I'll admit it took me two tries to get through this. The first attempt ended after a series of lame Joker puns and a non lethal hand buzz seemed boring and un-interesting. It's a good thing I gave it another shot.
Dark Detective presents definitive takes on various Bat characters, including Batman, Scarecrow, Joker and Two-Face. The story involves Bruce's old girlfriend Silver St. Cloud coming back into his life, and is over all approximately 1 to 2 million times better than Kevin Smith's Widening Gyre which has a similar plot hook. I'll also be honest and admit that I am not familiar with Engelhart's and Rogers' previous Batman stories.
So anyway, the version of the Joker Engelhart presents gradually grew on me. In between lame jokes, he commits senseless murder, claims to be running for governor, and decides to torture Silver at the drop of a hat. Joker's house as a death trap like the real life H.H. Holmes is so obvious I'm shocked I've never seen anyone do it before.
Rogers art started off looking like a copy of P. Craig Russel, but I grew impressed at his style switch when doing a GA themed flashback sequence and his use of negative space between panels.
I didn't feel like the Joker running for Governor thing got enough play, and the abrupt ending felt like a cop out. I did understand what he was doing with the Joker towards the end though, and the writing of Scarecrow, Batman and Two Face was all top notch. I would recommend it to any Batman fan.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Bat drones.
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