I’m guessing with “Villains Month” in full swing, DC was unable to ignore the Joker. Problem is, Scott Snyder’s recent Joker epic ended on a “did he or didn’t he live?” angle. There was also the whole thing with Joker’s removable face. So, what was DC to do? Villains Month would be a sham without Joker. They needed a story involving the clown prince of crime.
What they got is beyond stupid. It could be the worst Joker story I have ever read.
Joker, #1 (or Batman #23.1), is penned by Andy Kubert, but in the scripting role, with the art handled by Andy Clarke. This should be a message to DC, Kubert can draw his ass off, but should never write anything greater than a lunch menu. I’m not sure what happened here. I’m guessing there was no time to scrap this story, so DC approved it, and hoped for the best. I’m not even sure where to begin with this mess, but I’ll give it a try.
We open with a part of Joker’s history. Oh, good. We haven’t really uncovered much of Joker’s history since the “possible” origin story in The Killing Joke, but hey, Andy Kubert has decided to introduce to Joker’s kooky, abusive aunt, so screw the enigma, let’s make him a cliché. Apparently, not only was Joker abused by his aunt, but he was abused on the set of a Tim Burton film, and also looked a child version of Burton. Great. Goth Joker. Not a good start.
Jump ahead. We find Joker, and a bunch of third tier crazies feeding a man to snake. Not for any reason, just to do it. During this unnecessarily brutal murder (Note To DC: Having a man scream that he has a small child doesn’t improve the drama, it makes it unnecessarily disturbing for a comic), Joker wanders into the ape cage and sees the momma ape caring for her baby. This triggers a memory, which makes Joker sad. To brighten his spirits, Joker kills the momma ape and ape-naps the baby.
Here’s where it gets really stupid. Joker raises the ape, which he names Jackanapes, to become a killer and criminal. The two torture people, set fire to a theater and hold the door while people die, and generally run amok. Finally, during one of their sprees, Jackanapes dies. Joker doesn’t care, he just laughs and makes a stupid joke. A joke beneath the Joker is how Kubert ends Joker’s foray into Villains Month.
The “hey check me out I’m so clever” vibe oozes of the page, so it’s easy to see what Kubert is trying to do. Problem is, he fails. The story, which attempts to tap into the random, crazed ideology of the Joker, manages only to come across forced. Kubert’s story fails on every level. Plot, pacing, dialogue, there is nothing here that could even charitably be called entertaining.
Andy Clarke’s art does not help the situation. The whole gothic approach to Joker’s childhood is laughable. Joker looking like a mini Tim Burton, coupled with the overly stylized backgrounds and overly gothic aunt, feels like a disrespectful move towards the character. Through all these years, Joker has never been a cliché. Mr. Clarke has decided to change that. Clarke’s art doesn’t get much better as the issue wears on. Usually I like a throwback vibe, something that looks like the eighties era of comics. Here, it just looks like a rushed group of pages for a rushed story.
To put it simply, Joker deserves better.
