Written by: Scott Snyder
Art by: Greg Capullo
Publisher: DC Comics
*WARNING: this review contains major spoilers*
It’s really hard to impact comic readers nowadays, we seem to be a cynical bunch who have pretty much seen it all. This is especially true for mainstream comics which often fall on repeating patterns and safe, dependable status quos. Every now and then though, you’ll get a team like Snyder and Capullo who have such a deep passion for comics, storytelling and the characters in general that an issue featuring over 75 year old characters like Batman and The Joker can lead to one of the most brilliant, powerful and shocking comics to come out in modern years.
This issue serves as the final chapter of Endgame, and is an absolutely stellar ending. From the very beginning there’s a very big and epic quality to the story, with the bat-family working side by side with a team of villains, there’s a real sense of finality to the issue, as if this could really be the last issue of Batman. There’s a great mix of desperation, fear, hope and action all mixed into the perfect superhero cocktail. I’ll admit I’ve never been much of a fan of Batman/Joker stories, never really feeling why he was such a threat of why people loved their relationship, but Snyder has managed to completely change my opinion over the course of this arc and especially in this finale. This finale really portrays The Joker as Batman’s equal in ways I’ve never witnessed before; a lot of the series so far has felt like Bruce coming to terms with him not knowing his city as well as he thought, this feels very much like a natural end point in that we are finally exposed to the Joker’s city. It’s a great way to respect their prior relationship while simultaneously adding new layers to a classic story, creating that new feeling to old character writers find very hard to balance. You really feel everything these characters have been through during their finale battle with the feeling of desperation and rawness increasing as the battle commences.
What makes so much of this battle epic and impactful is the always outstanding art of Greg Capullo. The art feels so powerful and on such a grand yet personal scale, like with Snyder’s writing you get the sense of all these characters have been through in the portrayal and sheer brutality of their fight. It’s a really intense brawl that feels really engrossing and sucks you completely into the events you’ll be hard pressed to put the book down while reading it. What I especially love as well as the cinematic style is the slight touches such as the Joker stabbing a smiling face into Batman’s back, it’s the attention to detail Capullo pays to such big stuff that really makes the book so beautiful and worth pouring over again and again.
Of course, while the issue itself stands on its own legs in terms of quality, I’d be remiss to not mention the ending that’s got the internet talking. For those who don’t know, the battle between Batman and the Joker ends with the two seemingly beating each other to death and then being crushed under an exploding tunnel system. While I’m sure many ae confidently sitting back saying “it’s comics! They’re not really dead!” with a smug grin on their face, they seem to be missing the point of this ending. The deaths feel like a very natural ending to the story, like I said it feels like this could be the last Batman story, and thinking over this arc I see no other way this could’ve ended. Despite this, this issue still feels like an entirely unexpected game changer and I have huge respect for Snyder for having the cuts to do something like this. While there has been much talk about the upcoming status quo shift, this doesn’t actually feel forced at all and feels like a very natural end point to this story and actually makes me excited for what’s coming next. It’s very hard to pull off a game-changer such as this without it feeling contrived, it’d take the hardest cynic however to find fault in this issue or the way it handles the change. I have personally chosen to not read the spoilers about the upcoming new Batman, so after this I’m now more excited than ever to read what comes next, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what comics should be all about?
So if it isn’t already clear, Batman #40 is a modern day masterpiece of comics. Snyder and Capullo have been mind-bogglingly good so far but Endgame is the best thing the two have put their name to. This ending stands well on its own as an epic portrayal of a hero and his nemesis, but the gutsy ending by Snyder ensures this will remain a classic comic talked about for years. Snyder and Capullo have raised the bar for Batman comics and most superhero comics in general, this is an absolutely outstanding comics that shows how classic tried and true characters can still lead to some of the most shocking and impactful comics after such a long time.
