Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Batman One-Shots

Batman: El hombre que ríe

Rate this book
Cuando la amistad del Hombre Murciélago con Jim Gordon es aún incipiente, en una Gotham que empieza a conocer a sus héroes y villanos, la amenaza del payaso asesino emerge como algo totalmente desconocido, para lo que nadie puede estar preparado. Con la línea Grandes autores de Batman recuperamos las etapas más destacadas en los 75 años de historia del personaje; aproximaciones que, por diferentes razones, dejaron una huella indeleble en su mitología. Como la aportación de Ed Brubaker, quien acompañado del dibujante Doug Mahnke reinterpreta con brillantez la primera aparición del Príncipe Payaso del Crimen. Novela gráfica a reivindicar, recopilada en este tomo junto a una pequeña joya: Estaré vigilando (Gotham Knights núm. 41), dibujada por Ryan Sook.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2005

16 people are currently reading
98 people want to read

About the author

Ed Brubaker

1,794 books3,018 followers
Ed Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.

In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
162 (31%)
4 stars
228 (44%)
3 stars
112 (21%)
2 stars
10 (1%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
23 reviews
December 25, 2024
5 estrellas porque no hay más. Adoro las ilustraciones y el Joker es un personaje tremendo (todos los villanos de Batman lo son en vdd).
Profile Image for Umar Soaries.
43 reviews1 follower
May 18, 2022
I know that the more famous Joker Origin story will always be The Killing Joke, but here's a story that Ed Brubaker got his hands on and tuned into more of a good crime story then a super hero. The Man Who Laughs is a story taking place some time right after Batman: Year One (which was a story line in the actual batman comics, where The Man Who Laughed was more of a deluxe edition one-shot.) Ed Brubaker, for those who don't know the name, it the guy who gave us Bucky as the Winter Soldier. (Bucky was dead until that story) and crime stories are his comfort zone. So he retells the first time that the Joker appears in Gotham. Be warned, this is not for kids and it's very, very dark. But here a moment in Batman's history when the Joker wasn't an obsession and people didn't ship the two characters. This is a fun and engaging slice of Batman life that is worth reading if you don't mind a lot of gore. I mean, it is a Joker story after all.
Profile Image for Bryham Fabian.
142 reviews46 followers
July 12, 2024
This comic revolves around the first villain, properly speaking, that Batman ever faced. It turns out to be his major nemesis, The Joker. There are some parts I would like to highlight, for instance the early interaction between Batman and Cops( of course captain Gordon), the introspective sight into 'Bruce's trauma' under the Joker's drug, the violence is present in good measure as well.

Having said that, I think this story lacked something else. Especially with regard to the character's detective side. Bruce tried, through all the story, to find any clue that led him to the true identity of Red hood or his vengeance plan but...at the end, he only could figure out thanks to the content of his own visions. Somehow I felt this was a stroke of luck. Of course someone might argue that the comic was showing a rookie Batman with a long way to go yet.
Profile Image for Bones Green.
284 reviews8 followers
October 18, 2021
Чудовий, як старе вино. Правдиві відчуття. Крепка клясика.
Profile Image for amber.
51 reviews1 follower
February 28, 2022
he do be scary tho. this joker origin story ahhh. it all makes sense now why jason calls himself red hood... yikes bruce you fucked up there didnt ya
Profile Image for Gary Muguet.
12 reviews
September 6, 2023
Quel récit incroyable. L'amitié entre Gordon et Batman mise en lumière. Un Batman pas encore connu et donc pas vraiment bien vu par la police de Gotham et la population. Et... un Joker sans pitié.
Profile Image for MURAT BAYRAKTAR.
395 reviews13 followers
September 8, 2021


Çizimleri, renklendirmesi ve yaratılan atmosferi ile belki de en iyi Batman çizgi romanı. Hikaye de Joker karakterinin ele alınışı da yine çok başarılı. Bu çizgi roman zaten o kadar iyi ve etkileyici oldu ki filmlere (Nolan'ın Batman'i) ve başka çizgi romanlara ilham oldu. Gerilimi güzel yansıtmış. Joker'in kurbanlarının çizimleri mükemmeldi, duyguyu korkuyu bence okuyucuya çok iyi geçirdiler. Sonlara doğru bir kısmı çok hızlı geçti, biraz anlaşılmaz yazılıp çizilmiş Bruce Wayne' e olanlar, onun dışında keyifle okunan bir iş.

