Batman: The Man Who Laughs
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Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a one-shot prestige format comic book by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke, released in February 2005, and intended as a sequel to Batman: Year One.
It tells the story of Batman's first encounter with the Joker in post-Crisis continuity. The book is similar in format and cover typography to the famous 1988 one-shot Batman: The Killing Joke. The storyline is based on the Joker's original introduction in Batman #1 (1940). The story "Images" in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #50 (September 1993), taking some time after their first meeting (according to Batman), is tied into continuity as Batman's second encounter with The Joker.
The title is a reference to the movie The Man Who Laughs, whose star, Conrad Veidt, was an inspiration for The Joker.
The story recently has been reprinted into a hardcover, including Detective Comics #784-786, a storyline entitled "Made of Wood," of Batman, James Gordon, and Alan Scott working together on a trail of a serial killer also written by Brubaker with art by Patrick Zircher.
Plot summary
Captain James Gordon and other officers are investigating a building filled with mutilated corpses. Batman enters and converses with Gordon. Next, Bruce Wayne is seen at a social event talking to fellow millionaire Henry Cladridge. On a TV in the next room, a reporter is overheard announcing that Arkham Asylum is being reopened. She suddenly begins laughing and soon dies with a face similar to the mutilated corpses at the building. The Joker (who has not yet been given the name the media bestowed upon him) walks onto camera and announces he will kill Cladridge at midnight.
Bruce leaves the party and meets up with Gordon as Batman at Arkham Asylum. On a cell wall, the Joker wrote "One by One, they'll hear my call. Then this wicked town, will follow my fall." Gordon then has police stationed in Cladridge's house to protect him. Cladridge begins laughing as his face turns pale white. Batman crashes down through a window, but is too late to save Cladridge. Meanwhile on the streets of Gotham, the Joker enters the Williams Medical Center. After killing the security guards, he arms the inmates and releases them on the streets. Batman arrives and stops several inmates, and reveals his existence to the people on the streets.
While Bruce is researching in the Batcave, the Joker appears on television again to make a similar threat, this time on Jay W. Wilde. Batman deduces that Cladridge was killed with a time-released poison and tells Gordon to run a blood test on Wilde. Gordon does so, but nothing is found. Gordon is at Wilde's estate with other officers when a police helicopter crashes outside the estate. The Joker then appears and releases poison smoke bombs into the building (all of the officers and Batman have gas masks.) Batman captures the Joker, but he escapes and Wilde is killed.
Bruce then disguises himself as a reporter and goes to the Ace Chemical Processing Plant. Bruce discovers that a worker had his skin bleached and hair turned green when some acid dripped onto him.
The Joker makes another television appearance with a similar threat. This time, he plans to kill Judge Thomas Lake and Bruce Wayne. Police officers are at both men's houses; however, Gordon is at Lake's. Bruce starts laughing and turns white, but his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, administers a shot to slow his heart rate to slow the spread of the poison. Meanwhile, a gang of armed men dressed as clowns drive onto Lake's property where a shoot-out takes place. Bruce, while under the poison, hallucinates of the night his parents were murdered. He awakes, fully recovered, in an ambulance. Another gang of armed men dressed as clowns shoot at the ambulance. Bruce dresses up as Batman and exits the ambulance unnoticed and defeats the clowns.
Batman takes a police motorcycle and contacts Gordon via radio. He tells Gordon that Bruce Wayne is alive and that he figured out the Joker's plan. He tells Gordon to have the water to the city shut off. Gordon contacts the reservoir, but receives no answer. Batman heads there himself to stop the Joker from poisoning the water supply. He takes out the Joker's clown-thugs. Batman meets up with the Joker, who successfully poisons the city's water supply, but Batman, having previously rigged the viaduct with explosives, detonates it, preventing the poisoned water from going into the city. Batman engages in a quick fight with the Joker, defeats him by disarming his hammer, and has him imprisoned at the newly reopened Arkham Asylum. Batman meets with Gordon on top of Police Headquarters and unveils to him the new Bat-Signal.
Continuity
While the story seems to take place directly after Year One, the beginning is tied into the ending of Batman and the Mad Monk, in which Gordon reveals the warehouse of corpses.
Critical reaction
Critical reaction to The Man Who Laughs has been mostly positive. Hilary Goldstein of IGN Comics said that The Man Who Laughs "lack[s] the smooth pacing and adept dialogue of [Alan] Moore's The Killing Joke, [but] this is a worthy companion to the classic Joker tale." Goldstein added, "Brubaker's take on the Joker feels incredibly authentic." Goldstein later ranked The Man Who Laughs #22 on a list of the 25 best Batman graphic novels.
Don MacPherson of The Fourth Rail felt that The Man Who Laughs "rob[s] the Joker of some of his mystery" but said that Brubaker and Mahnke "capture the chilling nature of the Joker's insanity and bloodlust, not to mention the intensity of the Batman." MacPherson in particular praised "how well [Brubaker] brings Jim Gordon to life." Bill Ramey of Batman in Comics said The Man Who Laughs "belongs on your bookshelf and will be one of those Bat-books that you will pick up and read over and over again year after year.
