Batman Death of the Family Review

Gotham City always brings a smile to my face.

Winged freak. Terrorizes. Wait till they get

a load of me. Hello and welcome to a special

Geekcast radio well special episode number Two

of the Batman 14 death of the family Yes Oh man

this series is it's going to emotionally scar

me by the time it ends will say reading Batman

14 I did not have the same shock as I did 13

but there were a few shocking moments in it for

me and obviously this is going to be a spoiler

-free review last time we did this I basically

said that the last two pages of Batman 13 just

I could not unsee what what happens in those

pages, and I'm still not going to spoil it for

anybody that hasn't read the book yet, which

if you haven't read it yet, go get it now. But

Batman 14, it kind of surprised me because the

shock kind of came in the middle of the issue

versus the beginning or the end. As always, this

is continuing the Death of the Family story,

as you said, and we get to see more of what Joker's

doing in this. Yeah, and you get to see that

Joker has become so unpredictable that he's predicted

everything Batman's going to do with his bat

family Yeah, and in the process He's doing a

lot of his original crimes with a new twisted

twist on them He's basically inverting them or

cutting to the chase a lot faster and then gloating

You know intentionally to screw with Batman's

head Yeah Now I'm gonna be very vague here without

really spoiling it but the bridge scene The bridge

panels When he's like Joker's like I did did

you know that means like this is how it is Joker,

right? This is how it was last time. Ah, you

remembered bats, etc, etc, etc but As you just

said, Joker has essentially hit the fast -forward

button on it and done everything else that he

would do after the first confrontation would

happen. And it's just, it's so psychological.

It just... Yeah, that and I love the fact that

when Joker does that particular scene, he starts

calling Batman his king. I found that creepy.

I found it very creepy. He's calling Batman his

king and then saying, you know, you're faithful

court jester Yeah, and you know and what does

the jester do if not delivered news to the king

bad news, especially the worst Yeah, and yeah,

he's he's tearing Batman apart Psychologically

and physically and unknowing to batman he sent

some of his own uh... that family into rain into

the joker's trap here without actually knowing

it because the joker knew what was gonna happen

it's just it it's so and i gotta say to the art

in this series it has been phenomenal plus it's

been creepy Yeah, Greg Coppolo does amazing stuff

with the art and you know in 13 and 14 so far

I Knew reading 13 and this is not a spoiler I

knew reading 13 and I had not read the stories

previous so the Joker coming back was like it

was just bringing me into like I had to catch

up on what the hell happened like a year before

13 and When I was reading 13, and I know this

is review of 14, but when I was reading 13, they're

talking about how his, you know, his face got

ripped off, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And I mentioned to you, all fair, about how I

think that the wires in his face are just so

creepy. And you're like, well, yeah, that's to

keep his face actually attached to his skull.

Oh, I, it's just so creepy. But no, Greg, Greg

Coppolo does an amazing job. with your work in

it. I love the page with Gordon and Batman. That's

an awesome panel right there. The cover is awesome.

Well, at least I think the cover of the main,

the first printing issue, not the alternate,

because there apparently is an alternate cover.

The one that everyone's going to get is the one

with Joker sitting in a bunch of front of TVs

in a Joe's garage uniform. And the alternate

one is of Batman and Harley on the cover Which

yeah more than likely unless you happen to be

one of the people that snags it early from your

comic shop That's probably going to be the one

that they mark up and they put in the the bin

for like six bucks Yeah, just because it's a

variant and the Joe's garage one with the Joker

with facing the monitors. That's just the the

prime cover But they're gonna have a lot of the

different variants as the series goes like Detective

Comics 15 I believe is gonna have the Joker's

face over top of Batman's again Okay And then

in Suicide Squad 14 they had that with Harley's

face and Joker's so I mean it's there's a lot

of Diving between the different bat family or

the Joker's family in essence, between all these

different lines. However, the main Batman line

is the prime, the meat of the story. You get

a little bit of the side dishes in the other

different comic lines, depending on what level.

