The hunt for the Joker reaches a climax (We don’t really believe that, but we’ll see) as Jim Gordon comes face to face with the boogeyman in The Joker #3, with a lead story written by James Tynion IV, drawn by Guillem March, colored by Ari Prianto and lettered by Tom Napolitano.
A much less disquieting Joker duels with Batman and Mystery Inc. in The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries #2, written by Sholly Fisch, drawn by Randy Elliott, colored by Silvana Brys and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
Matt Lazorwitz: For a character who has been overused for the past decade and a half (at least), I probably should be more annoyed at a week with two comics where the Joker is the primary antagonist. But these are two very different Jokers, and two comics I really enjoyed.
Will Nevin: Two books vastly different in tone and substance but with the same common bond: Joker ain’t the star of the show. And I’m with you — I liked ’em both, although there are some gripes with each because I am cantankerous as hell.
Shadows of the Past
ML: So, Brother Will, I am going to ask a somewhat loaded question, at least in Batman fandom circles: What are your feelings on The Killing Joke?
WN: Another one of those things I haven’t actually sat down to read, but I’m familiar with its concepts and contemporary reception. Continuing to mine female trauma is an ugly, uncomfortable thing — I remember (and agree with) the right proper outrage over Rafael Albuquerque’s eventually canceled Batgirl variant.
ML: Oh, yes. And that is the central problem with The Killing Joke from a lot of standpoints. One thing no one has ever really mined, other than in vague ways, is Jim Gordon’s trauma. Barbara’s fridging is made more tragic (not within the story but from a perspective of how wrongheaded it is) by the fact that it is twice-removed fridging: She was wounded and (tacitly if not emphatically) sexually assaulted not to harm Batman but to harm Jim Gordon, which will then harm Batman.
And that’s ugly, mean-spirited, and I’m not sure how it can be dealt with easily. This issue opens with Jim in the middle of his arc in that book, before he even knows that stuff has happened, and I’m trying to decide if Tynion, by not bringing in the Barbara aspect of Jim’s torture, is doing that a disservice, by not allowing readers to see Jim process his grief and outrage, or doing the right thing, since once again focusing on that aspect of the book further engrains it and gives it more power.
WN: If the original book is fridging twice removed, is the film adaptation thrice removed since it added Batgirl as Batman’s sexual object? Jesus.
ML: Ugh. The less said about that the better. I’m just wondering if we’ve reached a point where we should just sort of … stop talking about this one story. I don’t know if there’s anything left to say about it.
WN: I’ll say that I think Tynion did the right thing here — Gordon has so much baggage to process where Joker’s involved: anger, fear, his duty to the law. It’s only right to explore the personal harm that’s come to him as a result of fighting Joker all these years. But Tynion importantly doesn’t revisit all the explicitly shitty things that have been done to Barbara as a character.
ML: Absolutely. And I like Jim’s view of what the Joker is and how it plays out here. I just wish we didn’t have to see it over and over again. This is me being cantankerous, I guess…
The Road Ahead
WN: So two things that puzzled me in this issue: 1) a scene on an airplane as Gordon narrates that I absolutely could not figure out what was going on and 2) the Jim Gordon: Manhunter concept ending with Gordon … finding his man in the third issue?
ML: Yeah, the bit on the plane took me a couple beats to get there. That was the members of the cannibalistic Sampson family making their way to Belize on a separate plane.
WN: Ahhhhhhhh our friends from (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Hooper County. Excellent. That was going to bother the shit out of me.
ML: Yeah, it’s not the clearest transition, and having Jim narrate over both doesn’t help. If we had spent more time getting to know the Sampsons in the previous issue, visually, it probably would have been an easier thing to pick up.
As for the latter, I need to see where this goes from here. I think there’s potential, with Joker now knowing that Gordon is hunting him, to escape after the fray that is obviously coming, and to make this more of a game of cat and mouse rather than a traditional manhunt. Gordon specifically says the Joker thrives on his audience: He’s only the Joker when someone is watching. So now we have the Joker travelling the world with a captive audience on his heels.
