BATMAN: CACOPHONY comes to a close with issue 3, and it ends entirely differently than I ever could have imagined.
Kevin Smith set things up at the end of issue 2 for an all-action ending between Batman, The Joker, and hero-killing assassin Onomatopoeia on the Gotham P.D. rooftop. But the confrontation here ends quickly, shockingly, and perhaps frustratingly for readers of the first two issues who had a certain kind of resolution in mind.
The outcome of the rooftop fight is relatively stale territory for Batman and Gordon, and then the book jumps forward five months to focus almost entirely on Batman and The Joker. It's a conversation they've had before, but Smith adds in a few little twists to make it all his own. For the most part it works, except maybe for an odd visual choice artist Walter Flanagan uses for The Joker that will remind you of a certain Steven Segal movie that involves a similar circumstance. (You just have to see it to believe it.)
We don't necessarily find out who Onomatopoeia is, but we do find out what he is. (It's not nearly as dramatic as it sounds.) And we also come away with a very strong feeling that he'll be back. My feeling as I read the ending was that I didn't want more of him later. I wanted more of him now, and I didn't get it.
The first issue of this series was very unique. Batman got a massively heroic (and iconic) moment saving some children from Mr. Zsasz, The Joker got a decidedly Kevin Smith spin (even if the gay jokes, sex jokes, and gay sex jokes were a bit much), Onomatopoeia's spoken sound effects were hilariously integrated into the story, and the losing struggle by former Gotham costumed villain Maxie Zeus to keep his bad side in check was particularly entertaining. (That first issue has one of the best two-panel endings I've ever seen in a Batman comic, and possibly the funniest that I've ever seen in any.)
The second issue wasn't quite as good because it didn't have as many quirks as the first, and this issue slides even deeper into generic territory. (The means aren't necessarily generic, but the results are.) And that's not necessarily a negative, because Smith's take on the Batman/Joker relationship is written well enough. It just doesn't feel like anything new, and it doesn't feel like the kind of crazy, unpredictable Kevin Smith ending that the first issue of this series suggested we'd get.
This three-parter was a solid read with some fun ideas, lots of clever execution, and some nice surprises. I think I was just hoping that the final two issues would be as unbridled and as wild a ride as the first.
(There's also a MASSIVE slap in the face of the Batman fan in this issue, but it's not something Kevin Smith wrote. On the DC Nation page in the back, it says, "Follow the adventures of Bruce Wayne as Batman in SUPERMAN/BATMAN and BRAVE AND THE BOLD." Thanks for reminding us, DC. And give us back our Batman…PLEASE.) - John Bierly
