Batman makes a last ditch play to stop Failsafe, a battle that takes him from Atlantis to the moon in Batman #129, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles. In the backup, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh fights for control of Batman’s mind during a battle with Joker in a story written by Zdarsky, drawn by Leonardo Romero, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Cowles.
A tale of two Jokers continues, as the wounded Joker wanders through Gotham trying to find a helping hand while Red Hood hunts him. The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #2 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico, colored by Arif Prianto and lettered by Tom Napolitano. In the backup, Joker wants to know how Gotham’s underworld really feels about him in a story written by Rosenberg, drawn and colored by Francesco Francavilla and lettered by Napolitano.
And in the final book of this Joker-tastic week, Joker-like monsters are killing people throughout Gotham, and Batman might need to team up with his arch-foe to stop them. Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1 is written and drawn by Marc Silvestri, colored by Arif Prianto and lettered by Troy Peteri.
Matt Lazorwitz: A whole lot of Joker this week.
Will Nevin: Mucho grande Joker. All the Joker you could reasonably want. And then some.
Batman
Matt: We are into Part 5 of the “Failsafe” arc at this point, and I think I have come to accept this for what it is: widescreen superhero comics. There isn’t a whole lot here, if you’re looking for deep character arcs. Sure, we’re seeing inside Batman’s head, but we’re not learning anything anyone who has read even a reasonably small amount of Batman doesn’t know. And Failsafe is, by design, not a very interesting villain. It has one motivation: kill Batman. There is no nuance to this story. What started out with some interesting character beats between Bruce and Tim Drake has disappeared with Tim from the comic, and we’re left with Failsafe basically running Batman ragged. This isn’t a bad comic. It’s beautiful to look at, and there’s some fun to the action. But there isn’t a lot to deeply analyze.
Will: There is at least less action this week — when this comic can actually breathe, it’s not that bad; the beats this week in which Arthur was willing to go to the mat for Bruce (on account of how many times he’s saved the planet) were nice. But other than that? I’m ready for the end of this. It feels aimless. Groundless. Without stakes or any real meaning. When Batman is stranded on the moon and fighting a robot, I feel like we’ve lost a thread … or 10.
Matt: I did like the scene with Arthur, but it sits right next to the scene where Failsafe, a robot designed by Batman, decided the best way to process the information about the various metahumans who might come and help Batman — plus I feel like all the data coming in about Batman — is to wire Barbara Gordon to a Cerebro helmet and have her process it all. I guess we’re supposed to get an air of the sadism we see in Zur-En-Arrh with the way he’s got the Bat family hanging upside down, OK, but Barbara being used as the processor is like The Matrix where human beings are used as batteries: There are more efficient ways to do this, and an A.I. would know it.
I feel like this is being padded out to take up an entire six-issue arc, with a story that should have been done in three or four issues.
Will: I’ll do you one better: The backup should have been the main event, both in terms of art and story. I’m glad we’re both waiting for this thing to wrap up — I think in part because we know Big Daddy Z is a better storyteller than this. But so is James Tynion IV. Is there something that sucks the creativity out of someone when they write Batman? I mean, you look at what Ram V is doing on Detective, and you can’t conclude that the Unknowable Mind of DC Editorial is too scared to do weird stuff on a big book.
Matt: I think you hit the nail on the head. DC Editorial wants Batman to be accessible, big screen superheroics. After fans soured on the King run the deeper it got into introspection (and the sales went with it), I think DC interpreted that as fans want that title to be about Batman having wild adventures. They didn’t realize the problem wasn’t the introspection but the fact the run was too damn long and decompressed.
And yes, the backup shows Zdarksy can absolutely write a great Batman story. Batman struggling with what caused him to create Zur-En-Arrh, and with the personality itself, is solid storytelling that I want more of.
Joker
Matt: Issue 2 of this series felt like a major improvement on issue 1 to me. We’re less focused on the Joker, or at least the Joker who has his shit together, and instead are focusing on his down-on-his-luck doppelganger and Red Hood. As we said repeatedly during volume 1 of this series, a Joker title is better when it’s about the shadow of Joker, and people reacting to him, and not about Joker himself.
Will: It’s so flippin’ unfair to compare this story to the first volume, because that was so good — certainly one of the best Jim Gordon stories *ever*. How do you follow that up? You just can’t. I think this is purposefully trying to be something different, but in doing so, it’s losing some of the magic of that first story. We liked that because it was so simple, so basic — a man facing his greatest demons in the twilight of his career. This, though, is overcooked. I feel like I shouldn’t be wondering what’s real and what’s a delusion at this point in the story.
