I just picked up a copy of A Death of the Family the book and mask gift set. I must say that I am very impressed with both the story and the mask. Before I get into the reason as to why I am impressed, I have not picked up or read a DC Comic in over a year. So I was just browsing in a store and saw the mask and the book together and decided to give it a shot and purchased it.
I know everybody wants to talk about the trade paper back but before we get into that the gift box comes with a mask. The mask is the Joker’s face. It not just any face of the Joker’s but it is the creepiest face that has ever graced DC Comics. The mask has the Jokers teeth just smiling, sinisterly, with his gums exposed. But your eyes are drawn to his yellowish brown teeth that compliment his bright red lips that send shivers up your spine as you look and want to turn away but you can’t. Then there is the white skin that the Joker is so famous for having. The skin is wrinkled as if the face has been worn before further adding to the creepiness. Contrasting his white skin are silver hooks holding certain components of his face open in particular his sinister gums, and rotting teethed mouth. Next to his eyes what appears to be 3 metal brackets fuse together the Joker’s skin and his face that he has just recovered from the Gotham city police department. Where the Joker’s face meets his hair it looks like a piece of his face is peeling off as muscles underneath his face are exposed. Finally to top the mask off he has green hair, just like the traditional Joker and when the mask is worn the hair fits perfectly over your own.
This gift set contains the graphic novel written by Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. The reason why this book is so definitive is due to its plot and how it relates to the book written by Alan Moore and how Jason Todd dies in Batman: A Death in the Family; hence the title is a play on words. The entire story that Snyder and Capullo put together is sick and twisted as the Joker makes his return to Gotham. In his return to Gotham he feels that Batman has become weak. The Joker and Batman have a complexion that they complete each other so if one is weak the other must be weak as well. The Joker feels that Batman has become weak due to his family he has created goes out to destroy Batman’s family. Throughout the entire graphic novel he is fragmenting the Dark Knight’s from his family. The fragmentation of Batman from his family is accomplished by the Joker at the end of the graphic novel and current affects on the Dark Knight as the family and the allies he has created are no longer their to support Batman.
The other component to this graphic novel, putting it on an equal playing field with Alan Moore’s Killing Joke and Batman: A death in the Family is the mind games that the Joker plays at the end. To give background content in this graphic novel the Joker sets up a dinner with the Bat-family. All the members of the Bat-family have white bandages on their face, except for the captured Batman. Furthermore, Alfred is brain washed to be serving soup that appears to have the faces of the Bat-family in it. The Joker’s mind game is that he is going to force the members of the Bat-family to eat their own faces, while Batman watches. The degree of sick and twisted that is implemented in this very action shows the abilities of the Joker and how crazy he is. Furthermore, it builds upon the book Killing Joke as the Joker is the perfect foil to Batman and they balance each other out. When one character is weaker it is the obligation of the other character to bring out the strength of the other. The Joker did just that. The real sick and twisted part of the Joker’s ploy at the dinner table was when Batman escaped and saved his family only to find that their faces were perfectly enacted and without a scratch. The entire time, and the set up was the Joker bluffing and acting and instilling the true mind game of breaking people emotionally rather then physically. This comic explores the psychological elements of Batman and the Jokers relationships. The Joker is the one more out going rather then Batman, which was the opposite at the end of Killing Joke. This gift set is perfect if you want to complete your creepy Joker set as you get the mask and you receive the book a Death of the Family which showcases the psychology of the Joker.
Death Of a Family can be purchased here.
