Review: Batman Vol. 3- Death of the Family

Quick Summary

Pros: The story revolves around Joker and presents him at his most crazy and terrifying. It also provides a great examination of the weird relationship that the Joker and Batman have. On top of this, it is also a very enjoyable and fun read.

Cons: Despite being a crossover event, this collection does little for any other series besides Batman.

Overall: A good Joker story can sometimes be hard to find, luckily it is easy to see in this volume. Joker and Batman really bring out the best in each other and neither are pulling their punches. Scott Snyder provides an excellent story and examination of both of these characters. This is a great book that will undoubtedly live on as one of the better stories about the Clown Prince of Crime taking on the Dark Knight.

Story

The Joker has become such a huge character and such a large part of the Batman mythos that it is exceedingly difficult to write a story around him that compliments both him and Batman, yet this Batman Vol. 3: Death of the Family does both. It shows him as the terrifying agent of calculated chaos that he is. While doing this, it also provides an excellent examination of Batman and Joker’s relationship, with all of the twisted possibilities. Overall, on its own, this is a wonderful book that any Batman fan will be able to enjoy.

(spoilers start here)

In this story, Snyder manages to utilize the Joker in a way that emphasizes the absolute pinnacle of his potential. Sometimes it is hard to feel the actual suspense in a comic book because the stakes are typically too high; you know that Lex Luther is never going to be able to actually blow up Metropolis or kill millions of people. However, nothing is stopping the Joker from brutally murdering anyone in Gotham. The Joker may very well kill, disfigure, or disable a minor or sometimes even main character; it has happened before.

This is what makes moments like Joker attacking Alfred and the rest of the Bat-family so incredibly terrifying. Joker has disabled and killed main characters before, there is nothing stopping him from doing it again. Plus his murderous rampage through the police station and Arkham, expertly depict him as a murderous wave of chaos. Joker is a character designed to make the reader feel uncomfortable and uneasy. By portraying him in this way, Snyder proves that he is more than capable of writing a Joker that will really shake the audience.

This collection is not just about Joker as a character though; one of its highlights is Batman’s relationship to Joker. Some of the moments in this book will undoubtedly go down in history as a fundamental portion of the Joker/Batman mythos; Batman’s mantra about “look(ing) into his eyes” and Joker’s complete refusal to acknowledge Bruce as Batman are the culmination of these moments and possibly of the book itself. Snyder really digs in and asks why the Joker is such a big part of Batman’s life and are they as intertwined as fans think they are? This examination is expert and thorough in a way that will surely give readers plenty to ponder.

The story’s finale is by far the best part of this entire storyline. It subtly causes the audience to ask the question “did Joker win?”. Joker’s intention with this entire attack was to separate Batman from the rest of the Bat-family, something that actually does happen as the book ends. Does this mean Joker won? Or does Batman’s continued respect for them stop Joker from completely accomplishing his goal? Either way, it gives the reader things to think about long after putting the book down.

The biggest problem with this story is its function as a crossover event. This is supposed to be a very epic storyline that spans across multiple other series and comes to a head in Batman. However this story is really just a conflict between Batman and the Joker; the rest of the Bat-family have very small roles here. So as a Batman story, it succeeds in all regards but as the nexus for a larger event it does no favors to any other series. Readers coming into this book for the conclusion of stories in other series will be disappointed, especially if they have not been reading Batman up to this point.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Previous posts about this Batman series will give a good indication as to how simply wonderful Greg Capullo’s artwork is so make sure to check those out (here and here).

Continuity

Batman Vol. 3: Death of the Family continues the story from Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls (Review).

The story here continues in Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year- Secret City (Review).

This volume also references stories from other comic books, detailed below:

• Joker’s face was taken off and put on display in Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death (Review).
• At one point Joker uses the phrase “dead as a baby bird smashed with a crowbar”. This may be a vague reference to him killing Robin with a crowbar in the “A Death in the Family” story, collected in Batman: A Death in the Family.
• This volume is the nexus for the “Death of the Family” event (see our reading order here). This event spans across multiple series but begins and ends here. These other series are not necessary to understand the core of this comic but they do detail the Joker’s interactions with each Bat-family member.
  • Batgirl Vol. 3: Death of the Family (Review)
  • Batman and Robin Vol. 3: Death of the Family
  • Catwoman Vol. 3: Death of the Family (Review)
    
  • Detective Comics Vol. 3: Emperor Penguin
  • Nightwing Vol. 3: Death of the Family (Review)
    
  • Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 3: Death of the Family (Review)
    
  • Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family
  • Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Death is for Suckers
• Batman and the Joker’s first face off is mentioned around the middle of this collection. This face off can be seen in Ed Brubaker’s one shot comic Batman: The Man Who Laughs which is collected in graphic novel also titled Batman: The Man Who Laughs.
• The showdown at ACE Chemical is a reference to Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke.