The Joker's main weapon of choice in this book is a two pronged attack on the one hand he is using his chemical expertise to create a chemical to make everybody go mad. I have to say it is nice to see Snyder take the Joker in this route in terms of giving him a weapon & making him a threat to Gotham as a whole that hasn't been done in a while. Most of the stories that I can remember the Joker goes after individuals. That is still the case in this story but the city has become his minions. Greg Capullo's art is almost more compelling than Snyder's writing. The showdown between the Joker & Jim Gordon is simply amazing it gave me chills just reading it. Those two characters have so much shared history with what the Joker has done to torment Gordon it was just amazing to see. Likewise with the reveal of patient zero being Joe Chill & Duke's family about to play the part of the Wayne's in Crime Alley while Batman watches is one of the most amazing set ups but I think it would have worked much better if it had been built up more. The Court of Owls makes a brief return in this story but they have chosen not to interfere because they want to take over after Batman's defeat. Joker's parade through Gotham City with the trophies from the Bat-Cave is awesome & a nice throwback to the 1980's Batman movie where Joker throws his own parade. The final showdown between Joker & Batman is one of the most brutal outside of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The brutality doesn't bother me its the fact that they made a reference to the Lazarus Pits in this story & it is central to curing the City but Ra's Al Ghul is no where to be seen in this story I would have liked to see the Clown Prince try to taken down Batman while also facing a threat from the Demon's Head for contaminating a Lazarus Pit. Now that it is revealed that the Court of Owls also uses these pits for the Talons I hope so see them going head to head or teaming up with Ra's in the future. I feel that this was one of the biggest lost opportunities with this story-arc & could have lead to so much more.
There were several things that took me out of this story I think most of it falls in the editors lap but I think Snyder & Capullo can be blamed as well. First off when the Joker appears in the Bat-Cave his face is messed up pretty bad but I have no idea when that happened because when we the reader saw him swimming his face was fine. The second was the switch between Bruce & Dick in the story it was vaguely foreshadowed but it was executed poorly & should have had a better effect on the outcome of the story than it did. As I have said in the past Snyder wrote a great Dick Grayson Batman in Batman: The Black Mirror but he isn't as adept to writing Bruce Wayne Batman. The back up story where the inmates of Arkham are telling their stories of who they think the Joker really is or I should say what he really is; it makes for an interesting side story but it doesn't feel right to make it part of DC Universe canon. It just doesn't feel right that Batman's biggest bad should be the devil incarnate. I could see it working as an Elseworlds story but for canon work this is really what took me out of the story I couldn't agree with this.
There are several characters that should have died in this book & if Snyder wanted to truly shake up the Bat-world he could have killed off any or all of them but each one was kept alive in kind of a cop-out feel way. Back to Jim Gordon in this story-arc I really think they could have killed him off in this & it probably should have happened. I really don't see how he survived that interaction with the Joker. Alfred goes head to head with the Joker & loses a hand for his trouble. This is by far the most gruesome scene prior to the end of the arc. I still don't understand why Joker left him alive. The third death should have been Dick Grayson simply because of the switch which wasn't executed well as I stated before. I understand why they didn't kill him off because they tried to Forever Evil which compromised his secret identity as Nightwing. I feel this would have been the right story to kill him in & it would have put another Robin under the Joker's crowbar. Now if your upset with Dick Grayson getting the ax in the street battle you could have switched him with any of the supporting Bat-Family Batwing, Bluebird, Batgirl, Red Hood, Red Robin, Spoiler or Batwoman. It wouldn't have mattered I think someone should have gotten the ax. I know that would have been controversial & fans would be up in arms but it would have proved how high the stakes were. Remember this is after the death of Damian Wayne & before Robin Rises event so there is no straight up Robin.
I wish that there had been more substance to this story-arc than there was. Batman is one of those rare comic book characters that benefits from having story-arcs that are more of the maxi-series than mini-series in terms of issues. They need the build up to be fully effective. This story felt rushed to hit all the right notes I feel it could have been longer to make it more effective. I would have liked to see an epilogue issue of how they retrieved Bruce Wayne's body from the cave-in at the finale; done in a way that doesn't spoil the next arc. That is another thing that I have noticed throughout this whole run & I didn't realize how much it bothers me until now Snyder doesn't transition between arc's he leaves them like they are individual books which is good but if you are trying to read an entire run there needs to be some connectivity.
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