The Joker (And Surprise Guest!) In: "Be Careful Who You Work For..."

[captainbellman]

(18-ish pages from a 68-page book)



Late in this particular story, Mister J's laughing gas is used to great effect on a particular army outpost, clearing the stage for a meeting with the new secret collaborator who's been aiding him in his own war against the Bat...

(As with a lot of you, I suspect, I hear the voice of Mark Hamyll loud and clear when reading these.)











Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't include a couple of panels/pages involving the real stars of the show...





And much later, after the two of them both need to get their hands on some secret wartime plans...









Annnnnyhew...this all culminates in a plot involving a giant bomb being dropped over Allied territory, which Batman and Cap attempt to foil - with an unlikely ally...

Comments

[philippos42]

When-- What--

So, it's basically "Batman/Captain America: Generations"?

[captainbellman]

More "B/CA" with a "Generations" chaser, but the thought of a sequel might have been nice...

[crinos]

An American psychopath huh?

So was this before or after they made him the Iranian ambassador?

(Still cannot believe that was a thing).

[starwolf_oakley]

Jim Starlin had issues. Still does, I'll bet.

[deh_tommy]

Wait, he was an actual Iranian ambassador? I haven't read 'A Death iin the Family', so I thought that was just a joke on his part.

[crinos]

Nope, Ayatollah Khomeni himself actually comes to him directly and gives him the job (its actually a front for a plot to assassinate the floor of the UN, because that makes sense).

And the crazy thing is the US Government allows this, so far as asking Superman to hold Batman back.

Of course, later writers retconned this to being just some made up country, and The Ayatollah was cut out of later reprintings (but not out of the one I own. My cousin gave me the entire set, original runs I think).

[lego_joker]

To be honest, I've *never* seen a reprinting where the Ayatollah was cut out (what would they even replace the panel with?). Every version I've seen, digital or otherwise, kept both the Ayatollah and every mention of Iran.

[tianyulong]

Well to be fair, this isn't the same Joker

[icon_uk]

The Joker's outraged, apparently sincere "I'm a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic", remains one of my favourite Joker moments ever. You KNOW he doesn't mean it for any longer than it takes to say it, but.....

It also reminds me of Daffy Duck's famous scene where after being terrified of the Tasmanian Devil for a whole short, beats him to a pulp to get a dollar bill he dropped back and explains to the audience; "I'm a coward, but I'm a greeeedy coward!"

[lyricalswagger]

Walt Simonson did the same thing in an issue of Thor. I wonder if it came from an earlier, third source, or if Byrne ripped off Simonson.

[siliconshaman]

The original Rocketeer series [which was just post war] had that line when the Nazi saboteur/spy was employing a gang of mobsters. [I may be a criminal, but I'm an American criminal!] which in the later movie became "I may not earn an honest dollar, but I'm all American!"

It's just possible there's an earlier example, but doubtful.

[cricharddavies]

There's a couple of earlier examples -- Mario Puzo's The Godfather, which went to some lengths to demonstrate that Michael Corleone had fought bravely in World War II. Even before that, the short-lived 1935 pulp serial Dr. Death had a mobster cooperating with attempts to defeat the titular supervillain, while musing that he looked forward to the day when he could test his steel against the series' lawman hero.

[pyynk]

Not in comics perhaps, but ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborations_between_the_United_States_government_and_Italian_Mafia

[randyripoff]

I think I recall seeing something similar from a Spirit story.

[jlbarnett]

well, theoretically he did, because he goes right back to fighting the Red Skull when he did. The question being did he do it because Red Skull was a Nazi or because he betrayed him

[jekylls_salvation]

We have to take over creatively as readers to believe he didn't mean it. Sure, I think the Joker would double-cross him and murder him cold with a wrench while whimsically reciting empty patriotisms. But in this context? With this writer? No way. Joker's a red blooded steak eating flag waving American here same as Cap. The writer didn't understand the Joker. The writer seems like the type who was born in a different time, when things were simpler, and voted for Ronald Reagan.

