BATMAN #39 Preview/Discussion

[Edhellman]

Bane, Penguin, Clayface, Croc, Freeze & Ivy. They only pop up in the last few pages of the story.

You know, maybe I am in the minority here, but I really dislike how he draws penguin, croc, poison ivy, and dcarecrow - which is odd as I'd describe his take on joker and riddler as pretty epic.

[Edhellman]

Add band to that list of fairly humdrum designs

[K. Jones]

The last issue left me unsettled, this one just sort of left me unsatisfied. Callow cruelty to Alfred or Gordon always smacks of Image-style sensationalism to me. And it takes a LOT to seem like callow cruelty because those are dudes who put themselves in harm's way all the time. Gordon gets shot a lot. Alfred gets threatened to mess with Bruce a lot. But I won't write it off just yet. But enough of the shock and awe. (And it was interesting to then see the shock and awe dialed back in the back-up to something more reasonable, "more likely" - having Nguyen do it was ideal because his "Joker kid" looked much like he did back in House of Hush.)

Some of the edits, the "cuts" seem completely baffling choices. The "Rogues Squad" are fun and a couple of them get nice quick spotlight moments - certainly the rest of them should hopefully get a few lines in next issue otherwise they're essentially just a group shot.

Uriah was in the penultimate Talon story ("For Every Life A Feather")

[Nite-Wing]

Poor Alfred he got his maiming that has been due to him since Death of the Family
Julia is really gonna replace him(not that I mind since Julia is awesome and makes for a good love interest for Bruce)
I liked the Bat fam team up but Harper Row seems to be going on a meteoric rise is in skill and competence here(should be Julia imo)

[JBatmanFan05]

Yes, good theory...Alfred maybe sidelined (out of the picture) in June in favor of Julia. (for a later Alfred's return thing)

[Sans Simian]

Yes, good theory...Alfred maybe sidelined (out of the picture) in June in favor of Julia. (for a later Alfred's return thing)

Be a great chance to see how Bruce can get on without Alfred there. (Although maybe Alfred will pop up in another Bat-book. Or just go around and hang with each member for a couple of issues.)

[JBatmanFan05]

I wonder if the general idea is to change up the regular cast some to show how all of the run so far has taken its toll on Batman and his world....and he has to start the climb to get all his old status quo back (get the toys (June changes) back in the toybox (gone)).

[Sans Simian]

I wonder if the general idea is to change up the regular cast some to show how all of the run so far has taken its toll on Batman and his world....and he has to start the climb to get all his old status quo back (get the toys back in the sandbox).

And since this is Snyder's last story with Joker, see how Bats reacts to not having that perfect counterpart in his world.

[Godlike13]

Poor frigging Alfred. Dude can't catch a break. Also Capullo really out did himself here. I especially liked his Scarecrow.

[The World]

Eh this is sort of getting boring now, besides the villain team up (which was cool) not much about this really stood out to me it was almost entirely just building momentum for the finale.

[ABH]

I actually enjoyed this issue.

I love the Joker parading all of Batman's trophies.

[The Nuke]

Much better than last issue. Loved the nod to the Batman 89 parade scene. Pluse Joker stealing Batmans toys is fun too. Really am wondering how this will end. Some stuff about his story is just wierd. Having it all be a dream seems odd. It's a good story, but it really comes off as one where Snyders trying to push back against the other half of the fanbase who criticise him(I'm included in those ranks). Almost as if he's trying to prove he can really take things far and change things. Mainly it all comes off as an attempt to make up for Death of the Family. People were expecting Alfred to die? He didn't, but he loses a hand in this story. Does he or does he not know Bruce is Batman? Snyder wasted our time in DOTF, he's pretty on the nose about it in this story. DOTF was a classic example of Stan Lee's illusion of change, but it seems here there might actually be lasting effects.

Was annoyed with the scene where Joker spots the red hood helmet and comments on Bruce keeping it. Snyder was doing good with reestablishing the multiple-choice origin, but then goes and has that small little panel that proves he believes he was the red hood. Which makes it even more confusing since the additional story goes out of it's way to add that perhaps Joker wasn't the red hood, and if fact it's still multiple choice. Whatever though. I'm happier about it here than I was in Zero Year. It's clear that they are atleast going with the multiple choice origin. Still a stupid scene to have if your gonna try to go the other route.

The scene with Alfred losing his hand was surprising, cool that Snyder took it that far, and wierd. Alfred loses a hand here to the Joker, is at his mercy, but that's all we get. All we get from the girl is that he's okay and that he shut the door on Joker. WTF? Is there more to that or is just another flub in storytelling by Snyder?

Good read though. If the ending is good, which will be interesting to see since Snyder isn't that good with endings, then I'd put this behind Black Mirror and Court of Owls.

So far it's been worth my time. Still think Snyders run is overrated.

[Stazz]

Good issue and very cringe-enducing (in a good way). One thing I DON'T like is that Penguin is shown using a shotgun to blast the infected. Bearing in mind these are innocent people, you'd think Batman would have gotten Penguin to agree to not use lethal force, or face his wrath later.

I don't really get what is so not liked about Snyder's endings. Everything has to have firm final answers? Serious radical/unprecedented things have to happen at the end?

The problem (for me personally anyway) is that ALL of Snyder's main arcs have an ambiguous ending in them somewhere.

Court of Owls: LINCOLN MARCH IS BRUCE WAYNE'S BROTHER!!!!!!!!

Except maybe not. Maybe the Court just told him he was.

Death of the Family: BATMAN LEARNED WHO JOKER WAS BEFORE HE WAS THE JOKER!!!

Except maybe not. That might have just been a bluff...that the reason for using isn't explained. I mean, did he EXPECT Joker to be so distracted that he'd fall off a cliff before Batman could finish revealing what he knew?

Zero Year Red Hood Arc: HOW THE RED HOOD BECAME THE JOKER!!!!

Except maybe not. Maybe that was just a minion acting as a decoy who fell into the chemicals.

If it was just ONE of these things, it'd be something, but how can you get invested in an idea if a writer won't fully commit to it? I would have just been happy if Batman DID know who the Joker was. I don't personally need to know. It could be something kept between the two of them for some reason, and there'd be some nice symmetry NOW especially since Joker know's who Batman is.

[K. Jones]

I can buy the guy from Zero Year having gotten his hands on some Crazy Quilt version of Talon formula a lot more than I can buy Joker as a clown Vandal Savage, am I right, comics?

The man-power it would take to get all that kit out of the Bat-Cave, though. Is he using Joker-zombies as grunt labor?

[Rakiduam]

So, where is Damian?