Monday, January 20, 2014

Batman: Lovers & Madmen (Various)


Since Batman has been around so long, I'm sure the Joker's origin story has been told many times over.  Still, never hurts to have a fresh take . . . enter Batman: Lovers & Madmen.  Bearing several striking similarities to the 1989 Batman movie, this story tell us how Joker came to be.  Batman's been prowling the streets of Gotham for just under a year, and things are going well.  The streets are cleaner and safer, and the city is beginning to rest easy.  Enter a man named Jack . . . good at killing and bored with life, he wanders listlessly from job to job, robbing and killing as he goes, but never feeling satisfied.  Through a number of events, Jack becomes acquainted with Batsy, and finds in his opposite his purpose.

Lovers & Madmen is a good tale.  The art is striking, a bit severe, but suitable for the story.  You see Batman wrestling with who he is, what it means for his life, and what it means for the city- is donning a mask bringing freaks out of the woodwork?  You see Joker dealing with the same thing.  In the end, it appears as though they're both madmen, in a sense . . .

Rating: A

No comments:

Post a Comment