Written and Illustrated by Various
Some of the most promising new talent in comics are corrupted by the most depraved villains in Gotham City in this all-new special featuring The Joker, the Riddler, Calendar Man, Scarecrow, and yes, even Humpty Dumpty! It’s seven short stories, all in one giant issue! The joke’s on you if you think you’ll make it out of this alive!
These anthologies of short comics can have some good stories in them, so I decided to give this issue a read-through. Were there any hidden gems in this 80-page collection? Follow the cut to find out, as I review the issue story-by-story.
The first story grabbed my interest rather well. People have often made the point that the Joker isn’t actually legally insane, and that by this point in his crime career he would have been fried in the chair. “Reality Check” focuses on this complaint, as the clown prince of crime is analyzed by a professional in the field. Writer Peter Miriani definitely put a lot of thought into his story, and artist Szymon Kudranski is one who I wouldn’t mind seeing on a big-name title. My only complaint was that there were some moments where the Joker’s character seemed a bit off, but I may have just been reading too much Morrison-written Joker lately.
Paul Tobin wrote the next story, which focused on The Riddler — one of my favorite Bat-villains — with art by Ryan Kelly. When Tony Daniel made the Riddler “evil” once again, I was a bit distraught, but since then good writers have shown that they can still write The Riddler as a “bad guy” without completely blowing off his reformation from a few years ago. Paul Tobin is one of those writers. This story wasn’t exactly amazing, but it was a lot of fun from an underrated writer in the industry.
The third story, “Every Day Counts” blew me away. I was mildly interested at first, because it featured the Calendar Man, a relatively underused character (not without good reason, to be honest). We’ve seen in superhero comics that underused characters can often lead to good stories, as the writer has more breathing room, so I’m always a little bit interested when I see a character that I don’t see too often. It started out simple enough, but what really impressed me was how writer Matthew Manning was building up to the climax without letting you know. That way, when it arrived, you truly had a “Oh shit!” moment (I generally don’t swear in my reviews, but that’s how good it was). There’s really nothing more I can do to explain the story without giving it away, but you should read this issue just for this story.
The next three stories were alright, but not that good. There was really nothing to write home about regarding any of them. “The Crocodile Hunter” was kind of fun, but it could have been better. “Threshold” was interesting at first, but by the end I was a bit tired of it. “Two-Face” was the only one of the three that I would actually call bad. I can kind of see what writer Sean Ryan was going for, but it just didn’t work. Joe Suitor’s unique yet mediocre art didn’t particularly help.
Thankfully, this collection didn’t end with a bomb. The last story, “Within the Walls of Dis,” once again focused on a lesser-known member of the Batman cast: Dan Slott’s Humphry Dumpler, a.k.a. Humpty Dumpty. While the story begins with its focus on Dumpler, he instead becomes more of a device in an interesting story examining the character of Two Face. Brad Desnoyer writes a good story, and Lee Ferguson lays down some solid (though hardly perfect) pencil work, resulting in a good story to end this collection with. There’s still the matter of the hefty price tag, but it’s still a better deal than 32-page $3.99 comics.
Final Verdict: 6.7 – Browse, and buy if you like it.
