This issue is chilling. It starts with the conclusion of last issue's fan-wank battle between Bruce and the Justice League, with Bruce employing over-the-top tools like gauntlets tipped with miniaturized red suns and "Kryptonite gum" to take down a Jokerized Superman. But, it ends with the most terrifying encounter with the Joker that I've ever read.
The revelation that the Joker was Eric Border, the orderly that started working at Arkham Asylum in "Batman" Annual #2, is nothing short of brilliant. It's a reminder of how amazing Scott Snyder can be. Every once in a while, we need a display of how good the Joker is to remember why he's Batman's archnemesis. Snyder achieves that here. Bruce underestimates Border, just one in a long line of orderlies or other people that want to help Gotham. Snyder implies that Bruce does so because he believes that he's the only one that really can help Gotham; as a result, he takes everyone else less seriously. Moreover, he implies that the Joker knows that, because he knows Bruce so well; it's why he's the only one that could've successfully laid the trap that we see here.
But, Snyder also lets us know that we don't just have our usual Joker story here. It's not just the Joker setting a trap and Batman finding a way to disarm it. Just as Bruce's relationship with the family broke in "Death of the Family," his relationship with the Joker did as well. The Joker has gone from a "friend" helping Bruce to be the best Batman that he can be to an enemy looking to "close up shop." He's bored with Batman. Snyder really lets that idea wash over you, allowing you to contemplate the horror that the Joker could unleash on Gotham with no self-imposed restrictions on his behavior. Moreover, Snyder implies that he's bored with Batman because he's better than Batman is. Better than Batman. That takes a lot to ponder. It's been a theme of Snyder's run on this title since the re-launch, but it's never really been stated as clearly as it is here. Looking at Bruce trapped in the Joker's former cell at Arkham, you have to wonder if he isn't right.
Capullo is amazing as always. The images of flies caught in the spider's web is brilliant, a perfect metaphor for Bruce finding himself unexpectedly trapped. But, it's the revelation of the Joker's new face that stops you in your tracks and makes you realize that we're playing a totally different ball game here. Whoever the Joker was the last time that we saw him, he is no longer.
All the Bat-series at this point are promising a new future once Batman defeats the various challenges that he faces, like the Joker here or Hush in "Batman Eternal" (if it is Hush behind all the events there). But, you have to start wondering if that's even possible. Although he clearly makes his way through the events of "Batman Eternal," Snyder successfully sets up the possibility that he has a false confidence, because it's "Endgame" that could actually break him.
***** (five of five stars)
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