Batman: Dead to Rights

Batman Confidential #5

by Andrew Kreisberg, Scott McDaniel (Illustrator)

TV writer Andrew Kreisberg (Fringe, Simpsons, Vampire Diaries) and fan-favorite Batman artists Scott McDaniela nd Andy Owens explore the impact capturing and jailing super-criminals like The Joker had on the Gotham City Police Department and how far one officer goes off the deep end when faced with the new threats to his city. The ramifications of the "new kind of criminal" emerging in Gotham's early days is felt with deadly consequence...

Genres: Graphic Novels, Batman, Comics, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sr3yas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern Batman #7

All I want for Christmas...

Batman: Dead to rights is not an average story. It's a story with multiple ups and downs.

The story is set during the early years of Batman and Joker's career long waltz which solidified the term "arch-enemy". In this story, Joker is in the hands of the law, thanks to Batman. But Batman and Gotham city is going to learn in a hard way that putting Joker in a box is not the same as stopping him.

As Joker stays in the custody of GCPD, he kills people around him using a peanut, banana peel, a pen (John Wick style!) and through a phone call. *sigh* I would classify these as the low points.

Alright, the pen was pretty cool...

What I did enjoy was the characterization of Joker. Especially his unpredictability and his own brand of chaos which he brings to the story even while he was supposedly under control! The opening chapter also reminded me of the Dark Knight movie.


You know the scene!


The art is..... Well, there are some good panels, especially in a funeral sequence. But let me show you the worst one.

Batman swinging heroically across Gotham with his pet bats. I have absolutely no idea why the bats are flying with him and they repeat this panel (including the mysterious groupie bats) multiple times throughout the story!

Did he find these Bats in his cave? Is he their mother? Or the Alpha Bat? So many questions!

Overall, flawed and entertaining.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dead to Rights" was a very good story. This in fact could have been a 5 star comic if it were not for the childish cartoon-style art.

This is the story of the first time Batman arrests Joker. No one knows anything about him and the GCPD is trying to process him like a normal criminal. Big mistake. While this Joker is indeed a funny fellow, he is brilliantly devious and acts like a manic Hannibal Lecter, subtly toying with the people he comes into contact with. During this process, he is able to talk the wife of a GCPD detective into committing suicide and drives that officer completely insane.

As GCPD and the entire legal system, as well as Batman, try to figure out what to do with the Joker, the Joker commits mayhem without ever leaving custody. A truly great look at the Joker and the reasoning behind the creation of Arkham Asylum. The story also looks into the damage done to that one GCPD detective through his interactions with the Joker.

All of this is very well done. I enjoy a good Joker story where he is portrayed as a true threat. While the art seems to be ok, it is only for the first few pages. Then you realize this is not a funny story, it is a very serious story. Joker humor is not humor, it is invariably lethal. This art is completely out of tune with this type of story. Truth be told I am not a huge fan of cartoon-like art (children's cartoons) and would not have liked it much even in a humorous tale. For this story, it just did not fit.

A great Joker story. Showing the first time Joker interacts with the Gotham justice system. Loved the story and was rather disappointed in the art.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers ahoy but they’re minor ones and this is an inconsequential Batman story anyway.

Dead To Rights is Andrew Kreisberg’s imagining of Batman/Joker’s first encounter. It’s got a number of flaws but it’s not a bad book and I was never bored reading it. The problems have to do with Kreisberg’s efforts in trying to make Joker look scary which are amusingly stupid and completely fail.

For instance, when Joker’s brought into the police station and given his phone call, he calls up the arresting officer’s wife at home and convinces her to kill herself. Joker then tells everyone what he said to her and it isn’t convincing at all. I’m paraphrasing but it goes like this: “You’ve got an incurable disease so you should kill yourself, yes, I’m really your honest to god doctor, no, don’t get a second opinion, just kill yourself right now!” You would have to be the most gullible, feeble-minded soul to hear his nonsense and then hang yourself!

Then at the court he manages to find out the judge has a peanut allergy, gets ahold of a peanut, tosses it from the front of the court into the judge’s glass of water - all of which is unseen by anyone - and the judge dies drinking the peanut-laced water. And then Joker gets a banana skin and drops it in front of a psychologist witness who slips on it and dies. So ridiculous!

