JOKER by Brian Azzarello

This comic is number one on my wish list this coming Xmas, so a certain forest troll can start gathering their coins to buy it for me as a gift. *cough* Sarah! *cough* ♥

It was basically a tie between this and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller but this just ended up peaking my interest more when I found out that the author Brian Azzarello did my favourite short segment in the animated movie Batman: Gotham Knight. His segment titled Working Through Pain was not only the best animated one in my opinion but also had the darkest message about Batman; a theme about pain-management as well as how unhealthy Bruce Wayne's quest for revenge is and how it doesn't come from a healthy and good mental state. It also got a lot of plus points with me due to a wounded Batman, because there is nothing I love more than wounded, gritty and pissed off Batman. In either case I would suggest anyone even remotely interested in the awesomeness of Batman to check out Batman: Gotham Knight.

Still it's not the only appeal of this comic to me, it is also obviously the beautiful art direction by Lee Bermejo that you can observe above. I simply adore the gritty style and how uncomfortable it makes me feel about the Joker just by looking at it. When I was a kid I used to be terrified of the Joker and even recently I found Alan Moore's Joker in The Killing Joke to be scary but this new comic seems to take my unease with the character to a whole new level. I also love the obvious nod to Christopher Nolan's interpretation of the character since it is to date what I consider to be the finest Joker, largely due to the impressive performance by Heath Ledger last year. In short I want this in my Batman collection so I can learn more about my greatest adversary - The Joker.