Plans Within Plans: Batman #17 Review

In the history of Batman and The Joker, there are only a couple of iconic story endings that I can think of. There’s the end of the third issue of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, where Batman pursues Joker with the intent to kill him, finds himself unable to pull the trigger, and Joker takes one final shot at Batman by killing himself to frame Batman for his murder. And there’s the end of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, where Joker and Batman share a laugh when Batman finally understands how connected he is to Joker… and really, that’s about it. Sure, you’ve got Jim Starlin’s Death in The Family, but I really don’t remember how that actually ends; all I remember is Joker swinging the crowbar and Batman carrying Robin’s body. And yeah, there’s the Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers Joker Fish story, but all that easily comes to mind on that one is Joker with the fish.

When it comes to endings, there aren’t a whole hell of a lot that you can really point to as classic. Most Joker stories wind up one of a couple or three ways: Batman stops Joker in the middle of whatever his plan is in the nick of time and slaps him into Arkham, Batman stops Joker in the middle of whatever his plan is in the nick of time and Joker escapes, or Batman stops Joker in the middle of whatever his plan is in the nick of time and Joker appears to die and disappear. Some combination of these endings have been popping up in Batman / Joker stories literally since the first one, and none of them are particularly memorable… particularly since there are rarely any lasting consequences to the story. That’s part of why The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke stand out – as, for the most part, standalone stories, the ending is, you know, the ending. In the regular monthly comics however, it’s hard to have one of these conclusions stand out since the events of the story are never permanent; hell, the most “permanent” Joker effects have been the killing of Jason Todd and the crippling of Barbara Gordon, and both of those have since been retconned.

All of which is a long way to go to start talking about Batman #17, and the conclusion of Scott Snyder’s Death of The Family crossover. In some ways, this ending isn’t really particularly special, in the sense that the actual mechanics of it are as familiar as color superhero comics to anyone who’s been reading them for longer than a month. However, Snyder does one thing that some of the best Batman stories do: create a lasting set of consequences for Batman as a result of Joker’s actions. But Snyder also does something that normally doesn’t happen in a Batman / Joker story, and it’s something that not only confirms something that most of us who have been reading these stories for years have always suspected, but it creates a situation in the Batman / Joker dynamic that I don’t recall ever having seen before… and while it is all doomed to be reconned and forgotten, right now, it makes it one of the best conclusions to a Joker story in recent memory.

For a change, I’m not going to summarize the events of the book, partially because there’s a lot going on here, and partially because I don’t want to spoil the whole damn book. But I will say that we finally get a reveal to what Joker had under all those damned domed serving dishes, and while it is appropriately horrible for the story, it suffers a little bit from Stephen King’s 10-Foot Bug problem – the theory is that if something is scratching at a door and you open it and see at 10-foot bug, on some level you are relieved, because your mind says, “Oh, thank God! I can handle a ten foot bug. Until he opened the door, I thought it was going to be a 1,000-foot bug!” So while what actually was under there was pretty bad, albeit impermanent, I was actually relieved, because I thought it was gonna be someone’s head under there (and if it had been a head, I would have been relieved because I can handle a head; I thought it might be someone’s balls).

But what was under the dome was really a small and, for a comic line-wide cliffhanger event, ultimately a tiny part of the goings on here. This issue is truly a satisfying conclusion to Joker’s overall plan, which has been the dissolution of the Batman Family, by someone’s hand. This issue makes it clear that Joker has been working on a few levels leading up to here; he’s been trying to convince the family members that they are not only useless, but he has been trying to convince them that Batman himself wishes that they were gone. Joker also puts Robin, Batgirl, et al into immediate and mortal danger more than once, to try to prove to Batman that they are an Achilles Heel that stop him from being able to “close the deal,” as it were, with regards to Joker. So what we have here is a truly multi-faceted attack on Batman and company, working on multiple action-based and psychological levels, that was really fascinating. Compared to the old school, “I’m-a gonna Joker Gas downtown Gotham!” plot that ends in a knockout punch, it is extremely dense and compelling.

But where the story shines is in the conclusion, where we see Batman react to Joker in a way that I can’t remember ever seeing before. I’ve seen Batman vow to kill Joker, and I’ve seen him punch Joker out, and I’ve seen him vow that he’ll never let Joker out again… but this is the first time where I have seen Batman make a move to hurt Joker, and not in a physical way. After years of knockout punches and physical retaliation against Joker, it was surprisingly cool to see Batman just mentally fuck Joker up. And considering that most of Joker’s plan has involved psychological attacks against Batman and company, seeing Batman act this way, and in a direction that I really never would have seen coming (but which, once Snyder introduces it, is such an obvious story point and possible sore point for Joker I’m surprised I’ve never seen anyone really use it before), was vastly more satisfying than yet another threat to kill Joker, particularly since Snyder feints in that physical direction.

Snyder, however, has a little more up his sleeve, as he adds a pile of ambiguity to the conclusion. We hear Joker tell Batman that he has been talking extensively to the Batman Family about how Batman feels about them, and while in the heat of battle Batman and his team show the utmost confidence in each other’s abilities, we later see that whatever Joker said had an effect. The team, to a one, makes moves to pull away from Batman, leaving open the question: what the hell did Joker say to these people? It is a move in the direction of showing that, if Joker’s goal was to isolate Batman from his team, maybe the plan, you know… worked. Unlike most Joker stories that leave Joker safely behind bars, this one implies that, in the long run, Joker might have actually won. And that conclusion, with its air of melancholy, make the final mute image of the story extremely affecting.

And oh yeah: there’s the question about whether Joker really knows who Batman really is. And the answer? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to the reader, it doesn’t matter to Batman, and it certainly doesn’t matter to Joker. The question as to what Joker really knows isn’t particularly resolved – there’s some evidence that he knows, and some evidence that he might have used that knowledge to formulate his plan, but there is no evidence whatsoever that he really and truly gives a shit. Which is something I, and I think almost everyone who reads Batman, always suspected; but it was kinda cool to see it actually and concretely addressed in a Batman story.

Greg Capullo’s art continues to be a good match for Batman. I’ve said again and again that his mix of Todd McFarlane and Norm Breyfogle influences just ooze moody Batman art, and here, he does particularly good work with Joker. While Joker’s face is now strapped and immobile on his head, Capullo uses broken straps, weird gravity and lighting to put some appropriate emotion on Joker’s face in various situations. His action sequences are fluid, his backgrounds detailed and atmospheric, and his general facial expressions – particularly for people under the influence of Joker Gas – are appropriately expressive and chilling.

Batman #17 is not a perfect story conclusion; the flies that were so chilling in the last issues don’t pay off in any concrete way, the big chafing dish reveal winds up not being all that important, and certain questions that were raised throughout the crossover weren’t answered concretely. But in all the ways that matter, this is one of the best Joker story conclusions I’ve ever read. It not only shows Batman, for once, really hurting Joker in a way that matters, and implies long-term repercussions to the story, And it does it all with some deeply interesting psychological warfare going on in all directions. If you haven’t read all of Death of The Family, I certainly wouldn’t recommend jumping in at this point. But this issue means that if you, in fact, haven’t been reading it, you should most definitely pick up the trade. This one’s a keeper, kids.