By: Ed Brubaker Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 144 Publication Date: January 30, 2008 Release Date: January 30, 2008
Product Description: Witness Batmans historic first encounters with his deadliest foe, The Joker, in this hardcover volume featuring two tales written by Ed Brubaker (GOTHAM CENTRAL, Captain America), winner of the 2007 Eisner Award for Best Writer.A mysterious homicidal maniac is murdering prominent citizens of Gotham City, each time leaving a ghastly grin on the victims' lifeless faces. Batman soon tracks down the killer: The Joker!This volume gives readers new insight into the early encounters between Batman and The Joker that led the Clown Prince of Crime down the path to insanity.Guest-starring original Green Lantern Alan Scott.
Mr. McCarty is wrong I just want to point out that the reviewer Mr. McCarty is incorrect when he states that The Man Who Laughs is somehow derivative of Batman Begins. Batman Begins was written and filmed long after The Man Who Laughs was published.
Disregard his review of TMWL because of this fact. TMWL is a wonderfully written and illustrated tale of The Dark Knight and The Joker. Highly recommended and easily in the ranks of The Killing Joke and The Laughing Fish.
the joker is insane! the joker is insane! it was cool getting to read the first encounter with batman. not as good as "the killing joke", but still awesome
Just another Joker tale I am a bit surprised at the number of positive reviews that this story receives. Much of this can probably be attributed to Ed Brubaker's name being attached to it. This tale is supposed to be somewhat of an origin story for the Joker, but in this case that is due mainly to its' taking place in the early days of Batman's career than to any fresh new insight into his beginning. The plot is generic and the characterization is no different from anything that we have seen before. I admit that when you are writing about a villain who has made more appearances in comics than most heroes that this can be a difficult task, but as readers it is what we expect. Joker stories obviously sell well or else they would not keep publishing them, so the trick is to not be redundant. It does not succeed here. When all is said and done, this is just another Joker yarn, with nothing original or exceptional added to the mythos in order to elevate it above the rest.
Eh. Compared to Brubaker's output on Sleeper, Criminal, or even The Authority... I don't want to use the wrong adjective... mediocre. Agressively mediocre.
"outstanding story" the story was outstanding and the art work was great... being a big fan of the batman and the joker.. this story was one i missed 5 years ago, but thanks to Amazon .com i bought a copy of this great story.
Anything Goes Trivia
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