  As, I and the Sandman are the only DC fans, picking the book each week becomes a challenge.  My DC knowledge is thin and I am not afraid to admit that.  Growing up, DC meant Dinky Comics in my house and I was raised almost exclusively on Marvel Comics.

But, I have grown to enjoy DC over time and my kids are way into DC so I have increased my reading of their comics; especially events.  Coming out of one of these most recent events, DC Metal, there was an introduction to 7 Dark multiverses and the Batman in those multiverses made their way to the regular DC Universe.  One of those characters is the Batman Who Laughs and the character become so popular, it got this mini series.

In this book, we get Batman investigating a group of people who have been robbing the bodies from Potters field in Gotham and the mystery is what they are doing with the bodies.  Batman, working with Alfred have found the robbers and there is a great car chase scene.  There is a little, what I have dubbed "Batman Bullshit" as these impossible things happen with Batman, but I digress.

Once Batman finds the coffin, he opens it up to find... Bruce Wayne.  The plot revolves around who and where did this Bruce Wayne come from and this plot leads us to Arkham to visit the Joker.  But the Batman that shows up, is not the Batman you expect and he is leading the Batman who Laughs!

The book does a great job unfolding the story with great art and dialogue by Scott Snyder.  I am trying to not spoil much about this issue because there are lots of twists and turns and reveals.  Suffice to say, things are not as they appear and Snyder and company have introduced a new villain(s) to the Batman Rogue Gallery that will definitely make an impact on the Dark Knight moving forward.

Great book! I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did because Batman is not my favorite character. and I think DC relies too much on him to carry their entire universe.  But, in this instance and with a writer like Snyder who has such a great grasp on the character, The Batman who Laughs is a wonderful addition to the overcrowded Bat-line of books.

The Producer