Like Suicide Squad, I know the Joker and Harley

go round and round in that one. It depends on

the Joker's level of involvement with whoever

it is whether they he's a main presence in those

stories Right. Yeah, and I do have to say that

although you're reading those issues I'm also

I'm reading I'm not reading those but I'm reading

the Batgirl once because I want to see what happens

there and The Batgirl covers are just amazing

The art by Ed Benz or Benez or however you say

his name is Just absolutely Amazing I was able

to find I wasn't able to get the the original

first printing cover with Joker's face over Batgirl

But I was able to get the reissue and I love

the reissue of 13 and the reissue or not the

reissue but the the main first printing of 14

it's just Creepy as all hell and what they're

gonna do in the Batgirl series to her with Joker

is just oh I Don't think it's a spoiler to say

that Because I've heard it said other places

and if this is a spoiler people fast -forward

or pause it supposedly the climax of the Batgirl

storyline is going to be that Barbara and the

Joker get married why DC why would you have your

Your victim marry her attacker that oh It's gonna

get worse. Oh, no, I know it's gonna get worse,

but I'm just saying it's like I Don't know but

yeah, I mean that you know Batman 14 specifically

It moves the story along it moves it along faster

than I thought it would I did not think that

they were gonna reveal right away I thought it

would have been issue 15 That they would have

revealed that the Joker knows a knows a secret

a certain secret It's just I don't know I'm just

I'm really loving reading these books. They're

just absolutely amazing Scott Snyder is crafting

an amazing story. Oh and in like I said before

In addition to what he's he's done here It's

gonna be done again later on in 2013 with more

Joker Outside of death of the family What else

are they gonna do though there's well, I mean

there's so much twisted crap, I mean, yeah even

in for instance Batman 14 there's there's this,

you know the little mini thing at the end between

the Joker and the penguin Right and you know

it's completely different artists and all that

kind of stuff, but It's still Scott Snyder writing

it But it's it's Every little piece in all of

these different bat lines or anything associated

with Batman it all ties together into the Joker

and it's I've heard rumblings of possible Justice

League having to interfere That would be interesting

especially because the Joker's never really kind

of warranted that kind of attention Outside of

the anime. Yeah, well that was in comics. Yeah

But no You know I I often well when I first got

back girl 14 and Batman 14 This month I you know

as soon as I was done reading them. I made a

post on Twitter. I was like Made a post on Twitter

and Facebook. I was like how do you regular comic

readers go a month between? Issues and then of

course most people say oh we read way more. You

know we read you know tons of marvel and tons

of you know all these different books and i i'm

just not a person where i outside of the fact

that i don't have the money to be buying every

single issue that comes out i'm also the type

of person that i need to limit and focus my my

comic reading and not you know go nuts and and

buy everything because i'm not interested in

everything uh... you know originally i was going

to get the background stuff but that background

fourteen cover just called to me And like I said,

I got the reissue of 13, the second printing.

