If you want to understand why Batman and the Joker are stuck in a loop of eternal violence, you don't look at the movies first. You go to the source. Specifically, you go to the 2005 prestige one-shot comic. Honestly, Batman: The Man Who Laughs is probably the most essential "Year One" follow-up ever written, mostly because it fills a massive gap that the original 1939 comics left behind. It’s gritty. It’s loud. It’s got that specific Ed Brubaker grime that makes Gotham feel like a city you’d actually be terrified to live in.
Some people think the Joker just appeared one day and started making jokes. He didn't. He arrived like a plague.
The Batman: The Man Who Laughs Connection to 1940
Most readers don't realize this book is a modern retelling of Batman #1 from 1940. Back then, Bill Finger and Bob Kane introduced the Joker as a cold-blooded serial killer who announced his victims on the radio. It was terrifying for the time, but by modern standards, the pacing is a bit clunky. Ed Brubaker and artist Doug Mahnke took that skeleton and put real meat on the bones. They kept the core gimmick—the Joker using a televised broadcast to name-drop the socialites he’s going to kill—but they added the psychological weight of a Batman who is still learning how to be a detective.
In this story, Bruce Wayne is still fresh. He’s confident, sure, but he’s also incredibly naive about the kind of madness Gotham can breed. He’s used to mobsters. He knows how to handle the Falcones and the Maronis because they want money and power. They’re logical. But the Joker? He wants to turn the city into a morgue just to see if the punchline lands.
The art by Doug Mahnke is a huge reason why this book works. It’s visceral. You see the rigor mortis in the victims' faces. You see the way the Joker’s skin looks almost translucent and diseased. It’s not a "superhero" book in the traditional sense; it’s a horror procedural.
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Why the "Man Who Laughs" Title Matters
The name isn't just a clever descriptor. It’s a direct nod to the 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs, starring Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine. If you look at photos of Veidt in that makeup, the resemblance to the Joker is uncanny. Finger and Kane literally used a photo of Veidt to pitch the character. By using this title, Brubaker is signaling that he’s stripping away the "Clown Prince of Crime" campiness and returning to the character's cinematic, silent-horror roots.
He’s a monster. Plain and simple.
Batman is actually terrified in this book. You don't see that often. He’s trying to analyze a chemical toxin that he’s never encountered before, and he’s watching the most powerful men in the city die with horrific, stretched-out grins on their faces. It’s a race against time that feels genuinely desperate.
James Gordon and the Weight of Gotham
One of the best things about Batman: The Man Who Laughs is how it handles Captain James Gordon. He’s not Commissioner yet. He’s a guy trying to hold a corrupt police department together while a pale lunatic is threatening to poison the water supply. The dynamic between Batman and Gordon here is still a bit shaky. They trust each other, but they don't know each other yet.
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There's this specific scene where they're standing over a body, and the tension is palpable. Gordon represents the law; Batman represents the "whatever it takes" approach. When the Joker targets Bruce Wayne specifically—not knowing he’s Batman, but just because he’s a wealthy symbol of the city—the stakes get personal in a way that forces Batman to realize he can't just hide in the shadows anymore.
He has to be a symbol too.
The Mystery of the Red Hood
Brubaker does something really smart by tying this story into The Killing Joke. We get glimpses of the chemical factory where the "Red Hood" fell into the vat. It bridges the gap between the Joker’s murky origin and his first "official" appearance. It asks the question: does it matter who he was before? The book leans toward "no." Once that skin turned white, the old person died.
What's left is a force of nature.
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The pacing of the narrative is relentless. It moves from a crime scene at an abandoned factory to a high-stakes protection detail at a mansion, and finally to the Gotham reservoir. It’s a classic three-act structure, but it feels fresh because the Joker is so unpredictable. He isn't trying to rob a bank. He’s trying to prove that the social order is a lie.
Dealing With the "Year One" Legacy
If you’ve read Frank Miller’s Year One, you know it ends with a tease about a "Joker" figure threatening the city. This book picks up that baton and sprints with it. It maintains that noir aesthetic—lots of heavy shadows, rain-slicked streets, and internal monologues that sound like they belong in a Raymond Chandler novel.
But it’s more colorful than Year One. The Joker brings a sick, neon vibrancy to the gloom. It’s a visual clash that perfectly mirrors the ideological clash between the two characters. Batman is the dark, silent guardian. Joker is the loud, chaotic disruptor.
People often debate which Joker story is the "definitive" one. The Killing Joke is usually the winner, but honestly, that story is about the end of their relationship (or at least a late-stage version of it). The Man Who Laughs is about the beginning. It’s about the first time Batman realizes he isn't just fighting criminals; he’s fighting a brand of insanity that he might have inadvertently helped create.
Key Takeaways for New Readers
- It’s a standalone. You don't need forty years of back-story to get it.
- The art is intense. If you don't like body horror, some panels might make you flinch.
- It’s short. You can finish it in one sitting, but you’ll probably want to flip back through it immediately to catch the details in the backgrounds.
- It’s canon (mostly). While DC's timeline shifts every five minutes, this remains the gold standard for the first Batman/Joker encounter.
If you’re looking for a deep dive into the psychology of a hero who realizes he’s out of his depth, this is it. It’s a story about a man trying to save a city that seems determined to laugh itself to death.
To truly appreciate the impact of this story, read it immediately after Batman: Year One. It completes the transition of Gotham from a mob-controlled city to a "super-villain" city. Pay close attention to the way the Joker uses the media; it’s a hauntingly accurate depiction of how fear can be weaponized in a 24-hour news cycle. Afterward, track down the original 1940 Batman #1 to see just how many specific lines and beats Brubaker paid homage to—it's a masterclass in modernizing a classic.