Batman #17 Review

Writer:  Scott Snyder
Penciler:  Greg Capullo
Inker:  Jonathan Glapion
Colorist:  FCO Plascencia
Lettering:  Richard Starkings and ComicCraft’s Jimmy Betancourt

*WARNING:  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

I have to begin this review by stating I have not been reading “Death of the Family”.  I read issues 13 and 14 of Batman which were the opening salvos to the story.  But after that I have not been keeping up with it.  I was actually going back and starting Batman from number one, since I also missed the “Court of Owls” story.

With the hype building to the conclusion of “Death of the Family” in Batman #17 I knew it would be impossible for me to get caught up while also avoiding spoilers.  So this morning I went ahead and read the conclusion.  After all the speculation on how it would end, who would live and who would die, I found #17 to be somewhat disappointing.

What I Liked

Batman #17 felt like I was reading a crime thriller.  It had me on the edge of my seat page after page.  Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo did a masterful job of crafting the story and building the suspense by having us switch pages to find out what would happen next.

A perfect example came early on, when Joker took the cover off the first dish.  Joker teased that he was revealing Alfred, when in actuality Alfred came out from the shadows and was shown to be under the influence of Joker’s toxin.  This happened again when Joker took the bags off the family’s heads and revealed that their faces were all bloody and bandaged.  Then that was followed up with the dishes being uncovered and their faces being on ice!  The tension kept building and building.  The heartwarming moment when Bruce and Damian embraced after they found out their faces weren’t really cut off was touching as well.

The mental games Joker played with Batman and the family were awesome.  Joker laid it all out on the table…..why doesn’t Batman just kill Joker and be done with him?  Batman then would never have to worry about Joker coming back to terrorize him and Gotham City.  Joker believes that Batman keeps him alive because Batman feeds off him.  Joker really believes Batman cares more about him than his sidekicks and partners.

What I Didn’t Like

As I mentioned earlier, I found the overall conclusion to be underwhelming.  I was certain that someone would be mauled or killed by the end.  We’re back to square one.  Joker is thought to be dead (we all know he’ll be back) and the extended Bat-family is safe and sound.  Unless I’m missing something with the reveal of the isotope in the Joker toxin at the end.  But that seemed more of an ironic thing than anything else.

I really should have paid closer attention to the actual name of the crossover.  “Death of the Family” turns out to be perhaps the end of the trust between the Bat-family.  So maybe Joker was victorious after-all?  Joker has laid the seeds of doubts amongst the team….has Bruce shared everything with them?  Is he hiding something?

Also, was Batman bluffing when he told Joker he knows his real identity?  We never got to find out, but I wonder if Batman was being truthful or not.

Summary

Batman #17 was a thrill to read.  I am sure I would have enjoyed it more had I been keeping up with the entire crossover.  Ultimately, we come out of “Death of the Family” with more questions than answers.  Will the repercussions be felt for future stories?  And what happens when Joker makes his return?  These are the questions I’m left asking.

This review is written in partnership with Pop Culture Network.  They can be found at their website http://www.popculturenetwork.com/

#ComicBookChronicles @CBChron founder. Editor-in-Chief of @thekliqnation. Comic book reviewer, podcaster #RABBLERABBLE

  •  Great review, Tim. While I share some of your reactions to this, including suspense at every page and how Snyder wrote this as a dramatic crime thriller rather than your typical action and beat-em-up event, I have to say this probably would have had more of an impact on you if you checked out the other Batman titles leading up to this. Over in Batgirl, The Joker kidnaps Barbara Gordon’s mother and cuts off one of her fingers, forcing Batgirl to agree to marry him in order to free her, leading to her capture. Over in Batman and Robin, Robin gets captured while going off on his own after The Joker and suffers through both physical and psychological torture in the forms of being submerged by a room full of bugs and then having to fight off “Batman”, who was really an impostor affected by Joker toxin. Damian Wayne had to face the challenge of either killing his father or sacrificing his life out of love and chose the latter, only to find out about the ruse just in time. Not much went down in Red Hood and the Outlaws, just a lot of Joker referencing how he had killed Jason once and can do it again. But over in Nightwing, Joker pretty much screws around with Haley’s circus, which Dick Grayson tried to bring back to Gotham City. He even goes so far as to exhume all of the deceased members of the circus from previous years and places their bodies under the big top in some morbid life-like diorama.

    All this to say, the lead-up to the finish added to the effect of the final scene, in my opinion. But yeah, I can see the ending being a bit underwhelming, as I expected a death or two and figured Alfred was either a goner or disfigured by the end of this. I did enjoy the twist of the family’s faces being removed, but was actually relieved that that was just a ruse. Batman’s speech to The Joker and his grasp of their relationship and motives surprised me, but then again, you have to expect everything and anything when it comes to Batman. This would have never worked as a Superman story, nor Spider-Man nor Aquaman. It shows why Batman is one of a kind.

  • As for trust issues with The Family, they’ll get over it. They did after Tower of Babel when Bruce was kicked out of JLA and each of the Bat family had to share Bruce’s burden of mistrust from their peers. They did it after No Man’s Land and they’ll do it again and again, because as much as Joker was right about The Family making Batman vulnerable, he was wrong in that they made him worse. Batman would have been a lot worse off without Robin by his side, moreso as Bruce Wayne the man than the hero.