Batman #26

Written by Tom King

Penciled by Mikel Janin
Cover by Mikel Janin
Published July 5, 2017

   In a non-descript suburb, a taxi pulls up to Dick Sprangs Ave. The taxi driver laughs to his fare about it. The Joker gets out and walks inside and a few gunshots later, Batman swings above Gotham hearing the police report of the murders. Elsewhere, the Riddler speaks to a disgraced doctor in a scene reminiscent of the Joker's transformation. "Mirror...?" He asks. "MIRROR?!" He yells. He carves a big "R" in his chest and later, Gordon and Batman inspect the crime scene. How the now deceased doctor ended up helping the Riddler - well that's the mystery.

Well, there's the mystery. Right there.

   Meanwhile in a bathroom, the Joker looks in a mirror while the TV rattles on and on. The Riddler has apparantly left a message for him in a pizza joint. "I'm gonna kill you, Joker. And then I'm going to laugh..." he writes. Joker calls up a gangster and gives him an hour to kill the Riddler, and the gangster is quick to reply. As Riddler and Poison Ivy walk through the park, they're ambushed by Carmine's crew. They order the girl to step away and cover her ears, and in an instant she commands the nearby vines to strangle her victims as the two laugh snicker at of course - a riddle. Batman arrives on the scene with a hatchet to cut down the dead goons, stacking them up and shedding a sympathetic light on who they were.

Bat-Hatchet.

   As the hour's up, Carmine walks into his study and there sits the Joker with Carmine's mother's teeth. He shoots a few more of the gangster's henchmen explaining to them all that now, they work exclusively for the maniacal villain. And later, we see Batman standing over the elderly woman's body.

The Joker Dental Plan (tm)

  
   As the weeks went by, the public saw the bodies piling higher and higher. It was a war. Anyone between the Riddler and Joker were just things to be put aside. It had been a year since Batman put on the cowl. Since then, he'd earned tons of nicknames. The world's greatest detective, the dark knight, the caped crusader. The issue wraps with Bruce Wayne standing near he and Catwoman's bed. The victims all flicker on a screen. Now he was a superhero but with that, this issue is left to be continued.

Bruce. Seriously. You're blowing it.

   Obviously a great deal of this book happens in the past. It's kind of a calling card for Tom King, who loves to jump in between events that happened long ago with blurbs of present dialogue hovering above it. It's become a habit for me to read his books two or three times before I figure out exactly what's going on, but it always eventually makes sense. That's more than a lot of comics can claim. I guess I got my three buck's worth. Either way, it's masterful as usual and I give it a 10/10.

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