Batman: The Man Who Laughs (Comics) | Review

A warehouse full of corpses with chalk-white skin, green hair and frozen grins. That's how Gotham meets the Joker for the very first time and that's how Batman realizes organized crime was just the warm-up act for something far worse and more unpredictable than he imagined.

Published in February 2005 by writer Ed Brubaker (Batman: War Games, Daredevil: Hell to Pay) and artist Doug Mahnke (JLA: The Obsidian Age, JLA: Trial by Fire), this prestige format one-shot functions as the spiritual successor to Batman: Year One. Set roughly one year after Batman's debut, it chronicles his first meeting with Joker.

The story draws heavily from Joker's original 1940 appearance in Batman #1 while modernizing the terror for contemporary readers. What Brubaker delivers isn't just another origin retelling but a methodical crime thriller that establishes why he became Batman's defining nemesis.

Captain James Gordon stands in an abandoned factory surrounded by bodies. All wear the same grotesque expression: chalk-white faces stretched into permanent grins with green hair and red lips. Batman confirms Gordon's fear. These victims were practice runs for something bigger.

The investigation starts before the killer announces himself. A news reporter broadcasting from Arkham Asylum's reopening suddenly laughs uncontrollably, then dies on camera with that horrifying grin. A disfigured man hijacks the broadcast, calling himself Joker, promising to kill rich businessman Henry Claridge by midnight.

Gordon stations officers at Claridge's mansion but Batman arrives too late. Claridge dies laughing, face twisted into that rictus. Meanwhile, Joker storms Williams Medical Center, kills guards, releases armed inmates onto Gotham's streets. Batman stops several in public view.

Bruce investigates in the Batcave while Joker hijacks television again, threatening industrialist Jay Wilde. Batman deduces the murder weapon: time-released poison delivered hours before the scheduled killing. Wilde dies before help arrives. The pattern becomes clear now.

Wealthy industrialists connected to Ace Chemical Processing, the plant whose toxic waste can turn skin chalk-white and hair green. Batman realizes Joker is the Red Hood, the criminal who dove into Ace Chemical's disposal tanks months earlier to escape capture. The chemicals have fully disfigured him. Now he's exacting revenge.

The Joker announces his next two targets: Judge Thomas Lake and Bruce Wayne. Police guard both locations. Bruce intentionally poisons himself with a non-lethal dose of the toxin, turning his skin white to escape police custody. Alfred slows his heart rate temporarily.

While Bruce hallucinates about his parents' murder, armed men dressed as clowns assault Lake's property. Batman recovers in an ambulance, changes into the Batsuit and defeats the goons when they ambush the vehicle. He contacts Gordon via radio, explaining Joker's true objective: poisoning Gotham's water supply.

Batman races to the reservoir where Joker's already contaminated the water. Batman rigged the viaduct with explosives beforehand, detonating it and stopping the poisoned water from reaching the city. He defeats Joker in hand-to-hand combat but spares him eventually.

The story ends with Gordon unveiling the Bat-Signal for the first time. What started as one man's vendetta against Batman has now created an official partnership between the Dark Knight and the GCPD. The Joker didn't just lose this round, he essentially changed Gotham's approach to organized crime and vigilantism.

This one-shot connects directly to Batman: Year One and bridges later stories. The beginning ties into Batman and the Mad Monk, where Gordon discovers the warehouse of corpses. Death of the Family references this story, with Joker recreating his first crimes with twisted variations.

Brubaker's take influenced Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy significantly. The publicized assassinations, Arkham inmates as pawns and poisoned water supply all appeared in Batman Begins. This story established key elements that became standard across Batman media.

Doug Mahnke's artwork captures the horror of Joker's crimes without crossing into gratuitous gore. His style leans cinematic, excelling at depicting corpses with rigor mortis stiffness while keeping Batman's movements fluid. The contrast works brilliantly, showing death as permanent while Batman remains kinetic and fully alive.

David Baron's colors feel inconsistent at times, with overly thick blood and greenish victim skin tones that clash with the darker pencil work but they serve the story's unsettling atmosphere. Mahnke's facial expressions capture genuine terror in victims' final moments.

Brubaker's writing is methodical and grounded, treating Joker as a terrorist rather than a cackling cartoon villain. The dialogue feels hardboiled, especially between Batman and Gordon. Joker strikes a balance between theatrical showman and genuine threat, somewhere between Cesar Romero's camp and Heath Ledger's menace.

The pacing never drags. Brubaker moves through the investigation efficiently, each scene adding new information or raising the stakes. The plot stays simple but unpredictable. For a prestige one-shot, the story succeeds by focusing on atmosphere and character over spectacle.

The Man Who Laughs delivers a chilling, grounded take on Batman's first encounter with his greatest enemy. Brubaker and Mahnke craft a crime thriller that respects the source material while modernizing the terror. Joker feels genuinely dangerous here, a methodical terrorist who uses chaos as a weapon rather than punchline.

The biggest strength? This isn't trying to reinvent Joker or add unnecessary complexity to his origin. Brubaker asks: what would Batman's first Joker encounter feel like? The answer is terrifying. Mahnke's art finds the sweet spot between detailed realism and stylized horror.

Still, this is essential reading for Batman and Joker fans. It's not quite on the level of The Killing Joke or The Dark Knight Returns in terms of cultural impact but it serves as a worthy companion piece. Brubaker understands what makes The Joker work: unpredictability, showmanship and genuine lethality with theatrical presentation.

Worth grabbing for anyone interested in early Batman continuity or definitive Joker stories. Not revolutionary but expertly crafted and unsettling in the right ways. If you want to understand why Joker became Batman's ultimate nemesis, this is where that relationship truly begins.

Batman: The Man Who Laughs is available to purchase in the Deluxe Edition hardcover and in various Batman/Joker themed trade paperbacks. You can also read it digitally on Amazon Kindle, ComiXology, DC Universe Infinite and standard digital storefronts.