Let's face it: almost no writer cares about how the generation before them wrote Black Mask. Winick's turn more or less ignored the crap out of Ed Brubaker's, who ignored the crap out of Greg Rucka's, who ignored the crap out of Doug Moench's...
I can *kinda* see Nicholson!Joker in Winick's Black Mask here, and who knows? Given the fact that the mid-2000s Bat-books were well into the throes of "the Joker is NO LAUGHING MATTER, BUB", possibly with editor pressure to keep it that way, maybe he was trying to have his cake and eat it too.
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I can *kinda* see Nicholson!Joker in Winick's Black Mask here, and who knows? Given the fact that the mid-2000s Bat-books were well into the throes of "the Joker is NO LAUGHING MATTER, BUB", possibly with editor pressure to keep it that way, maybe he was trying to have his cake and eat it too.