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scans_dailyWhen we last left our young hero and vile villain, the latter had just kidnapped a respected computer expert out from under the former's nose. What does he plan to do to this respected genius? Well...
... yeah. I'm really not sure how the heck this is supposed to work - I would think that massive amounts of brain-altering drugs would screw up a genius computer expert's talents something fierce. Also, dig Joker's E.R. outfit here - Dixon's Joker always had a penchant for playing dress-up, and it'll only escalate in subsequent stories. Gotta love a villain that's so dedicated to every little stage of his plan!
Meanwhile, Tim and Alfred are hard at work, using hologram projectors to try and fool Gotham (especially the underworld) into thinking that Batman is still in town. Tim briefly suggests bringing out the Batmobile, but is shot down when Alfred informs him that 1.) neither of them know the Batmobile's security codes, and 2.) Tim is still too young to drive.
Tim concludes that what they need is an extremely public opportunity for Batman to appear - something in a highly-crowded area. His reason for going to all this trouble?
"Batman's presence is the only thing that's making the Joker keep a low profile."
Huh? We're... talking about the Joker, right? The guy who goes around kidnapping, shooting, and lobbing bombs solely to get Batman's attention? Jeez, Tim, I know you're new to the job, but still!
Shortly after, we cut to an aspiring actress who has gone, alone, to abandoned theater in a not-particularly-nice part of town for an audition, apparently following nothing but the word of some random guy and a business card. To paraphrase Frank Miller, something like this would probably constitute attempted suicide in Gotham, but to be fair, she did start getting second thoughts as soon as she saw that no one else was at the "audition".
Unfortunately, the taxi driver who brought her there promptly drives off, stranding her in that not-very-nice part of town. Left with few options, she decides to go inside the theater anyway:
Best. Method. Acting. Device. Ever.
One cut-scene later, we see that our little Meryl Streep passed her audition, and has been put straight to work. Her first role? A suicide jumper, of course! And in downtown Gotham, which pretty much guarantees an audience several hundred (if not several thousand) strong, to boot!
This part is interesting to me mainly because it's pretty much a dry run for a plot element that would pop up in one of Dixon's later Joker stories. Here, though, it's not really clear here how much the actress is doing this out of her own free will. Anyone care to speculate?
Down below, professionals and pedestrians alike are enjoying the little show (and wondering where Batman is). So much so that - much like in real life - absolutely no attention is being paid to the kind folks that actually arranged for the production:
So, yeah. That's the gist of the Joker's big plan here: using the schematics and instructions that Osgood (unwillingly) created to fuck up the city mainframe, thus sowing random chaos across Gotham. Not terribly original, is it?
As a side note: I find it rather amusing that Joker starts taking off his "disguise" as soon as they're inside the phone company, and doesn't even bother putting it back on as they leave the place. I could say that this is an indicator of how (over-)confident he is - once he's gotten what he came for, he's certain that he can't be stopped even if someone spots him - but given that he did little to hide his face and hair color even when he was in full phone repairman getup, I'd say that it's more likely he just plain didn't care that much about hiding himself, period.
Several hundred feet up, Tim has just barely managed to save the would-be jumper. Mistah J decides to stop sneaking around, and openly congratulates the Dynamic Duo on their latest success the only way he knows how: with a hail of lead.
As the Joker stands around, gaping like an idiot, he gets spotted by Tim. Tim promptly goes (even further) into SRS BZNS mode, complete with obligatory reference to Jason. Mistah J and his merry men beat a hasty retreat, but Tim, suicidally courageous little bird-boy he is, swings down and confronts the Joker man-to-man:
Smoke/gas bombs can let him teleport away now? Must be the same ones that Andrea Beaumont uses...
That aside, it's pretty interesting to see that Tim needs the GCPD to bail him out, a situation that rarely arises with any member of the Bat-family in any era. This won't be the last time that Dixon uses this situation, either - it's a handy way of establishing Tim's status as a newcomer to crimefighting, to make it feel like he's earning the right to be Robin instead of just appearing in the costume like Jason did. At the same time, it also gives the GCPD something to do in a story besides giving exposition and getting slaughtered like cattle to show how badass the villain is - Dixon always did seem to have a soft spot for the boys in blue, and he would often give the police a bigger role (or at least more creative dialogue) in his stories than most other writers of his time did, even penning several stories that focused entirely on the GDPD.
And on the portrayal of the Joker here: I don't think that Dixon has ever had him rely more on gimmicks and gadgetry than he does in this story. When one takes into account all of Dixon's later Joker stories, which tended to play more to the Joker's intellect, wit, and unpredictable personality, the heavy reliance on gadgets and joke weapons seems more like a crutch. Lord knows how easy it is for so many writers to have him just whip out Joker Venom, the acid-spewing posey, or the electric joybuzzer at every possible opportunity so that they won't have to strain themselves thinking up actual, funny jokes.
To Dixon's credit, however, he does try his best to give the Joker a sense of humor here, intertwined with the malice and competence that the story demands from him. Let's see all of these in action, as the effects of Joker's little prank make themselves felt across Gotham... in our next installment!
