Holy fucking crap.
I actually legitimately don't know where to start here. Snyder delivers possibly the creepiest comic that I've ever read, the only comic where I felt the need to look behind me to make sure that the villain wasn't standing over my shoulder watching me read it in some sort of elaborately planned meta-crime. It's hard to dissect this issue, because I worry that examining it in that way will ruin it, that unraveling such a tightly wound plot will demean it. But, I'll do my best.
The most brilliant part of this issue is how Snyder slowly but surely builds the tension and makes the reader feel part of it. I don't meant that in the sense that you feel the tension while you're reading it in the safety of your living room; I mean that you feel it like you're actually there, in Gotham, where Joker could be lurking around any corner (and possibly in your living room). Snyder accomplishes this feat largely through the horror-movie opening, as we listen, though not see, Joker slowly kill cops in the darkened GCPD HQ while he taunts Gordon. In the middle of the issue, Batman notes how angry Joker is, a sentiment that Harley echoes at the end of the issue when she tells Batman that he's not the same Mr. J. The amazing part is that Snyder has brought you, the reader, to the same conclusion by the time Batman and Haley makes these comments. You actually feel like you're having a conversation with Batman about it, like you're sharing observations. You're a minute from screaming, "Don't open that door!" For example, when Batman notes that Joker unusually did his own dirty work in the GCPD, you've also noticed that. You've also noticed how aggressive he is with Gordon throughout the assault. He doesn't just taunt him about Barbara, but he tells him that he's been lying under his bed at night. It doesn't feel like Joker. He's not playing with Gordon here, but punishing him. As such, when Batman announces that he's different, you feel that way, too. You both realize that everything is on the table with him.
As such, you also feel the same anxiety that the Bat-family feels when they learn that he has returned. Joker has been gone a year and it's pretty clear that they were all hoping that he had disappeared, even though they knew better. When he re-appears so suddenly, they're shaken, as seen by the amazing scenes with Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Robin all calling Bruce essentially at the same time to ask if it's true that Joker has returned. You feel the same way that they do, the shock of realizing that he has returned and how you were secretly holding your breath all this time waiting for it to happen. You have the same nervous energy that the Bat-family does, wondering what he's going to do next now that he's back.
Perhaps the most disturbing part is that you realize that part of this anxiety comes from the man in the center, who doesn't know what he's going to do next. Batman doesn't know what message Joker was sending when he cut off his face. He doesn't know what he's been doing for the last year. He doesn't know what Joker meant when he told Commissioner Gordon that Batman has his calling card. You get the sense that Bruce might be able to figure out a pattern but Joker is coming at him too fast, too furiously. He's off his game. You actually see Batman afraid here and it's as disturbing as you thought it would be.
Of course, we also learn that Joker is taking a tour of his past. He mentions paralyzing Barbara to Gordon, he kills the son of the first man he killed in Gotham, he has Batman meet him at the Ace Chemical factory, he uses Harley to fight Batman: it's like he was in rehab and got to examine his life. It''s here that Snyder hints at the reason why Bruce is off his game, some residual guilt for creating Joker at Ace Chemical all those years ago. Is it why Joker has such sway over him? Is it why Joker is actually so angry at him? Is it that simple? Is it that complicated?
By the end of the issue, when he attacks Alfred with the crowbar sporting his own face as a mask, you've already come to the conclusion that everything is suddenly possible with him. As such, you gasp, because you realize that maybe he will kill Alfred. Maybe he's serious about killing the Bat-family. You get the sense that he might just be engaging in this plot because he felt like his rivalry with Batman had gone stale and he needed to up the ante, get Batman to really hate him. The fact that attacking Alfred seems to confirm that he knows Batman's identity is almost a secondary, if not tertiary, concern. In fact, it just goes to prove that he's breaking old covenants and rules. You realize that Scott Snyder might just kill Alfred here and you would totally and completely buy it. It's why it's a leading candidate for issue of the year and it's why I just don't even know if I want to see where it's going. But, I do. Even if it's through fingers covering my eyes.
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