WN: Since I do love talking about non-Bat stuff in our specifically Batman column, here’s a James Bond nugget for you. Producer Michael Wilson has a quote that pretty well sums up the entire series: “We always start out trying to make another From Russia with Love and end up with another Thunderball.” That has always spoken to me as an example of high aspirations — From Russia with Love is such a rich and detailed film — that peter out into meaningless pablum. And that’s what I’m worried about here. For 2.85 issues, Joker has been methodical and lush. But if we’re not careful, we could end up with another ThunderBat action book. Really, wouldn’t you want more of Jim Gordon greasing palms and working sources? Doing the dirty detective work necessary to catch (presumably) the world’s most infamous criminal? I’m not saying we won’t get that, but my hopes are dimming a little.
ML: Absolutely. I need to give the Tynion of Department of Truth and Something is Killing the Children some credit here. He can do this kind of long-form psychological stuff, and I wonder if we’ll get some more hunting. And I think the possibility that this book will tie into the main Bat-line by having Jim hunt down who planned the false flag of A-Day would keep this book interesting. As long as he’s doing it while the Joker is and not with the Joker, because while opposites working together can be interesting, no way Jim would ever work with the Joker.
WN: *puts on nerd conspiracy theory glasses* Uhh, Matt, A-Day would not be a “false flag,” as that suggests a government orchestrating an attack against its own people or property in order to move the populace to some policy goal. Although if Nakano or someone in the mayor’s office was responsible, it could very well be a false flag. Joker here is being set up as a patsy. *removes nerd conspiracy theory glasses*
ML: First, my money is on Simon Saint, so I suppose it’s not a false flag in the strictest sense of the word since The Magistrate isn’t in power yet. Second, go back to Department of Truth, nerd!
WN: My love of that series aside, I could see a pivot to Gordon investigating A-Day, although that gives me bad Picard mojo with that series’ attempts to look into an attack on Mars that was similarly orchestrated … blah, blah, blah, the show was bad. But since I love everything Tynion does outside of Batman, he might be able to pull it off.
Scooby-Doo and Joker, Too
ML: So, let’s start out with your quibble on this one. I have my own, but let’s start with yours.
WN: The art bummed me out, man. There was tons and tons of white space — something I never like in a comic — and the visual style seemed to be a strange blend of too many original sources. Joker’s lines looked weird. And who the hell put Robin in red and black instead of red and green?! Outrageous, I say!
ML: Yup, I was not a fan of the art in this issue either. The Robin thing I could almost forgive if he looked younger, and was obviously Tim Drake, but it seems like it was Dick Grayson in Tim’s costume, which seemed odd.
The art just felt rushed and sloppy. I mean look at this:
That look like a cold gun to you? I mean it’s obviously shooting ice, but I’ve never seen red, the universal signifier for fire, shoot out of a cold gun…
WN: I remember that bothering me for the same reason. We’ve seen worse art before in a more high-profile book (that Batman with, like, seven artists on it springs to mind), but it’s still something when a major publisher puts out something like this. Where’s the goddamned quality control, people?
ML: The story is fun. I like that it blends a basic Scooby-Doo plot with some Batman and Joker hijinks, and it really has a Joker plan that feels straight out of Batman ‘66. There are a couple good gags, too; I love Fred asking if any real estate moguls have been asking to buy the Batcave lately. But the art is distracting as all get out.
WN: And that’s the sad thing — I know we both want to read and enjoy this series. And the story is super cute and a great reminder that it’s never an actual ghost.
ML: Fortunately, Dario Brizuela, who drew issue #1 and was the main artist on the original Scooby-Doo Team-Up, will be back for the next two issues at least, according to solicitations.
WN: I’ll scarf a Scooby Snack to that.
Bat-miscellany
- The past couple major creative teams before Tynion used Joker gave him new disquieting physical attributes: Grant Morrison and the facial scarring and Scott Snyder and the peeled-off face. While both were … distinct, I think the heterochromia caused by Harley’s gunshot in “Joker War” works by far the best, not leaning into the grotesque but adding an off kilter, disquieting beat with that one blood red pupil.
- History’s most famous false flag — the Reichstag fire that the Nazi Party used as an excuse to seize total control of Germany’s government — may not have been an actual false flag since, by definition, the Nazis would have to have been responsible for the fire. They could have set the fire, but it’s one of history’s open questions. Nazis are still bad, though.
- Will wanted to make time for Batman: The Detective this week, but he forgot.
- Matt has that waiting to be read as well. No offense to the creative team on that book, but there’s only so much time in the day.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
