Batman: The Man Who Laughs

Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a one-shot prestige format comic book by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke, released in February 2005, and intended as a successor to Batman: Year One.

It tells the story of Batman's first encounter with the Joker in post-Crisis continuity. The plot is based on the Joker's original introduction in Batman #1 (1940). The story "Images" in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #50 (September 1993), is another, alternate take on the same story.

The title is a reference to the movie The Man Who Laughs, whose main character, played by Conrad Veidt, was one of the original inspirations for The Joker.

The story has been reprinted, in both hard and softcover, with Detective Comics #784–786—a storyline entitled "Made of Wood" (pairing Batman with the Green Lantern Alan Scott,) also written by Brubaker with art by Patrick Zircher.

Plot summary
Captain James Gordon and other officers are investigating a building filled with mutilated corpses. Batman enters and converses with Gordon. Next, Bruce Wayne is seen at a social event talking to fellow millionaire Henry Claridge. On a TV in the next room, a reporter is overheard announcing that Arkham Asylum is being reopened. She suddenly begins laughing and soon dies with a face similar to the mutilated corpses at the building. The Joker (who has not yet been given the name the media bestowed upon him) walks onto camera and announces he will kill Claridge at midnight.

Bruce leaves the party and meets up with Gordon as Batman at Arkham Asylum. On a cell wall, the Joker wrote "One by One, they'll hear my call. Then this wicked town, will follow my fall." Gordon then has police stationed in Claridge's house to protect him. Claridge begins laughing as his face turns pale white. Batman crashes down through a window, but is too late to save Claridge. Meanwhile on the streets of Gotham, the Joker enters the Williams Medical Center. After killing the security guards, he arms the inmates and releases them on the streets. Batman arrives and stops several inmates, and reveals his existence to the people on the streets.

While Bruce is researching in the Batcave, the Joker appears on television again to make a similar threat, this time on Jay W. Wilde. Batman deduces that Claridge was killed with a time-released poison and tells Gordon to run a blood test on Wilde. Gordon does so, but nothing is found. Gordon is at Wilde's estate with other officers when a police helicopter crashes outside the estate. The Joker then appears and releases poison smoke bombs into the building (all of the officers and Batman have gas masks.) Batman captures the Joker, but he escapes and Wilde is killed.

Bruce then disguises himself as a reporter and goes to the Ace Chemical Processing Plant. While undercover, he interviews several workers, one of whom has patches of white on his face similar to the Joker's skin. When asked about his appearance, the worker replies that it came from the chemical waste created from the plant spilling onto his face, and goes on to mention that another worker, who had stuck his entire hand into a vat of the waste, had dyed his arm hairs green.

The Joker makes another television appearance with a similar threat. This time, he plans to kill Judge Thomas Lake and Bruce Wayne. Police officers are at both men's houses; however, Gordon is at Lake's. Bruce starts laughing and turns white, but his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, administers a shot to slow his heart rate to slow the spread of the poison. Meanwhile, a gang of armed men dressed as clowns drive onto Lake's property where a shoot-out takes place. Bruce, while under the poison, hallucinates of the night his parents were murdered. He awakes, fully recovered, in an ambulance. Another gang of armed men dressed as clowns shoot at the ambulance. Bruce dresses up as Batman, exits the ambulance unnoticed and defeats the clowns.

Batman takes a police motorcycle and contacts Gordon via radio. He tells Gordon that Bruce Wayne is alive and that he figured out the Joker's plan. He tells Gordon to have the water to the city shut off. Gordon contacts the reservoir, but receives no answer. Batman heads there himself to stop the Joker from poisoning the water supply. He takes out the Joker's clown-thugs. Batman meets up with the Joker, who successfully poisons the city's water supply, but Batman, having previously rigged the viaduct with explosives, detonates it, preventing the poisoned water from going into the city. Batman engages in a quick fight with the Joker, defeats him by disarming his hammer, and briefly contemplates dropping him into the poisoned water to avenge all those whom he killed. However, he cannot bring himself to do so, and instead has the Joker imprisoned at the newly reopened Arkham Asylum. Batman meets with Gordon on top of police headquarters and unveils to him the new Bat-Signal.

Continuity
While the story seems to take place directly after Year One, the beginning is tied into the ending of Batman and the Mad Monk, in which Gordon reveals the warehouse of corpses.

Critical reaction
Critical reaction to The Man Who Laughs has been mostly positive. Hilary Goldstein of IGN Comics said that The Man Who Laughs "lack[s] the smooth pacing and adept dialogue of Moore's The Killing Joke, [but] this is a worthy companion to the classic Joker tale." Goldstein added, "Brubaker's take on the Joker feels incredibly authentic." Goldstein later ranked The Man Who Laughs #24 on a list of the 25 best Batman graphic novels.

Don MacPherson of The Fourth Rail felt that The Man Who Laughs "rob[s] the Joker of some of his mystery" but said that Brubaker and Mahnke "capture the chilling nature of the Joker's insanity and bloodlust, not to mention the intensity of the Batman." MacPherson in particular praised "how well [Brubaker] brings Jim Gordon to life."

Characters

 * Bruce Wayne/Batman
 * James Gordon
 * Joker
 * Alfred Pennyworth
 * Jack Grogan