... yeah. I'm really not sure how the heck this is supposed to work - I would think that massive amounts of brain-altering drugs would screw up a genius computer expert's talents something fierce. Also, dig Joker's E.R. outfit here - Dixon's Joker always had a penchant for playing dress-up, and it'll only escalate in subsequent stories. Gotta love a villain that's so dedicated to every little stage of his plan!
Meanwhile, Tim and Alfred are hard at work, using hologram projectors to try and fool Gotham (especially the underworld) into thinking that Batman is still in town. Tim briefly suggests bringing out the Batmobile, but is shot down when Alfred informs him that 1.) neither of them know the Batmobile's security codes, and 2.) Tim is still too young to drive.
Tim concludes that what they need is an extremely public opportunity for Batman to appear - something in a highly-crowded area. His reason for going to all this trouble?
"Batman's presence is the only thing that's making the Joker keep a low profile."
Huh? We're... talking about the Joker, right? The guy who goes around kidnapping, shooting, and lobbing bombs solely to get Batman's attention? Jeez, Tim, I know you're new to the job, but still!
Shortly after, we cut to an aspiring actress who has gone, alone, to abandoned theater in a not-particularly-nice part of town for an audition, apparently following nothing but the word of some random guy and a business card. To paraphrase Frank Miller, something like this would probably constitute attempted suicide in Gotham, but to be fair, she did start getting second thoughts as soon as she saw that no one else was at the "audition".
Unfortunately, the taxi driver who brought her there promptly drives off, stranding her in that not-very-nice part of town. Left with few options, she decides to go inside the theater anyway:
Best. Method. Acting. Device. Ever.
One cut-scene later, we see that our little Meryl Streep passed her audition, and has been put straight to work. Her first role? A suicide jumper, of course! And in downtown Gotham, which pretty much guarantees an audience several hundred (if not several thousand) strong, to boot!
This part is interesting to me mainly because it's pretty much a dry run for a plot element that would pop up in one of Dixon's later Joker stories. Here, though, it's not really clear here how much the actress is doing this out of her own free will. Anyone care to speculate?
Down below, professionals and pedestrians alike are enjoying the little show (and wondering where Batman is). So much so that - much like in real life - absolutely no attention is being paid to the kind folks that actually arranged for the production:
So, yeah. That's the gist of the Joker's big plan here: using the schematics and instructions that Osgood (unwillingly) created to fuck up the city mainframe, thus sowing random chaos across Gotham. Not terribly original, is it?
As a side note: I find it rather amusing that Joker starts taking off his "disguise" as soon as they're inside the phone company, and doesn't even bother putting it back on as they leave the place. I could say that this is an indicator of how (over-)confident he is - once he's gotten what he came for, he's certain that he can't be stopped even if someone spots him - but given that he did little to hide his face and hair color even when he was in full phone repairman getup, I'd say that it's more likely he just plain didn't care that much about hiding himself, period.
Several hundred feet up, Tim has just barely managed to save the would-be jumper. Mistah J decides to stop sneaking around, and openly congratulates the Dynamic Duo on their latest success the only way he knows how: with a hail of lead.
As the Joker stands around, gaping like an idiot, he gets spotted by Tim. Tim promptly goes (even further) into SRS BZNS mode, complete with obligatory reference to Jason. Mistah J and his merry men beat a hasty retreat, but Tim, suicidally courageous little bird-boy he is, swings down and confronts the Joker man-to-man:
Smoke/gas bombs can let him teleport away now? Must be the same ones that Andrea Beaumont uses...
That aside, it's pretty interesting to see that Tim needs the GCPD to bail him out, a situation that rarely arises with any member of the Bat-family in any era. This won't be the last time that Dixon uses this situation, either - it's a handy way of establishing Tim's status as a newcomer to crimefighting, to make it feel like he's earning the right to be Robin instead of just appearing in the costume like Jason did. At the same time, it also gives the GCPD something to do in a story besides giving exposition and getting slaughtered like cattle to show how badass the villain is - Dixon always did seem to have a soft spot for the boys in blue, and he would often give the police a bigger role (or at least more creative dialogue) in his stories than most other writers of his time did, even penning several stories that focused entirely on the GDPD.
And on the portrayal of the Joker here: I don't think that Dixon has ever had him rely more on gimmicks and gadgetry than he does in this story. When one takes into account all of Dixon's later Joker stories, which tended to play more to the Joker's intellect, wit, and unpredictable personality, the heavy reliance on gadgets and joke weapons seems more like a crutch. Lord knows how easy it is for so many writers to have him just whip out Joker Venom, the acid-spewing posey, or the electric joybuzzer at every possible opportunity so that they won't have to strain themselves thinking up actual, funny jokes.
To Dixon's credit, however, he does try his best to give the Joker a sense of humor here, intertwined with the malice and competence that the story demands from him. Let's see all of these in action, as the effects of Joker's little prank make themselves felt across Gotham... in our next installment!
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Date: 2014-01-02 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-28 06:09 am (UTC)