Comic review: Batman 17
Published: 2/13/2013 11:20 AM
Last Modified: 2/13/2013 11:20 AM
The "Death of the Family" story arc running through the Batman comics has been one of my favorite storylines in recent years. The buildup to the finale was handled remarkably well, with even the weaker tales in Teen Titans and Red Hood and the Outlaws turning out to be decent reads and the stories in Batgirl, Nightwing and Batman proving to be classics.
The hype for Batman No. 17 was stoked by writer Scott Snyder to the point that fans were expecting something monumental. What they got was a solid comic book that didn't come anywhere near those expectations.
After my first read of Batman 17, I was disappointed. I had to go back and make sure I didn't miss some amazing moment that I skipped over because I was so excited trying to get to the end. I didn't.
In some ways, that's good. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat. Snyder's twists pull you in and then his turns drag you deeper. But when you're done, you go from your seat's edge to slumping in your chair with too many questions unanswered.
We finally find out what's on the covered platters that have been shown at the end of the lead-in issues, and my initial reaction was shock and amazement at the twisted depths to which Snyder had taken the Joker. I wondered about the long-term repercussions of Joker's actions on the various Bat-family series. I couldn't decide whether it was a brilliant, macabre move by Snyder or just a sick, grisly joke on readers. Turned out, I was a little right on both counts.
And in some ways that's what is frustrating about this issue. So much of it plays out as a bad joke, a lot of teasing without any revelation. The story was crafted so well through all 23 issues, but it ended without any major fallout. In the final pages before the denouement, two momentous acts were dangled like carrots in front of the readers, but both were yanked back with an underwhelming, cliché ending that left too much open.
After reading Batman 17 three times now, I've come to appreciate Snyder's writing more than I did after my first read. And Greg Capullo's art is outstanding. He does an incredible job rendering the Joker's face in gory detail as it deteriorates through the issue. But the ending failed to live up to what came before it.
Overall, "Death of the Family" still ranks as one of the all-time best Joker stories, but the conclusion kept it from vaulting ahead of arcs like Jim Starlin's "A Death In the Family," Ed Brubaker's "The Man Who Laughs" and Alan Moore's "The Killing Joke."
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Written by
James Royal
Staff Writer
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