Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1: The Odd Couple

Readers have been waiting for Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo since 2018, and after reading issue #1, the wait was worth it. Marc Silvestri’s long-awaited team-up book is packed with stunning art and smart writing cover to cover. As I was reading, Silvestri’s art immediately brought me back to my early days of reading comics. In the late 90s and early 2000s, I remember finding Image and Top Cow books in the long boxes in the back of my local comic book shop. I was just a kid and had no idea what significance Image had just a few years before. Silvestri’s art still looks incredible and it shows in Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1. The amount of detail that he put into this book is astounding. The crosshatching alone shows how much care Silvestri is putting into this book. From what I am seeing so far, this is the kind of book that shouldn’t be rushed. Arif Prianto does great work coloring Silvestri’s inks. Prianto brings a lot of life to the book, especially Gotham, and a lot of the time it brings details that might be missed. Silvestri’s inks alone would be an incredible book, but the colors really do add to its enjoyability. 

The book starts as a classic Batman detective story, which I really enjoyed. I always love seeing Batman doing some good old fashion detective work, like removing a bullet from the wall with tweezers. At the same time, there is some amazing over-the-top action. I especially love the way Silvestri illustrates Batman’s capes. They are monstrous with minds of their own in true 90s comic book fashion. Troy Peteri’s lettering should also be praised. The onomatopoeias throughout the book are well-placed and chosen. At one point, the strange Jokerfied beast that Batman is pursuing is being shot at in some type of boiler room. The combination of the gunshot sounds plus the sounds of the bullets ricocheting off of the boiler pipes adds so much to the sequence. His lettering shines in Batman’s narration box and speech bubbles and Joker’s speech bubbles. The highlight of the issue is easily Joker and Batman’s interaction toward the end of the issue, which gives us the formation of the Deadly Duo.