It doesn’t help that Scott McDaniel’s artwork adds to the cartoony effect of Joker’s shenanigans - the comic looks like any Batman animated show aimed at the kiddles. This isn’t dark and creepy Joker, it’s contrived and silly Joker. Those moments aside, Kreisberg writes a pretty compelling Joker which is why I can’t dislike this book - Joker’s one of my favourite DC characters and he was really entertaining in this one.

Kreisberg deftly sets up the rest of the Batman world-to-come, introducing Harvey Dent and Renee Montoya as well as Arkham which gets turned into an asylum just for Joker. As daffy as Joker’s murders were though the worst part of the book was Bad Cop, arguably one of the most laughable Batman villains ever. He’s - yup - a bad cop. I won’t say any more partly because there isn’t a whole lot more to him but his entire character was moronic from start to finish and what’s worse is I think we’re meant to view him as a tragic character! Dude was impossible to take seriously even for a moment.

The tone of Dead To Rights is all over the shop and there’s a lot of eye-rolling idiocy throughout but it definitely wasn’t unreadable and I was surprisingly entertained enough. It’s by no means the best Batman/Joker first meeting story out there - check out The Man Who Laughs for that - but it was ok. Worth a look if you see it at the liberry but don’t expect much from it.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the risk of sliding into an op-ed article rather than a review, I was a little disturbed by the tone of this book. While it was a fairly well-written story it was also at times dark and sadistic with the cold-blooded violence (psychological and physical). The Joker is portrayed as mostly silliness personified but this would clash with the downbeat / depressing events that revealed him to be pure evil.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Modern Batman #7 - The less said about this the better.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another retelling of Joker's origin story.  To fit this into the post-crisis continuity it would take place very soon after Batman: Year One and somewhat contradicts events of The Man Who Laughs.  So it's a case of choose your own Joker origin.

A large part of this story is about Joker's impact on a single cop and the fallout of their encounter. It's an interesting way of telling a Joker origin, it's not so much about Joker or Batman but the others left damaged in their wake. I've always had a fondness for Gotham Central, so anytime the regular cops get a lot of screen time is a bonus.

There are moments I enjoy in this book, but there are times where it really feels like it would have worked better without it being an origin story, where the years of backstory would have added to the depth of the characters. Being an origin story means that it makes cheeky references to future events, but they don't really work for me.

I've always loved Scott McDaniel's art, it has a very cartoony feel to it that you don't see as often these days.

I don't think this is a bad story, but coming so soon after reading The Man Who Laughs I feel like it's retreading the same ground and not as effectively.

[Riana (RianaInTheStacks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Joker, showing how broken the system is and how easily he can continue to do what he was doing on the outside while in court and a cell. Dead to Rights really focuses on Joker and the Bad Cop more than Batman. Also shows more of how intelligent Joker seems to be but he just uses it to further his chaos and violence.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Batman Confidential: Dead to Rights picks up where the previous trade paperback left off, collecting six issues (Batman Confidential #22–25, 29–30) of the 2006 on-going series and covers two storylines: "Do You Understand These Rights?" and "Bad Cop".

"Do You Understand These Right?" is a four-issue storyline (Batman Confidential #22–25) has Bruce Wayne as Batman putting The Joker into prison for the first time. However, thinking that putting The Joker away would save the populace is proven wrong when The Joker continues his killing spree in custody. "Bad Cop" is a two-issue storyline (Batman Confidential #29–30), which is a sequel to the first story, where the police officer that the Joker had tortured goes insane and terrorizes Gotham City.

Andrew Kreisberg penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written somewhat well. It is another semi-Joker origin story, this time showing how dangerous the Joker could be not outside of jail, but within and how inept the Gotham City Police Department was in their abilities of containing the likes of the Joker.

Scott McDaniel penciled the entire trade paperback. Since he was the main penciler, the artistic flow of the trade paperback flowed exceptionally well. For the most part, I enjoyed his penciling style, it is quite distinctive, albeit a tad blocky at times.

All in all, Batman Confidential: Dead to Rights is good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.

