Author: Kevin Smith
Penciller: Walt Flanagan
Inker: Sandra Hope
Colors: Guy Major
Cover: Adam Kubert

Finally it’s the return of one of the most of interesting characters from Green Arrow’s list of villains. Ohh yeah and it’s also the return of Kevin Smith to comics. Let’s hope these three issues are already in the bag and ready to print. At first glance, I thought it was Kelly Jones that drew that cover, so I was a little surprised to see Adam Kubert’s name attached to it. I say Onomatopoeia should have been on the cover of that first issue.

That’s right! It’s the return of Onomatopoeia and the very much demanded return of Maxie Zeus. Hellz yeah! Those three Maxie Zeus fans are going to shit their pants when they find out that guy is back! Deadshot is hired to kill the Joker for the murder of a kid, even though it turns out that Maxie Zeus was the one selling the “chuckles”, but is stopped by Onomatopoeia, who helps the Joker escape and even hooks him up with some money. Batman has a confrontation with Zsasz and Onomatopoeia seems to want to start a gang war.

Not sure how I feel about this whole project. It seems that Kevin Smith can change his mind and come back and write comics any time he wants. He can also bring his friends who are a little artistically inclined along for the ride. I enjoyed the hell out of Green Arrow and Daredevil, but those Black Cat/Spiderman and Bullseye stories really showed that Smith could write some bad comics. This is somewhere in the middle. While I find the character of Ono really interesting, I’m with the Joker and that fucker gets to be annoying after a while. We really don’t know what drives this character and what his purpose is. I know Smith created the character and no one has done anything with him since his appearance in GA, so I’m hoping we get some glimpses of his past.

It’s really hard to swallow the idea of Arkham Asylum letting their front gate guards go because no one would want to break in. His Joker and Batman seem a bit off. Joker doesn’t act as threatening as other interpretations of him, but the whole butt sex joke, just seemed out of place, even for the Joker. Batman’s inner monologue just seems like a mix of several different people’s take on the character. The Deadshot faking his death was pretty tight though. Hell, the whole confrontation between Joker and Deadshot was on point. The idea of the “Chuckles” drug is damn solid. Just when I thought Smith found his groove, something would pop back up to remind me not to get too used to it.

So, along for this comic book of a ride we get the Fanboy from the View Askew universe; Walter Flanagan as an artist. Who I do think is only doing this because his friend is writing it. I’m not saying that Flanagan is a bad artist; I just don’t think he is the man for this project. Even though Sandra Hope’s inks really clean up his artwork his artwork still seems too cartoony for a story like this. Particularly the scene where Zsasz kills that couple and tries to do the same with their kids. It just doesn’t seem like his art is meant for a dark setting. Believe it or not after all those bad points I brought up, I can see fans of the Bat-Family really enjoying this book. As for me, I’ll stick around for all three issues and hope to get some light on some things.
C+