Joy and Pain
Written by: Sean Murphy
Art by: Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth, and Todd Klein
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: May 9, 2018
In the extra-sized finale of Sean Murphy’s top-selling miniseries, Jack Napier’s suspicious seduction of Gotham City comes to its twisted conclusion! With the city on the verge of becoming an icy tomb for the GTO, Batgirl makes a crucial assist and Gordon is forced to reevaluate his judgment of Batman to secure the greater good. As the true Joker’s return becomes imminent, Harley seeks vengeance and reckons with the bleak future that looms for her loved ones.
This last issue opens with what we saw in the last cliffhanger...Joker and Batman going for a little drive. No pressure, just the fate of Gotham and everyone living there. Actually, it's probably a bit bigger than that. It's a quick scene, but I got a chuckle when Joker asked Batman to think of him as a Robin!
We are then reminded that the GTO is heading through the tunnels to get to Neo Joker and for the only time in this entire series, I think the art lets the reader down. There just isn't much detail to this part and because of that, you kind of get drawn out of the scene a bit.
The art picks up big time as they exit the tunnel and approach the freeze ray. It's a hectic battle with guns a blazin' and Batmobiles crashing all around. Through all the chaos, a plan becomes clear...take over the ray any way possible! Batgirl does that and Freeze goes to work reversing it.
While that's happening, Joker has an issue with Clayface (he remembers!), but then Jack has a really nice moment with Harley before making the hero's decision and possibly checking out. Oh, snap! At this point, things start moving a bit too fast for their own good with characters suddenly in grave peril or even better off than it seemed. However, Mr. Freeze does his job and we get a fight between the Harleys that is more about how they fell for the Joker than the fists and knives being thrown.
The issue ends with a couple big moments and some closure on multiple fronts. Then we find out who the White Knight really was and is and it's not so much of a surprise but just an acknowledgment of who was the smartest person in the room this whole series. Sean Murphy does save a little of the best bit for the ending as Batman keeps his word to Jim Gordon and I guess, Gotham as well.
I am really torn with this finale. I love this series as a whole, but this ending felt a little more rushed than I ever would have imagined. Plus, things like Jason Todd are just left out there hanging, but I'm guessing that will hopefully be addressed in the sequel. God, there better be a sequel!!!
I always hope for the best issue of a limited series to be the last one, but that just isn't the case here. Don't get me wrong, a down issue of White Knight is better than 99% of the other books out there and this isn't even that "down", but the rushed narrative and art (again, I hate to say anything bad about Sean Murphy's art) ended up making me feel this was good, not great. I expected great, but maybe that was on me.
Bits and Pieces:
Don't let anything I said in my review make you think this is a bad book. It is so far from bad and is still my favorite book in quite some time, but I was still a bit disappointed with this finale. Sean Murphy had set my expectations so high for this finale that maybe it's more my fault than his, but like I said, this was a good issue instead of a great one. Overall, however, this was an awesome series and if you haven't read it yet, go and do so now!
7.8/10
This was a great mini series, but I have to admit I was a little blue-balled by the ending. But maybe that's my own fault for building it up in my head since issue 3. I am looking forward to a continuation of this story and like Jim hope we get more on Jason Todds part of the story.
ReplyDeleteThis issue: 7.5/10
The series: 8/10
I'd go as high as 8.5 for series! I did love it
DeleteNow that I read your review, I'm not gonna buy this issue!
ReplyDelete