Batman Crossover: Joker/Mask

[superfangirl1]

Paperback: 96 pages



The Joker inadvertently gets his hands on the magical mask after it is found in a Gotham City museum. With its power the Joker begins to feel a new rejuvenation in his career of crime. Lt. Kellaway finds his way to Gotham and helps Batman and Commissioner Gordon in defeating the newly superpowered Joker.



















Batman is able to trick the Joker into removing the Mask by claiming that the villain is no longer funny, and is relying on tired schtick and the power of the Mask instead of his own style. Lt. Kellaway asks Batman to give him the Mask

Comments

[auggie18]

Interesting that they never try the whole "shooting him" thing when he isn't wearing the mask. (I refer you to the baby soup incident, which pretty much ruined the Joker as a villain for me.)

This looks like a fun story, though.

[mrstatham]

It is a fun story. Definitely completely out of continuity, but a hell of a lot more fun than Batman himself has probably been in the past twenty years.

But I guess the rules still apply when it comes to the Joker himself, yet when he's wearing the mask, the GCPD do have Kellaway - who has dealt with the mask/Bighead before - on hand giving information. So they probably know that shooting him will do nothing while he has the mask on. As it is, the lighter, more comical nature of the story would render it pretty horrid if someone just shot the Joker down at the story's end.

[icon_uk]

So they probably know that shooting him will do nothing while he has the mask on

Or they're being optimistic, just in case it DOESN'T work like that.

[mrstatham]

Well, in this comic's terms, it would be a real 'oops' moment. But given how destructive Joker is whilst wearing the mask in this story, I don't think anyone would particularly mind.

[silverzeo]

Rule one of the Joker: No one is more insane the Joker...

[espanolbot]

'Cept the Creeper, even the Joker would admit that he's sane in comparision.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ah, that was a fun little story. And I can hear the Animated Series cast all the way, too.

[biod]

The best part is that this can be used as a criticism for Grimdark!Joker.

[mrstatham]

Batman too. Batman himself is probably perfectly competent and in character here without going to the ridiculous Grimdark! lengths that the 00's Batman did at times. Definitely in keeping with BTAS where shit, Batman actually SMILED at times.

[maseiken]

... What the hell did I just read?

[kraesil]

Uh... don't tell me this is in the normal DCnU? It's too hard to believe.

[mrstatham]

The story's about ten years old, now, and was published during a time when DC and Dark Horse were doing a set of crossovers. There was this, Green Lantern/Aliens, and others.

[venatosapiens]

Green Lanterns/Aliens? I'll bite. Does anybody have scans of that?

[mullon]

I can't believe The Joker actually overpowered the Mask. I didn't tihnk that was possible.

[glprime]

Joker 2000, the rubber chicken bandolier... XD

[thatnickguy]

I think this was collected once, but might be out of print.

If they ever DO re-print it, I hope they do it along with Lobo/Mask. That was hilarious, if only for the part where they fight for so long, they're down to two disembodied heads wielding bludgeoning weapons with their tongues.

[mrstatham]

It was definitely collected - I own it.

And I doubt DC will reprint it at this stage. They're so ridiculously isolationist and have decided that tearing down their own publishing branches is great that I don't ever see them reprinting a collaborative book; Their attitude to another Marvel/DC crossover is exactly the same, although Marvel's frat-boy attitude toward them probably doesn't help.

[filthysize]

I have this, and what I truly appreciated about it is that it uses the animated series characters of both Batman and The Mask (look at Gordon, Bullock and Kellaway) rather than the comics version of both. They could have easily done the latter, with the comics Joker running into the darker Dark Horse version of The Mask, but they opted for something more humorous and fun.