Batman Death of the Family Review

Good evening ladies and gentlemen We are tonight's

entertainment oh Yes, but think of the fun Joker

hits his darkness tonight. Hello and welcome

to geek cast radio This is a special episode

doing our very first audio comic book review

on Batman 13 the new 52 The Joker is back The

event the start of event or prelude to event

or whatever the hell you want to call it of death

in the family that collects issues 13 to 17 of

Batman in the new 52 now Just for those not knowing

death of the family is a rehashed name from the

80s Where the Joker that's in the family yes

where he you know kills Jason Todd? However,

this one is far more dark and twisted. This is

like a horror film on crack. It is. Before I

start stumbling over myself. Well, I was going

to say that spawning for my review, you as well

as several other people that I either work with

or just people I know in general. have run out

that don't necessarily collect comics to find

out why I was raving about this episode or not

this episode this specific comic and Everybody

that I've talked to that's read it or been able

to get their hands on it for that matter Has

Had nothing but good things to say. Yeah, I I

initially went to my local comic shop and I said

I know this is a stupid question I don't suppose

you guys have any copies of Batman 13. Do you

know we sold out day one? Okay, thanks. Bye.

I then Came back home went on to Amazon. I had

some Amazon gift cards left over. I looked it

up online it was 699 double what the cover price

is and there was I think it was $6 .99 or $6.

I don't know. It was $6 for the comics and essentially

I paid $13 .94 to get this book. I don't care.

I wanted to read it. I've been wanting to read

it since reading your review and I'm not someone

who reads comics a lot. I'm someone who, you

know, as a young kid, seven, eight, nine, ten

years old, I read a couple of Batman comics.

I think at one point when I was nine or ten,

my mom got me this weird Batman trade paperback

that had like two a kid's mind, a bajillion stories,

but it was so dark and so creepy. I don't even

remember what the hell it was. By the time I

was 14 and 15, I would read Spider -Man a little

bit, different issues and stuff like that, but

I've never... I'm not someone like Michael Dodd

or someone like Michael David Sims from Earth2

.net. I'm not like these guys that go out and

actively are buying comics. Michael Ademan, you

know... All these all these guys and girls that

we know that are avid comic fans that you know

JT from Saskatoon, you know He goes out and gets

weekly comics and he gets all these different

but I've never been that that person It's not

that I dislike comic books. It's just that Even

before the the relaunch, you know having to think

of Oh my god, 70 years of continuity, where do

I start? And I am now understanding why DC, even

though a lot of people hate it, DC did do the

relaunch with the new 52 to bring in people like

me who have never really read every single issue

of the last 70 years. I get that. When I saw

your written review on geekcastradio .com, yes,

we are self -promoting over here, we all know

Steve is a huge Joker fanboy. Yes, you know if

this appealed to him immensely Yes, especially

when DC sent it to me for review and I was so

excited If they send you the other ones, I want

them. I doubt they'll I doubt they'll send me

the other ones but if they do You know be immensely

happy. Yes so Batman 13 death of the family.

I don't even know where to begin I mean, it starts

off really slow. And we're not going to spoil

it for people that haven't read it. This is more

so a reaction for me that I'm just going to be

like, everyone needs to go out and find this

book, buy this book and read it because this

is going to turn your knowledge and your perceptions

of the Joker and of Gotham and of Batman on your

fucking head. It's going to blow your mind reading

this book. And especially for the fact that when

you For those that don't know, and I'm not going

to get into detail, it takes what you saw happen

to the Joker in issue one of the Legend of the

Night or whatever, Legend of the Dark Knight,

or no, it's the Dark Knight, that's the name

of the comic. They're bringing back Legend of

the Dark Knight, but the first issue you see...

Dollmaker chopped the Joker's face off right

within the first like five pages pretty much

and You don't hear anything from the Joker that

was when they relaunched issue one Here we are

a year later issue 13 Halloween no less And that

ugly mug has come back to haunt the bat family

And in more ways than one and they take everything,

you know of the Joker and Flip it inside out

like every generation of Batman or the Joker

gets darker than the previous This is no exception.

It takes your Heath Ledger Joker and makes him

look like a bitch No in a sense in a sense it

does because this guy's Some of the stuff he's

gonna be doing is gonna be mighty twisted and

I've even heard in the pipeline from Snyder that

on Twitter anyway that He's got some real twisted

crap coming up for 2013 with Joker and Batman

for another arc So this is not done by any means

and it's what I'm saying is I don't think The

reason why I said I wouldn't go that far is because

I don't think that Yes, the character perception

might change But I don't think you can take away

from the cinematic awesomeness that ledger doing

that and it's just as sick for the film aspect

of the media But if you were to translate him

to the comic verse, that's what I'm getting at.

I Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah, I got fire the best

on screen Joker. No hands down. No no comparison,

but If you were to put him in the comic verse

and every other copy of the Joker This one takes

the cake right he's yeah, it's it's like I said

by far the most twisted and disturbing Joker

of them all like he's this Joker has been bent

with vengeance and Wanted to just rip Batman

a new one because he's got too many you know

crutches to lean on Joker's eyes and he wants

to knock him down a peg, you know down to his

level literally Yeah, so but yeah, there's it's

gonna be a hard -hitting series I Don't think

this is a spoiler if it is we'll edit it out

but on the page like as I was going through and

reading this this story this immense story and

The point of the time that where they have to

tell When the bat family calls in Was it just

me or was Nightwing in the Batman Beyond suit

or something that looks similarly similarly like

it? No, what it is is when they did the new 52

they rebooted everybody's uniforms as well and

Nightwing changed from the like he changed a

while ago, but it's it's more so for the new

52 they changed him from that blue and the the

the bird image to kind of the It a lot of the

stuff has a lot of the bat beyond aesthetics

and bat symbol Yeah, for instance one of the

batwoman Has the Batman Beyond symbol and and

whatnot so I mean they've they've retooled them

so they've got the essence of different elements

of the bat costumes Yeah, so yeah, it's it's

not a spoiler. That's that's actually no no Wasn't

sure and because this was the first issue I have

ever read of the new 52, you know seeing Damien

his son as regular Robin and then seeing red

Robin who I assume Okay, red Robbins. Okay. Okay.

That's that's yeah. He went off on his own after

he that's That's good. Well, I wasn't sure if

they brought Todd back to life. Well, they did.

They brought him back a long time ago. He's Red

Hood, but he also wears the Bat Beyond symbol

on his jacket. But no, I'm telling you people,

anyone that does a spoilerific review of this

comic... you are no fan of comics because you

you you have to read this from beginning to end

and You have to be as shocked as I was is what

happens on that on those last two pages of this

of this issue of number 13 Oh my my jaw dropped

my star. My jaw is still on the floor. I cannot

believe What? How this issue ends and I don't

even know how 14 is gonna begin Yeah, I don't

know where it like I I have in the back of my

mind that, okay, just by the title of the book,

Death of the Family, okay, Joker's gonna do something,

and this is just me, this isn't me telling the

story, this is just me, my own machinations here,

Joker's gonna do something to kill every member

of the Bat family, including Alfred or whoever,

you know what I mean? Everyone that's close to

Batman, I assume, is going to die. Well, for

one, he knows Batman's secret. Right. And two,

he's intending to take away every crutch that...

Batman has ever had Right But reading this book

at the end I was like I Can't even predict How

the story is gonna go I won't even try That I

mean this is this is just so intense. Oh God

I I'm speechless. Yeah, I I personally like for

instance, I I think that For one Snyder's work

has been impeccable. It's been great. I've Loved

every aspect of it out of all the different bat

lines running right now Scott's enters is my

favorite and with that being said I personally

I Liked the court of owls and the the night of

the owls and all that Plot line before this but

this Joker thing knocks it right out of the park.

Like for me, if I wasn't already back in to the

comic verse, this would drag me back in wholeheartedly,

like no second thoughts whatsoever. I would be,

for one, like you mentioned, I'm a huge Joker

fan, so anytime that kind of stuff pops up, I'm

more than happy to see it. and just having the

book in my hands itself I I thought it was just

a regular comic book cover I didn't realize that

the comic book cover is the Joker's face over

Batman's face I did not even really get that

until I had the book in my hand I was like what

the isn't it sick and twisted though so sick

and twisted I love it If they ever I don't know

if they'll ever do this But if they after this

comic series run of death of the family is done

after these you know 13 to 17 these these you

know issues are done if they ever if If they're

listening Paul Dini Bruce Tim any of you find

people at DC Universe Decide to do a movie of

this And if you don't drag Mark Hamill screaming

out of retirement to do this, which I don't think

you would, I think he would really embrace this.

Oh my God. Can you, the whole time I was reading

this, I was hearing Hamill's voice in my head.

And it was just like, nah. Even without Hamill's

head, you know, or voice. Yeah, Hamill's Joker

head, you know, whatever. Anyways, even without

thinking that. This this iteration is I Just

I can't even put words to it. It's so cool. I

I just it's I was sitting there reading it and

Stopped everything else. I was doing so I could

finish. It's just It's one of those ones you

start picking it up the cover alone entices you

to grab it Once you open that cover, you're not

putting that sucker down until you're done No

No, I didn't I mean But normally, I don't know.

I know ads have been in comics for since forever

I've often wanted And I guess this would go to

either trade paperbacks or graphic novels I've

often wanted single -issue comics to have like

the ads all the way in the back and not have

them break up the story This? You need ads to

break up the story, because oh my god. It's real

thick, real quick. Yeah. Oh my god. I just...

Yeah. While I'm not a weekly comic book buyer,

or a weekly comic book reader, I am definitely

picking up these... You know, however many issues

it is. What is it? Seven? It's issues 13 through

17 of the Batman line. It will be encompassing

into the other Bat family lines, Nightwing, Red

Robin, Batman and Robin, like all the rest of

them. Catwoman's got a little bit in there. I

mean, they've all got a little piece of the Joker

in it. He's gonna bring the entire thing crashing

down. The main story is in the Batman line though.

Yeah, um Hey, I will be most definitely hunting

this down each month that it comes out for the

next, you know You know the next five issues

of it because Just oh my god This was just so

so amazing. I Don't even know where to go from

here Joker take us out before I I don't know.

Let's put it this way It's so good Mike wanted

to talk about it he's not a huge comic fan he

doesn't hate comics he just doesn't you know

particularly pay attention to them yes to put

it in the proper vernacular yes yes so this has

been a special GCR comics review of Batman 13

death in the family uh we will most likely be

doing this again once 14 comes out once 15 comes

out oh yes and you won't have any idea how bad

i'll get well you look nervous is it the scars

you want to know how i got them a disgrace to

the name joker why in my day ah brave new world

that has such putzes in it