Batman ve Joker severlerin mutlaka okuması gereken bir çizgi roman..

Profile Image for Charles.
208 reviews4 followers
April 20, 2015
Certainly a fun little read that ties together bits of Year One and Killing Joke. At first, I was uncertain about the art, but found it ghoulish and nightmarish enough to add some serious creep factor to the latter part of the story. All in all a fun read to showcase Batman's first encounter with the Clown Prince of Crime! I'd recommend picking this one up on sale or digitally, since I don't think the graphic novel justifies the price of this otherwise great short story.
Profile Image for Fátima Embark.
Author 21 books155 followers
May 22, 2016
3,5 en realidad.
Una historia muy corta donde nos cuentan el primer encuentro entre Batman y el Joker. No ha estado nada mal, aunque quizá esperaba algo más...
Profile Image for Carlos Zaid.
111 reviews9 followers
July 28, 2022
Un cómic más que leo de la serie "Año Uno", misma que fue publicada en el año 2005 comon un relanzamiento de el hombre murciélago y dónde podemos explorar nuevamente el origen y los comienzos de nuestro héroe y de los villanos más icónicos a los que se ha enfrentado.

En esta ocasión, y a diferencia de los volúmenes 1 y 2 de "Cuatro de una Especie", nos enfocamos únicamente en el personaje de "El Joker" y es que, al ser el más grande villano de Batman, debía de tener su propio cómic para el solito.

En general puedo decir que es una buena historia, aunque para nada ha sido de lo mejor que haya leído, ni como parte de esta serie, ni del personaje (El Joker), ya que ha tenido mejores apariciones que está.

Lo resaltable en este tomo, es el tono gótico y oscuro que maneja, tanto en ambientación y atmósfera (la parte narrativa) como en su estilo de dibujo (la parte gráfica) mostrando escenas bastante graficas de asesinatos y expresiones grotescas de las víctimas del payaso. Sin embargo este estilo visual también le juega en contra, al menos en lo que al personaje de "El Joker" se refiere, ya que la caracterizacion tan grotesca aunada a las expresiones de exagerada locura dan como resultado un rostro deforme, más cerca de lo que es un arte abstracto más que un estilo gótico serio y maduro, lo que desentona con el resto de viñetas que le rodean.

Otro punto que no me agrado por completo fue el descenlace de la trama, ya que fue excesivamente rápido y simple. La forma en la que Batman descubre dónde está el Joker y se da cuenta de sus planes (que por cierto era muy obvio por qué lo dijo desde la página 2 🤦🏼‍♂️) fue hasta cierto punto inverosímil y la pela final fue muy simple y sencilla (para ser alguien que aterrorizoba toda una ciudad, solo llegó, le dio un par de golpes y ya está 🤷🏼‍♂️), además que nunca se dio respuesta al por qué de los asesinatos públicos de los grandes señores de Ciudad Gótica si realmente no tenían una relación lógica directa con su plan y al final planeaba asesinar atoda ciudad gótica por Igual.

En fin, una historia entretenida, sí, con buen ritmo y un estilo oscuro y gótico que cautiva, pero con una trama bastante floja y carente de lógica en algunos puntos y que para nada se siente una verdadera historia de origen (justo al estilo del tomo 1 de "Cuatro de una especie ").

Si buscas una buena historia donde el antagonista principal sea "El Joker" te recomiendo que busques mejores opciones...
Profile Image for Jared.
43 reviews
February 26, 2024
+9 This is a side of Batman I’ve wanted to see more of for a while - his detective skills and how he uses them throughout a story.

His first encounter with the Joker and his schemes is almost a horror story - in a flash victims have chalk-white skin, green hair, red lips, and a massive, scary grin as they die. Even worse still, Joker forcibly announces the high-value targets he’ll be killing on live television, which is so incredibly brazen as no one knows how or what he will do to kill them. Jim Gordon and Batman are great dual protagonists, since we get to see how ineffective the GCPD is at protecting Joker’s victims, versus Batman having the same problem, but he’s able to make progress on the case to find out what Joker’s final target is.