[Daniel Kovacs Rezsuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC comics found itself in a pretty weird place with Batman, editorially speaking. After Crisis on Infinite Earths they published these amazing comics about Batman's origins and early years, while they also had stories coming out about Batman's recent adventures. By the 2000s they are left with with this strange gap between the two eras of Batman's life (lets's say his early 20s and his 30s) where they didn't have any contemporary comics published and completely relied on the readerships memories of Bronze Age Batman comics. The problem is obvious: these comics are getting less and less available as back issues on the direct market, so the gap is becoming more evident with each passing year. Instead of republishing the better Bronze Age comics, DC decided to capitalize on this interim period in another way: enter Batman Confidential, a sequel to the Legends of the Dark Knight series! According to reading order sites, chronologically this 5th volumes comes first before all the other collected editions in the series which is why I started out with it. It was fun overall, had great flow to the storytelling and the artwork had this dynamic minimalism to it without becoming a manga knockoff which I really like, but overall: nothing to write home about. What made me scratch my head at times is throughout the volume several of the characters made cultural references that a) date the story immediately b) completely beat the editorial purpose of the whole series.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few years ago, I made a chronology for how to read modern Batman. I was focused quite a bit on creating the order, as opposed to just reading the books for enjoyment, so now I'm going back to see how the chronology holds up.

I actually don't remember this story from my original read-through, but reading my original review of it shows that my feeling haven't changed too much. This is a hacky Joker story with some pretty fine Scott McDaniel art. I certainly wouldn't put it in canon.

I recommend it only for die-hard Joker fans, and people who wish Batman was more like overwrought CW dramas but don't have the time to commit to Gotham.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking place immediately after Batman's first encounter with the Joker, Dead to Rights is a brutal tale. The Joker is such an excellent villain but far too often his stories simply revolve around his crimes and relationship with the Dark Knight. This volume definitely has that, but it also chronicles an early Gotham, reacting for the first time to the violent surge of theatrical and horrifying villainy that follows Batman's arrival. The Joker may have been introduced in The Man Who Laughs but his reputation is built considerably here.

[Sotofunkdamental · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia entretenida ambientada justo después del primer enfrentamiento entre Batman y Joker. Argumento: "El teniente Gordon y la policía de Gotham City aún no se han acostumbrado a la presencia de un justiciero disfrazado llamado Batman cuando este les deja en comisaría un regalo envenenado: un nuevo asesino en serie que responde al nombre de Joker. Sin embargo, los agentes no tardarán en familiarizarse con él, sobre todo el inspector Shancoe, cuya vida cambiará radicalmente en cuanto el Príncipe Payaso del Crimen entre en el calabozo".

[Drake Zappa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting look at the Joker's effect Gotham criminal justice system and an example of what makes the joker a terrifying villain. I was never really sure about Scott McDaniel's art when I saw his work on Nightwing but I I grew to like what he did in this book! I was pleasantly surprised with this book and honestly think it stands really well on its own as a good early career batman book. Give this book the attention it deserves and Give it a try!

[Jacob Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

You could see they were hinting at this in The man who laughs. Gordon had a few lines about there being new kinds of criminals coming out after Batman. Supervillains and shit. How the cops would have to adjust and the system change or whatever. So we end up with this story here which has more focus on cops and the legal system. By the end Arkham gets reopened. The ideas were alright but the execution a little average. Images weren't the best.

[Lilybeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being so vibrantly colored, this is pretty dark. There is nothing clownish about the Joker in this!
This is essentially an origin story of the Joker & Batman and it really delivers.

Love the Bad Cop story. Although we’ve seen this idea before, it’s handled well in the comic.

Really enjoyed this one.

[Mat Brewster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on the early days of Batman and how difficult it would be to try and lock up actual criminals like The Joker. The writing was decent but it never grabbed me like I wanted to and the art didn't sit with me well.

[Rizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole story exists just to explain the ridiculously over-the-top opening scene. Doesn't fit very well with most of the other high quality Year One era Batman material. Not offensively bad, but not worth your time either.

[Maximilien Robespierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was fun. Slightly absurd and definitely not realistic (I mean... Joker did kill the judge with a single peanut) but fun nevertheless. I really liked that cartoony art style and Joker's characterization.

[Omar Zambrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una total apología a la crueldad del joker

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

22-25, Do You Understand These Rights? ☆☆☆☆
29-30, Good Cop…Bad Cop, ☆☆☆☆

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent entry in the series that with it's focus more on the effects of superheroes on the lives of the police reads more like a volume of Gotham Central - which is not a bad thing.

