Comics / Comics News

Batman 13 Gives Fans a Treat Just in Time for Halloween

By Dan Horn
July 2, 2012 - 17:54

Anything really redeeming about Tony S. Daniel's Batman run began and ended with Detective Comics #1, and perhaps the allure of that single issue can be ascribed to one development in particular: the Joker having his face cryptically and gruesomely removed. It always seemed to me that Daniel didn't really know where this new chapter for the Joker would take him, and the scene in particular, where the psychotic villain's face is found dangling limply from his Arkham cell wall, was merely a provocation of fan's complacence, going for broke on shock value alone.

Now, with Daniel leaving Detective this Fall, we'll never really know whether he had any comprehensible plans to wrap up his faceless-Joker saga, but we will get to see a much better writer rise to the task. Scott Snyder and his artistic collaborator Greg Capullo will bring the Joker back to the forefront of Batman comics in October with Batman #13, beginning a plot line entitled "Death of the Family" (a play on "A Death in the Family"). DC's Blog, The Source, has all of the details right here. The question mark punctuating the "Guess who's back" in their promotional image is an annoying mumpsimus (it's a command, not a question), but you get the idea.

It looks like it'll be another protracted arc for Snyder and Capullo, one that will likely see some cursory crossovers into the other Bat-family books much like "The Court of Owls" epic.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12