Category: DC Comics

Written by Brian Azzarello

Art by Eduardo Risso; Clem Robins; Patricia Mulvihill; & Dave Johnson

SUMMARY:

Collecting Batman # 620-625 (from 2003-2004), this 144-page paperback was published by DC Comics in 2004.  Suspected of setting up Killer Croc’s vicious murder-for-hire of his own sister, elusive Angel Lupo is Batman’s latest obsession.  Shaking down the likes of Croc, the Ventriloquist, and the Penguin, the Dark Knight’s judgment is further impaired by the gunshot double-homicide of two parents in an alleyway, leaving a catatonic young boy behind. 

Haunted by nightmares of his own childhood tragedy, Batman is convinced that Lupo will kill to escape, despite some evidence to the contrary.  Not only must the Dark Knight survive the bloody onslaught of new Gotham thugs, ‘Fatman’ and ‘Little Boy,’ he is hard-pressed to hunt down Lupo first before others gunning for him do.  Chance clues from Gotham City police detective/pre-Spectre Crispus Allen and even The Joker may convince Batman that he has made a fatal series of misassumptions

REVIEW:

Gritty and grimy, Broken City justifies its bleak title — Batman’s Gotham City is depicted as an urban noir cesspool (complete with murky deluges of rain).  Justifying deliberately grotesque artwork, Brian Azzarello’s vile storyline is even uglier.  Beginning with Batman’s heavy-handed narrative, it’s evident that Azzarello is pushing Bat-noir far too hard. 

For instance, Azzarello’s Dark Knight spends excessive time conversing with his sleazy informants (that is, when he isn’t beating intel out of them).  There’s a hint of dark humor re: Croc’s ruined dentures, but it isn’t sufficiently explained why Batman defeating Croc is so utterly routine.  Also, Batman endures some bloody poundings from rookie tag team, ‘Fatman’ and ‘Little Boy.’  What isn’t satisfying is Azzarello’s failure to reveal exactly how an outmatched Batman reciprocates. 

Without divulging a total spoiler, one plot twist involves a partially-eaten homicide victim who was pregnant.  While this grisly detail supposedly sends Batman after the right suspect, Azzarello’s creative indiscretion is what readers should find highly suspect.  Let’s just say another late twist re: why Scarface and The Ventriloquist want Lupo dead makes one ponder how a highly implausible ‘love connection’ could have ever occurred.  Even as an intriguing development for a regular Bat-villain, Azzarello hardly makes a convincing case justifying another icky sub-plot.

One final twist, however, is worthy of a Law & Order TV episode.  Despite all the unrepentant sleaze leading up to this shocker, it still achieves a haunting effect.  The problem is that Azzarello doesn’t necessarily give Batman enough clues to make this last deductive leap.  Instead of peddling an unnecessary Joker scene, Azzarello should have indicated that Batman’s personal insight finally kicks in.  Sadly, this chilling double-homicide sub-plot is an all-too-realistic allusion to domestic violence (and easy access to guns).     

Hence, what’s intriguing re: Broken City is how Batman’s erroneous investigation has other players game his incorrect suspicions into a killing spree.  The storyline’s only worthy contribution to the Bat-mythos is a variant on Bruce Wayne’s traumatic nightmares over losing his parents. 

To Azzarello’s credit, he ingeniously doesn’t reveal the three hurtful words that young Bruce shouts at his parents shortly before their tragic deaths.  Any parent who remembers childhood can likely deduce what spiteful words are coming out of a child’s crushed feelings.  Otherwise, Batman-Meets-Law and Order: SVU is the closest approximation one can make to Azzarello’s sleazy effort to meld the Dark Knight with gritty Mickey Spillane-style noir.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:

Former Batman Editor Bob Schreck provides a single-page introduction.  Another single page gives biographical synopses for Azzarello; Risso; Robins; Mulvihill; and Johnson.  Although not acknowledged as a cover gallery, all six of Johnson’s stylishly noir, full-length covers conclude this book.   

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                        2 Stars

Written by (See Credits Below)

Art by (See Credits Below) & Lettering by Rob Leigh

Cover Art by Jason Pearson

SUMMARY:

Released in 2010 by DC Comics, this 126-page paperback showcases the five Joker’s Asylum one-shots of 2008.  The Arkham Asylum rogues profiled are: the Joker, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and Two-Face, with Batman in a supporting role in these grim Gotham City noir tales.  As the Joker gleefully plays master-of-ceremonies from his cell, the stories are:

• The Joker: The Joker’s Wild! (Writer: Arvid Nelson and Artists: Alex Sanchez & Jose Villarrubia).  The Joker commandeers a televised game show and takes its live audience hostage.  As the program’s unpredictable new host, he divulges the ‘real’ human monsters behind-the-scenes.    

