A review by charliemudd
The Batman Who Laughs (2018-2019) #1 by Scott Snyder, David Baron, Jock

5.0

4.5 stars -- This is more like it. I did not enjoy the over-arching Dark Nights: Metal that was the set up this book; however, The Batman Who Laughs was awesome -- not a word in my normal review vocabulary, but a word that feels right here. Batman was the perfect character to take advantage of the dark matter multi-verse theme, and Snyder plumbed the Dark Knight's conflicted nature appropriately. Philosophical, with a healthy dose of optimistic pessimism, TBWL was not an easy read. It had several Bruce Waynes and Batmen flitting around, and some difficult-to-read red font dialog (BTW the only reason I didn't give a clean 5 stars) for the worst of the baddies; but it never lost its way, and ended with some decent closure full of comic book platitudes. And of course Joker's cameos were top notch. Highly recommended.