And I'm liking it. And I'm loving the Batman

stuff as well. But it's like, once Death of the

Family ends, like I... I really have no more

need to go to the comic shop anymore until new

Joker stuff comes out from Snyder or whatever

else. I didn't get into this to just start collecting

comics. I got into it for the storyline. But

overall, Batman 14 furthered the story along

so well. But and again, like I said last time

When we reviewed 13, I have no idea What's gonna

happen in 15? No clue All as I know is what happened

at the end of this one and I'm like, okay December

needs to get here now cuz I want to know what

happens next as far as that side story that Snyder

is writing with a joke on the penguin I got to

that and I was like what the hell is this? And

then you had said it well, you know, it's been

in a couple of the other issues and I was like,

oh, okay And apparently it's a just a continuing

side story. It's kind of like a not a prelude,

but it's Yeah, there's little side stories at

the end of every issue that kind of is another

piece but it ties into another comic and Yeah,

but it's still a piece of the main line in essence,

but it's not actually necessary Yeah The but

like I said the writing in 14 was just as good

as in 13 the art Just absolutely amazing art

from Greg couple. Oh, I don't know What are the

thoughts do you have on 14 as far as the story

goes and the art and stuff the art as always

is awesome I Obviously, you know Batman's not

gonna die so I can at least say that part It's

interesting how Far off like bad his he is after

getting out of the the Joker tank But yeah, there's

and then there's a crazy altercation between

You know Gordon and Batman and Nightwing and

Batman. I mean, it's Joker's definitely done

his homework over the last year And it's gonna

be interesting to see who actually survives this

whole death of the family plot line and who doesn't

make it I Think it would be a shame to kill off

any of them I know that they're you know it's

in essence the Joker trying to make Batman a

you know a better Batman like he used to be less

reliant on on people so I'm wondering who's going

to make it past I don't see like okay I don't

get how Batman I don't understand the Joker's

thinking here of how Batman is reliant on all

these other people okay Alfred Alfred's his butler

Alfred is essentially his father you know for

all intents and purposes because you know Thomas

Wayne got killed you know I don't see how that's

you know taking away from who Batman is and you

know even reading 14 it's like you know there

there's a there's a page where Batman and Nightwinger

are talking and Batman's like no I have to do

it alone so I don't see where the Joker's coming

from of how Batman is relying too much on the

rest of the family to To be the hero that he

is I don't see it so I don't know like I said

I'll have to wait and see what you know what

his ultimate plan is mm -hmm I Tell you you know

like I said the the moment for me that made me

Just my jaw hit the floor like like 13 was the

last two pages in this one it was in the middle

of the book when when Bruce comes home and Alfred's

not there and that's all I'm gonna say cuz what

happens after that I was like, holy shit that

did not just happen Yeah, and he said he he Joker

replies to Alfred in such a cynical and and Sarcastic

way and I was like, oh my god So I can pretty

much tell you folks that there's probably gonna

be one One scene every every one of these issues

of the Batman line that there's Brides probably

gonna shock the hell out of me. Well, I mean

without naming who Yeah, not this issue this

episode. Anyway next episode. It doesn't matter

He's already taken down three Yeah is in the

main Batman line. Yeah So it's only you know

Left to be to be seen What is going to happen

from here Yeah, it's just nuts it really is it's

It's so nuts and I you know, I was looking at

my issue and I was looking at when I was looking

at the cover I Can't believe okay. I know comics

have ratings just like video games just like

movies whatever else but I looked at the rating

on the comic for 14 and I'll have to look again

at 13 for Batman but it's rated T for teen and

I'm thinking no I don't know any teenager that

could handle the psychological stuff that's going

on in these books I mean this storyline is mainly

meant for us for you know older bat fans that

have been you know in Growsden, Batman, whether

it be comics, animation, movies, for years. It's

not meant for kids. Oh, no. No. Not by any means.

And I'm glad to see Batman go away from the lighter

tones to the now very much dark tones that is

in all of these different issues. Yeah. I will

say, in 14, when... a certain explosion happens,

the effect that they put on it, not necessarily

the effect, but there's a speech bubble they

put on it that it did kind of remind me of the

66 series. Oh, yeah. With the shark. Or the other

one when they're throwing the bomb out of the

building. Into the water. When Nightwing's at

the wharf. Yeah. Yeah. it goes boom and it has

like a bow or a pow or a biff bang pow or something

that kind of reminded me of the 66 series of

Batman but overall I'm really loving the story

you know you can have the whole seat but you're

only gonna need the edge yeah that's pretty much

Yeah, but I think that about wraps it up this

issue Yeah, I just like like like we said we

don't want to spoil it for anybody and I've Not

really spoiled it, but I've said certain things

that kind of give not really give away What happens

but you know I've talked about certain panels

of what happens in the book so yeah I mean next

month is gonna be really interesting to see what

happens in Batman 15. Oh Yeah, I'm definitely

looking forward to it and seeing what they happen

to accomplish in this whole comic line yeah it's

it's going to be very very unique I would say

mm -hmm so with that we will see you guys next

month with the Batman number 15 review without

getting too much in depth and then we will kind

of go back and state what, you know, a little

bit more detail of this issue. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,

I know what I was going to talk about and I forgot

to. Last month when I asked you about a flashback

in 13. Yes. I was right. that was a flashback

because 14 starts off with Batman pulling Harley

out of the flashback so those last two pages

of 13 it just ends in a flashback that issue

and then this issue it picks up where Batman's

snapping her out of you know talking in a flashback

so it was a flashback because it went 13 went

from a certain point, he got to Harley, and then

she starts telling a story of the Joker. And

then it starts moving forward again, but it's

not moving forward in real time, it's moving

forward in a flashback. So I was right. Kind

of, only in essence, it actually stopped the

story there. And then the Joker's thing took

place. Right. And then this issue actually, issue

14 fits into... or at least the initial first

few pages fit into that gap right exactly yeah

yeah but no we'll uh we'll be back next month

obviously with batman 15 and i i can't wait oh

so see you guys then