Surfacing from the river near Ace Chemicals, the Joker stumbles through Gotham, not yet the monster he will become. And in the future, the world has become that very monster. “Joker: Year One” begins in Batman #142, written by Chip Zdarsky, penciled by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Andrea Sorrentino, inked by Stefano Nesi and Sorrentino, colored by Alejandro Sanchez and Dave Stewart, and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
On their way to Gotham, Mystery Inc. takes a shortcut through Slaughter Swamp, where they run into something new to them: paranormal tourism. Can Mystery Inc. help Batman find out whether the swamp zombie Solomon Grundy is really there before someone gets hurt? The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #2 is written by J. Torres, drawn by Scott Jeralds, colored by Carrie Strachan and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
With new armor and a new ally. Batman prepares to strike back at the slavers who once imprisoned him, proving he’s ready to return to Gotham. But waiting in the Slag Galaxy is a greater threat, and Batman has more to do before he returns home. Batman: Off-World #3 is written by Jason Aaron, penciled by Doug Mahnke, inked by Jaime Mendoza, colored by David Baron and lettered by Troy Peteri.
Will Nevin: So I’ll use this space to plug both our Patreon and our upcoming backers-only episode of the podcast. I cannot believe how fuckin’ good Harley Quinn — and specifically the first season’s “Being Harley Quinn” — is. One of the best pieces of Bat media I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying.
Matt Lazorwitz: I was so pleased to see how you’ve taken to the Harley Quinn show, and I can’t wait to discuss that episode with you at the end of the month.
Will: But I want to talk about it now! Harumph.
How Many Jokers Does It Take to Screw In a Lightbulb?
Matt: So we have a schtick on the podcast and in this column where you play dumb and confused and I come in and explain stuff to you, no matter how clever you actually are. So what do we do when I am completely befuddled by an issue?
Will: That’s a schtick?
But forreal, I’ve complained for nearly the entire length of Zdarsky’s run that it was too go-go-go, explosions, BAM! without any real meat. This, though, swings too far in the opposite direction, giving us a moody, ponderous book playing in the tired “Year One” trope … that also has a flashforward to what amounts to a post-apocalyptic Joker hellscape? This … is a lot, Matt.
Matt: My main problem with this, and this might be premature as we’re not at the end of three weekly issues, is that I don’t know what this is trying to say — about Joker, about Batman, about the world. And it’s another story, with that flashforward, of Joker being a world-ending threat, which, well it was lame in 2001 when DC built one of its worst crossover events around it, and while it looks a lot better here than there, I don’t feel like it’s much better.
I’m frustrated by what feels like filler here. We’ve had 2+ years of Joker ongoings, and the moment I thought we’d let the character rest and build up a sense of menace and import again, we’re back with three issues of Joker-centric Batman.
Will: But, Matt, don’t you want to see a Joker who’s vulnerable? Unsure of himself? Scared? I’m just so very uninterested in what’s going on here, but I’ll allow for the idea that this might have something to say. At least we won’t have to wait long for whatever it is? The art, though, is a mess. Conceptually, I like Sorrentino’s work on the flashforward, but the man has got to learn how to draw a second face. And some of Camuncoli’s stuff looks sloppy and rushed.
Matt: I am a big fan of both the artists involved here, but this is not their top tier work. One of the things that confused me was the opening. We have the three Jokers from the Red Mask story in #135/900, and they turn on each other immediately, which I’m OK with. But how many actually walk away from it? Is it two or one? I assume from that first flashforward it’s two, but it looks like it’s only one. The ambiguity might be intentional, but I feel it’s just frustrating.
Will: We sure have midichlorian’d ourselves when it comes to Joker, haven’t we?
Matt: *cringe* I also stumbled across an article this morning on another site that says that, “Oh, that first bit with Joker finding the woman and talking like he was talking to his wife from Killing Joke confirms that’s his real origin.” And I can’t disagree with that more. Not only does that not line up with the fact that we’re definitely in a world where “Zero Year” happened, whose Machiavellian Red Hood doesn’t line up with the one from Killing Joke, but the only evidence we have that it’s “real” is Joker is talking about it. Who’s to say that whole thing didn’t pop into his head as he wandered around the streets, trying to reassemble his shattered psyche. I don’t think that is great evidence. And I’m bringing this up not to fault this story, but to just once again shake my head at the cultish devotion to Killing Joke as a foundational text that people don’t read properly, since confirming that throws out the themes Alan Moore is exploring in that story.
Will: Maybe the next generation of writers and artists won’t be so beholden to it since they’ll have grown up reading … Tom King. Boy, that’ll be fun to read in 20 years.
Matt: On the plus side, I do like the Gordon stuff here. Lt./Capt. Gordon stories are always a fun read for me, seeing him fight the system when he doesn’t have the authority that he usually does, and seeing him here in that space is enjoyable.
