Justice League International Annual #2

[iamrman]

Scott Free is trying to prepare for a celebratory barbecue, but this being the Justice League International, it doesn’t go quite to plan.

The various subplots inevitably converge at the end. Ted and Booster tried to repossess a hi-tech battle tank, but it ended up belonging to the criminal organisation known as The 1,000. The Joker had also been hired to eliminate the JLI by the ruler of Bialya, Rumaan Harjavti.

Love Batman just nopeing out of there. Ain’t nobody got time for shenanigans!

Comments

[huntleyhaverstock]

I love that there was a time in the '80s when the Batmobile was just a sensible hatchback.

[superfangirl1]

I like how Batman was like “nope”. I am not going to deal with this kind of crazy shat today. Bye

It is somewhat out of character for him, to do something like that. But is very hilarious.

[tcampbell1000]

I never cease to be amazed at how defiant this series feels today. It knows that it's part of a larger storytelling universe and is expected to be consistent with how characters are portrayed elsewhere in the publishing line. It just doesn't care.

I'm pretty sure that if any DC Comics writer in the 21st century proposed a mainstream story where Mr. Miracle couldn't fix a barbecue grill, or where the Joker got so fed up with minor frustrations that he just decided to give up and go home, or where Batman refused an opportunity to capture the Joker because...he just...wasn't in the mood(!!!)...they'd be laughed all the way out of the industry. This was DC Comics' top-selling title. For years.

(And yeah, I know there's non-mainstream stuff that still does things kind of like this, like the animated Harley Quinn series and some of her comics and the occasional JLI-character comic. But there's still something different about getting away with this in the central DC title, the one that all the others ended up having to acknowledge to some degree. Doomsday killing Superman didn't stick, but Doomsday killing the "gags and goofy" era did.)

[beyondthefringe]

and then the much later claim that Maxwell Lord was using his powers to influence them all towards ineffectualness because he was secretly super evil all along. :(

Nah, it's okay to look at this era of the League and be all "yeah, we were all kind of silly back then..."

(Let's not go to Camelot, it's a silly place!)

[mazway_75]

I miss this Joker. Yeah, he kills a couple of people but still nutty sense of humor rather than the torture stuff.

[john_drake1964]

I would say the issue with the Joker having shifted to being a murder-clown is that it doesn't leave folks much in the way of potential suspense. You know that there's a great than 90% chance that he's going to slaughter everyone who crosses him, so how does that make him different than Zsasz other than general gimmick?

Meanwhile, having murder as a "sometimes treat" as the Joker might put it, means that you can leave it a bit more open on what brand of chaos he decides to pull. Maybe today he'll try and kidnap and replace the lead actor in Pagliacci, maybe he'll steal a kids report card, maybe he'll tie the mayor to a blimp, or maybe he'll terrorize some ViewTube influencer who was dumb enough to make fun of him.

Heck, why not lean into how terrifying just being sprayed with a non-lethal dose of Joker venom would be? Your face contorting into a rictus grin, no doubt damaging facial muscles, unable to stop laughing, sides aching in pain from it, but you just...keep...going. You can barely get a few words out before it's back to laughing, unless you can get help...

[cainofdreaming]

I'd love for him to be a murder-clown again. Nowadays he's more like murder-murder.

[superfangirl1]

Which is currently happening in Batman: The Brave and the bold. Which is retelling Joker first crime wave. In the story. He just killing people left and right, with no logical rational reason.

[beyondthefringe]

oof.
The Joker should always be operating on his own sense of warped illogic, but it should follow his rule of funny. So every murder should be the punchline to a joke, even if it's just one only he understands.

Random murder for the sake of murder should not be a Joker thing.
I.e. he orders pizza and tips the delivery guy a whole wad of bills that may or may not explode... he doesn't just shoot him.

[zylly]

There’s so much to love in this. Especially the Joker being so far out of his league (pun intended) against Barda.

This has always been my favorite incarnation of the League.

[gnarll]

weenies.

[iamrman]

Kaguya Shinomiya just got triggered.