Tuesday 11 January 2011

Comics Greatest Moments #10

Detective Comics #741


February 2000

"End Game Part 3: Sleep In Heavenly Peace"

By Devin Grayson, Greg Rucka, Dale Eaglesham and Damion Scott

How do you celebrate Christmas in Gotham City? For most inhabitants of the urban hell-hole, the answer to that question was to enjoy the re-opening of the city in the wake of No Man's Land, but with a few days still to go before the big moment, the Joker decided to wreck havoc with his own celebrations. How does the Joker celebrate Christmas? By kidnapping newborn babies, of course, and threatening to kill them all. Disturbing, right? But how do you make it more disturbing? Have him settle for murdering the Police Commissioner's beloved wife as she tries to rescue said babies? Now you're talking.


Smile turned to frown, the brutality of the moment was not lost on the Clown Prince of Crime, who grimly left the corpse of his latest victim amongst the gaggle of kidnapped newborns. In the ensuing chaos, he turned himself in to the law and became the punch-bag of Gordon, distraught at his wife's passing.

And then Batman decided he'd had enough. He was going to let Gordon murder the Joker. So, instead, Gordon blew out his kneecaps. It's one of the most emotionally devastating sequences in recent comic book lore, and the moment when the Joker re-asserted himself as a true psychopath, ready for the twenty-first century.

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