The Joker #1

[cyberghostface]

"I don’t think the Joker has ever loomed larger in the culture. We’re coming off an acclaimed, billion-dollar grossing movie, and almost all the top-selling DC comics of the last year had the Clown Prince of Crime up front and center. He is one of the greatest villains in all of fiction, and one of the most devilishly fun characters to write in all of DC.

I think a Joker book in a lot of ways was inevitable… But that’s where the challenge is. If you separate Joker away from Batman, who is he? What is a Joker book if it’s not a Batman vs. Joker book? When (DC group editor) Ben Abernathy first approached me about the idea, I laid out all the reasons a Joker book shouldn’t work. Why the Joker couldn’t work as a protagonist. But as I was laying them out, I started to see the potential for what a book like this could be. How we could approach it from an angle that would surprise everyone and say some real things about the nature of human evil…and do it not as a superhero book, but as a real horror noir title. Thankfully, DC was on board from the start." -- James Tynion IV

Comments

[thanekos]

I understand now where this take on the Joker book is coming from.

[lego_joker]

It's probably as close as we'll ever get to my ideal Joker ongoing: an anthology series where the Joker is simply an excuse to look into other people's lives. Sort of like Joker's Asylum, but with the possibility of him directly interacting with the real protagonists.

[cyberghostface]

I've seen it before and I disagree.

Even when Joker isn't on-screen every page is either about him or relates to him in some way (i.e. the cannibal). It's still about him the same way the novel Dracula is about Dracula even though he's offscreen for 75% of the book.

That and this issue is largely set-up, Joker will undoubtedly have more to do in the future issues.

(Also I don’t know why it’s important to that guy that Gordon is no longer a cop?)

[lucean]

I'd actually this is a very interesting approach to telling the Joker story as it focuses on the mental toll of having to deal with that evil on a regular basis and how that shadow is everpresent.

[tinygaylaura]

I'm surprised no one's ever really done a horror book about the Joker before given the mediums love for evil scary clowns

[janegray]

I thought the Arkham books were basically horror books with the villains as MC.

[tinygaylaura]

I suppose they could be read that way

[lbd_nytetrayn]

(Also I don’t know why it’s important to that guy that Gordon is no longer a cop?)

Probably because most mainstream/casual (loathe as I am to use that term) Batman fans think Gordon's first name is "Commissioner."

[cyberghostface]

lol it reminds me of how people who just watched the 'Game of Thrones' show without reading the books thought Daenerys's name was 'Khaleesi' (or 'Kelly C').

[tinygaylaura]

When as we all know it's actually Maya Kelly C

[silicondream]

Can't exactly complain about corpses in a Joker book, but the Killing Joke reference juxtaposed with Ms. Pre-Fridged on the final page is...meh. I guess they know their market.

[cyberghostface]

What’s the connection?

[silicondream]

Just feels like "Were you excited when Babs got shot? Then boy do we have a story for you!"

[cyberghostface]

It’s just some random people, it has nothing to do with fridging as a trope. (If there’s any actual fridging it’d be James Gordon Jr given how his death is used to give Gordon angst and to go after the Joker.)

[janegray]

Which is kinda awkward, given that Jim Jr. was arguably one of the only villains who might match Joker's evil (others imo are Black Mask and Zsasz).

[shakalooloo]

I look forward to JGJ being revealed as that nameless masked figure financing this conflict.

[deh_tommy]

Can’t say I’ve ever been too big a fan of torture porn murderhobo Joker, so bleh. I guess him offering the flesh like that was normal food can be kind of funny at least.

[cyberghostface]

That’s not the Joker it’s just some random psycho who the other cop was unable to catch. Joker wasn’t around then.

[coldfury]

I can't even with DC anymore. A few years ago, Gordon was young enough to be running around *as* Batman (albeit a mechanical suit Batman), and now he's so old he's retiring from Commissioner again.

Of course, the Bunny Suit Batman was probably three continuity reboots ago, in DC time.

[filthysize]

There's a very silly retcon in this issue where Gordon says Barbara made him dye his hair for the past few years so criminals won't know how old he is, but now that he's no longer a cop, he's stopped doing it, hence looking older.

[shakalooloo]

WHAT. Does criminals thinking him older mean they underestimate him? That they go easy on him? In their cowardice and superstition, they fear redheads? As police commissioner, it's not even as if he has that much direct interaction with criminals anyway.

I mean, of course the conceit would WORK, because this is the DC universe where a pair of glasses suffices as a disguise, I just question the thinking behind it.

In fact, thinking of glasses, if there were a cause to look younger, wearing hipper spectacle frames - or even contacts - would go a great way to de-aging Jim-boy.

[angelophile]

The eyes. The eyes they burn my soul.

[shakalooloo]

Those Gotham Gazette paperboys are DEDICATED.