Matt: We are only in issue #2. I am willing to give it more time to settle on which is the real Joker and which isn’t.
I’m hoping this series becomes about Jason Todd finally getting his Joker-related catharsis. After Task Force Z gave him a new chance at life, it was hinted that this is what he was going to be doing, and I’m happy that we might be getting more about Jason, but I want the book to be that. I also hope Harley is done here. She’s out of the shadow of Joker (more on that later), but Jason never had the chance to confront his demon. If this series of Joker series is, in the end, about everyone dealing with their Joker-related trauma in different ways? I can get with that.
Will: Which, again, I think is blunted by the inclusion of Doppeljoker. I would 100% consume the hell out of a story in which Jason and Harley finally came to terms with what Joker did to them, and while we might very well get that, all of this other stuff is getting in the way of what might be an enjoyable story.
Matt: On the other hand, we have these wild backup stories that seem to be just Rosenberg having fun, although I wonder if there is some potential for these to tie in thematically with the main story when read in retrospect. This is clearly unreliable narrator territory, as Joker has now killed Gaggy in both of these. Is he going to be the Kenny of these backups, you think?
Will: Oh my god, he killed the gorilla. You bastard! They’re just the funnest. Joker staging his own funeral and critiquing the eulogies? Big “pay attention to meeeeee” energy there. And the use of the throwback logo and the colors? Absolutely perfect.
Batman AND Joker
Matt: I want to have something to say about this comic, but it really doesn’t feel like there is a lot here in this first issue. It sets the table for the series, gives us why Batman and Joker are working together, but that’s about it.
And more than that, am I the only person who, at this point, would be happy to never see a story where Harley Quinn is still mooning over Joker? We’ve been working on getting her past that point for about a decade now, and while I know this isn’t in continuity, I am over that. If we’re dealing with a flashback or specifically a story about Harley and her trauma and issues with that relationship? Yeah, I can do that. But just one where she’s waiting for her “puddin’” to come save her? Not for me anymore.
Will: I think old white guys can’t get over the fact that Harley is queer and not into Joker anymore. Silvestri is not as hot and horny for that ’ship as some dumbdumb like Sean Gordon Murphy, but they’re at different points on the same spectrum. I think I may have found a bit more to like than you did, specifically in the tone and characterization of Gotham PD … although singling out Bullock as one of the good cops seemed a bit off. Not that he’s bad, of course, but he doesn’t seem like a saint.
Matt: Bullock himself would not want to be characterized that way. He has always identified as someone who bends the rules for the right reasons. I did like the way the GCPD is portrayed; it’s been a while since we’ve had a book that really dwelled on how corrupt the department is (Ridley’s Blue Wall is still sitting on my to-read pile).
Will: That’s what happens when we take weeks off, Matt. Those books don’t stop coming!
Matt: I will say the book looks very good. Silvestri is doing good work here. The monstrous Joker derivatives are truly creepy, and the look of Batman, how he moves and how he uses his cape, are excellent. Also, as I said about last week’s Riddler: Year One, this wasn’t terribly overwritten. I think the only Silvestri-written comics I ever read were his early Image work, when all those founders were writing for the first time, and he has definitely learned to trust his artistic talent more over the years.
Will: It had some wordy bits in the beginning, but as it got going, I thought it really found a good balance between the text and the art. And as I said earlier, I thought Silvestri had some good ideas — although I think his artistic talents would have been better suited to a more straightforward Joker-ized Man-Bat book.
Matt: Yeah, I would not begrudge someone reading the first few pages, thinking this was going to be cluttered with word balloons, and stopping. I was worried, but I’m glad I persevered. And I think this is an interesting enough setup. I just want there to be more to the story than Batman and Joker fighting monsters. I hope we get some real examination of their dynamic. Batman and Joker teaming up isn’t something we haven’t read before, so it really has to be about the how and the why more than novelty.
Will: We’re rapidly building toward a Joker/Batman team-up episode on the pod, aren’t we?
Matt: Hmmmmm … Last Knight on Earth, a classic Brave and the Bold, and there are more. Maybe to tie in with the conclusion of this series. Gotta get that one on the books.
Bat-miscellany
- In this week’s BatChat podcast, we’re reading three random ’90s stories that Matt remembered liking from his younger days to celebrate his birthday recording.
- The JLA moon Watchtower is back in Batman, after appearing in the “Task Force XX” arc in Harley Quinn. Glad to see this locale again.
- Hey, it’s Detectives Driver and Josie Mac from Gotham Central popping up in Joker! Let’s see more of that cast, please!
- Batman diving low to knock off a crooked cop’s toupee is a sick burn.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