[Jake Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who on god's green earth decides to kill themselves that quick, couldn't even take the rest of the story in after this insanity.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Library copy. I'll probably finish this book today. But so far, I'm not enjoying the ride. I'm not familiar with the writer and I think this may have been his first work ever, it certainly reads like it. I do like the art work as I normally like titles drawn by Scott McDaniel. *So we get another Joker story and that's fine by me as most competent creators can tell a good story featuring Batman and the Joker. The problem with this effort--and I'm surprised the editor never demanded revisions--are the absurd leaps of logic in the story telling. If this is supposed to be the first time Batman and the Joker meet then that should have been made clearer, but there are scenes that contradict that opinion. When Batman quickly stopped the Riddler in a scene for the firts time it donned on me perhaps this is a Year One-like tale.
spoilers below*
From the start: imagine the Joker gets arrested and placed inside a jail cell. Not alone. Apparently he's not stripped down to boxers and a wife beater and is able to waltz inside a jail, armed with who knows what, and then causes himself physical harm so he coughs up a cynanide capsule that, for some reason, never dissolved in his stomach. He then attaches the capsule to his handy-dandy flower spray affixed on his purple suit and then kills the 4 or so other thugs inside the jail. A police detective beats the Joker inside the jail cell because the Joker has been pushing his buttons and then there's concern he overstepped the Joker's rights. The Joker unsuspectedly swipes his cell phone and obtains the det's home phone number. The Joker demands to make his One phone call and he gets it. He gets off the phone and then tells the detective he told his wife to hang herself because, you know, the Joker is so persuasive that when he tells a complete stranger to jump off a bridge, over a phone, they do it. She does indeed hang herself. So now the plot is fairly obvious: The Joker has made the detective's life hell and he himself will go down the road and wind up a bad person. Time for more disbelief...at least in so much as a comic book can afford.
Next, it's time for the Joker to get transferred from the jail and he swipes a Correction Officer's pen and asks if he can have a window seat inside the transport van. Granted his wish, the Joker, through the metal grating window, stabs the CO with a pen in the (sic) back of his head while he was sitting in the passenger seat and he says he punctured his jugular.(WTH?)Somehow this transitioned in the Joker convincing the driver to pull over and get tied up as the Joker is now the driver of the van until Batman arrives on the scene to stop him and send him to jail again. Not Arkham. Finally, we cut to some court scenes and the Joker makes a few kills at different times because, again, he doesn't get patted down by the police or ordered to be kept locked away in a cell and able to participate via a camera-to-courtroom type way. The first time Joker kills inside the courtroom is when he kills a Judge by thumb-flicking a peanut into the Judge's water and I guess he dies from an allergic peanut reaction. I guess. Who knows maybe the peanut got exposed to cynanide again, somehow? The next time he kills the Joker is sitting at his table wearing a straight-jacket alongside his lawyer and a bananna peel falls from his pant leg and a woman in high heels on the D.A.'s side slips on the bananna peel (because they're so so slippery) and breaks her crown from falling backwards onto a table. It's at this point that the Joker is considered a real, you know, THREAT in the courtroom and they strap him down on a stretcher with a metal facemask like Hannibal Lecter. I'm only 1.5 thru the book thus far.
Absoltuely not recommended.

[JD Comics · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Joker stories, for me, are the ones that are not that popular, like Batman: Dead to Rights. Andrew Kreisberg wrote this book. He is best known as one of the creators of CW’s The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. The first story takes place after Batman: The Man Who Laughs. Batman apprehends the Joker and brings him to GCPD, where he causes absolute mayhem even when in custody.

Yes. Some of the means that the Joker used to kill people were downright ridiculous, but if you can look past that, this shows how deadly and manipulative the Joker can be. He can cause a lot of damage, even with a simple object. This is my Joker. It also helps that Scott McDaniel’s art is cartoony. I’m not sure I like McDaniel’s art, but it works for these stories that should not be taken too seriously. Make no mistake, though; this is still a dark story. My favorite scene is the prison cell scene where Joker tells Batman he will continue hurting people unless Batman kills him or vice versa. Arkham Asylum was also teased at the end of the story. Where else would you keep him?

The second book takes place a few issues after the first arc and is a direct sequel to the first story. I like the fact that the two stories in this book are interrelated. The second story introduces Renee Montoya and Barbara Gordon. It even has a Killing Joke reference. This book also supports Joker’s theory that one bad day can cause a guy to go over the edge. For me, Batman: Dead to Rights has the best Batman Confidential stories.

