BATMAN #13
GRADE: A+
STORY BY: Scott Snyder
ART BY: Greg Capullo / Jock
COVER BY: Greg Capullo
PUBLISHER: DC

SYNOPSIS:
After being out of action for a year (and having his face sliced off) The Joker returns to torment Batman and the rest of Gotham City in this first issue of the Death Of the Family storyline running through all of the Bat Family titles.

THE GOOD

Snyder does something really incredible here, namely making a comic book be just as creepy and unnerving as a scary movie or horror novel. The Joker is back but he is a little bit off (and that is really saying something) so his behavior not only unnerves the characters in the story but also the reader. Snyder also gives each character their own distinctive voice but he never makes them seem out of character. I was also really pleased with the use of history to forward the plot. Even though this is set in a new rebooted DCU, this story feels like an epic that has been several decades in the making. Those pages of the Joker in the Gotham police station were just unnerving.
Greg Capullo’s art really rises to the occasion. His use of shadows and angles to hide the Joker’s face throughout are very original and all of the action just leaps off of the page. And the new look he gives the Joker is just so insane but really cool looking.
And the back-up story featuring Joker and Harley Quinn was so disturbing. These two damaged characters were depicted so three-dimensionally that sometimes I forgot I was reading a funny book.And Jock’s moody art worked perfectly with the scenes being depicted.

THE BAD

Why wasn’t this a double-sized issue?

THE UGLY

I have to wait a whole 30 days for the next issue?!?! Aargh!!!

FINAL VERDICT

A pitch perfect storyline that in just one issue is already poised to be added to the definitive Batman/Joker stories like The Killing Joke and Death in the Family. Snyder and Capullo have re-invigorated the Joker and made him into an even more frightening character than he has ever been in any medium. This is the best super-hero comic of the year and everyone should read it.