Batman: Gotham Adventures 1
Feb. 19th, 2016 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyIn which people finally have had enough of DCAU!Joker.
11 pages out of a 38 page story.
Batman, Batgirl and Robin are pursuing the Joker on one of his recent crime sprees when there is a sudden news flash.
Yeeeaaaah, the DCAU's Joker in relation to murder is a tricky one. On the one hand, he wasn't allowed to be shown killing people in BTAS due to standards and practices, but he certainly did things that would result in his victims dying (such as the attempted train derailment in Christmas with the Joker) or driven crazy with Joker poison (the Laughing Fish and others), the latter of which was used as a compromise by the creators who have said that people being left paralysed with stretched grins is actually kind of worse.
However, come Mask of the Phantasm (which established the Joker's prior profession as a professional criminal of some sort who killed at least one person offscreen prior to getting dipped in acid, and another offscreen as the Joker), they seemed to begin having the Joker actually succeed in actually killing people. Such as in one of the flashbacks in the BTAS sequel series the New Batman Adventures' Mad Love episode.
Intentionally or not, there does seem to be a kind of meta-plot going on with the Joker from BTAS through to Justice League and eventually Batman Beyond. To begin with, the Joker had henchmen and more often or not had a financial motive even if he used violence to get what he wants (his using a chemical weapon on Gotham that causes permanent insanity just so he can rob the place in the Last Laugh, for example).
But over time violence starts becoming the sole end goal rather than a means to an end for the Joker, and at this point all his henchmen leave him except for Harley. Whether his "screw it, kill everyone" phase was a result of his finanical problems (a reoccuring thing in NBA) or vice versa, I can't say. But... Lex Luthor's attempted doublecross of the Clown Prince of Crime does result in a huge chunk of Metropolis getting flattened in the World's Finest crossover movie, and that's not even getting into his Justice league and Batman Beyond stuff.
So yeah, the DCAU version of the Joker killing people (which is a plot point in this story) isn't entirely out of left field... it just feels really jarring with those character designs though.
Anyways, on with the story. News of the Joker's bounty has left the entrance to Arkham filled with people waiting to finally just shoot the Joker to collect the money, so until this is resolved they handcuff the Joker to a railing in the Batcave. Unfortunately, when Batman and Robin are called away to deal with the Riddler, leaving Batgirl on guard duty, the Joker quickly slips ouf of his handcuffs with the aid of a fake hand, knocks out Batgirl, and tries to work out where they took him.
Batman tries to deal with the Riddler's... uh... riddle, only now with the Joker's chatter distracting him.
Batman gets an idea, defeats the Riddler and brings the man who filed the bounty to the Batcave to meet the Joker face to face.
Uh, pretty sure that publically putting a hit on someone is still a crime, even if they retracted it afterwards. It's one of those things like escaping from prison to prove your innocence, it's still illegal even if it doesn't wrap the story up nicely in the end.
11 pages out of a 38 page story.
Batman, Batgirl and Robin are pursuing the Joker on one of his recent crime sprees when there is a sudden news flash.
Yeeeaaaah, the DCAU's Joker in relation to murder is a tricky one. On the one hand, he wasn't allowed to be shown killing people in BTAS due to standards and practices, but he certainly did things that would result in his victims dying (such as the attempted train derailment in Christmas with the Joker) or driven crazy with Joker poison (the Laughing Fish and others), the latter of which was used as a compromise by the creators who have said that people being left paralysed with stretched grins is actually kind of worse.
However, come Mask of the Phantasm (which established the Joker's prior profession as a professional criminal of some sort who killed at least one person offscreen prior to getting dipped in acid, and another offscreen as the Joker), they seemed to begin having the Joker actually succeed in actually killing people. Such as in one of the flashbacks in the BTAS sequel series the New Batman Adventures' Mad Love episode.
Intentionally or not, there does seem to be a kind of meta-plot going on with the Joker from BTAS through to Justice League and eventually Batman Beyond. To begin with, the Joker had henchmen and more often or not had a financial motive even if he used violence to get what he wants (his using a chemical weapon on Gotham that causes permanent insanity just so he can rob the place in the Last Laugh, for example).
But over time violence starts becoming the sole end goal rather than a means to an end for the Joker, and at this point all his henchmen leave him except for Harley. Whether his "screw it, kill everyone" phase was a result of his finanical problems (a reoccuring thing in NBA) or vice versa, I can't say. But... Lex Luthor's attempted doublecross of the Clown Prince of Crime does result in a huge chunk of Metropolis getting flattened in the World's Finest crossover movie, and that's not even getting into his Justice league and Batman Beyond stuff.
So yeah, the DCAU version of the Joker killing people (which is a plot point in this story) isn't entirely out of left field... it just feels really jarring with those character designs though.
Anyways, on with the story. News of the Joker's bounty has left the entrance to Arkham filled with people waiting to finally just shoot the Joker to collect the money, so until this is resolved they handcuff the Joker to a railing in the Batcave. Unfortunately, when Batman and Robin are called away to deal with the Riddler, leaving Batgirl on guard duty, the Joker quickly slips ouf of his handcuffs with the aid of a fake hand, knocks out Batgirl, and tries to work out where they took him.
Batman tries to deal with the Riddler's... uh... riddle, only now with the Joker's chatter distracting him.
Batman gets an idea, defeats the Riddler and brings the man who filed the bounty to the Batcave to meet the Joker face to face.
Uh, pretty sure that publically putting a hit on someone is still a crime, even if they retracted it afterwards. It's one of those things like escaping from prison to prove your innocence, it's still illegal even if it doesn't wrap the story up nicely in the end.
no subject
Date: 2016-02-20 11:18 pm (UTC)Spoiler to follow: <span style="color: #000000; background-color: #000000;">Rosebud's his childhood sled.</span>
Becomes this:
Spoiler to follow: Rosebud's his childhood sled.
(Admittedly, I'm not sure how this works with the comment e-mails that Dreamwidth can send. I think those just show in plaintext.)