Mixed feelings about this one--kind of like my mixed feelings about the author. anyone who's ready Sandman will recognize Kieth's name. He was the artist for the Preludes & Nocturnes storyline, which I've always felt was some of the weakest art in the series. But then a few years ago, I read Kieth's other Batman story: Arkham Asylum: Madness. It remains to this day one of my favorite Batman books, both for the excellent storytelling and perfect art. Secrets falls somewhere in between these two extremes: the art tends more towards the kind of thing I remember from Sandman (good, but not to my taste--though Kieth's depictions of the Joker are great, and vaguely reminiscent of Dave McKean's Joker from Arkham Asylum).
The story here is good, but felt kind of derivative of The Dark Knight Returns. As in Miller's book, The story starts with the Joker, newly released from Arkham, and claiming to be rehabilitated. He's touring the talk show circuit promoting a new book that explains his change of heart, while secretly, of course, plotting Batman's downfall. While the vapidity of the media is an underlying theme throughout Miller's work, here it takes center stage, and the Joker manipulates different print and electronic outlets to chip away at Batman's public image. Also interesting to me was the inclusion of a love interest for the Joker, an assistant D.A who believes that she understands him and that they're meant to be together (this story is SO, SO SIMILAR to Harley Quinn's backstory that I wondered why they bothered to introduce this new character when they had the same thing already in the DCU. Plus, Harley's one of my favorite characters; writing her out to make room for this stranger was just plain annoying). This was a fun read, but mostly because it reminded me of other books I enjoyed. It has the makings of a good book on its own, but never quite strikes out on its own enough.
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