RANT: Batman 663 (possible spoilers)

Discussion in 'Comic Books and Graphic Novels' started by BlueFrenzy, Feb 15, 2007.

  1. BlueFrenzy

    BlueFrenzy Decepticons forever!

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    For those of you that picked up Batman 663 --> I'm sure you were all surprised and angry (?). Most of it is just text with a spattering of terrible art (more on that later).

    I appreciate good writing and do read short stories once in awhile BUT I bought a COMIC BOOK! Not Reader's Digest. The story itself is alright and Morrison does a good job writing but text text text. As for the story though, Joker is crazy scary again (very psychological)

    The WORST part of the issue is the art. It's got demented sick looking CG clowns all over it. It looks a bad Playstation One game. I took a look at VanFleet's website ... he's got some weirdo art there (ugh). The best art in this issue is the cover. The ads for videogames, the army, WonderWoman, GreenLantern, and TeenTitan graphic novels had WAY better art than the issue itself.

    If I had opened up this issue at the store, I would NOT have bought this (despite being a huge Batman fan). This issue disgusts me almost as much as Pat Lee and TFs. Someone should seriously redo this issue (maybe I can commission my friend's 3year old daughter to this).
     
  2. DevilzFan

    DevilzFan CobraIsland.com Veteran

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    It's Morrison, so I know right away not to bother with it.
     
  3. Gears

    Gears buh-buh-body ya Veteran

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    I was surprised when I flipped through this issue that DC would go this route. Easy pass for me.
     
  4. Switchblade

    Switchblade Well-Known Member

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    I don't read Batman. What happened?
     
  5. j3

    j3 Hampton Yount is my Crow T. Robot TFW2005 Supporter

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    I don't know. I think doing it in prose really helped to give a fuller story, inside Joker's mind and everything. It was a different kind of story, and was thus a different type of storytelling. The layout was pretty nice too, but I do agree the art wasn't all that great. All in all, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
     
  6. LigerPrime

    LigerPrime Well-Known Member

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    Oh man, I was thinking of checking this comic out today...thanks for the advance warning.
     
  7. Wreckgar

    Wreckgar Anthony Stark Veteran

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    I picked it up wednesday and was going to read it today. Then I opened page 1 and went "What the Fuck?" to whcih everyone on the train looked at me. Then I flipped through and put it back in my bag.
     
  8. BlueFrenzy

    BlueFrenzy Decepticons forever!

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    SPOILER WARNING

    To be honest, the story was decent and gave a lot of insight into Joker's psyche. Basically what happened was:
    Joker is in Arkham after being shot in the face point blank by fake-Batman. He had surgery to reconstruct his face and currently he can't speak. He has been receiving voice coaching lessons from a female doctor from Boston. There's been a number of weird deaths involving Joker's former henchmen --> Batman finds a Joker card at one of the crime scenes and says "Duh its gotta be Joker". Bats goes to Arkham to confront Joker but Joker can't speak. Instead he blinks at Batman (in Morse code!) --> basically spelling out "HA HA HA". Bats finds out from Dr. Arkham about the speech therapist and knows immediately that's its Harley Quinn. Some more murders happen and Bats confronts Harley ... finds out about Joker's plan to kill more people, etc ... fights her a bit and she runs away (to Arkham). Meanwhile, Joker escapes by spitting poison (given to him the last time harley visited) into the guard's eye --> kills a bunch of people. Then he goes on to perform surgery on his own face to "correct" the reconstruction that the surgeons did for him. Then he goes all psychological and starts thinking about how he was defined in the past and how he "changes" personalities every so often. I think he settles on being the Clown Prince of Pain --> a darker more sadistic Joker. He thinks about Batman and figures that he needs Batman (kinda like a Yin-Yang thing) --> sort of alludes to knowing Batman's true identity.
    Harley comes in to meet Joker and finds that she's a bit scared of him. Bats arrives and Joker threatens to kill Harley (just like how he had his former henchmen killed). Joker says he'll let her live if he can cut up her face to look like his. She considers it but eventually escapes and breaks Joker's arm. Joker talks to Batman for a bit about psychological stuff (about how they need each other to maintain their identities) ... tries to escape to go kill more people. Batman punches him out and Harley shoots Joker in the shoulder. The last scene is Harley asking if Joker still loves her, Batman dragging Joker back to his cell with no answer to Harley's question.

    I think regards of what we think this is going to be hailed as a "classic" story. I think it would be better had somebody else did the art (Sale from Long Halloween?)
     
  9. Gears

    Gears buh-buh-body ya Veteran

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    Wow. Thanks for the run-down, bro.
     
  10. Dreweido

    Dreweido Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    for one issue that sounds like an awesome read... i'll have to check it out
     
  11. JoshBot

    JoshBot Well-Known Member

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    I dug it, for the most part. The art was ghastly, but the story was good. Kinda wordy at times, but it gave some really neat insight into the Joker's psyche. Also, it was nice not finishing a comic in like ten minutes for once. Definitely an interesting experiment, though not something I'd really want to see more of.
     
  12. The Spider

    The Spider Well-Known Member

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    This sort of thing's been done before (Denny O'Neil and Marshall Rogers did a prose story in one comic, but I can't remember if it was the entire thing), so I'm not really feeling the griping over it. I liked the idea that the Joker changes his style (also incorporating the idea of the old stories where he didn't really kill for a while), since it's annoying that he's allowed to kill hundreds and hundreds of innocents and get away with it.

    And does Joker's line, "Why be an orphan when you can be a superhero?" (or something like that; I don't have the issue in front of me at the moment) reference Jason Todd, or imply that he knows Batman is an orphan?
     
  13. BlueFrenzy

    BlueFrenzy Decepticons forever!

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    ^^^ I thought that the Joker line was a reference to knowing Batman's identity. Also, there was a line in there where he makes a reference to "letting Batman keep his mask on" and to not expose his identity.
     
  14. Fairy Princess

    Fairy Princess Banned

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    I will have to pick this up today.
     
  15. Lumpy

    Lumpy Taylor Swift Action Master Super Mod

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    i agree as well...i went to go read this the last few minutes of work the other day, but quickly realized i was gonna have to sit down and actually put some time into reading this. i too bought a comic, not a short story. if i wanted to read a batman short story, id go buy one from barnes and noble or something. this just bugged the crap outta me, and i still havent even read the whole thing yet. its so wordy ive gotta take a break. stupid grant morrison is ruining batman. ive been reading it again since hush, and now im thinking about dropping batman and just reading detective instead. BLAH....stupid....and i dug the art, but i definately see the playstation comparison....oh well, at least it was only one issue....
     
  16. Superman_Alpha

    Superman_Alpha TF: Animated FTW!!!

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    It's Morrison writing the Joker. The only way this isn't the best thing out this week is if Morrison was also writing Superman this week.
     
  17. Lumpy

    Lumpy Taylor Swift Action Master Super Mod

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    oh....im also pissed we had four stupid issues of GROTESK while waiting for this pile...UGH!
     
  18. The Spider

    The Spider Well-Known Member

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    If that Red Hood/post-Hush storyline and Omac Project/Infinite Crisis couldn't have ruined Batman then I'd seriously doubt this issue would. Now, future comics on the other hand, I'm waiting to see and judge.
     
  19. Fairy Princess

    Fairy Princess Banned

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    The issue is actually VERY good from a story standpoint...
     
  20. Lumpy

    Lumpy Taylor Swift Action Master Super Mod

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    see, i actually dug the redhood stuff alot. kinda bummer that OYL kinda just dropped it, but whatever....i guess its just a matter of opinion. and mine is right...(kidding) hopefully the next issue is better....