• The Penguin: He Who Laughs Last …! (Writer: Jason Aaron and Artists: Jason Pearson & Dave McCaig).  Buffered by a flashback of young Oswald Cobblepot’s retaliation against a cruel prom-related prank, the present-day Penguin enjoys a flourishing relationship with a grateful young woman he frees from captivity.  Yet, his dark propensity for avenging personal slights may well come into play.

• Poison Ivy: Deflowered! (Writer: JT Krul and Artist: Guillem March).  Targeting a trio of sleazy Gotham businessmen, serial killer Poison Ivy isn’t deterred by Batman’s relentless pursuit.  

• Scarecrow: Dark Knight of the Scarecrow (Writer: Joe Harris and Artist: Juan Doe).  A cruel high school clique’s  sex-laced parlor game targets one of psychiatrist Jonathan Crane’s young female clients.  As his nefarious alter ego, the Scarecrow aids her retaliation.

• Two-Face: Two-Face, Too! (Writer: David Hine and Artists: Andy Clarke & Nathan Eyring).  Similarly disfigured as Two-Face, an ex-firefighter naively reaches out to Harvey Dent.  Declining this offer of friendship, Dent abducts his would-be savior and his innocent spouse for a deadly game of torture.

REVIEW:

The best way to describe this wicked concept is pitching the Joker as DC’s answer to Tales from the Crypt’s Crypt Keeper. Make no mistake: DC Comics irresponsibly fails to identify Joker’s Asylum for adults only, especially how its grisly content glorifies evil. 

Unlike the hideous-looking “The Joker’s Wild!,” the four subsequent visual styles are surprisingly good to varying degrees.  However, it’s the gutter-level tripe passed off as macabre fun that merits far greater scrutiny.   Depicting the least amount of violence, “The Joker’s Wild!” is closest to a Tales from the Crypt-style TV tale since an ironic ‘moral’ comes into play.  Telegraphing its own cleverness, Arvid Nelson’s contrived Joker fable is a dubious sign of things to come.

Enhanced by excellent visuals, the Penguin love story’s ambiguity falls short of its potential.  If read straightforward, one should notice a close resemblance between present-day ‘Violet’ and the flashback’s conceited ‘Allison.’  Yet, writer Jason Aaron doesn’t acknowledge this obvious visual element — not even by Penguin simply acknowledging that Violet looks like someone he once knew. 

Considering that Violet’s fate is telegraphed, one might construe that this cruel episode is merely playing out in the Penguin’s imagination. If so, then the Penguin is merely foreseeing the bleak outcome, should he ‘rescue’ the enigmatic Violet from underworld human trafficking.  By that interpretation, the Penguin’s ambivalent psyche delivers this compilation’s most sophisticated story. 

There’s nothing remotely subtle about Poison Ivy’s “Deflowered!”  The book’s best artwork doesn’t disguise scantily-clad sleaze sensationalizing Ivy’s serial killing scheme.  Including Ivy’s impersonation of a prostitute, her gratuitous mayhem is the equivalent of Batman guest-starring in a porno/slasher flick.  Had Ivy’s over-sexualized look been toned down, JT Krul’s plot might have worked better.  Since the Joker relates this story, one infers that he knows of Batman’s secret identity, Alfred, and the Batcave.  Despite this inexplicable plot hole, Batman’s interactions with Alfred and Commissioner Gordon are perhaps this gruesome story’s only redeemable asset.      

Describing the final two stories, they’re merely a ghoulish excuse for barrel-scraping Bat-entertainment.  For instance, in spite of excellent work by Andy Clarke and Nathan Eyring illustrating Two-Face’s segment, there isn’t an iota of taste, plotting-wise.  Just look at the last page as a reprehensible creative choice dumped on readers. 

Considering far lesser degrees of depravity that DC Comics might have deployed (i.e. a witty Riddler caper, had he been included), The Joker’s Asylum opts for vile and misogynistic content for no justifiable reason.  Wasting good artistic talent, this depraved compilation gladly exploiting Batman’s villains as unrepentant psychotics is pure trash from DC Comics.   

ADDITIONAL CONTENT:

Full-page reprints of all five covers are included.  Two full-page images of The Joker’s wicked facial reactions staring through his cell door finish this book.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                      1 Star