Additionally, I liked Brubaker’s world-building regarding main-stays in Batman’s and Gotham’s world - the Joker, Arkham Asylum, Batmobile, Bat-Signal, Bruce’s frequent use of disguises, and the constantly evolving relationship between Batman and Gordon (and to an extent the police as a whole too). Strangely there were a few typos in the narration and dialogue, but not too many to be disruptive.

Did enjoy the consistency of the layouts during the detective and narration sections, as the page would be separated into six equal panels. Occasionally this would be partially used, with pages having two to four equal panels, with the remainders being big panels or unequally sized panels. The art by Mahnke itself was good, Joker and the Joker Toxin death smile were the best drawn and designed. Sometimes the art did peeve me regarding the eyes of characters, but other than that it was decent.

An enjoyable and gripping detective story that is set around Batman and Joker’s first confrontation that everyone should read.

[Read in February, read and reviewed in May 2023]
Profile Image for Angel  Guerrero.
178 reviews
March 18, 2025
Buena historia del caballero de la noche y una reinvención a al introducción de su archienemigo, el Joker, retomando también lo propuesto por Moore en Killing Joke nos traslada esta historia a una Gotham que apenas conoce la locura de la que sus criminales son capaces.

Me gustó el dibujo y la narrativa, creo que da en el clavo por como balancea su historia entre Batman y Bruce Wayne volviéndolo también un participe de la historia con sus propias motivaciones personales.

Creo que el modus operandi del Joker y el enfoque a este en la planeación pudo darse más detalladamente que solo como pistas de un caso extraordinario a seguir.

Te involucra mucho en Gotham y en las nuevas realidades que rozan la fantasía que ahora sus ciudadanos viven.
Profile Image for pabloojdr.
126 reviews6 followers
July 14, 2025
4,5/5
Me quedé con tantas ganas de más con el anterior que empecé con este
Me he acabado adaptando al formato cómic y me ha gustado muchísimo esta introducción de El Joker, creo que es uno de los villanos que más respeto/miedo me generan porque me resulta súper oscuro y nunca sabes por dónde te va a salir
Definitivamente voy a continuar leyendo historias en este formato y del universo DC
Considero que va a ser muy buena vía de entrada ahora que se ha reiniciado el universo de sus peliculas😁😁😁
25 reviews
August 3, 2025
Gostei bastante do nível de ameaça que o Coringa impõe à Gotham aqui e além disso, de toda investigação do Batman para acabar com os planos do homem que ri e descobrir suas motivações.

O visual do vilão é bonito, bem colorido e a personalidade de psicopata como de costume. A relação entre o Batman e Gordon só amadurece mais e me agrada muito esse tipo de ligação sendo trabalhada de forma natural.
Profile Image for OinkFish Pigs.
533 reviews6 followers
July 23, 2022
Ig I liked this, but the story was too rushed. I don’t blame the creative team for this, but this just should’ve been a mini series. For such an important moment in not only Batman, but DC’s history, I think it wouldn’t have been too hard to give it 5 or 6 issues, but hey we got what we got. A solid Batman book.

Low 8
Profile Image for Hannah.
2 reviews
July 25, 2025
Amei essa versão da origem do coringa, só achei q ficou meio no ar como djabos que esse homem fez o soro do riso apesar de saber que talvez essa seja a intenção do Brubaker não posso deixar de não ficar me mordendo de curiosidade.
Profile Image for Ipsi.
11 reviews
October 25, 2025
Después de Batman: Year One, me encuentro con otra encumbrada obra sobre Batman que acaba antes de lo esperado y de forma muy anticlimática. Sigo sin entender qué tienen estas historias que han atrapado a tantos lectores.
Profile Image for Mark.
1,235 reviews42 followers
April 11, 2022
Batman's "first" meeting with the Joker... nice touches but nothing special.
Profile Image for plasticsoda.
1 review
August 5, 2025
feels like a victim of mid 2000s comic books trying to be "realistic"
Profile Image for Connor.
34 reviews
August 7, 2025
Batman fights the Joker. Gordon wonders what the hell is wrong with his city. Alfred is cool. It’s all classic stuff.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.