Dark Knight #17 Preview/Discussion

[CBR News]

• Ethan Van Sciver's first storyline as regular artist continues as the gory details of The Mad Hatter's past are revealed!
• With The Mad Hatter kidnapping citizens all over Gotham City, not even Batman can figure what he's after.


Full article here.

[SuperCooper]

Those last four panels are possibly the most humourous thing I've seen in a Batman comic in a while.

[Brave Sir Robbin]

It looks interesting. The hats making people unknowin assasins is a nice touch. Then showing the bratty kid get one is creepy. I hope the ending isn't as over the top as the last arc. Otherwise, I am really looking forward to this.

[Officersmile1466]

So let's not forget that there's another Batman issue coming out this week. Sure it doesn't have the Joker ranting about kings or Red hood getting burned or Damian kicking the bucket, but I plan to grab it too. And not just out of pity! No, no, I actually kinda sorta enjoyed last month's issue. It had Mad Hatter needing a step ladder before he could lunge at a guy and stab his thumbs into the guy's eyes. Why do I find that both funny and disturbing?

Anyone else grabbing it this week?

[TheBalzan]

It was a great read. From start to finish strong sense of humour pervades this issue.
I'm loving this interpretation of Tetch. His back story is far more fascinating so far than I was expecting, and went down a completely different path to what you'd anticipate!
With the exception of "bataminer" Herwitz has hit the ball out of the park.
My favourite part is a visit to Gordon's office that's a little different from usual.

[Retro315]

I thought this was just great. There's loads of humor of that very classic 70s Bruce twisted humor variety. Plus Hatter is funny in his own way, sort of like a Gail Simone take on a villain. Or hell, Gail Simone's take on the Hatter back in Secret Six. I like that level of consistency. Most of all I just like a story where it's a story loaded with every old Mad Hatter trope, but played completely straight and taking a full arc's worth of space. I feel bad that the Scarecrow story didn't provide the same kind of "stock, typical, but really high-quality Batman rogue feature" - 90% of that being Finch's hideous art.

Van Sciver takes the stock story loaded with tropes and makes it memorable - every Mad Hatter classic gimmick is loaded with detail - of course we're only so far seeing the set-ups for the final gimmicks. Still, there's a load of fun ideas. Batman dusting off an older model Batplane. Mad Hatter turning an abandoned missile silo into a "Rabbit Hole" loaded with psychedelic stuff. One thing I like about Hurwitz is that he's a sucker for the old "Deathtrap House" routine, and frankly, so am I.

The psychological, flashback motivation for Hatter is nothing new, sort of a new spin on the original reasons why he kidnapped Vicki Vale, and the same old very stock "psycho backstory and motivations" like we got with Scarecrow and Penguin. SPOILER ALERT - It involves grudges from high school and parents! SHOCK! But I actually do like the notion that Hatter's dad was an actual hatter. Because I like hatters, and I like finely made hats. He's a bit stylish as super-villains go, fully embracing the fashionable nature of being a POP! villain in Gotham's nightlife.

And I like the Tweedles here quite a bit. Not to dive too far back into comparing things to Gail Simone's Secret Six, but I got a "Junior and the Flannel Twins" vibe from our villains here that was appreciated.

So good stuff, really. The simplest kind of Batman story you can tell, when done by a writer with some self-awareness who enjoys fun, games and humor in the story, combined with an artist who really needed to be on a Batman title a long time ago. A+ stuff.

[Conway]

Stop it! I was dropping this title. Don't tell me it got good all of the sudden. I don't know why I'm surprised, I knew last month that no matter what they did this arc can't be as bad as that Scarecrow debacle they just finished.

[Retro315]

I don't know why I'm surprised, I knew last month that no matter what they did this arc can't be as bad as that Scarecrow debacle they just finished.

Pretty much.

This arc feels very familiar in a good way, like a familiar kind of Batman story we all recognize but haven't seen in a while. Maybe even a little bit like Englehart/Rogers.

[Jay_Kay]

I'm just glad that Hatter's dad didn't have really anything to do with how Tetch turns into the Mad Hatter--at least, not so far. He gives advice that Jervis takes to heart later on, but not in the twisted way that Tetch does it.

[Patroklos]

This was great, easily Hurwitz' best issue since the Penguin arc. I really like how it toys with expectations and doesn't take the most obvious route in it's storytelling, it's extremely solid craftsmanship while still mixing in some truly weird imagery, like Tetch tripping on his own tea... It feels great to be exciterd over this title again after the lacklustre Scarecrow story!

[ispacehead]

I dug this issue. Very classic vibe to it.

Way to go, Hurwitz. Keep it up.

[weeks]

This was great, easily Hurwitz' best issue since the Penguin arc. I really like how it toys with expectations and doesn't take the most obvious route in it's storytelling, it's extremely solid craftsmanship while still mixing in some truly weird imagery, like Tetch tripping on his own tea... It feels great to be exciterd over this title again after the lacklustre Scarecrow story!

i want to see what happens when he drinks his rage tea!

i'm really enjoying this arc. i was very disappointed by the scarecrow arc, after loving the penguin mini. tetch is really starting to freak me out with that eye of his.

EVS is always impressive on art chores. the detail he includes in so many panels is great.

[Brave Sir Robbin]

That was a good issue. I enjoy Hurwitz's build up of the villain like he did with the Scarecrow. You get more of a feel of a chess match with Batman stalking the Hatter and the Hatter hatching his plot. I also like Hurwitz's portrayal of Bruce Wayne. In this issue, he gets to be funny and calculating. This is going well.

[RoughNTumble]

I came into this issue thinking 'this is where it probably starts to go downhill,' yet I was shocked to find myself laughing at the book repeatedly. And not in a bad way. It's taken a completely unexpected turn and become a little more lighthearted and silly.

I'm really digging this much more than the scarecrow arc, and I love that mad hatter is being treated seriously with a cool lair, and the whole 'deathtrap' thing like retro mentioned.

Good stuff. I think he might stick the landing this time.

[Officersmile1466]

Really impressed with how fun this issue was. Such a relief to have a back story for a villain that doesn't boil down to "He was crazy from birth!" I'm curious to see where they're going in Mad Hatter's past.

That scene with the boy was fantastic. I think he was completely oblivious the whole time.

Has no one done Gordon assuming Batman has disappeared only to have him still there? I've never read that before but I'd be shocked if it's never been done before. It was really funny here.

I thought that getting Hurwitz on would revitalize this comic but I guess getting David Finch off is what did it in the end.