I don't get it.
>>154978495One of the finest superhero books to ever grace a bookshelf.
>>154978695>superhero book>look inside>it's about a deranged schizo calling himself Batman who stabs himself for no reason and needs a woman to save him at the end of the bookSome "superhero".
I've tried multiple times to read it, but I don't really dig the art. I fucking HATE the text font.
>>154978495It's a bit unreadable at times.
>>154978910>>154979108Gaspar Saladino was a veteran letterer by this point.
It's all a dream.
>>154978495It's okay.
>>154979342Learning the letterer was a 40 year veteran by then blew my mind. It’s like if Frank Sinatra was able to do heavy metal. Just not something you’d expect of the old guard.
>>154978495It’s just not very good, there’s nothing to get. The type of people who love it dont actually like comics.
>>154979342This isnt lettering this is title design which is more akin to logo design.
>>154980780Wasn't this a best seller?
I remember it for its script being so detailed and layer and then Morrison years later saying about it isnt important who changes the batmobile tyres when he spent a whole storyline plotting out all these Freudian/psychological issues as shown in the anniversary version
>>154981301It released a few months after the first Tim Burton Batman movie. Everything Batman related got a sales boost at that time from Bat Mania.I know Grant Morrison got a big paycheck from the residuals. DC called him after it released and opened the phone call with "Congratulations Grant, you're a millionaire."
>>154981562So all the people who bought it and glaze it don't actually like comics?
>>154980794but he also did lettering for 60 years too.
>>154982462
>>154978495Joker wants to fuck (get fucked by) Batman
>>154982447Ignore that retard. He thinks that comics = serialized capeshit. That faggot doesn't actually like comics, he likes superhero IPs.
>>154978495>I don't get it.
>>154978495dumbass
>>154978495why did the Jonlker slap Batman’s ass?
>>154986981That's all of /co/ these days. If it's not low brow capeshit then it's bad.
>>154981305Holy shit you are so dumb I actually laughed.
>>154983944>>154982462So why not post an example of that? >Shohei ohtani is a great hitter>show picture of him pitching Would be retarded
>>154978695>>154978495It’s very pretentious which is why so many people like it.
>>154989536From my experience people who call stuff pretentious are just retards that consume Sesame Street level shit, and think you’re pretending if you don’t like the same stuff as them
>>154981305Dies the script explain why Black Mask has such an important role in the first half (being co leader of the riot alongside Joker) only to not only vanish from the story midway through but also doesn't even get a mini psych profile bit? Morrison even went out of his way to revamp Roman's look, giving him a faceless black hood and making Joker respect him enough to co-lead the robot them he just vanished.
>>154989691IIRC editorial demanded a major role for Black Mask and he was supposed to in the end, be revealed to be trapped in Arkham as his doctors think he's crazy but he's really sane.But the editor in question then vetoed Grant making Joker a crossdresser (dressing like Madonna complete with cone shaped bra) so in retaliation, he had Black Mask vanish from the story midway through and his final fate given to an obscure Bat villain Professor Milo instead.
>>154987733To make him uncomfortable.>>154989536It's not pretentious. It is incredibly esoteric though.
>>154989731I love hearing stuff like this because it breaks the illusion that these stories are grand works of deliberate art/prose. It's just a product made by several competing hands.
>>154989861Morrison had to abide by the corporation's rules but he was not making "product."
>>154989536It's for people who think themselves smarter when they read a comics with a "mummundrai" rather than a comics with an "evil twin"
>>154990023He quite clearly didn't if he spited them for not going with an idea of his and ruined a character mandate over it. The original plot was compromised.
>>154990201It's not that big of a deal, and that anon was also misremembering. Black Mask is right there at the end blaming Joker for the mess they're in and he does have a profile at the end, it's just left blank because he refuses to participate.
Why do people hate comics and writers that try?
>>154991693A lot of people just want straight-forward easy-to-understand adventures when they read superhero books. I can understand the frustration when one expects that and gets tricked into reading a surreal Vertigo hipster book because people will just recommend things without providing any additional context.
>>154991919The problem is that those people you're referring to hate the very idea of the alternative existing. Nobody is tricking you into reading anything unless you're a "must read everything" autist, but throwing a bitchfit that different types of comics from the shallow crap you like is very childish.
>>154991919>picBut that's fun, though. It's just a little Easter egg.>>154992310I do notice this as well. Some people go out of their way to curse these less straightforward comics.
>>154991693Trying is for fags.
>>154978495McKean got worse at making covers.
>>154994484Those who don't try take it up the ass.
>>154978495What's not to get?
Arkham Asylum before the game came out years later.Morrison is still a faggot though.
>>154996843>Morrison is still a faggot though.Why do you say that?
>>154978495I do.
there's nothing to get, literally. there's no allegory.
>>154978495Beautifully illustrated crap.
>>154989613True, there are a lot of midwits who use “pretentious” as a way of explaining away popular things they don’t like. Apparently just saying it didn’t appeal to them isn’t good enough.
>>154978495Wonderfully written eyesore.
>>154986981He's not wrong though. The type of reader who praises stories likes Arkham Asylum care more about the perception of comics as an artform than the story's own merit.
>>154999309>t. didn't get it either
>>154978695never liked it
>>154978495Apply yourself
>>155000515He is wrong, though, and you just helped my case. People who care about art usually want something to be good, whereas that guy will read and praise bad shit because his favorite character wins at the end.
Like everything that morrison does, it tries to be deep + experimental. Instead, it's silly and boring
>>154999330The writing is completely unremarkable. Connecting Batman characters to Jungian archetypes is impressively pointless.
I understand all the literary and occult symbolism in this. Even if I didn't, it's all there to be explained by Morrison. It doesn't mean it has a reason to exist. It's as bad as The Killing Joke - stories which try to impart some poetic significance onto Batman always read as overblown and pompous.
>>155001619>It's as bad as The Killing JokeStopped reading there
>>155001631This. TKJ is way worse
>>154978495I'll explain it when you're older, champ ;)
>>154999285Do you?
>>155001619>>155001807TKJ is much better.
>>155003715True
>>155003715False
>>154991919>>154987910
>>155006771BTFO
>>155003715Without the red hood shit it’s kino. Giving the joker a backstory is pretty gay
>>155007695To me, it's a phony backstory, daydreamed by a madman. Whatever chemical imbalance he's got going on created this tragic backstory, possibly because he was feeling sensitive, possibly based on similar events.
>>155007695The story is nothing without the villain's motivation.
>>155007695Joker is an unreliable narrator and even admits in the story that he can't be trusted. "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another."
>>155008127Moore only did that because he was retconning >>155007770The story was written in 1985, there was no reboot yet.
>>154978495I'm too pretentious for this comic.
>>155009117We all are, anon. We all are.
>>155008127This moment is only Joker talking about his recollection, the backstory that is shown to the reader is presented as fact.
>>155009117It's enjoyable for the artstyle, but story-wise it isn't very memorable.This moment is arguably the most memorable part of the whole book.
I'M GOING INSAAAAAANE
>>155010619A bit homophobic there bats
>>155008127So what could his actual backstory be based on what we know of joker? >invented his own neurotoxin >criminal mastermind>crafty tinkerer Maybe he was a chemist addicted to his own concoctions, and eventually became jokerized from it? Kinda like a Walter white who got addicted to his own supply and developed psychosis
>>155011654Based Bats.
>>154997653he was being literal so don't be insulted.