Description

Batman: The Man Who Laughs                 Sealed Hardcover
Cover by: Doug Mahnke & David Baron

Witness Batman’s first encounter with The Joker in this hardcover volume collecting the graphic novel Batman: The Man Who Laughs, by Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke! This collection also includes a murder-mystery tale guest-starring Green Lantern Alan Scott!

Batman: The Man Who Laughs contains:

“The Man Who Laughs”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Doug Mahnke
Colorist: David Baron
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Mike Carlin & Michael Siglain

Captain James “Jim” Gordon and other officers are investigating a building filled with mutilated corpses. Batman enters and converses with Gordon. Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, is 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 in a hysterical manner as her skin turns white and soon dies in a similar fashion as the mutilated corpses in the building. Joker (who has not yet taken the title) walks in front of the 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, Joker had written “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. As Claridge begins laughing while 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, 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. 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, where he (as Batman) had a confrontation with The Red Hood, who jumped into a vat of chemicals to escape from Batman. Bruce discovers that a worker had his skin bleached and hair turned green when some acid dripped onto him. Joker makes another television appearance with a similar threat. This time, he plans to kill Judge Thomas Lake and Bruce Wayne in the same night. 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 in order 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 and 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 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 Joker from poisoning the water supply. He takes out Joker’s clown-thugs. Batman meets up with Joker, who has rigged the viaduct with explosives, and detonates it, preventing the poisoned water from going into the city. Batman engages in a fight with Joker, defeats him, and has him imprisoned at the newly reopened Arkham Asylum. Batman meets with Gordon on top of Police Headquarters and unveils to him the new Bat-Signal.
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“Made of Wood, Part One”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Inker: Aaron Sowd
Colorist: Wildstorm FX’s Jason Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editors: Bob Schreck & Michael Wright

When taking his early morning constitutional, James Gordon stumbles across a body at the foot of the statue to the original Green Lantern, with ‘Made of Wood’ carved into the corpse’s chest. He and Batman are anxious to get to the bottom of the situation, as are the police department and Green Lantern himself, who remembers a quintet of similar murders from 1948, which were obviously directed at him. As Batman discovers the killer’s den in an abandoned factory, Green Lantern makes his presence known.
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“Made of Wood, Part Two”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Inker: Aaron Sowd
Colorist: Wildstorm FX’s Jason Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editors: Bob Schreck & Michael Wright

Batman and Green Lantern work together to track down possible leads on the Made of Wood killing, including the victim’s link to the Four Corners Clovers, an Irish gang. They discover that the leader of the gang is missing, and has been for several days; he is soon found dead in an alleyway, with the same message, ‘Made of Wood’, carved in his chest. James Gordon, the former commissioner, is also determined to crack the case, by working on the old murders from 1948, surmising that they stopped because the killer either died or was incarcerated. He starts tracking down those who knew people who match this profile, and is attacked by one of them, one Francis Sullivan, and knocked unconscious.
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“Made of Wood, Part Three”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Inkers: Steve Bird & Aaron Sowd
Colorist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editors: Bob Schreck & Michael Wright

Oracle contacts Batman and Green Lantern with the worrying news that her father has gone missing while investigating the Made of Wood killer case. While James Gordon is at the killer’s mercy, Batman uses his detective skills to track him down, with assistance from Green Lantern. They learn that the original Made in Wood killer was an immigrant who witnessed his shop burned down in the aftermath of a battle between Green Lantern and Sportsmaster. He had seen a humble baseball bat take Green Lantern down, so carved the message ‘Made in Wood’ into the body of the mayor and other people. Now his grandson has taken up his modus operandi and intends to make Jame Gordon his next victim. But Batman and Green Lantern arrive in time to save him, though Green Lantern still regrets his inability to do anything all those years ago.
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Hardcover reprints/collects: Batman: The Man Who Laughs (2005) & Detective Comics (2003) Issues #784-786.  DC Comics

Sealed Hardcover is bagged & boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 2008
Format: FC, 144 pages, HC, 10″ x 7″
ISBN-10: 1401216226
ISBN-13: 9781401216221

Collectible Entertainment note: Hardcover is Brand New & Factory Sealed.  Very Fine + condition.  Beautiful!  Please see scans!!  A must have for any serious Batman and/or Joker collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Very Highly Recommended.

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