Will: Oh, I would read entire volumes of crooked cops trying to take out Gordon only to be thwarted by his big brain and bigger right hook. That side story might be the only thing I’m interested to see play out here.
Swamp Monsters and Scooby-Doo
Will: Maybe you don’t have to be all that clever to write a Batman/Scooby-Doo comic. Maybe, I dunno, I ain’t never tried to do it. You do, however, need some cleverness to come up with the idea of Solomon Grundy as a cryptid/Bigfoot-esque tourist attraction. That was really fun.
Matt: Absolutely. I have to give credit to all the writers in this series; we have two years of these stories, plus all the Scooby-Doo Team-Up issues where Batman guested, which were quite a few, and the fact they’re still coming up with new twists on that formula is impressive.
We’re also about to enter Matt’s Bat/Scoob Easter Egg corner. You ready for the bit of DC canon this issue plays with?
Will: I feel as if my mind is about to be Bat-blown.
Matt: So our villain here is Cyril Gold, whose family owns a lot of worthless land in Slaughter Swamp. Before he was turned into a swamp zombie, Solomon Grundy was Cyrus Gold, a 19th century Gotham land baron who was murdered in the swamps. That makes Cyril there Grundy’s great great great great grandson, or something along those lines.
Will: That’s some good shit. It’s also interesting that Batman specifically says that the *real* Grundy is in Blackgate and not Arkham. I guess there’s no rehabilitating a swamp zombie, huh?
Matt: Probably not, no. And by not having Mystery Inc. run into real Grundy, you don’t have to deal with breaking the world of Scooby-Doo by introducing an undeniable supernatural element. This is, again, just a guy in a suit.
I do have a legal question for you, BatChat Legal Correspondent. Cyril winds up tied up at the end of this story, like your usual Scooby-Doo villain. But did he do anything that you could cite as illegal? He dressed up as a swamp zombie on his own property. He doesn’t try to hurt anyone. Is it fraud to bring people here to get photos with Grundy when the real Grundy isn’t there? And doesn’t that feel more like a civil matter than a criminal one? Can he sue Batman and Mystery Inc. for screwing with his business?
By the way, I don’t really care: It’s an all ages Scooby-Doo related story; legal analysis really doesn’t factor in. I’m just curious for my own edification.
Will: My first thought is totally unrelated, but since I spent several minutes in a fruitless quest for a citation, I’ll share it. If you market your property as being “haunted” or “having a Grundy,” you may have a legal obligation to disclose that fact to the next buyer. That’s kinda interesting, isn’t it? But, no, I don’t think Gold did anything wrong here — sure, Batman accuses him of “trying to make money off of his worthless swamp land,” but isn’t that what any property owner would do? He advertised a service. He provided a service. He didn’t assault anyone as Grundy. And normally, the guys under the mask are trying to run much more of a scam. Poor Gold.
Buy The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #2 here.
Space Westerns and Superheroes
Will: I can’t say this is the best Star Wars story ever written … but it’s not a bad one.
Matt: This is not a bad story at all. This finds a way to tread a weird line between the “Year One”-style Batman stories you enjoy and the weird sci-fi Batman. It’s Batman cobbling together tech and fighting against near impossible odds in an outlandish setting. I think that is a really cool blend of genres.
Will: And it sticks to the very core of Batman, which is fighting against injustice, whether it’s on a slave ship, a planet where the population is being picked off by space wolves or sticking it to an evil corporation spreading misery in the cosmos. This has got a lot of fancy trappings, sure, but at its core, it’s a simple Western — a stranger rides into town outmatched and outnumbered and sets out to fuck shit up for the bad guy. I’ll read that all day long.
Matt: And like with many great Westerns, there’s a romance at the heart of it, but in this case, the lady love is Gotham. I love Ione saying it must be the most beautiful place that’s ever existed, with how devoted Batman is to it. If only she knew…
Will: We don’t get to spend a lot of time with Ione, but she sure is a strong character who deals with rejection in her own way, isn’t she? And we had more Punch Bot!
Matt: Hooray Punch Bot! I know he won’t, but I do wish there was a way he could stick around after this story.
Will: Punch Bot will live on in our hearts and in the equally anthropomorphized robots and/or household appliances in Mark Russell’s stories, such as The Flintstones and Traveling to Mars.
Matt: And after talking about Doug Mahnke art from 2005 on last night’s recording of the podcast, it’s really interesting to see how he’s grown as an artist. This story has a rougher edge than his Batman run with Judd Winick, which I feel suits the story. It is a rough-edged story. And I still love how distinct all the aliens look. And I’ll often fault a story for what felt like a needless two-page spread, but Mahnke got to design space Batman armor. If I did that, and had a lick of artistic talent, I would absolutely want to do a two-page spread that highlighted that design.
Buy Batman: Off-World #3 here.
Bat-miscellany
- The BatChat podcast this week is reading three more stories from one of our favorite creators, Darwyn Cooke.
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Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. 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 creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
