Published on April 30th, 2003
The cover to this issue is pretty cool. It has Batman choking The Joker in close-up. There isn't much to this issue, though. In the last issue, Batman arrives in an alley to find a dead Thomas Elliot and The Joker with a gun. Assuming The Joker killed Thomas, Bruce's childhood friend, Batman decides to finally kill The Joker after reminiscing about all of the dastardly things The Joker has done. Catwoman attempts to stop Batman, then Gordon, who isn't a cop anymore but still running around with a gun, does stop Batman. Some of the flashback panels are drawn in different styles. There's a few watercolor painted ones and then one that's just a sketch without final colors. At the end of the issue, Hush reveals that The Joker is, in fact, innocent. The final sequence has both Hush, who's standing atop a building, and Thomas Elliot's dead body in the alley in the same frame. That means that Elliot isn't Hush! Or, at least, that's what they want you to think. What...is his dead body a dummy or something absurd? Harley Quinn is also in this issue, swinging a giant, cartoon size mallet at Batman. Harley is really comical in this book. I suppose she's always been like that in the comics, which, to me, plays better in a cartoon, where she was first created. I'm not sure there's been a darker, better version of Harley in a comic book. It's always this dumb, zany, comedic version that's oft-putting. Isn't she supposed to be this regular woman turned murderer? Why is she comedic? It's really too bad Alan Moore never wrote a Batman book with Harley in it. He's probably one of the few that could've cracked the code. And this issue is pretty thin in the grand scheme of things. I guess at this point I'm just waiting for the big finale to finally come. *1/2
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