Batman: Cacophony (Batman (DC Comics Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Walter Flanagan (Illustrator), Phil Hester (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Best-selling comic book writer/director Kevin Smith (GREEN ARROW) steps into Gotham City to write this graphic novel featuring the mysterious masked killer known as Onomatopoeia who sets his sights - and sounds - against The Caped Crusader!

Will Batman be able to uncover the relationship between The Joker and Onomatopoeia in time to keep them from destroying Gotham City? Or are these villains too much for The Caped Crusader? The wild ride that caught Batman between The Joker and Onomatopoeia comes to a crashing halt as Batman is forced to choose between capturing Onomatopoeia and saving the Joker's life! Will Onomatopoeia have the final word with a deadly "Bang!"? Find out in this exciting conclusion!

Includes Batman: Cacophony #'s 1-3.

About the Author

Kevin Smith was the producer of the Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting and has also written and directed Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Clerks II and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. He is also a comic book writer, actor and author. His next film as director is A Couple of Dicks, starring Bruce Willis. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401224180
• ISBN-13: 978-1401224189
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,708 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Even for Kevin Smith fans, this is nearly unreadable, November 18, 2009

By	Desmond Grey - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really wanted to like Batman: Cacophony. Like a lot of people who picked up this title, I am a huge Kevin Smith fan. I'm more of a fan of Smith himself (interviews, Evening Withs) than his actual work. His past jaunts into comics have been somewhat of a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed his Daredevil miniseries and some of the Green Arrow stuff, for example.

When this project was announced in the middle of '08, I was really looking forward to seeing how Kevin Smith tackles Batman. But I was also a little worried that the character of Batman wouldn't fit with Smith's writing style.

I was right to be worried. It really is bad. Cringe-worthy bad in many spots. I bought the comics as they arrived in the comic store and I really don't know why I even bought all the issues. I guess I was hoping Smith would pull off a great ending. Thankfully it was only a 3-issue run.

Artwork: Very poor and lazy. Smith freely admits that Flanagan got the job because they are friends. It would take a lot more than friendship for me to allow a 'talent' like this to ruin my storytelling. As a fan of Kevin Smith for over 15 years, I had heard of Walt Flanagan. However, I had never seen his artwork before. Ugh. Ech. Bleh. I can't believe an important character like Batman was given over to this guy. The covers were very misleading. Adam Kubert did all three covers, which are actually decent. I wish he had done the inside work as well. But back to Flanagan. Much of his work was very distracting, and often I would linger at some panels and marvel at how bad they were. Did he only have a weekend to turn in his work? One sequence especially stands out to me. On the second to last page of Part 1, there is a group of characters leaving a school, including the Joker himself, and Flanagan simply took the same drawing and put it on three different panels--each of which showing the group getting further away from the school. It's so obvious it's the same drawing it just made me think that he got lazy and didn't want to have to redraw the group three times.

Story: Below average. Again, I love Smith, but Batman is not a character for him. I know he wanted to create something that would fit in with the long history of memorable Batman stories, but he falls way short. At the heart of the story there is very little that we haven't read before, and we've seen it portrayed far better. There are a couple of decent lines, but I had to stop myself from skimming the final issue because it just seemed boring. Maybe the artwork was so bad that I had a hard time really getting into the story.

Price: I know the graphic novel is around $20, which is way too high. The three issues I purchased were $4 each, which is fairly standard, but a rip-off as well.

Bottom line: If you MUST read this, buy a cheap used copy, read it over a weekend, and put it back up for sale. Seriously, get the cheapest copy you can find. Trust me, the condition doesn't matter because you won't be keeping it anyway. Kevin Smith needs to stick to characters that align more with his voice. He's much better than what Batman: Cacophony shows.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money for a graphic novel, November 13, 2009

By	S. Yellin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been a huge Batman fan, and a Kevin Smith fan for years. As such, I was out of town on business and picked this up at a local Borders to read back at my hotel. Yes, everyone understands that different writers have different 'takes' on characters, but sometimes in these pages, I found myself thinking that Smith was writing what he was writing just to be different, with no real understanding of the characters at all (some of the Joker stuff is just ridiculous).

Still, my biggest complaint (and I know this has been a major issue since the comic came out), is with the artist. Apparently Smith was well aware of this, and specifically addresses it in his introduction (having to defend the awful pairing of a respect writer and a hack wanna be comic artist?!). While I was made aware that the illustrator had worked in a professional capacity before (although not at any of the major companies), I really could care less if this is the guy who introduced Smith to comic books or not. I paid my hard earned money for something that I expected to put on my bookshelf with my other Batman Graphic Novels (Arkham, Killing Joke, Returns etc...). Instead I saw page after page of work that would most likely be politely rejected at any local comic book conevntion. I work with high school art students who have a better understanding of anatomy, composition, and story telling. I'm sorry, but just because you love comic books and are Kevin Smith's childhood buddy shouldn't qualify you to draw one of comicdom's most respected characters.

I'm selling mine online, not simply to get a few bucks back, but out of principle. I like to think that my collection consists of quality materials, that I can read, and reread again and again, and always find that feeling of enjoyment and respect for the creators. This item has no place there.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars poor pairing, September 23, 2009

By	Poshu Oshu (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

i'll start by saying i'm a big fan of kevin smith, i like most of the things he does. and i'm a huge fan of batman. but kevin smith has a very distinct voice and style of writing and it's just not right for batman. batman is suposed to be dark and dangerous. smith can't really pull it off, no offence to him, it's just not his bag. in a relativley short story there is numerous poop and sex jokes. and in that same short span he references as much emberasing batman history and i've ever seen in a comic, jabs at calander man, the old bat-mite, and several other unsuccesful endavures litter the pages. while the villain batman is faced with, "onomonopia" is something akin to the old sunday comics villains, not really up to snuff to fight the worlds greatest detective. overall, nothing wrong with kevin smith or batman, they just don't go together very well.