This three-part miniseries was obviously generated to take advantage of the recent Batman movie.  The late Heath Ledger’s superb Joker has loosed a flood of Joker/Batman stories.  All of them are a weariness — if I were DC I would put the Joker on hiatus for at least a couple years.

Cacophany is a particularly unsatisfying member of this annoying flood.  With its references to past events and a supporting cast of uninspiring villains of yore, it is a bad jumping-on place for new fans.  You would think that DC would take care to have everything accessible to a new reader, so as to derive maximum mileage from the boost of the movie.   It is exceptionally gory and violent, many knives, guns, pieces of broken glass, and so on, which means that moms are not going to let little Justin spend his allowance here.  (The various Bat cartoon titles are the way to go for youngsters — I have heard good reports of Brave and Bold.)

Finally and most damning, the thing doesn’t resolve.  Mysterious new villain Cacophony is not apprehended; we don’t even learn anything useful about him.  The information will doubtless be revealed in future miniseries.  I will seriously consider not being there.  Meanwhile you, the reader, should save your money.  This mini is eminently skippable.