Batman #23.1

   DC has certainly made this week interesting.

   To tie in to the Forever Evil mini-series (we'll review the first issue in two days), they took a stack of their regular titles and used them to highlight some of each hero's greatest villains - for example, this issue of Batman has been turned over to The Joker.

   To make it even more enticing, each issue is available with a lenticular (3D) cover - if you can find one.

   DC somehow shorted almost every comic shop's order across the country for the 3D covers - my shop, for example, ordered 45 copies of each - and received 11.

   Which means - I didn't get one.

   But that's ok, because I really didn't want one - I'm long past the holograph / metal embossed / signed cover / special collector's item phase of collecting. I just want to read the durn thing.

    But since I'm not really interested in most of the villains, I only picked up a couple of this week's offerings - and judging by this issue, I'm glad I passed on most of them.

   I'll give the creative team credit - they tried to come up with a strong flashback story that would showcase the Joker's insanity but not chase off the readers.

   It succeeded on the former, but not the latter. The story is loaded with enough murder and cruelty to satisfy any horror fan, as the Joker vents his murderous hijinks on an army of victims - and one especially innocent creature.

    It's vile and disturbing - not my cuppa tea at all.

   My sense of it is that this sales stunt didn't work. I could be wrong, of course, but I saw a lot of issues sitting on the shelf. The only one I saw picking them up was yours truly - and I put most of them back.

   I wish I had left this one there, too.

Grade: C+

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