Writer: Tom King
Art & Cover: Mikel Janin
Variant Cover: Frank Cho
Colors: June Chung
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Associate Editor: Brittany Holzherr
Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Publisher: DC Comics
Spoilers
Surprisingly enough, several of the comics portraying the prelude to Bruce Wayne’s upcoming nuptials have little to do with the Bat himself and mostly deal with the people around him.
The trend continues with issue #48, that initiates the first part of a story entitled The Best Man.
The opening imagery is violent in the likes that I haven’t seen since Batman was left in the hands of Alan Moore. Ominously enough, it’s a wedding, and the Joker kills priest, groom and guests with no mercy, leaving the bride to be slaughtered right in front of the caped crusader.
As the Joker goes in an incongruous monologue about family, God, evil and love, Batman utters ONE. SINGLE. WORD. The entire story, leaving his nemesis to rant at will, under the menace of him killing himself if not allowed to.
Keeping up with the ongoing codependency and love/hate relationship between the Clown and the Bat, the Joker ends his ramblings with a request: to be Batman’s best man.
If you add to that some way for Batman to beat down the Joker and leave us with a dubious sense of justice, that could be a nice standalone story, but the options are kept open in the end with the introduction of Catwoman, which left me urging for the next issue.
Overall: 9/10
Patricia Loupee is a collector of skills: wannabe tattoo artist, seamstress, sculptress, cartoon artist, and most importantly comic book colorist, inker and writer. Her work in the world of comics can be seen at indie titles by Red King Press, Correct Handed Productions, Phoenix Dreams Publishing and the Boston Comics Roundtable anthology Being True.
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