To add more fuel to the fire. Here's the legendary image that might be a good way (in the victim's perspective) to show how horrifying he is. Definitely a hideous sight before one's demise. Here's the link. ◊ Batman: Night Cries is a 1992 one-shot written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Scott Hampton. Often regarded as one of the darkest Batman stories ever told, the plot follows the titular character as well as friend and collaborator commissioner James Gordon as they investigate a series of murders that suggests a drug war is being raged across the streets of Gotham. On the surface, this premise is as standard and generic as it gets for a Batman comic; however, there’s more to the story here, as the two detectives soon uncover that these murders all pertain to the abuse of children, leading them to suspect a serial killer. It’s up to these two men to find the perpetrator and put a stop to his twisted form of justice, all while they deal with their own personal demons.

The Penguin. Yes, laugh at the fat ugly man with the pointy nose. He will use his virtually unlimited connections in the Wretched Hive that is Gotham to systematically ruin your life until you succumb to despair and kill yourself. A chef found that out the hard way . Even worse, the chef may not even have been laughing at Penguin, but that didn't matter to the Penguin. Someone laughed in his general direction, and so that person needed to not just die, but be broken entirely in the process. Often times the writers on these works were a little more flamboyant or experimental. Which is why I found this work relatively disappointing.Sure, there's the classic Alex Ross stuff with Marvels and Kingdom Come. No, I was more referring to John Muth, Duncan Fegredo, John Bolton, Charles Vess, Bill Sienkevitch, Kent Williams, Simon Bisley, etc. Mostly 2000ad, Vertigo or art house Marvel projects. Batman himself is this to criminals. Even those who don't fear Superman are generally terrified of Batman. His New 52 incarnation is nothing to laugh at either. Taking place in Batman: Year Zero, Doctor Death creates a serum that would strengthen bones to eradicate 'human weakness'. Later it's revealed he was one of three doctors studying regenerative drugs. His area of study was hard tissue, and his experiments caused his skeleton to grow uncontrollably without regard for his organs or muscles. The others, Hugo Strange and Paul Dekker, studied brain and soft tissue regeneration, respectively. To put it in perspective, the treatments they designed somehow went even worse than Hellfern's.

Yes, I loved the artwork. I'm always looking for some "unique" comic artists. To again confront some critics, the watercolor style isn't "sloppy"; it's haunting. It's haunting just like the subject matter is haunting. Some wish they could just wash away their trauma and suffering, but they can't. What do you get when Batman is overwhelmed by the Joker's personality? The Batman Who Laughs, a nightmarish ghoul who is essentially the DC Universe's version of Judge Death. Batman is able to bring down even the gods of fiction. He can easily take down mafias and regular crimes on the streets of Gotham. But in Night Cries, Batman painfully recognizes the sad fact that eradicating child abuse, a silent and real villain, is an insurmountable task. It is the monster that even him and Commissioner Gordon cannot escape from.

Video Games

While investigating drug pushers, Batman and Commissioner James Gordon notice a common trend in a series of murders involving child abuse, and the death of the children's parents. Peter Tomasi's run on Batman had the writer humanize Damian in ways that even Grant Morrison's more subtle characterization wasn't able to do alone. So, after Damian's death in Batman Inc., Tomasi dedicated a completely silent issue to the character in Batman and Robin #18. From Alfred's weeping at the Wayne Family portrait, with Damian's figure still unfinished, to Bruce's near inability to keep functioning, the issue reaches a climax when Batman finds a letter Damian wrote to his father explaining why he needed to help his father and how much he loves him. Bruce finally breaks and nearly destroys a whole room, collapsing onto his knees and holding Damian's costume in his hands. A brief Supergirl-Robin team-up reveals that on the one hand, Gotham's supervillains are completely out of Supergirl's league... on the other hand, Gotham's supervillains tend towards way more depraved than she's used to. The Dollotrons themselves are deeply disturbing, being regular people who have unwillingly undergone a process of creation that is not entirely revealed but is implied to involve brain surgery, genital mutilation, and mind-altering drugs. They are also given a fleshy doll-like mask that is permanently attached to the victim's face.

Batman follows and gets into a confrontation with Josh Adams, the who explained how Doctor McLean would help keep U.S. soldiers in South America sane, even while they saw atrocities like children dying. However, these deaths would have a profound effect on McLean, who tries to help save children from being abused through the program he shares with his sister…but it simply isn’t enough. The Dark Knight is the perfect comicbook hero to craft the story with. He works in the street at night, he's human and grounded. The dark and and horrifying truth flawlessly blends with his tragic past. Thus the result is an effective delivery of message which does not feel contrived.

Comics

The comic brings up the possibility that the Joker is an Eldritch Abomination terrorizing Gotham for centuries. The writer is Archie Goodwin. Even his name sounds milquetoast. However, he was the editor for some comics like Creepy and the Epic line, where innovation flourished. He's one of the best editors in the industry, but really only know for writing Star War comics. There has been a couple of brutal and gruesome murders all over Gotham, and Jim Gordon is connecting the dots, all leading to a potential involvement from Batman, who’s also on the investigation, after finding out most of the witnesses are children, and worse of all, they all seem to be connected in a twisted “sexual abuse” kind of way, unraveling a certain pattern in the killer’s motives towards the victims. Oh, about Joker's plan to kidnap babies? It's because he wants to kill them all off on New Year's, just to destroy the fragile spirit of the people of Gotham City. And let's not get started on what he does to Commissioner Gordon's wife.

The overall theme in the title posses a sinister but, also, realistic approach to the crimes committed by the newest “vigilante”, and once the mystery is solved- this involves one of the most heartfelt moments in a Batman comic, relating a little girl that cannot speak because of her past trauma-, one can’t really come to the conclusion of whether or not it was right for the killers to do as they did, considering the victims were all directly attached to a potential drug-war that was about to burst, all criminals that also happened to be child-abusers. That ends up conflicting both, Gordon and Batman, but it is with Gordon where we feel the weight of the case. In fact, I’ll even dare to say Goodwin’s protagonist is actually Gordon, and not Batman, necessarily. There isn’t that much of a “Bruce Wayne” perspective, as much as there was Gordon’s, and frankly, I’m okay with that. Let’s not forget one of the most important Batman comic books ever made had Jim Gordon and Batman as co-stars in ‘Year One’.If that isn't enough to lose sleep over, there's also always high wonderful levels of Body Horror involved. Shapeshifting abilities aside for infiltration purposes. He can morph various parts of his body into deadly solid matter or weapons. Even capable of smothering his victims within his very body... shudders* Bruce discovering that Kathy Kane was killed by a brainwashed Bronze Tiger during the "War of the Assassins" storyline. She died in 1979 and was the first member of the Batfamily to die. Flashpoint inverts this to similar results and for extra crazy points is also the event that turns Martha Wayne into that universe's version of the Joker. Going Sane". This little four-part story arc humanizes The Joker far better than The Killing Joke ever did. The finale is especially sad: it features the Joker's inevitable return to madness and Rebecca hoping in vain for the return of her "missing" fiance, "Joseph Kerr". Batman #23.2 does a good job showing how terrifying Riddler can be. Breaking into Wayne Enterprises, killing anyone who stands in his way, all so he can play a game of solitaire in peace.