I didn't read the tags, so I was actually surprised by Red Skull's appearance.

[deh_tommy]

So, does this take place in the DC multiverse or the MARVEL multiverse?

Re: I didn't read the tags, so I was actually surprised by Red Skull's appearance.

[squirle]

I was going to say Earth-Crossover (http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/earthcrossoverall.htm) but apparently it doesn't fit the continuity due to Batman being active in World War II...

Re: I didn't read the tags, so I was actually surprised by Red Skull's appearance.

[cricharddavies]

This is supposed to be the same reality as Byrne's other Generations series, so it's whatever numbered cosmos that is.

Re: I didn't read the tags, so I was actually surprised by Red Skull's appearance.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Dick as Batman and Bruce Wayne Jr. as Robin come from the fan fiction Alfred wrote in the 50s, so I guess Alfred wrote this, too.

Re: I didn't read the tags, so I was actually surprised by Red Skull's appearance.

[jekylls_salvation]

This adequately answers all my questions.

[reveen]

It makes a certain amount of sense to me that non-Grimdark slasher Joker would be anti-Nazi. The Nazis were a pretty grey, humourless bunch who wanted to put Europe under their austere vision of civil order. That's not even getting into their attitude towards the mentally ill...

[cricharddavies]

On the other hand, in one LOTDK annual, he finds being confused with Hitler in one of Batman's hallucinations to be "very flattering!"

[kumahige]

I recall there was brief reference to this crossover on Generations.

Here it is.



From the look of things, after the huge explosion, Red Skull probably captured the Joker and paraded him as a freak on Germany as he intended.

[silverzeo]

I remember someone's review for this, mention how simple it starts out with a flashback. No deities at war, just a simple recollection. Like having a fun impossible story in a the most basic of ways... by just letting it happen.

[jekylls_salvation]

So many questions.

How much are those henchmen getting paid? What are their motivations?

What, exactly, makes Skull think Joker would make an apt Nazi?

Joker, a sociopathic serial killer and cold-blooded murderer, a torturer, rapist, terrorist, and genocidal maniac, is chastising a group for, what? Gassing people to death? Alright. Okay. Sure.

As much as I would love to see Joker paraded throughout the streets as an example of the freakish monsters America has bred, not killing him seems an obviously bad choice. Who did Skull have look into this guy again?

This narration is painful.

Batman and Captain America would not get along after about 5 minutes.

Is Fat Boy... I get that it's a mix of Fat Man and Little Boy, but are they implying Batman and Cap did Nagasaki?

Bruce Jr's hair. Who is his mother?

Is it me or is Alfred trying to push Jesus on us in those last panels?


I don't think Joker's any more clever than the average angsty American youth with too much time on his hands who goes on to shoot up a school or bomb a marathon, but I have to imagine he's not so dim as to engage in Bush Patriotism. And I highly doubt the writer is pushing for a simple "the Joker was planning to kill him all along, because the Joker's sinister like that, he's not really all that patriotic and doesn't particularly care about Skull's choice of political affiliation." Mostly because the Joker doesn't simply attack Skull, he actually smashes the bomb's drop mechanism, saving America. A patriotic Joker is fascinating. A lot of people say "Well, sure, the Joker murders people, but at least he's not a child molester." Which is a frightening misunderstanding. We need to establish a firm ground on the Joker. What if the Joker has reasonable ideas about Bernie Sanders? I feel like the Joker in his first appearance, the relatable (at least from the perspective of a criminal) crime boss who happens to look silly, would have views on regular Joe things. He can't be crazy every waking moment, can he? Or is he? Is he so deeply cracked that when an idea about politics arises, it quickly dissipates as a wave of mad laughter washes over him? Which is it? A violent criminal trying to get his cut of the pie? Or a creature pushed to the brink of lunacy?