Batman #27 Review and *SPOILERS*

Hell No

Written By: Tom King

Art By: Clay Mann, Danny Miki, John Livesay, Gabe Eltaeb, Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: July 19, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The War of Jokes and Riddles has been a bit disappointing in my opinion because where we have this really cool concept for a story, we're only shown the least intriguing parts of it, while trying to determine in what world would the Joker, after only being the Joker for what seems like a little under a year would lose his damn sense of humor.  Not only that, but the Riddler just spouts off riddles that don't seem to do anything for the story, while the two are setting up for a war that we're only given a single splash page to see.............  That's what I want to see damn it, show it!  Anyway, when we last left the war, Riddler was getting Poison Ivy on his side, while the Joker was getting the full force of the Falcone crime family on his....... through the Penguin, which I'm guessing is acting in secret on Joker's behalf because even though Carmine was still alive at the end of last issue, his helping the Joker would just seem off.  Okay, let's jump into this interlude here and check out the origins of Kite-Man........ for some reason.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!

People seem to be ga-ga over Kite-Man in this Rebirth era of Batman and even though I was a fan of Garth Ennis' Section Eight book, where the character Grapplah, just said "Grapplah" over and over again, at least that book was supposed to be funny and that character just seemed to be played like Ennis' character Spacker Dave in his Punisher run............ Here, we just have Kite Man saying his name again and then "Hell Yeah" afterwards and I just don't get the love that everyone seems to be throwing his way because somehow it warrants an origin story during the middle of Batman's big summer arc and again......... I don't get it.  That being said, we jump into this issue and see that Batman really fucked over Kite-Man's life and turned the man who was just simply interested in wind into the ridiculous villain that he would become because he once worked on the aerodynamics of the Joker-Mobile. 

Here we see this loser-ish guy Chuck Brown, forced by Batman to set up a meeting between him and the Joker so that Batman can find out about his whereabouts and this becomes the catalyst for Chuck's life being torn to pieces because Riddler finds out about this and wants to know about where the meeting is taking place and this turns into a big ass skirmish between the two sides of the War........... which we only get to see in a splash page before the Joker takes Chuck away to go and watch TV.  Yeah, I'm not sure why the Joker is keeping Chuck alive and neither does he, but because the Riddler planned on Batman showing up because of Chuck, he had previously poisoned the string of Chuck's son's kite and the boy dies because of it.  

In the end, we see that Batman really did fuck up Chuck's life and because of his son's death and because of the ensuing war and Batman's harassment, Chuck decides to take matters into his own hands and creates the Kite-Man persona and joins Joker's side in the war........ Also, he develops the "Hell Yeah" catchphrase because his son used to say it and Chuck would tell him not to because if you say it, you might end up going to that place, but with him saying that line to the Joker at the end of this issue, it seems that Chuck's life itself has turned to hell and he just doesn't care anymore.

That's it for this issue of Bamtan and the origins of Kite-Man and while there are some interesting things to ponder about in this issue like the nature of what is a joke and what is a riddle and if the Joker wondering about this makes him feel like he's just a mimic of the Riddler himself and that's the thing that made him lose his sense of humor....... it still doesn't jive with what we saw leading up to this war in the first place and this issue is still rife with lines repeating themselves and just makes you wonder if Batman's biggest failure during this time, which he's trying to relay to Selena is just how bad he fucked Kite-Man over because that's all I really get out of this issue and if that is his biggest failure......... Well shit Batman, I think you could be telling Selena some way better stories about your failures.  The art in this issue is incredible though, but all in all, this just feels like another weird installment to this arc, where the Riddler doesn't feel like the Riddler and the Joker doesn't feel like the Joker and I'm just starting to wonder if that's the point to all of this and with us missing out on all of the action going on around the city, I find myself caring less and less each issue. 

Bits and Pieces:

While you miss out on all the interesting stuff going on throughout Gotham City in this issue, what you get instead is the origin of Kite-Man and if knowing why the villain says "Hell Yeah" over and over again is your idea of a good time....... Well, this issue just might be for you.  The art is amazing though, but the characters in this story continue to feel strange and we're missing out on the majority of the story it seems, while Batman continues to create his own villains......... even if they are ridiculous.  

6.5/10