The Joker 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular

[cyberghostface]

This story is one of the last comics that Dennis O’Neil wrote; he died two days after it was published. As you may already know O’Neil was the author who reinvented the Joker when he brought him back from a decade-long absence and restored him to his homicidal roots.

Comments

[lego_joker]

Hmn...

I really wanted to like this one - for all the problems I've had with him over the years, O'Neil could really do a delightful Joker - and I will say the basic premise is probably the most interesting out of all ten stories in the book. But even so, the setup is painfully contrived, the punchline is miserably predictable, and why the hell does O'Neil think we need callbacks to the Joker's U.N. career in the Year of Our Lord 2020?

[tcampbell1000]

If nothing else, I appreciate that O'Neil spent his last days trying to innovate (within the admittedly limited context of Bat-mythology). It would've been easy for him and Garcia-Lopez to do a riff on "Five-Way Revenge" or "Joker Fish," but he understands, at least, that a comedian can't keep doing the jokes everyone already knows.

But yeah, I saw that punchline coming a mile away too.

(Considering the state of politics today, the Joker pulling strings with the current administration instead of the UN would've had more bite. You KNOW he's got some dirt on the President from somewhere.)