The Joker has been gone for a year. Where has he gone? Is he alive? Dead? Not much is known, except his influence lives on in the heart's of Gotham's most deranged and mentally ill, which Batman must contend with. When the Joker eventually does resurface, instead of coming after his greatest foe, he turns his attention to the Bat-Family. Believing them to be weighing Batman down and fulfilling everything he can and should be, the Joker sets out to "eliminate" each member one by one.I loved Scott Snyder's The Black Mirror. It was well written, creepy and thoughtful, completely redefining how we look and perceive Gotham City, not to mention the retroactive effect it has on one of the all time great Batman stories, Batman: Year One. Death of the Family is thoughtful and sick in the same way Black Mirror is, but it was never quite as riveting as the former tale.As the collective story spans across several issues of multiple Batman related publications, the story ultimately feels half-complete, disjointed, lacking, and at times incoherent. The consequences of more than a few issues are left "unresolved" and unexplained, and characters who've met particular fates in previous issues suddenly show up in later ones without so much as an acknowledgement of what happened prior. Are the issues out of order, or is the timeline being played with? This is never explained.Plot points and nuances of plot become hard to follow due to that alone, but once you add on the acknowledgement of a larger DC Universe, featuring several affiliations and characters whom you'd only be familiar with had you been as invested in the universe as much as DC expects you to be, the story kind of becomes too much to handle.The sad thing is is that there is a good, solid coherent story in here somewhere. You know what Snyder is trying to say about the Joker and Batman's relationships with his allies, and in spite of its rockiness, the climax and ending are both good, as are the visuals which are completely stunning. But only so much can be elevated here.All in all, I found the experience of reading this book unenjoyable. It won't go down as one of the great Batman stories, and as good as some of the different aspects can be, I consider this story a missed opportunity. Given their eternal presence on the best sellers lists, I think we can safely assume the three greatest Batman stories ever told are (in no order) The Killing Joke, Batman: Year One, and The Dark Knight Returns. You can read those books without ever having read another Batman book or comic, and think they're amazing. With Death of the Family -- and other trade paperbacks (TPBs) -- you need an awful lot of prerequisite knowledge of the continuing Batman series of comics. That said, this particular TPB was still decent.And the really horrible thing at the end -- the thing that Joker makes you think that he did, but didn't? Well, part of me thinks, "Hey, that's a damn good joke, Joker."But the other part of me thinks, "Wait, if the Joker really is as evil as the rest of the story makes him out to be, wouldn't he really DO the horrible thing at the end?"Either way, a pretty damn good twist.
Do You like book The Joker: Death Of The Family (2013)?
Really great Joker story but it feels like it chickens out at the end after a hardcore set up.
—ashu
This was one of the few Batman stories that just didn't work for me.
—Alyssa
