Ed Brubaker is a writer known these days for his long runs on Marvel's Captain America (where he introduced the resurrected Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier) and Daredevil, as well as his creator owned material such as Criminal, Fatale and Incognito. However, in the early to mid-2000's he was a DC guy, working on a number of Batman related titles, including the flagship Batman comic and defining runs on Catwoman and Gotham Central. The Man Who Laughs is Brubaker and artist Doug Mahnke's retelling of the very first Joker story, a modernised version of Batman #1 from 1940. It serves as a neat companion piece to both The Killing Joke, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's masterpiece from 1988, and also as a semi-sequel to Frank Miller's Year One. Brubaker and Mahnke present a horrific vision of The Joker, a homicidal clown who is somehow able to broadcast the names of his victims ahead of time, and even predict their exact times of death. The story presents Joker as a truly intellectual villain with an aptitude for chemistry that he uses to deadly effect. He delights in his game of challenging Batman and the GCPD with knowledge of his crimes and watching as they strive to stop him somehow. Brubaker knows that Joker is a top villain not because he can match Batman in a fight, but because they can engage in a battle of wits. Mahnke's artwork is astounding, lending the story of a sense of petrifying authenticity. We reckon his depiction of the Joker is one of the very best and he brings a frightening zeal to his pages of the disfigured victims of Joker's gas attacks.