My Batman Collected Editions Instagram page

[Evan Leach · Rating 2 out of 5]

This (fairly insane) story takes place after Batman: The Man Who Laughs. The Joker is off to trial for the first time, and makes the most of it by somehow going on a killing spree despite being in police custody. Over the course of this book, the Joker manages to kill using:

- A Crank Call
- A Banana Peel
- A Peanut



The point of all this mayhem is to show that the Joker is deadly even from captivity, I guess. But it all came across as pretty ludicrous. There’s a side story about a cop who loses it after being victimized by the Joker, but it’s not much better than the main event. This story also poops all over Batman canonicity at times, for those who care about that sort of thing.

Through the first four issues, this collection was heading straight for 1-star status. But the last two issues, with the Joker mercifully locked up in Arkham, are a marked improvement. That, plus some impressive artwork, lifts this weird Batman tale to ‘OK.’ 2 stars.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batman: Dead to Rights has a lot of things going for it. The tone is probably the one thing I would recommend it for the most. While the story is about the Joker going on a bloody killing spree, the tone remains light and fun. Combined with the art, it has the feeling of a kid's comic book, with definitely adult content. I sometimes pick up children's titles, so this was really a positive in my view.

Beyond the tone, the writing is both good and bad. Going in, it is probably better to expect the story to be about the Joker, with Batman more in the background. The Joker gets in some good lines. I actually laughed out loud at a reference to the movie "Ordinary People." There are some holes in the plot, but they are usually were not enough to take me completely out of the story.

I liked a lot about the art. The bright colors works well with the kind of story they're telling, and it makes for a nice change from the norm. Their were some elements that bothered me, mostly characters' faces and disappearing eyelids. More time was definitely spent on getting the Joker right, and there are quite a few panels that I really enjoyed.

[Boots LookingLand · Rating 2 out of 5]

the premise was brilliant: batman drags joker into the police station for the first time ever to get processed and taken before the judge ~ and joker still manages to be a complete murdering menace. unfortunately it's all treated so silly it's hard to get the least bit emotionally involved in the story. joker comes off as more goofy than frightening, the police look like idiots, and batman doesn't have a whole lot to do here. worst of all, it's very dated, which, for me, violates really solid comic book writing: references to current media are already lost or clichéd, and even though this isn't that old, it lacks the timelessness of a well-done arc. additionally, there are too many leaps in logic and continuity problems.

and lastly the jokes are bad. in adept hands, joker's old-school humor can really work because contextually it can demonstrate, in spite of his insanity, that he's very self-aware. here, he just tells bad jokes.

uneven art as well, though serviceable.

i really wanted to like this and it does have an amusing moment or two in its silliness, but overall pretty disappointing. would really like to see someone take this idea on and treat it more seriously.

[Yves · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'histoire commence lorsque Batman apporte le Joker au commissariat de police. Margré qu'il soit emprisonné, le Joker réussi à semer le chaos autoure de lui en tuant des gardiens de sécurité, sa psychologue, un juge et en faisant suicider la femme d'un policier.

La seconde partie est surtout sur ce policier qui, complètement dépité, décide de s'en prendre à la société au complet et surtout à Batman qui représente la source de son malheur.

Ici, tout se joue avec le Joker. C'est le personnage central de la bande dessinée. Il est complètement machiavélique et il n'y a pas moyen de le faire garder son attitude clownesque malgré les interaction avec le très sérieux Batman.

Jusqu'ici, ce n'est pas la meilleure BD de Batman mais elle est très divertissante.

[Allen Setzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems ever since The Killing Joke came out, there has been plenty of stories that like to go back and explore the beginnings of the Joker and many of them also drawn a parallel of the Joker pushing Batman become better at what he does. Dead to Rights does a great job of showing how manipulative and devious the Joker can be. It gives an interpretation of how Gotham responded to this new form of villain instead of mobsters. As a side note, Scott McDaniel is one of my favorite comic artists and he doesn't fail in this book.

[Sonic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I told myself I would read less super-hero books, ... well, ... I love Batman, ... so ...

I told myself that I would not read books with sub-par artwork,. and well, ...

I admit I was not pleased at first when I saw the art, but the writing was really really good! So I read the whole thing, and liked it!